The ongoing 1.3 update epic

[FlowerChild]

This seems to be becoming more of an ongoing journal of my update progress on 1.3, so I renamed the thread and moved it over to the main BTW discussion area.

[Shady]

Thanks for all your hard work to keep this updated, FC. I've noticed that when you update, you usually don't have to put out another release because of bugs. Thanks for that. :)

[FlowerChild]

Thanks for all your hard work to keep this updated, FC. I've noticed that when you update, you usually don't have to put out another release because of bugs. Thanks for that. :)

Well, this one might be the exception to that rule :)

I'm realizing that I basically have to go over the entire mod and test out each individual function of each individual block, item, and entity to see if it still works. That's basically over a year's worth of my work that needs to be tested from the ground up.

So yeah, I'm fully anticipating I will miss stuff, and there will be bugs in any initial release I put out for 1.3. This is just way too much QA for a single person to perform, despite how conscientious I normally am about testing my own code.

[Ultionis]

I'm realizing that I basically have to go over the entire mod and test out each individual function of each individual block, item, and entity to see if it still works. That's basically over a year's worth of my work that needs to be tested from the ground up.

So yeah, I'm fully anticipating I will miss stuff, and there will be bugs in any initial release I put out for 1.3. This is just way too much QA for a single person to perform, despite how conscientious I normally am about testing my own code.

Well, here's to hoping that you cope well with the bug reports (which may or may not be accurate) once they flood in. I'd buy you a drink, but I'm slightly piss poor :) One day though.

And thanks for sharing your hard work with us, my guess is that the word "tedious" doesn't even begin to describe the work you're doing.

[CycloneSP]

Tedious? More like 'a lesson in toil' as the saying goes. I pray all goes well for you FC.

[RaustBlackDragon]

Ok, yeah, I was right about the entities spawning on the server but that info not being passed over to the client. I managed to do a quick test by hacking the packet-handler code to recognize water-wheels, and that got them to display properly.

That aspect is going to be a LOT of work and may take some very nasty base-class edits, as I don't think modloader currently supports that kind of functionality, in which case, compatibility with other mods may be completely off the table until the official mod-API is released.

Anyways, if any other modders reading this have custom entities in their mods: good luck :)

*cries*

[nmarshall23]

Feel free to farm out your QA testing needs.

In RT I've done my share of QA and written plenty of bug reports.

Also thanks for sharing your development pains.
Your pain reconfirms that, I will wait for the API till I start moding.

[FlowerChild]

*cries*

You *might* be ok because yours are mobs. I think the packet-handlers already in place for handling the other mobs might be sufficient to suit your needs.

I'm sure you have a lot of custom data associated with yours though, which might be a little tricky to keep in sync.

[RaustBlackDragon]

*cries*

You *might* be ok because yours are mobs. I think the packet-handlers already in place for handling the other mobs might be sufficient to suit your needs.

I'm sure you have a lot of custom data associated with yours though, which might be a little tricky to keep in sync.

Yeah, there certainly is.

There's still the projectiles from the command beam, and I don't think they qualify as mobs sadly.

What scares me the most isn't the difficulty, but the fact that you said you had to modify base classes to do it. The same base classes that I would supposedly have to modify if I wanted to add them without using forge. I really hope that isn't the case, please tell me I misread :(

[FlowerChild]

@Raust: I'll know more in a bit. There is a custom packet handler in ML, but it seems pretty bare-bones, and it doesn't seem to be hooked into a lot of the vanilla functions for processing events like entity spawning and such. I'm going to dig deeper into it to see if I can figure out a way to get it to do what I want, but if not, I will likely either write my own hooks for this stuff, or I might take a look at ModloaderMP for it, as I suspect it's the kind of thing it's designed to handle.

I think what this basically amounts to is that all mods just became SMP mods in terms of the way they have to handle their data internally. I'll let you know more as I discover it.

It was funny, because the other day someone was telling me on the ML thread that updating to 1.3 isn't too bad because they managed to port over all their class files and they were compiling without error (he couldn't run it of course, because he didn't have ML yet). I was of course dubious, and I suspect he would probably revise his stance now that he can run it ;)

Just porting over the code itself was relatively easy (maybe took me ten hours of work yesterday). Getting it to all work properly on the other hand, is another matter entirely ;)

[Sarudak]

Hey man sounds like a lot of pain and frustration. Take my best wishes with you.

[The_Jagermiester]

Holy sh*t this really is an epic...

They should archive this thread...
Good luck Flowerchild!

The_Jagermiester

[FlowerChild]

Hey man sounds like a lot of pain and frustration. Take my best wishes with you.

Thanks man :)

I decided to play the long game on this one. Trying to fix things up in my main base was just getting way too depressing due to basically everything I looked at being broken in some way.

So, I decided to spend the last couple of hours back in 1.2.5 building a nether-rail network out to the middle of nowhere, so I can start off fresh and go through the tech-tree from the start, fixing things one at a time as I come across them. Once it's complete, I'll save it right next to the nether portal, transfer my world to 1.3, pop into the overworld, and basically be starting a fresh game in a new location with new terrain.

I often play as I develop, and it makes it a much more enjoyable experience overall, but with everything so broken in my main base, and me not wanting to do anything there lest I have to revert the save due to a catastrophic bug in one of my systems, that's not really an option at present. So while it will probably take me longer to do things this way, I think it'll help keep me sane during an otherwise hellish update cycle :)

[teh_tetra]

Thanks man :)

I decided to play the long game on this one. Trying to fix things up in my main base was just getting way too depressing due to basically everything I looked at being broken in some way.

So, I decided to spend the last couple of hours back in 1.2.5 building a nether-rail network out to the middle of nowhere, so I can start off fresh and go through the tech-tree from the start, fixing things one at a time as I come across them. Once it's complete, I'll save it right next to the nether portal, transfer my world to 1.3, pop into the overworld, and basically be starting a fresh game in a new location with new terrain.

I often play as I develop, and it makes it a much more enjoyable experience overall, but with everything so broken in my main base, and me not wanting to do anything there lest I have to revert the save due to a catastrophic bug in one of my systems, that's not really an option at present. So while it will probably take me longer to do things this way, I think it'll help keep me sane during an otherwise hellish update cycle :)

This sounds like a great way to go through the process and seems like a very interesting experience. Thanks for all the effort, time, and stress you go through for this mod and the community.

[Sarudak]

Yeah good plan. Maybe you'll even have an interesting inspiration on the way. :)

[jorgebonafe]

The Limping Unichicken wishes you good luck, FC :)

[The_Jagermiester]

Hmmm...
*Smokes pipe*
This is good stuff...
Keep on chugging FC...

The_Jagermiester

[Battlecat]

Seems like an entirely sensible approach to me as well FC. You know what to expect from the experience already so going through with a critical eye will let you catch issues. I'm really enjoying hearing your thoughts as you go through the update, even just as a non-modder. Just increases my appreciation for your hard work.

Can't deny the possibility of new inspiration either, should take the edge off the update process for sure!

[FlowerChild]

Yeah good plan. Maybe you'll even have an interesting inspiration on the way. :)

Yeah, it's been quite awhile since I did a complete playthrough, and it usually result in a lot of tweaks and feature ideas.

So it's certainly not a waste of time. I just generally lean towards getting this stuff done as quickly as possible :)

[Thorium-232]

Feel free to farm out your QA testing needs.

Definitely this, FC. If there's any way we can help troubleshoot or alpha/beta test, let us know.

[shifty]

Thanks for all the work you're putting into this, it's interesting to hear about the development process of the mod. After the update is done and you've had a massive rest would you consider doing another youtube interview?

[xou816]

Well, what more can be said? I wish you good luck on that hellish updating process.

[natchu96]

Well, what more can be said? I wish you good luck on that hellish updating process.

Well, we've conquered hell in this mod already, so eventually things should work out, right? :D

[bwyw]

Earlier in my career I've done stints as QA for online poker sites, MMOs, slot machines, etc. If there's anything I can help you with there, let me know. Writing a script for McEdit to place every block on every side of every other block? Sure thing. Etc. All tests would be recorded and bugs reported with appropriate steps to reproduce.

If there's anything else I can do to help, such as sending money, the tortured souls of small innocent children, beer coupons, or a bucket of kittens, just say the word.

[kazerima]

celebrating my unbanning by saying good luck, I'm sure the end results will be more than worth the wait.