Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Bytelink moves website
Long time no post, but to keep people update that might not have gotten the forum-wide email, Bytelink has moved to http://www.bytelink-online.com
Friday, June 22, 2007
Updated PvP idea
I've posted my latest PvP idea on the forums. For those of you who are interested, http://bytelink.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=630
I'd appreciate some responses on the forum :)
I'd appreciate some responses on the forum :)
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Bytelink Trailer Music
A bit premature perhaps, but I've just finished remixing the music for the next trailer.
I know this music has been done to death on youtube, but I really like it.
http://www.bytelink.org/downloads/BytelinkTrailerMusic.ogg
Trailer to follow when we actually have a GUI again!
Speaking of which, due to Easter, I get this Friday and next Monday off work, and Grim has his school holidays. We will be going on a mass-coding session this weekend, so I can teach him how to do GUI scripting, and then let him work on that for his week off.
Expect progress!
I know this music has been done to death on youtube, but I really like it.
http://www.bytelink.org/downloads/BytelinkTrailerMusic.ogg
Trailer to follow when we actually have a GUI again!
Speaking of which, due to Easter, I get this Friday and next Monday off work, and Grim has his school holidays. We will be going on a mass-coding session this weekend, so I can teach him how to do GUI scripting, and then let him work on that for his week off.
Expect progress!
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
I've been busy...getting older
It was my 21st birthday on Monday. My friend flew over from Switzerland to come and celebrate with me, and we had a fairly good time, was good to reminisce about our first two years of uni, and look forward to our last one.
So, now I'm 21 and the depression that surrounds that is slowly settling in. I'm classed as an "adult" in virtually every country and culture I can think of. Life gets harder from here on out.
I'm currently hating coding Bytelink. Why? Well, Bytelink was never the prettiest of games, neither was Uplink, however, at least by the end of Alpha 3, we'd got a fairly clean-looking client. Now for the VB2K5 update, I've thrown the entire look out the window and started again. So every time I start up the client I'm greeted by the default windows skin, crappy buttons, and something that looks like a 5yr old did it. I hate this. I need prettiness. But I won't get prettiness until I finish the skin system.
I'm doing all sorts of things to VB that I don't think it was ever designed to do. Twisting it in weird ways to allow our scripting engine to work safely and securely.
Hopefully, GrimReapa will get some holiday from his school soon, and we can do some hard work on the code.
That's all for now folks.
So, now I'm 21 and the depression that surrounds that is slowly settling in. I'm classed as an "adult" in virtually every country and culture I can think of. Life gets harder from here on out.
I'm currently hating coding Bytelink. Why? Well, Bytelink was never the prettiest of games, neither was Uplink, however, at least by the end of Alpha 3, we'd got a fairly clean-looking client. Now for the VB2K5 update, I've thrown the entire look out the window and started again. So every time I start up the client I'm greeted by the default windows skin, crappy buttons, and something that looks like a 5yr old did it. I hate this. I need prettiness. But I won't get prettiness until I finish the skin system.
I'm doing all sorts of things to VB that I don't think it was ever designed to do. Twisting it in weird ways to allow our scripting engine to work safely and securely.
Hopefully, GrimReapa will get some holiday from his school soon, and we can do some hard work on the code.
That's all for now folks.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
The Missing Website pt2.
For those of you still unable to get to the website/forums, be sure to flush your dns cache and your web browser cache. The new DNS information should have filtered down by now. If you are still getting a domain holding page, and you are knowledgeable, you can force the address to point to 67.18.33.226.
Other than that, barely any news on the Bytelink front. My regular job revolves around programming. After spending a day programming, it's very rare that I get home and want to do any more. Weekends are usually the most work-intensive periods for BL, so the Monday posts should usually be the most action packed.
Today's post comes a mere 9 hours late, due to the fact that I had absolutely no desire to write a post today at lunchtime. Some days I just hate computers, LOL.
Other than that, barely any news on the Bytelink front. My regular job revolves around programming. After spending a day programming, it's very rare that I get home and want to do any more. Weekends are usually the most work-intensive periods for BL, so the Monday posts should usually be the most action packed.
Today's post comes a mere 9 hours late, due to the fact that I had absolutely no desire to write a post today at lunchtime. Some days I just hate computers, LOL.
Monday, March 12, 2007
The case of the missing website
It was late. I'd just returned from work. I clicked my bookmark for the bytelink forums. Nothing happened.
Eventually, firefox gave "could not resolve address" as the error message. My bones shook. I quivered. I considered. I realised.
I'd forgotten to renew the domain.
Bytelink was first registered back in 2003. Renewed in 2005, and then due again earlier this month 2007. The email I originally registered it with is no longer in use. Emails sent to that address reminding me of my blunder went un-delivered.
Thankfully, help was just a phonecall away, and once business hours began on monday I managed to get the domain renewed, and less than 5 hours later, we were back and running.
A bit worrying really, but hopefully something that won't happen again.
Not much else on the Bytelink front at the moment, work is tiring me out, doesn't put me in the best mood for programming once I get home.
Eventually, firefox gave "could not resolve address" as the error message. My bones shook. I quivered. I considered. I realised.
I'd forgotten to renew the domain.
Bytelink was first registered back in 2003. Renewed in 2005, and then due again earlier this month 2007. The email I originally registered it with is no longer in use. Emails sent to that address reminding me of my blunder went un-delivered.
Thankfully, help was just a phonecall away, and once business hours began on monday I managed to get the domain renewed, and less than 5 hours later, we were back and running.
A bit worrying really, but hopefully something that won't happen again.
Not much else on the Bytelink front at the moment, work is tiring me out, doesn't put me in the best mood for programming once I get home.
Friday, March 09, 2007
The Story So Far
Bytelink is now a VB2005 app.
How did that happen? Well, lets explain.
Bytelink must multithread
It's almost as simple as that. Bytelink has so much stuff going on at the same time, the best way of handling everything is to have it all on separate threads. GUI control, networking, music playback, script handling, the lot. VB6's handling of multithreading is poor. Why? People hadn't really considered multithreading back when VB6 was invented, so it wasn't included as part of the language. These days, Microsoft know what they are doing (sort of), and have included robust multithreading support in VB2K5.
I hate VB6
Yes its true, I just don't like VB6 as a language, and I like the editor even less. You have to install a hack so that your scrollwheel will work. Ugh. When you get something wrong in your code, you get a wavy red line and an obscure error message. You have to sort out all your errors yourself. VB2K5 changes all this. It has a tasty, tasty IDE, which actually offers intelligent suggestions as to why your code isn't working. It even helps you solve the problems as you go. You type in
and it automatically changes it to
because the Variant datatype no longer exists in the VB langua
ge. Brilliant.
Anyone can write VB2005
Oh yes, yes they can. Microsoft decided to release a version of the IDE known as the Express edition. There are fewer features, but Express will happily open Professional projects and vice versa. So when the time came to hire a new member of the development team, I didn't have to worry about buying them an expensive piece of software.
We hired another developer
Oh yes, yes we did. GrimReapa (long time forum addict) has been slowly moving up the Bytelink ranks, becoming forum Moderator, followed by Wiki Admin, followed by forum Admin. GrimReapa is now part of the development team, and is slowly learning our style of coding.
Davman started sharing his source
Unbelievable I know, but for those who care to look, there are samples of the Bytelink sourcecode on the forums. These are provided as learning examples for the people who have suffered the same kind of difficulties we have in creating such a customised application in the VB language.
Jesus is taking a break
Unfortunately for Bytelink, our most skilled developer is currently taking a break due to his heavy workload at college. Due to the fact that he is uber-intelligent, Jesus is taking second year classes in his first year. Along with this, he has to keep his girlfriend happy, and basically, his time is short. He's taking an extended leave of absence from the coding side of the project, but his position as co-developer is still open to him, and we look forward to a time when he is happy to return to us.
He will also have to learn VB2K5 (bwahahah).
How did that happen? Well, lets explain.
Bytelink must multithread
It's almost as simple as that. Bytelink has so much stuff going on at the same time, the best way of handling everything is to have it all on separate threads. GUI control, networking, music playback, script handling, the lot. VB6's handling of multithreading is poor. Why? People hadn't really considered multithreading back when VB6 was invented, so it wasn't included as part of the language. These days, Microsoft know what they are doing (sort of), and have included robust multithreading support in VB2K5.
I hate VB6
Yes its true, I just don't like VB6 as a language, and I like the editor even less. You have to install a hack so that your scrollwheel will work. Ugh. When you get something wrong in your code, you get a wavy red line and an obscure error message. You have to sort out all your errors yourself. VB2K5 changes all this. It has a tasty, tasty IDE, which actually offers intelligent suggestions as to why your code isn't working. It even helps you solve the problems as you go. You type in
Dim x As Variant
and it automatically changes it to
Dim x As Object
because the Variant datatype no longer exists in the VB langua
ge. Brilliant.
Anyone can write VB2005
Oh yes, yes they can. Microsoft decided to release a version of the IDE known as the Express edition. There are fewer features, but Express will happily open Professional projects and vice versa. So when the time came to hire a new member of the development team, I didn't have to worry about buying them an expensive piece of software.
We hired another developer
Oh yes, yes we did. GrimReapa (long time forum addict) has been slowly moving up the Bytelink ranks, becoming forum Moderator, followed by Wiki Admin, followed by forum Admin. GrimReapa is now part of the development team, and is slowly learning our style of coding.
Davman started sharing his source
Unbelievable I know, but for those who care to look, there are samples of the Bytelink sourcecode on the forums. These are provided as learning examples for the people who have suffered the same kind of difficulties we have in creating such a customised application in the VB language.
Jesus is taking a break
Unfortunately for Bytelink, our most skilled developer is currently taking a break due to his heavy workload at college. Due to the fact that he is uber-intelligent, Jesus is taking second year classes in his first year. Along with this, he has to keep his girlfriend happy, and basically, his time is short. He's taking an extended leave of absence from the coding side of the project, but his position as co-developer is still open to him, and we look forward to a time when he is happy to return to us.
He will also have to learn VB2K5 (bwahahah).
To blog or not to blog
So, I've always had trouble posting blog entries. I never seem to be able to find the time, or have anything to write about. I've decided I need a bit of a kick up the ass, so I'm setting aside 15 minutes every day (Midday) to post about the day before. This will be difficult, as it will mean if I come up with a funky new feature before Midday, I will have to wait till the next day to tell you all about it. Ah well.
Anyway, enough with this explanation post, I'd better get on with it and update you with the story so far.
Anyway, enough with this explanation post, I'd better get on with it and update you with the story so far.
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