- Joined
- May 26, 2007
- Messages
- 5,545
- Reaction score
- 1,315
A continuation of some observations of my early developments with PT, and advise for others starting out.
This continues a thread going off-topic from >this post<, relating to things I did with the client I released as a beta state test client that I called ZPT.
I've kept numerous bits and pieces in notepad text documents and RichText files... but a number of them went missing, got deleted by mistake, or I forgot to back up when I upgraded my PC... I still have my old XP machine somewhere but it won't boot now, and I CBA to find out why. That's why every time I learn something, even if it wasn't what I was looking to learn at the time, I make a post. I figure RZ and the WayBackMachine keep better backups than me. XD And others may take what I stumble on and have an idea how to use it that hadn't occurred to me and just run with it.
All of which is ultimately far more productive, even if I learn slightly less by spending more time writing up my theories and discoveries.
I'm still glad I had that "develop alone" time, because otherwise I would probably think it would be a great idea to set up and run a private server, or join a team. I would have struggled to understand the answers to questions I ask and still have numerous misconceptions about the way PT works that I now know are completely false. I still have misconceptions, but I know I would have made even more assumptions about the way PT is written, based upon my training as a programmer. I now know that the authors of PT where either not trained the way I was or where simply not trained at all. So no such assumptions can ever be made with PT. XD
I would certainly have had many responses along the lines of "Why are you bothering to do that?" or "So-and-so has already done that, just use their client." when I'm not doing it because I want it I'm doing it because I want to know how it's done. Which is why I'm happy to help Tangodown translate a new client from scratch. I could give him a translated client, or just tell him to use an existing translation, but he want's to know how it is done, and do it himself. Which is great.
I heartily recommend anyone who has the time, and some interest in PT to just fire it up in Olly, trace and sit staring at the code looking for inspiration. See what you think it does, change it, see if your change responds the way you think it will, and learn from that. Even if the change you make is, or seems pointless.
If you change the game so that 1 hit will kill any monster or player no matter what their def and abs, well done, now you know something you didn't before.
: If you totally disable all skills... gratz, now try to understand why that happened. If you can get it to render only the HUD, and none of the 3D world, let me know how you do that, coz I can only get it to render the sky and the HUD, and suspect it is still rendering the world at completely the wrong co-ordinates. XD
Best of all, keep notes and share them with us. I promise I will defend your stupid and pointless discoveries. XD It is probably as important to remember what code isn't as what it is. It saves so much time looking at the wrong code if you already know that routine does something else entirely.
This continues a thread going off-topic from >this post<, relating to things I did with the client I released as a beta state test client that I called ZPT.
I've kept numerous bits and pieces in notepad text documents and RichText files... but a number of them went missing, got deleted by mistake, or I forgot to back up when I upgraded my PC... I still have my old XP machine somewhere but it won't boot now, and I CBA to find out why. That's why every time I learn something, even if it wasn't what I was looking to learn at the time, I make a post. I figure RZ and the WayBackMachine keep better backups than me. XD And others may take what I stumble on and have an idea how to use it that hadn't occurred to me and just run with it.
All of which is ultimately far more productive, even if I learn slightly less by spending more time writing up my theories and discoveries.
I'm still glad I had that "develop alone" time, because otherwise I would probably think it would be a great idea to set up and run a private server, or join a team. I would have struggled to understand the answers to questions I ask and still have numerous misconceptions about the way PT works that I now know are completely false. I still have misconceptions, but I know I would have made even more assumptions about the way PT is written, based upon my training as a programmer. I now know that the authors of PT where either not trained the way I was or where simply not trained at all. So no such assumptions can ever be made with PT. XD
I would certainly have had many responses along the lines of "Why are you bothering to do that?" or "So-and-so has already done that, just use their client." when I'm not doing it because I want it I'm doing it because I want to know how it's done. Which is why I'm happy to help Tangodown translate a new client from scratch. I could give him a translated client, or just tell him to use an existing translation, but he want's to know how it is done, and do it himself. Which is great.
I heartily recommend anyone who has the time, and some interest in PT to just fire it up in Olly, trace and sit staring at the code looking for inspiration. See what you think it does, change it, see if your change responds the way you think it will, and learn from that. Even if the change you make is, or seems pointless.
If you change the game so that 1 hit will kill any monster or player no matter what their def and abs, well done, now you know something you didn't before.
: If you totally disable all skills... gratz, now try to understand why that happened. If you can get it to render only the HUD, and none of the 3D world, let me know how you do that, coz I can only get it to render the sky and the HUD, and suspect it is still rendering the world at completely the wrong co-ordinates. XDBest of all, keep notes and share them with us. I promise I will defend your stupid and pointless discoveries. XD It is probably as important to remember what code isn't as what it is. It saves so much time looking at the wrong code if you already know that routine does something else entirely.
Last edited:
