Phase 1: Outline of what needs doing

Open: Focusing On "Big Picture" Technical Practicalities To Get Open Uru Online

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Dot
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Phase 1: Outline of what needs doing

Post by Dot »

Is it possible to outline what needs doing once material is released by Cyan? If it is explained in straightforward terms, it might help people to manage their expectations.

I'd be grateful for an overview myself. It might also help to structure this project forum if we agree on a set of topic title tags for different stages/items in the process.

[Edit: The following is a compilation from subsequent posts in this thread, with links to other threads.]
[What we can do now]

0.5) Server Net shopping
Develop some way of paying for server use (?donations through PayPal)

1) Inventory assets:
People (skills, time/opportunity)
Hardware/Facilities
Prerequisite Software (DB, Developer tools (compilers, SDKs, etc))

2) Match assets to broad task categories
Client (PRP/Plasma experts, DirectX experts, Microsoft App development)
Server (Web services, DB services, Network Admin, Microsoft Server development)

3) Prepare as much as possible initial environments for building, testing and deployment
(may not be worth the time yet unless we're pretty confident we know baselines)

[After first release from Cyan, assume a full release of both client and server code]

[[If build instructions are available in release, skip to step 5]]

4) (Likely there will be a split in effort: following steps replicated for client and server code)
Examine code for hints as to build process (IDE, VStudio, "make"-like tools, build tools such
as compilers, SDKs, etc). Dissemanate information to community.

5) Construct build environment(s). Acquire missing tools if needed. Announce (as desired)
availability of build areas to interested parties.

6) Instantiate local working set from repository on build environments.

7) Attempt build with tools available. If build fails, request assistance from Cyan and/or other
community parties working in parallel. May find additional requirements for build env.
Repeat until error-free build. Relay success and method to community.

8) If testing code and/or procedures are part of release, perform tests, both client and server.
Repair and repeat at (7) until success. Relay success and method to community.

9) By this time it will hopefully become apparent what the topology of the server backends are
required. Locate facilities adequate for small scale deployment (may use virtual machines
for this step). Prepare server hosts with prerequisite software.

[[If deployment instructions and/or procedures are in release skip to step 11]]

10) Determine minimum deployment of built server code, mapping to machines and infrastructure.
Decide on a deployment mechanism and process.

11) Deploy server code. Initialize any databases and set up connectors. (Presumably this environment
will be entirely local between servers and clients so as not to introduce firewall/security
effects at this time). Establish process for determining health of servers. Relay progress
to community.

12) Local client and server functional testing. Looking for baseline problems (connectivity, downloading,
virtual environment state, authentication, mismatched software, anything else grossly nonfunctional)
[Edit 21 Dec 08: rarified's list]
[Edit 22 Dec 08: Added 'Phase 1' to thread title]
[Edit 26 Dec 08: added Grogyan's stage 0.5, and links to threads]
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Mac_Fife
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Re: Outline of what needs doing

Post by Mac_Fife »

Maybe we can start by building a checklist (kept updated in the top post?) of things that need done, things that'll need examined or checked once Cyan release their material? (I use the word "material" because I hope there will be documentation as well as code :) )
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Dot
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Re: Outline of what needs doing

Post by Dot »

I'd be happy to update the top post if you all tell me exactly what to write. ;)
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rarified
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Re: Outline of what needs doing

Post by rarified »

I'll go a little more basic than Grogyan on my list. I think there will be enough work
just getting a working sample running:

[What we can do now]

1) Inventory assets:
People (skills, time/opportunity)
Hardware/Facilities
Prerequisite Software (DB, Developer tools (compilers, SDKs, etc))
2) Match assets to broad task categories
Client (PRP/Plasma experts, DirectX experts, Microsoft App development)
Server (Web services, DB services, Network Admin, Microsoft Server development)
3) Prepare as much as possible initial environments for building, testing and deployment
(may not be worth the time yet unless we're pretty confident we know baselines)

[After first release from Cyan, assume a full release of both client and server code]

[[If build instructions are available in release, skip to step 5]]

4) (Likely there will be a split in effort: following steps replicated for client and server code)
Examine code for hints as to build process (IDE, VStudio, "make"-like tools, build tools such
as compilers, SDKs, etc). Dissemanate information to community.

5) Construct build environment(s). Acquire missing tools if needed. Announce (as desired)
availability of build areas to interested parties.
6) Instantiate local working set from repository on build environments.
7) Attempt build with tools available. If build fails, request assistance from Cyan and/or other
community parties working in parallel. May find additional requirements for build env.
Repeat until error-free build. Relay success and method to community.

8) If testing code and/or procedures are part of release, perform tests, both client and server.
Repair and repeat at (7) until success. Relay success and method to community.

9) By this time it will hopefully become apparent what the topology of the server backends are
required. Locate facilities adequate for small scale deployment (may use virtual machines
for this step). Prepare server hosts with prerequisite software.

[[If deployment instructions and/or procedures are in release skip to step 11]]

10) Determine minimum deployment of built server code, mapping to machines and infrastructure.
Decide on a deployment mechanism and process.

11) Deploy server code. Initialize any databases and set up connectors. (Presumably this environment
will be entirely local between servers and clients so as not to introduce firewall/security
effects at this time). Establish process for determining health of servers. Relay progress
to community.

12) Local client and server functional testing. Looking for baseline problems (connectivity, downloading,
virtual environment state, authentication, mismatched software, anything else grossly nonfunctional)


Beyond this I'll only summarize as
- Network modelling to determine appropriate firewall configurations and requisite bandwidth
- Client testing on a variety of platforms
- Larger test audience on single server to confirm multi-user functions
- Start to test additional servers to learn configuration, behavior, scaling, etc
- Look for more facility resources where to deploy additional servers
- Start scaling things up

By now, everyone that wants to support their own forks should be able to do so without worrying about there being something incorrectly built or deployed based on the original code.

Sorry to be so long winded.
_R
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Re: Outline of what needs doing

Post by realXCV »

rarified wrote:4) (Likely there will be a split in effort: following steps replicated for client and server code)
Examine code for hints as to build process (IDE, VStudio, "make"-like tools, build tools such
as compilers, SDKs, etc). Dissemanate information to community.
My guess is that the code was made with Visual Studio 2003.
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Re: Outline of what needs doing

Post by Grogyan »

Seeing as this thread is now Phase 1

Server Net shopping is in order, as well as
Someway of paying for the privilege of using them, perhaps donations through PayPal?
Deployment of files from this server just needs a small change in the UruLauncher.exe I believe
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Dot
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Re: Outline of what needs doing

Post by Dot »

It looks as though we're moving into discussing the first stage in some of the other threads:
1) Inventory assets:
People (skills, time/opportunity)
Hardware/Facilities
Prerequisite Software (DB, Developer tools (compilers, SDKs, etc))
I'll set up a thread for each of these, copying across relevant posts for convenience.

Grogyan, at which stage in the outline would these points best be put?
Grogyan wrote:Server Net shopping is in order, as well as
Someway of paying for the privilege of using them, perhaps donations through PayPal?
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rarified
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Re: Phase 1: Outline of what needs doing

Post by rarified »

Thanks Dot and Mac for keeping things organized.

I wonder this morning, as more links show the same tasks being discussed in guilds as well as here, if we will at various times take a moment and reevaluate if we've gone too far in duplicating effort and poorly utilized our resources.

Maybe one more thing that needs doing is continuously looking at where things are happening and trying to nudge divergent but redundant groups to work together. (Sorta sounds like a Project Manager to me ;) )
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Re: Outline of what needs doing

Post by Grogyan »

Dot wrote: Grogyan, at which stage in the outline would these points best be put?
Grogyan wrote:Server Net shopping is in order, as well as
Someway of paying for the privilege of using them, perhaps donations through PayPal?
These two points I believe are the most critical and supersedes finding people willing to do coding, or to fully understand the depths of the game engine.

Should really have a seperate thread for organizing just these two points, if we are to have any hope to return to the cavern once again
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Re: Outline of what needs doing

Post by rarified »

Grogyan wrote:These two points I believe are the most critical and supersedes finding people willing to do coding, or to fully understand the depths of the game engine.

Should really have a seperate thread for organizing just these two points, if we are to have any hope to return to the cavern once again
I'll agree, but do you/we/them know what we're shopping for yet? Does anyone know (at this time besides Cyan) what the dimensions of the Uru backend were?
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