Recent Posts

951

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Free computer help online/CompuTech (my) programs

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 24, 2008, 02:19 AM »

The tooltips have been added, and the button text changed to a larger point font, but only the names remain - placed in the bottom right hand corner for visual effect.

Screenshots to follow.

Any more ideas?

952

DC Gamer Club / Re: DonationCoder map - Sauerbraten FPS fun

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 24, 2008, 12:24 AM »

A major update to the DonationCoder map: I have been working solo on a beta version of the map for a week or so now, asking outsiders to help me make things for the map, as well as just letting people build freely and then using what they build as a basis for something that can be integrated into the map.

The result:

• The RED base now has a much improved armory, with hidden exit (thanks to Deozaan)
• The text DONATIONCODER.COM is now lit up amazingly on the highest lighting settings (Deozaan again)
• The bases have new textures
• There is both artificial and sunlight effects (ask how to turn them on if you join the server; a recent PC with good CPU is recommended for higher options) - p3lb0x helped with armory lighing
• There is a battle arena/viewing location for large scale battle viewing and close quarters battles in the arena. The arena has a small floor with lava pit and 2 connecting bridges down the center of the rectangular pit, with a similar configuration at the top, and the roof ledges can be used for battles as well, along with the hallways. The arena viewing area windows are great for sniping, too )
• There is a small water channel (I should say tiny) that provides water to the community pool next to the arena. This can be used strategically to hide, however it is easily ambushed...
• An AFK room sits on the side of the map, between the two bases. This room is meant as a safe haven for AFKers. A teleport allows escape.
• The map is now "bordered" via lava.
• P3lb0x's castle has been relocated due to the battle arena (don't worry, it is the exactly way it was before )
• The RED and BLUE team letters are now coated in glass (to prevent death from lava and an advantage via water).
• The underground water tunnel has had a MAJOR repair (HUGE thanks to Deozaan for helping me on that!!!) and has beentotally redone.
• The map can be extended at any time via removal and replacement of the outer lava.

The dedicated server is still up, and I will be on for most of this week (SPRING BREAK!!! ). Drop in if you can (just remember to set your name)!

-Brandon

953

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Free computer help online/CompuTech (my) programs

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 23, 2008, 05:43 PM »

OK, I will look into making tooltips for the buttons. Thanks for the idea!

954

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Free computer help online/CompuTech (my) programs

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 23, 2008, 04:32 PM »

OK - here is a preview image of the new "QuickStart", the opening tab of SnapSuite.

I do understand that the buttons may be a *bit* oversized (256x256) so I may bump them down to 1/2 size (128x128).

The interface looks good IMO, but the text can use some editing and whatnot, but the buttons are fully functional (so if I was to release this right now, you could download it and use the buttons to access the tabs).

Image: http://img390.images...00/quickstartxl8.jpg

(Note: SmartBrowse, SnapScreen and SystemCare are not pictured here)

 

-Brandon

955

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Exciting GUI news for graphic lovers

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 22, 2008, 12:54 AM »

Update: I have not achieved anything else as far as FastNote goes, however the new "QuickStart" tab (replacement for News) has given SnapSuite a much-needed facelift. Using new ideas and settings and a large amount of tweaking, this tab will appear on SnapSuite launch and allow you to easily and quickly access whatever component you need. What is better, I made the entire program GUI larger to support the 256x256 icons that let you tell at-a-glance what the component does. For instance, SystemCare has a program with gears, SmartBrowse has a PC next to the globe, and AutoType has a chat bubble. This larger size allows more space to add items, and a roomier and more welcoming environment. The only downside to this is that it is now just barely too large for 800x600 resolutions now - sorry to those whom are still running low-res.

I am planning on renovating the entire program GUI with new, resized icons, better positioned buttons, easier to read text, and other small improvements. Settings are soon to follow.

I am down to ~23 more items on my to-do list before SnapSuite is complete for the Win32 2008 edition - the 2009 version already has over 15 new component ideas and counting!

-Brandon

EDIT: Screenshots soon to come!

956

Developer's Corner / Re: Visual Basic .NET - Can I make a dynamic GUI?

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 21, 2008, 11:59 PM »

Never mind, I was able to find a solution via guess and check. I am starting to love the autocomplete option.

957

Developer's Corner / Re: Visual Basic .NET - Can I make a dynamic GUI?

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 21, 2008, 11:52 PM »

On a related note, I was wondering if there is a way to change to a different tab when a button is clicked. Something like

[Select]

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
On Error Resume Next
GoToTab("TabName")
End Sub

I have been searching for about 2 weeks on this and come up dry on whatever search results I try. I am thinking about just typing in commands and using the autocomplete function in VB Express Edition to scan and see what commands I can look into that could help me with this (it works sometimes).

Anyone got any ideas for this? There has to be a way to do it, but I just can't find out how!

958

Developer's Corner / Re: Visual Basic .NET - Can I make a dynamic GUI?

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 21, 2008, 09:29 PM »

Alright, now I think I understand. Downloading now (I have VB '08). Will take a look and see if I can make sense of how to do this myself. Thanks!

959

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Free computer help online/CompuTech (my) programs

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 21, 2008, 06:37 PM »

Thanks mouser (obviously disregard that PM I sent you)

On a related note, FastNote can now open text files into the editing box! (I was about to give up and remove FastNote altogether, and leave it as a dead idea)

Using some code I found by complete chance, I changed it to fit what I need to do and made up a sample, three line text file, and FastNote loaded it up without problem!

I may be able to have Saving capabilities ready as well by later tonight - I will post as I learn and progress


Wish me luck!

-Brandon

960

Developer's Corner / Re: Visual Basic .NET - Can I make a dynamic GUI?

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 21, 2008, 06:35 PM »

I can make a control invisible by simply changing a setting in .NET on the options bar off to the right - that isn't an issue. I just don't see what you mean by copying the original button to the new location?

961

Developer's Corner / Re: Visual Basic .NET - Can I make a dynamic GUI?

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 21, 2008, 06:29 PM »

I don't really understand what you are saying PPLandry (I get the idea, just not how to execute it). I know how to make invisible controls, but the copying I don't "get". I am getting a feel for saving settings right now (reading several examples and searching), but I don't know how to actually move the items while the program is running (I don't see what you mean by "look at the code", CWuestefeld - I have done it before where it gives me an XML type of data sheet, but I can't get it to do it now; could you elaborate as to how to get that info?).

I will Google for examples though. Didn't know about that.

962

Developer's Corner / Visual Basic .NET - Can I make a dynamic GUI?

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 21, 2008, 05:36 PM »

Does anyone know if it is possible to make a drag-and-drop GUI, configurable on-the-fly by the user? Something like this...

User starts program
Program window opens, awaits action
User clicks Button1 to execute action XYZ. After execution the user returns to the program.
User right clicks on Button1, and drags Button1 to a new location
The user closes the program (optional)
Program saves custom GUI item locations
User starts program (if program was closed)
Program window opens, loads the GUI item locations, adjusts items accordingly, and awaits user action
User clicks Button1 as if it were positioned originally (from in the VB designer) and action XYZ executes.

To be totally honest, I expect this to be very complicated and use a lot of code, and on top of that I have absolutely no idea how to save settings (I am going to go Google-mad after this post and begin researching on Setting saving and loading). But, I figure it is worth a shot to ask! Can't know until you try, right?

If anyone understood any of the ideal end-user steps above, and could help me with this in any way, please help me understand how I would go about doing this

963

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Free computer help online/CompuTech (my) programs

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 21, 2008, 01:19 AM »

ALRIGHT! I don't like to double post (although I do it often) but this has been driving me insane for the last week and a half (and I just about ripped my hair out about 20 minutes ago)- I can now say that I have DcUpdater support for SnapSuite!

This is going to be a bit of a pain to remember to update the version info and whatnot every time, but it should make updates a whole lot easier on everyone else. I have made a "checklist" file that I am going to follow when I do updates now, so that I don't have to go back and do 10 steps again.

I will NOT be posting the update today (Friday) and most likely not Saturday either - if you use DcUppdater and want to try it out for yourself, I can send you the .dcupdater file if you want (I don't see why anyone would want this, but you never know). I just want to make sure everything is working before I rush out and say "Here you go!"

EDIT: Yes, I am on version 2.3. Everyone else is on 2.2 - that is not a typo.

964

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Free computer help online/CompuTech (my) programs

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 21, 2008, 12:38 AM »

After a brutal undertaking of organization, I am happy to say that I will be able to much more efficiently and easily work with the SnapSuite programming files (and everything else linked in, like icons, AHK files, dlls...). It was a total guess-and-check process, but it allowed me to get rid of a ton of unneeded things that VB had pointlessly created (no, I did not break SnapSuite either - I am running it right now ), and let me better organize myself to get to things quicker and more simply.

Not much going on development-wise, just checking for bugs/errors and trying to find out if I can really execute my far-fetched want to make a "SnapSuite - Linux Edition". Xubuntu is on my portable USB drive, so we shall see...maybe...

(if anyone knows anything about basic Linux programming, any help would be make me unspeakably grateful)

-Brandon

965

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Free computer help online/CompuTech (my) programs

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 19, 2008, 06:39 PM »

Alright, I found the bug! It was a tricky little one, but it is all squished now

All programs will now open correctly (I have given it a quick testing to verify it, and scanned the code about 8 times while building and testing and rebuilding and retesting)...

Well, I am going to be totally honest. There is nothing interesting in this update. It is just a minor update and bugfix. (I am fixing lots of little known quirks as I type this post - nothing that could be noticed unless you had the code, but nonetheless)

I hope that this is a good and bug-free release, although I know it is not. I always find something wrong after I upload a new version, so expect another post in the near future explaining the new problem and what can be done to temporarily fix it

In all seriousness, though, I hope this works well for everyone this time around. I know stuff like this can be annoying.


You can follow the usual NEW updater process via opening SnapSuite and clicking the Update link on the front page and updating, OR by going to http://www.incredisims.com/ and getting the new setup manually.

Hope you enjoy!

-Brandon

NOTE: The update IS NOW LIVE!

966

Developer's Corner / Re: Help with Inno Setup shortcuts please!

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 19, 2008, 06:08 PM »

Never mind, I just found this at the Inno Setup FAQ...

Q: My application can't find any of its files when it is started from the shortcut created by Setup. It works fine when I double-click the application's EXE in Explorer.

    A: Your application is most likely not specifying pathnames on the files it is trying to open, so it is expecting to find them in the current directory. Inno Setup by default does not set the "Start In" field on shortcuts its creates; this causes Windows to pick a directory itself, which usually won't be the directory containing your application.

    In virtually all cases, this is something that should be corrected at the application level. Properly designed GUI applications should not expect to be started from a particular directory; they should always specify full pathnames on files they open. In Delphi or C++Builder, for example, it's possible to get the full pathname of the directory containing the application EXE by calling: ExtractFilePath(ParamStr(0)). To get the full path of a file named "File.txt" in the application directory, use: ExtractFilePath(ParamStr(0)) + 'File.txt'.

    If for some reason you cannot fix this at the application level, you can tell Inno Setup to set the "Start In" field by adding "WorkingDir: {app}" to your [Icons] entries.

Hopefully this helps someone else out as well

967

Developer's Corner / Re: Help with Inno Setup shortcuts please!

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 19, 2008, 06:06 PM »

I have the DefaultGroupName, and it creates only the Start Menu folder by default - the other two are checkbox options, but I need the "Start In" box data with those as well

I still don't understand how to add the start in directory?

968

Developer's Corner / Help with Inno Setup shortcuts please!

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 19, 2008, 04:57 PM »

Sorry about the strange topic title, but it was a bit too long IMO. If anyone can, could someone please instruct me as to how to create a shortcut in the Start Menu (I have accomplished this part) with a "Start In" directory? I need to do this to run other EXE files in that directory, and they fail to open without this entered.

Here is my code that I have for icon creation in the Start Menu, on the desktop, and in the Quick Launch bar.

[Select]

[Icons]
Name: "{group}\SnapSuite 2008"; Filename: "{app}\SnapSuite 2008.exe"
Name: "{group}\{cm:UninstallProgram,SnapSuite 2008}"; Filename: "{uninstallexe}"
Name: "{commondesktop}\SnapSuite 2008"; Filename: "{app}\SnapSuite 2008.exe"; Tasks: desktopicon
Name: "{userappdata}\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\SnapSuite 2008"; Filename: "{app}\SnapSuite 2008.exe"; Tasks: quicklaunchicon

Can someone help me with this? I am sure it is simple but I do not want to make any errors.

-Brandon

969

DC Gamer Club / SAUERBRATEN DEDICATED SERVER IS ALMOST READY!

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 16, 2008, 04:00 PM »

Alright, we are almost ready to rock with the dedicated server!!!

The server (my own old Gateway PC) will be running a dedicated Sauerbraten server 24/7 (WITH THE EXCEPTION OF MAINTENANCE AND SERVICE PACK 3/UPDATE INSTALLATION) from now on. Use Hamachi to connect (the Hamachi name will be something like BrandonSauerServer or something, so you can tell the difference from it and me).

For anyone curious about the technical details of what the box has in it...

Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz CPU (don't remember core name atm, but it was the original P4 core)
768MB DDR RAM (unknown speed)
Western Digital 120GB HD @ 7,200RPMs
ATI Radeon X1650 Pro AGP 8x 512MB
Windows XP SP2 (soon to be SP3) w/ all updates

I keep nothing but LogMeIn running on the box, so that if I need to I can access it remotely (if I am at school or something) to work on it. Nothing sits in the tray, and a whole 5 user processes run on it (3 graphics card, explorer, and something else from Windows that I can't remember atm). Against all odds and hardware limits, it is VERY fast, and has taken more than its share of beatings from the family over its lifespan. Do not underestimate this thing as a "server".

I will have the server up and running in approximately an hour. It may take longer though- USB install via USB 1.1 isn't what I would call "speedy".

-Brandon

P.S.: I have no issues with people taking Master status of the server, however I don't want anyone abusing their power. Also, no one may take administrator status of the server except me (that is assuming you are able to, I don't know how secure the game engine is- supposedly only the localhost can become an admin, but...). I am doing this voluntarily. Just have fun and play nice.

EDIT: I have added an administrator password as well as a server description (DonationCoder), and Hamachi has been installed. The server will be up in about 5 minutes. Come and join the fun!

970

Find And Run Robot / Re: WIN + Space as hotkey

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 16, 2008, 01:32 PM »

Just FYI, on Vista this key combo (Win + Space) triggers the Windows Sidebar to come to the front, so that hotkey won't work for anyone that uses Sidebar (myself included).

971

General Software Discussion / Way to call upon multiple ObjectDock docks via keystroke?

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 16, 2008, 12:54 PM »

Bit of an odd question, but is there a way to force multiple (4) docks to appear (slide in as usual - I have them slide away when a fullscreen app opens) when a keystroke is pressed?

(If you are curious as to why...)

Spoiler

I need this because I am attempting to remodel (if you will) my desktop, and I have moved 24 games/game tools into 4 docks, setup as an inverted square (so they all overlap in the process of sliding to their respective screen sides), but I have to open another program after closing/minimizing a fullscreen app in order to see the docks, and also because I often am working on something (ex Firefox) in Maximized mode, and need to access one of the docklets.

Any ideas? (I have ObjectDock Plus, if that is a feature in the Plus-only version?)

-Brandon

972

Find And Run Robot / Re: What New Major Feature is Most Important for you in Find and Run Robot?

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 16, 2008, 12:05 PM »

I vote for more plugins and an API

973

Living Room / Re: My Taskbar Competition

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 15, 2008, 02:09 AM »

I actually have little running on my computers anymore (not interesting enough to take an image), but if I recall correctly, App103 has one of the most insane taskbar setups I have ever seen. It seriously takes like 1/3 of the screen.

Hopefully she posts here and shows us what it looks like now (the images I remember are somewhat old).

974

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Free computer help online/CompuTech (my) programs

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 13, 2008, 11:13 PM »

OK, all fixed. No clue what happened exactly, as I am too exhausted to remember what I did 10 minutes ago. External EXEs are now working, and a new setup file is uploaded. The update feed is also updated to notify users of the fix.

Download away: http://mazecraze.dci...m/SnapSuite 2008.exe

-Brandon


P.S.: Donations are greatly appreciated, as I am saving up money to purchase myself some new computer components. If you like my program, please try to donate. Even $1 helps.

975

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Free computer help online/CompuTech (my) programs

« Last post by wreckedcarzz on March 13, 2008, 07:39 PM »

IMPORTANT: SystemCare bug - urgent problem

I have found a bug that causes SnapSuite to not open the included SystemCare files (other files may have this problem, I am not sure at this time). No fix is yet available. You can get a a temporary "repair kit" from the following link

http://mazecraze.dci...v.com/repair kit.zip

That will allow you to manually do most of what SystemCare does, but not everything.

I am going to work on this and see what exactly happened to try and fix this ASAP.


I apologize if this has happened to you (my laptop is not effected, but my desktop is, as is a person's computer I was working on today), however it does not appear to be a consistent problem, so repairing it may prove difficult. Please hang tight.

-Brandon