Warzone 2100 Portable

[horusofoz]

Hi guys

Just joined the forum but been playing Warzone for over a year now. Firstly a great thanks
For a while now I've been using a portable version developed at PortableApps.com in the PortableApp Format. Unfortunately late last year it looks like development stalled just as the portable version was getting polished and ready for release Thought I'd inform you guys about it in the hope you will continue the development of the portable version. Heres the link - http://portableapps.com/node/14794

Thanks again

[Slye_Fox]

aww, when i read this, i thought it ment hand held console portable.

[Buginator]

Hi guys

Just joined the forum but been playing Warzone for over a year now. Firstly a great thanks
For a while now I've been using a portable version developed at PortableApps.com in the PortableApp Format. Unfortunately late last year it looks like development stalled just as the portable version was getting polished and ready for release Thought I'd inform you guys about it in the hope you will continue the development of the portable version. Heres the link - http://portableapps.com/node/14794

Thanks again

Just a note, I don't really understand a need for that.
Warzone 2.2 (& trunk) can already be 'portable', in that, you can specify the location of the config dir, so you can point it to whatever location you want. It doesn't use the registry, or anything like that. You just need to specify the location of that dir when you run the program (tack it on the end of the shorcut's target box)

That means, you can have the game on a USB stick, and play it from that, write screenshots / savegames to that, and that is about as 'portable' as it can get.

[Thyranim]

Warzone 2.2 (& trunk) can already be 'portable', in that, you can specify the location of the config dir, so you can point it to whatever location you want. It doesn't use the registry, or anything like that. You just need to specify the location of that dir when you run the program (tack it on the end of the shorcut's target box)

Exactly
can't see any need for this too ...

that's how my shortcut looks like:
"warzone2100.exe" --configdir "."
so everything is loaded and saved in the same directory, as the warzone2100.exe

[horusofoz]

Reasons for being in PortableApps Format.

* Easy updates where your settings are not affected
* App isn't affected by a change of drive letter
* Increased user base
* Many people see PortableApps as being an authority on Portable applications. If Warzone2100 is listed there will ensure a greater awareness of it's portability
* PortableApps Platform users will have Warzone 2100 show up correctly in their menus rather than a second entry for the OpenAL EXE
* PortableApps are UPX'd to minimise the size of the app without affecting it's performance allowing for more users to fit the game on their USB.

Lastly and though no incentive for you guys another reason is that though PortblaeApps have a few good games like Warzone 2100 and Nexuiz in development, in all cases development has stalled I really like Warzone and would like it to be the first large scale good game to be officially released in PortableApps Format. Also like I said most of the development has been done just the porter has gone AWOL. Thats why I've come to you guys thinking it would be good if someone from the Warzone community were to finish the porting of the game.

I hope you decide to do it

[cybersphinx]

Thats why I've come to you guys thinking it would be good if someone from the Warzone community were to finish the porting of the game.

I hope you decide to do it

There really isn't much to do. You can either make a shortcut to run the game with the configdir option mentioned above, or if you really want the exe itself to do it look around src/main.c, line 294 and change that accordingly.

[Zarel]

But doesn't the game require certain libraries to be present? Like OpenAL? Those would need to be moved to the game directory, too.

[cybersphinx]

But doesn't the game require certain libraries to be present? Like OpenAL? Those would need to be moved to the game directory, too.

But that's just a problem of packaging, no code changes required.

[horusofoz]

PortableApps won't require changing any of Warsone's code. It creates a portable wrapper which gives all the benefits of the PAF format. Also there are templates that make thi even easier plus the post linked to in my OP gives you a near finished product. I would try it myself but I can't even use HTML

[Zarel]

But that's just a problem of packaging, no code changes required.

But we'd still have to package it differently. :/ Ehh, I can't even figure out how to compile an installer in Windows.

[Buginator]

Reasons for being in PortableApps Format.
* Easy updates where your settings are not affected

Already does this when you do what I said above.

* App isn't affected by a change of drive letter

Already does this when you do what I said above.

* Increased user base

User base isn't the problem here. The problem is how to handle bug reports from a specific framework that is required, and since this is windows only (I assume), it doesn't look like anyone will invest the time to do a proper releases. Almost all the devs are using linux.

* Many people see PortableApps as being an authority on Portable applications. If Warzone2100 is listed there will ensure a greater awareness of it's portability
* PortableApps Platform users will have Warzone 2100 show up correctly in their menus rather than a second entry for the OpenAL EXE
* PortableApps are UPX'd to minimise the size of the app without affecting it's performance allowing for more users to fit the game on their USB.

Doing static builds of what is required is what you basically need, then using UPX compression on top of that...did I mention how to handle bug reports yet?

Lastly and though no incentive for you guys another reason is that though PortblaeApps have a few good games like Warzone 2100 and Nexuiz in development, in all cases development has stalled I really like Warzone and would like it to be the first large scale good game to be officially released in PortableApps Format. Also like I said most of the development has been done just the porter has gone AWOL. Thats why I've come to you guys thinking it would be good if someone from the Warzone community were to finish the porting of the game.

I hope you decide to do it

It is stalled, since what PortblaeApps needs is a specific maintainer to do it, and some very custom stuff that our toolchain can't handle AFAIK.
There are only a few people that are active right now, and like I said above, they are mainly linux people.
About the best you can do is ask around who can help you with this.