69 replies to this topic

[Sambo]

Improvement. I concur.

[rcthelp]

So what happens when you click on all these checkboxes, radio buttons and multi-select lists? I have to turn them into a query on the database and fetch the results. This code is now finished, and much more efficient than before.

Here's an example:

SELECT R.*,C.Category_Name AS Category,T.lang_name AS Type,M.Name AS Creator 
FROM ridex3_rides R,ridex3_categoryname C,ridex3_typename T,members M 
WHERE (T.lang_name IN ('Vertical_Drop_Rol','Air_Powered_Verti')) AND (R.Flat = -1 AND R.TP4 = -1 AND T.RCT_Version = 3 AND R.withgame != -1 AND (R.rct2_themes & 4 != 0)) AND C.Category_Type = T.Category AND T.Vehicle = R.Vehicle_type AND R.Uploader = M.member_id 
ORDER BY R.Drops DESC , R.Upload_date DESC

From that, it's obvious that the user wants only Air Powered Vertical and Vertical Drop coasters for RCT2 only, that come with screenshots and can be built on flat land. The results should exclude any rides that shipped with the game, be themed with shrubs and ornaments, and sorted so that the rides with the most drops appear first.

[Wolfman]

"Magic"
Got it.

[rcthelp]

I'm looking at uploading now. After the code to build the daabase query to search the Exchange, it's one of the more complex parts.

Here's an idea of what goes on after you add a track file, a screenshot and a comment, and upload it.

• Validate the track file
• Ensure it isn't already in the Ride Exchange
• Validate the comment
• Validate the screenshot
• Reformat, and create a thumbnail
• Create ride build instructions
• Create the zipfile for download
• Add the ride to the database
• Update the ridex stats, 'hall of fame', and member data
• Feedback to the user
• Track invalid or already in Exchange
• The track was OK, but the comment wasn't
• The track was OK, but the screenshot wasn't
• Success!

That's all there is to it! Going forwards is pretty straightforward, it's when one of the later steps fails, and rewinding is necessary, that it all gets very messy.

Improvements I'm going to try and implement are:

• RCT1 rides will now have build instructions.
• The existing Ride Exchange logs show that many track uploads are abandoned because of invalid screenshots. In 10.b. and 10.c. above, previously the track used to be rejected. Now it will be added, and you'll get the chance to change the comment and/or screenshot. If you don't bother to amend either, we'll keep the ride anyway.

I'll post about progress on this over the next couple of weeks.

[Wolfman]

One question and I'll leave you to it...

Are the tracks that have already been submitted, going to remain, or are they gone forever?

[rcthelp]

The 2 ride exchanges will be merged. No rides will be lost. All the stats about how many times downloaded will be preserved. All your personal stats about how many rides uploaded will be preserved. The record breaking rides in the Hall of Fame will be preserved. The .... oh you get the idea by now ...

[Wolfman]

All is lost.
Got it.

[Woodpecker]

Any news?

[rcthelp]

All the Javascript to dynamically change the lists of rides needs writing again.

All the code to convert the images and create thumbnails has been rewritten, or more accurately written again. I have been able to make the images a bit smaller than before.

I am just about back to where I was when the server crashed. But now I have backups.

I have also completely redesigned the 'upload' logic so that I will be able to use it to allow people to edit comments and screenshots. But that may still be in the next version.

[rcthelp]

A significant step. Again it doesn't look much:

 uploadsuccess.png   47.85KB   14 downloads

This is the first successful upload of ANY ride into the new Exchange!

Innovations to note are:

• It's an RCT1 Ride
• The thumbnail (which is not the actual ride as it happens) was made from an in-game RCT2 .BMP screenshot which was uploaded. It's no longer necessary to make your own .jpg screenshots
• The Ride Exchange will now accept RCT1 AND RCT2 rides
• The zip file includes Build Instructions for the ride (not previously possible for RCT1 rides)

There's still some synthetic changes needed to the output, but getting the zip file built and the ride into the database is one of the most complex parts of the code. It's been made extra complicated, as I try to make it possible to edit the rides after they have been added.