Overgrowth Downloader (Version 0.1)

[Jeff]

Javascript (and HTML/CSS) is THE language for all OG mods. Now is the time to brush up your webkit skills.

[matto1990]

Javascript (and HTML/CSS) is THE language for all OG mods. Now is the time to brush up your webkit skills.

Very good point. I forgot to say that all this is built in the same languages that are used to make Overgrowth mod's; so there is a massive posibility of all this being integrated directly into the overgrowth game, assuming the dev team put in some javascript hooks to access the file system of the pc and get content from the web.

Nice! If you're still looking for someone with PHP or JavaScript knowledge, I've got moderate PHP and JavaScript skills.

I'm always looking for people to help me out. Take a look at the Adobe Air starter guide and get used to using the tools. I'll hopefully have an open source project going soon. I'll most likely put it on Google Code as I'm getting a bit tired of using Sourceforge.net and its horrible interface.

Also, have a go at using SVN tools so that we can both work on the project at the same time.

Regarding Overgrowth, it would be sweet if you could port your stuff to App Engine, and then I could run it on wolfire.com and it would scale indefinitely so we could actually use it without potentially crashing your server or ringing up a lot of bandwidth costs.

I've never used app engine but I'll take a look at it. I'll need to learn pyton first though The major bit is having all the large textures downloading from my server. The API itself is fine on there, but the files might get eventually top me over my bandwidth cap. I'll keep on on there for the minute though so I have control over it while it's in development. When you release the game I might start moving it over.

[matto1990]

Just a quick staus update for everyone.

I've changed all of the user interfaces. It now has three different sections. The top bar is for the breadcrubs that is used to get to different bits of the program (not functional at the minute) and the search box (also not funtional).

The right panel shows the currently installed mods. The mods also have a red background if you have an out of date version (I have Kohlbrinia version 1.9 avaliable but there is a version 2.0 in the database, so the background goes red/pink).

The main interface changes depending on what you are doing. On the home menu it displays the different ways you can find mods (currently only the Creation Name view works). Eventually it will also have links to the settings but there is currently only one (the overgrowth directory) and I haven't made it so this path is saved yet.

I've put some screenshots of the interfaces bellow so you can take a look. Only the general layout is in palce, the colours will be nicer when it's all done (not just all grey), that's where jo-shadow comes in though


Shows the main screen with all three panel visiable.


Shows the browse by Creation Name view with the download buttons. The blank box on the elft of the mod names will eventually contain a screenshot/icon which represents the mod. I'm waiting on jo-shadow to get back to me with the defaults and the ones we have already before I put them in.

That's pretty much all I have to show you. I'll tidy up some stuff and then release the next version which will include all this stuff (plus some more goodies).

Cheers!

Matt

[turbochop]

Does this program remind anyone else of WoWMatrix for world of warcraft?

[matto1990]

It's very similar by the looks of it. I can only see the tiny screenshots on the website though. I don't play WoW so I can't load the program but it seems like it serves the exact same purpose as my Overgrowth Downloader.

Are there any features that you really like in WoWMatrix that I haven't mentioned as a possible feature for the downloader?

[turbochop]

WoWMatrix is extremely useful for wow mods: It checks all of your addons for updates as soon as it is opened. You can then click a button to update all out of date addons. Another thing is that the program automatically checks itself for the latest version when it is opened and updates as neccessary. I dont think you need wow to check it out.

(edit)
sorry if im ranting, but wowmatrix does wonders for me

[matto1990]

Great idea. Once I have a working updating funtion I'll add a one click button that updates it all for you.

[Johannes]

Next to that you should have a checkbox/toggle button for having it automatically delete the old versions. Those without a-lot of disk-space would probably not want to keep the old versions around, but I personally like keeping old versions.

[matto1990]

Keeping old versions will only be avaliable on mods that have the version directory inside the mod directory. I'm thinking the best way to handle this is to make the version directory required and not optional. It also makes the files easier to fine and install as there is only one possible structure.

[Johannes]

Keeping old versions will only be avaliable on mods that have the version directory inside the mod directory. I'm thinking the best way to handle this is to make the version directory required and not optional. It also makes the files easier to fine and install as there is only one possible structure.

That works, just having a v1.0 or v0.1 by default.

[matto1990]

Works for me.

I've started the open source project at this url:

http://code.google.com/p/overgrowth-downloader/

I've also started writing some getting started guides for different people:

End Users
Mod Makers
Developers

Feel free to take a read of the guides and see what you think. I've not finished them but they are a start. If you are interested in helping out with the project give me a message on the forum or by email.

[TheBigCheese]

Nice!

Just curious, why did you choose Adobe Air? Was it so that you could add the files onto the user's hard drive?

It seems like the current code should be fairly easy to implement into OG with Awesomium.

[Johannes]

Nice!

Just curious, why did you choose Adobe Air? Was it so that you could add the files onto the user's hard drive?

It seems like the current code should be fairly easy to implement into OG with Awesomium.

It's very easy and quick to do, it's cross platform, and as you pointed out, it uses the same technologies as Awesomium and so will be very very easy to get into OG later.

[TheBigCheese]

Why not just implement it now?

Until the devs release a way to get the window on the screen, you could just replace the current mappallete html with the mod broswer for testing.

[Johannes]

Why not just implement it now?

Until the devs release a way to get the window on the screen, you could just replace the current mappallete html with the mod broswer for testing.

There are a few issues, among them that not enough of the engine is accessible yet by code to allow for this to work, and first we want to get it working properly on its own. There are a few features that need to be worked out. Sure it could be done after it's in the engine, but there's really no rush.

If you absolutely want to get it in as soon as possible, ask to be added to the Google code project, and you can try working on it yourself. We can always use more people that want to contribute