[portej05]

Hi Folks,

This is a heads up to everyone out there (especially the mod teams - more in a minute) that there's a new branch of the FSO code called 'Antipodes' (the name is a reference to the geography of the folks who're doing some work on it, and also that we're going to be doing things that might not be seen as feature adding).

This is where code is going to be 'staged' or 'experimented with', in particular things that might make mods break, such as an expansion of the safe_strings use or new pilot file code (it's coming folks, but very slowly) or changes and cleanups to internal structures and procedures.

It'd be really great if folks on the mod teams (and the scripting crew, and the multi crew and just about everyone) could run one of the Antipodes builds when they come up. Changes will be posted alongside builds, and in general Antipodes will be kept in line with trunk. Once they're posted and any feedback received, we'll then consider whether the changes in Antipodes go into trunk.

Here's the important thing:
If no feedback is received, we'll assume general assent to the changes.
If your mod then goes and overruns a buffer (we've caught Diaspora overrunning buffers already ) and is caught on it (one of the biggest changes is going to be a lot of extra error checking), there'll be a period when we have to go and track down why your mod is breaking stuff, and you'll be broken for some period of time.
So please! please! please! just cast an eye over each Antipodes build when it crops up (it won't be done on a schedule) - you won't regret it!
Any questions can be directed to portej05 or anyone with an SCP badge on #scp, or via PM.

[Dragon]

Are you going to increase ship limits in those builds or make some "INF andtipodes" ?

[Nuke]

if you want expiremental stuff heres my particle diff

info: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,60417.0.html

you might want the files from the other diff download, but this diff is against the most recent head

*edit* aparently that post didnt have the graphics files (looks like goob deleted those) so i uploaded a new file with patch, builds, and mod data for testing, i also removed the attatchment to reduce redundancy:

www.game-warden.com/nukemod-cos/downloads/particle.7z

[portej05]

Dragon:
It's not for that kind of experimentation.
It's really for major changes such as safe_strings (and other error checking code), new particle code, pilot file code, new file parsing code, etc to be thoroughly tested before they end up in trunk. These are things that will change the way the engine does things rather than just bumping limits.

[Dragon]

OK, I heard that increasing ship limits have something to do with pilot files.
I will try to help with testing anyway.

[Nuke]

also moder created scripting functions:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,63246.0.html

[Reprobator]

Would it be possible to change the hud default behavior in this branch?
Just prevent it to be stretched accross the game resolution but stretch by a user defined one?
It may be not the point of the topic in that case i'm sorry.
Anyway, we'll try them when they'll come for our mod.

[karajorma]

What's being announced here is something similar to the old xt builds Taylor used to run. i.e a chance to test major changes before they get added to trunk. It's not going to become a grab bag of unstable code like HEAD did.

What's going on here is you're being told that any changes that portej makes that stand a good chance of breaking something will be in an antipodes build. So if you don't test it and it breaks your mod once it goes into trunk, well there'll be a lot less sympathy.

[Trivial Psychic]

Will these builds be based off of 3.6.10 rather than existing trunk at that time?  Using 3.6.10 would allow you to have the most stable build to base your changes from, and make sure that any problems encountered can be tied as closely as possible to those changes being introduced for the Antipodes builds, rather than some other semi-tested feature introduced in Trunk.

[karajorma]

Unless he's insane Portej will be using trunk.

Attempting to write code for 3.6.10 is going to be an exercise in frustration for any coder silly enough to try it.  There are over 200 commits to trunk since 3.6.10 came out. Any code written for that would then need to be rewritten based on the changes.

And you can always test for problems against a nightly build if you aren't certain what caused the problem.

[portej05]

Unless he's insane Portej will be using trunk.

[Aardwolf]

I don't get it... What's "antipodes" mean, and what exactly is the purpose of it?  Is it just portej05's personal branch, or something?

[Rodo]

my testing abilities are ready to come into action, just cast your concern on which mods might need to be tested those build with.

[Galemp]

Everything FSPort does works in Retail... so... I don't forsee any problems.

[Nuke]

I don't get it... What's "antipodes" mean, and what exactly is the purpose of it?  Is it just portej05's personal branch, or something?

hence forth i will refer to my builds as "the insane **** up from hell" builds

[portej05]

I don't get it... What's "antipodes" mean, and what exactly is the purpose of it?  Is it just portej05's personal branch, or something?

In geography, the antipodes (from Greek αντίποδες,[2] from anti- "opposed" and pous "foot"; pronounced /ænˈtɪpəˌdiːz/) of any place on Earth is its antipodal point: the point on the Earth's surface which is diametrically opposite to it.

Basically, it's a joke on the geographical location of the folks who've been introducing new code (there's England, US and Australia now) (it's not just me - all the coders have access to it)
More importantly, Antipodes is where code that may have an effect on the game will be used (when I say 'may have an effect', I mean it'll be enforcing various rules about buffer sizes and things we might have previously let slide). It is also a place where code will be 'staged' before being introduced into trunk.

Antipodes is currently built with VS2008 - there's some things that are removed in VC6 builds that turn up in VS2008 builds.

Everything FSPort does works in Retail... so... I don't forsee any problems.

ah, but retail may have had some buffer overflows - we'll now be catching those and sticking some nice big Asserts up your nose.