PBEM server - first beta Online

Rowlff · #1 October 27th, 2004, 07:16 PM

Good to hear that you seem to like it - it's still a way to go, when it comes to automatic hosting, though: The fact that there's no standalone server, and you have to more or less start the complete 'Dominions II'-application to do a simple host run, is a big problem.
So far, I haven't been able to do so from a php-script, but I am working on it (^_^)

Once this works (and I'm still confident), we can think about where to put it. And I will then immediately release it for everybody to play around with. Promise!

PashaDawg · #2 October 27th, 2004, 10:32 PM

Sounds cool. Dragonfire and I have 2 MP PBEM games going on. Maybe we can try to transfer them to your system to act as your guinea pigs.

Saeter · #3 October 28th, 2004, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Rowlff said:
The fact that there's no standalone server, and you have to more or less start the complete 'Dominions II'-application to do a simple host run, is a big problem.
So far, I haven't been able to do so from a php-script, but I am working on it (^_^)

What about using a regular shell script to do the actual execution of the application? Have a php script do the command syntax of turns ready to run, and save those in a file, but do the actual execution from a shell script. It would only have to look in the php-prepared command file and run them. Just a thought, I'm not into the details of either php5 or Dom2 capabilities.

Rowlff · #4 October 28th, 2004, 12:58 PM

I've tried this (and several other approaches) already! The problem remains that whatever way I try to open 'Dominions II', as soon as the original call is coming from PHP, 'Dominions II' can't start, because it can't connect to the Window Server (Error: "INIT_Processeses(), could not establish the default connection to the WindowServer."). Even using 'su' to pretend a normal user didn't help here...

Maybe it's due to me trying it on OS X. If somebody would like to give it a shot on Linux, I'll happily send him the appropriate scripts.

And does Illwinter read these threads? They should know a little something, too (^_^)

Gandalf Parker · #5 October 28th, 2004, 01:53 PM

Are you using text-only mode? Thats the only way I could get them to work. Are you looking for the start-game script or the process-turn script?

Rowlff · #6 October 28th, 2004, 04:13 PM

Interestingly enough, having the '--textonly' parameter didn't help, either.
Here's the command I use:

dominions2 --tcpserver --port 4040 --noclientstart --uploadtime 0 --mapfile aran.map --textonly testgame

Besides, I can't use '--textonly' for a hostrun, anyway, can I?

But like I said, I can't rule out the possibility that it's OS X related, and might work under Linux... can I send you a little script to test?

Gandalf Parker · #7 October 28th, 2004, 05:33 PM

You might try adding -q and --host

Rowlff · #8 October 28th, 2004, 11:25 PM

Thanks for the tip - but no change! I'll continue testing, but fear I have run into a wall here (>_<)
Hopefully Dom3 will introduce a separate server that's easier to use in textmode... but for the time being, I might have to go with Deccan's idea, and have 'domserv' only manage games, but hosts will actually have to download the .2h files to host on their own computers and reupload then once they're done.