DMFI - ACR integration
Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 6:22 pm
My main project last night was an install and testing of the DMFI 1.04 tools to an OAS2 test module- I can report success, after a fair bit of tinkering. I am confident we will be able to have the ACR, Heed's PC Tools, and the DMFI package in a happy cooexistentance on our Beta and Live servers- I think we can swing the DMFI for the OAS2 as well, though I'll have to test how it works if the players don't have DMFI installed.
First off, the DMFI tools are nothing short of amazing.
-Configurable and working scripted language system using a separate dialog box, parsing out and autoplaying emotes.
-players can dynamically rename their items, familiars, summons, and animal companions.
-players can autofollow other PCs (with a permission confirmation box)
-DMs can control music, sounds, change appearances, scale, effects, and more on areas, creatures, etc.
-loads more I don't remember off the top of my head.
By default, it also gives players the ability to change their PC's name - which wreaks havoc on the poor ACR database. It's disableable in a config file which can be hak'ed, though. If we want the functionality back at a later time, we can maybe consider how to keep the DB from making new records whenever a PC reappears with a different name.
I'm not sure if we can do the GUI for DMFI entirely in haks or not- currently it needs an alternate ingameguix1.xml file, which I'm not sure can be supplied from our alfa_gui.hak- may have to be in an override position. Hopefully will have time to test this tonight.
Currently, DMFI makes extensive use of the OE campaign database, to build lists of available music files, languages, etc- if left as-is, this will happen on a per-server basis and won't necessarily cross over well (might end up with a PC who can speak elven on MD, but Infernal on Moonsea). We can crawl in and start switching it's functions over to use the central DB, but then we loose upgradability when they version-update their code. Thoughts on this?
Also, DMFI 1.04 as available on the vault isn't MotB compatible. It was a simple merge to get the GUI to show again, but it means they've got an update in the wings what may change how some of the gui files are handled. In the meantime, it means we may have yet another troublesome and confusing manual install thing for players who want to get on the Beta servers (unless the hak trick works).
Also- should we be committing the DMFI scripts to SF? Packing some of them in alfa_acr.hak?
First off, the DMFI tools are nothing short of amazing.
-Configurable and working scripted language system using a separate dialog box, parsing out and autoplaying emotes.
-players can dynamically rename their items, familiars, summons, and animal companions.
-players can autofollow other PCs (with a permission confirmation box)
-DMs can control music, sounds, change appearances, scale, effects, and more on areas, creatures, etc.
-loads more I don't remember off the top of my head.
By default, it also gives players the ability to change their PC's name - which wreaks havoc on the poor ACR database. It's disableable in a config file which can be hak'ed, though. If we want the functionality back at a later time, we can maybe consider how to keep the DB from making new records whenever a PC reappears with a different name.
I'm not sure if we can do the GUI for DMFI entirely in haks or not- currently it needs an alternate ingameguix1.xml file, which I'm not sure can be supplied from our alfa_gui.hak- may have to be in an override position. Hopefully will have time to test this tonight.
Currently, DMFI makes extensive use of the OE campaign database, to build lists of available music files, languages, etc- if left as-is, this will happen on a per-server basis and won't necessarily cross over well (might end up with a PC who can speak elven on MD, but Infernal on Moonsea). We can crawl in and start switching it's functions over to use the central DB, but then we loose upgradability when they version-update their code. Thoughts on this?
Also, DMFI 1.04 as available on the vault isn't MotB compatible. It was a simple merge to get the GUI to show again, but it means they've got an update in the wings what may change how some of the gui files are handled. In the meantime, it means we may have yet another troublesome and confusing manual install thing for players who want to get on the Beta servers (unless the hak trick works).
Also- should we be committing the DMFI scripts to SF? Packing some of them in alfa_acr.hak?