Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => FS2 Open Coding - The Source Code Project (SCP) => Topic started by: Grendel on June 18, 2004, 04:34:42 pm

Title: What if PXO stays down ?
Post by: Grendel on June 18, 2004, 04:34:42 pm
Hi all,

Sorry to bother you but I thought I'll bounce a few things off to you before I forget them. 1st of all, I'm not a FS2 player -- I play only Descent 3 so please forgive me if I got the wrong ideas :). There's more than one connection between the games tho, one is particulary interesting: PXO. Since PXO is quite buggy and prone to crash on a regular basis, I had figured out my own little connection into Volition (they are hosting PXO) to let them know when the servers crashed. The last message I got from Rory (the PXO admin) was a bit concerning:

Quote

PXO is down.  We're restructuring our network here right now, and we're moving offices next week.  

At this point it would be a tremendous drain of IT and potentially programmer resources to get all of the PXO computers to work here.  We'll look at it again after we move.

Sorry :(

That was May, 23rd. On June, 2nd I sent this message:

Quote

Here's a quick status report on what's going on in the D3 community (info starts piling up so I thought I send it to you before I loose
track :^).

W/ PXO offline, emotions are running high and Alex (aka Suncho) is back to lobbying the permanent shutdown of PXO. I'd guess ~25% of the ppl agree w/ him, ~40% disagree (quick background info: the reasoning is PXO's requirement to have a valid login in order to join a game listed on PXO. This prevents players that never heard of PXO from joining these games using 3rd party browsers like gamespy.)

See also the DBB thread http://www.descentbb.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2085

As for the (remote) possibility of having PXO turned over to the community, Bill (aka STRESSTEST -- met him a few times at LAN's I'd vouch for him) offered to host it (his contact email is [email protected]):

> From: STRESSTEST
> To: Grendel
> Posted: Sun May 23, 2004 3:59 pm
> Subject: Community server  
>
> If you get anywhere with the talks on these 3 name servers and the
> software, My servers are available to run them.
>
> I mentioned this to them before already. Just an FYI if they ask
> who/where etc.

The FreeSpace2 community is a bit anxious -- w/ Mark they lost their only contact to PXO and they would like to get their only means of a games list back:

> From: DW-Suzanna
> To: Grendel
> Posted: Tue May 25, 2004 9:29 am
> Subject: FS2 in pxo  
>
> Could u plz pass this on to those that run the pxo servers.....as
> i posted on ur forum and "psst" im not a guy ^_-
>
> We at Darkwing have a large squad over 50 people and many of them
> still play fs2 on pxo. There are also new people, as many bought
> the game when it was re-released recently, only to find pxo doesnt
> work.
> We used to be able to let Mark know when there was a problem with pxo
> and it was usually quickly fixed. However as we dont have anyone to
> contact now we dont even know if it will ever be fixed, or is down
> for good. So we would appreciate some feedback plz. our address is
> //www.darkwing-squad.com ..thx
>
> Regards DW-Suzanna
> Darkwing Squad

and

> From: Inquisitor
> To: Grendel
> Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 5:42 am
> Subject: Just to be clear
>
> I don't want anyone's private [V] email  
>
> If, in your conversations with them, you could mention the fs2 source
> code project is interested as well (they gave us the source to the game
> itself not quite 2 years ago), and offer my email if they would liek
> to contact me discreetly, that would rock.
>
> If they need reminded who we are:
> http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/fsscp/index.php
> http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~freespace/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=50
>
> and I can be reached at:
> Edward Gardner
> [email protected] or [email protected]
> Phone: (555) 123-4567
> Fax: (555) 123-4567
>
> Thanks and good luck

I didn't get any response to that message. It may have been lost but since the guys at [V] where pretty quick about answering emails in the past, I doubt that PXO will ever come back -- sorry.

I was recently asked about a status on PXO, here's my answer:

Quote

Sorry, but I haven't heard anything from Volition. Looks pretty grimm for PXO  The D3 world copes fairly well w/ the loss, mainly because D3 supports Gamespy -- that allows the use of 3rd party game trackers like http://descent.cx , Kali (http://www.kali.net) and Kquery (http://www.kquery.net). I see you got a Freespace site at Gamespy, so maybe FS2 has GS support buit-in (and if not, I'm sure your community could do something about it since you guys have access to the FS2 source code ). It took the Kquery guy only a few hours to add D3 support, I'm sure he could do the same for FS2 (he seems to be a nice guy!) -- it's a really neat program, check it out ! (it's free too ) For chat we moved on to IRC, to GameSurge (http://www.gamesurge.net) in particular (check descentchat.com (http://www.descentchat.com) for a web based interface). GameSurge is a IRC server network for gamers only and we got the channels #Descent3 and #Descent3Rookie registered -- just ask them for #FreeSpace2. (this will expose FS2 to a huge gaming community as a side effect too ). W/ access to the FS2 source, I'm sure it could be modified to use the Gamesurge IRC network instead of PXO.

I thought I let you know -- Ball's in your court now, GL.. ;)

P.S. Shameless Ad: Anyone of you guys tried Descent 3 ? Check it out, high speed 360 degree action ! :D
Title: What if PXO stays down ?
Post by: phreak on June 18, 2004, 06:53:17 pm
The FS2 source release did not contain PXO and the MVE playing functions.  Right now we can play any movies we want and there should be a replacement to PXO online

and yes i have D3, but since I always snap my joysticks in two, and must have inverse mouse on in multi and its impossible to fly with your keyboard.  so i can't really play it.
Title: What if PXO stays down ?
Post by: demon442 on June 18, 2004, 10:59:28 pm
Couldn't we email someone over at :V: to give us the PXO parts for conversion?  It seems to me that with PXO down for good, there would be no reason to hold back the source.
Title: What if PXO stays down ?
Post by: Singh on June 19, 2004, 12:44:06 am
Decent 3? Heard of it, want to play it! Problem is the price ofc lol....

currently, I think hte SCP guys are working on a replacement on PXO, but its dependent on getting the tracking server up and running, which they say will be up soon.......
Title: What if PXO stays down ?
Post by: kasperl on June 19, 2004, 06:00:01 am
Well, all we need is the PXO system to point a link to all the open source projects.

And didn't the PXO source get released a while back? (Just after Kazan finished his alternative.)
Title: What if PXO stays down ?
Post by: Lightspeed on June 19, 2004, 08:14:51 am
I have D3. FS2 owns it, and has always owned it.
Title: What if PXO stays down ?
Post by: kasperl on June 19, 2004, 08:33:02 am
Please, no FS2<=>D3 fights here.

Let's just try and get a PXO replacement for ALL of us, so we can attract new members.