LAN Party Disc

[andydomination]

Could someone please make a disc for LAN Party s??

I want a disc with warzone auto updating installer, a portable version that auto copies to a temp folder on the hard drive when you start it and auto deletes as soon as you exit the game. I think this disc would help make LAN partys better because I can hand out free discs(I will buy the discs myself but I need the data) . It will also help because you can just give the disc to someone that dosen't have warzone instead of putting it on a usb if you want your friend to have it without downloading high quality video. Disc should have high-quality video.

[aubergine]

Can't you just download the installers for various operating systems and then burn them to disk? Or are you looking to bypass the installer to get games running quicker? (I think only the Windows version has an installer?)

[Emdek]

Or create Linux based LiveCD (as some games have, like Warmux), available to install on bootable USB flash drive.

[Nameless]

Or create Linux based LiveCD (as some games have, like Warmux), available to install on bootable USB flash drive.

When I ran across this thread and this response; I had respond..

Way, way, way back when I first joined the WZ forum I had an ambitious project called the "Warzone OS" (viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5484), and one of it's unmentioned goals was for things like this.

Perhaps now would be just as good time as any to continue the development of the "OS", since the only reason I stopped development was due to poor hardware.

I also figured seeing as how I just got myself into a boatload of trouble for my "Warzone Build Order" project, I might as well pick up where I left off.

Thoughts? Questions? Suggestions?

[Emdek]

Nameless, for sure I've seen that topic back then, but don't know why I've not participate in it then.
Also the main issue is to choose best platform, it need to be well supported by vendor and simply work.
So personally I think that best solution would be to use some spin of Ubuntu or create own, by changing set of default packages only, like replacing Unity by something that can't fail and will be extremely lightweight (since it will only need to run game), like IceWM and add non free packages - drivers (Catalyst, Nvidia ones etc.). Theme it with Warzone related wallpaper and custom GRUB and Plymouth images (I think that we could even have Warzone like progress bar for loader ) and even style default IceWM panel a bit (it is really easy, just replace images) and put big launcher in the middle (start the game).

[Nameless]

Who knows why didn't anyone participate in the project??

Well, for one thing, I think basing the Warzone OS off of Arch Linux would be a better idea seeing as how the distro is sometimes labeled "LFS with nice package manager." Plus, its the main distro I'm running and the one I'm most familiar with (other than LFS).

One of the ( other ) reasons why I had to abandon the OS project was because I had been trying mod a distro "top-down" instead of "bottom-up". Modifying said distro "top-down" was a nightmare and I think modding Ubuntu would be way worse. With Arch Linux we'd just get the basics from which we could start.

The one issue that I can see coming from my approach is the actual theming of the live-cd, Arch Linux's iso builder ( "archiso" ) is something altogether and something I'd need to brush up on.

[Emdek]

Arch Linux is not good choice IMO.
Anyway, we need artwork (quite simple) which could be used in the same way on top of all distros (even BSD ones), but not all have Plymouth which is very flexible and would allow to make loader to look like game loading screen (not sure about sound, but probably doable).

[Nameless]

Personally I'd shy away from plymouth but afaik there's no sound support.

I'd have to agree with you on the artwork.. but do we have existing contributions from which one could incorporate?

[bendib]

We could build our own distro. I can do most of the CLI userland (almost got fedora in init 3 equivalent once), excluding some config files. Need help getting networking up and building the GUI from source. We'd need to keep all our source, but we could indeed get a very small distro up. ISOLINUX should be our bootloader, and we should compress it as SquashFS and mount the config directory on a RAM filesystem. also, a very simple FS layout. /usr > / and /usr/local > / and /sbin > /bin

[Emdek]

Nameless, apparently we are about to "steal" and built on top of your initial idea.
So we invite you to join our hot discussion on IRC (-dev channel currently).

My current draft (my point of view):
- use custom base (bendib part);
- show (10 seconds with ability to skip by key press) some initial message after inserting CD (warning that it can take some minutes to load, very short about etc.);
- then show Plymouth themed as game load screen;
- after that run Qt based initial menu (Run game, Help, Troubleshooting, maybe some configuration and testing - if network is up, OpenGL works fine etc.) - we will need to ship it anyway;
- for all use the same background (Warzone logo, and some dark background related to game), and WZ colors (make menu look like that one in WZ, maybe use themed cursors etc.).

Also allow to use that artwork (themes) for other distros (fro maniacs) and create GRUB theme (maybe later for desktop environments too).

We should use github probably to host sources and record activity.

[Nameless]

On it now

[Berg]

skin5.png

[Emdek]

Berg, nearly perfect, shadow could be a bit better only, I think.

After hot discussion there are new ideas coming, like add tools fro developers which would allow to cross compile source (distributed in form of writable virtual HDD with repository copy) and aid in testing code on other platforms (mainly Windows).

[noccy]

Why use a WM? If rendering is still done with SDL I believe it should be able to handle direct fb

[Emdek]

noccy, as we won't modify game itself.
We will run it on top only, but will have probably some floating windows on top (IRC chat, lobby, recorder controls).