WTF DEVS?

quote: This 4% is as much as all types of Linuxes and Macs together, and people care about those so why not about XP?

That what Aquanim said.

Also, XP users have a choice to upgrade to a newer (and better IMO) MS system, while Mac/Linux users don't really have that option if they want to be loayal.

A) PREPARE
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1) get visual studio 2013 community edition (it's free)

2) get github for windows and click "clone in desktop" on this page https://github.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K-Infrastructure

3) open the Zero-K.sln in visual studio

B) DO IT
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Refactor the code so that
1) There are two "Connection" classes one for ZKL server and other for "TasClient" class used in clients. That should be trivial.

2) move the "server" connection copy to ZKL server library instead of common libraries

3) change plasmashared and lobbyclient libs so that they target .NET 4.0 client profile. They wont'c ompile

4) Install BCL Async library through nuget for lobbyclient and reinstall existing nuget packages. Nuget is here

5) refactor EventHandlers of TasClient and TasClient legacy to older style (non generic) you can check github how they looked in the past

6) factor in further changes. You might need to change some methods like Task.WhenAll to TaskEx.WhenAll and move helper functions across libs.

7) change target of ZKL to .NET 4.0 client profile


C) TEST IT
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1) test it locally by setting up to start multiple projects at once and start zero-k website, zero-k lobby server, springie, zero-k lobby and optionally "fixer" configured to run Nubsimulator test. If it can handle thousand of people without issues and lobby still works it's all set

2) commit/make a pull request. After it get's merged to master, re-test everything again on test.zero-k.info

3) when it gets merged to stable -> PROFIT



This is open source, I'm not your slave, you have the same power I do.
Want to run ZK on outdated insecure OS that nobody appears to support for new products??
Fine, but don't scream and force people to do the hard stuff for you. Either spend money or your own time by doing it yourself.

The most gamers from developing countries (like my country) probably never bought a single game on steam or any legal copy from any source, and XP is far more popular as a pirated system than a legal one.

So unless the target audience is only the steam users, I suspect the loss of potential players might be significantly bigger than 4%. China alone has almost 300 million pirated XP machines according to this article: http://www.infoworld.com/article/2610413/microsoft-windows/only-microsoft-knows-the-true-windows-xp-numbers----but-isn-t-telling.html

i can confirm that i have not seen many non-xp pcs while my travels to china, especially for private households it is common to use XP.

Core members of the ZK development team have been lost over the years, due to differences of opinion in the infrastructure or development process. jK, SirMaverick, detrino. Some were more involved than others.

Now I am cut off as well. I have been a major ZK dev since 2008 and now for the first time I cannot join ZK games or connect to the ZK player community, just because I'm not a ZKL user. I'm very IRL-busy lately, so that's a big part of decreased activity. But now I have zero connectivity even when I do have spare time, which is sad.

I'm somewhat more technical than the average team-member so I'm better described as a combination ZKDev/SpringDev/LobbyDev with interests in the engine, the lobby system, and the best game on the engine, ZK. But I have never been a huge fan of using ZKLobby and now it's an absolute requirement because it's an all-or-nothing package - ZK, its server and its client. So after 7 years of activity I'm feeling a bit melancholy about this sudden disconnection.

I hope this disconnection isn't permanent, but for now all I have are these forums to browse.

I hope Licho heeds the warnings by the angry but prophetic posters on this thread. I must admit that until now I've never really felt much caring from Drone but his thoughts on this matter really show that he's looking out for ZK. It's not just large amounts of common players that are potentially hurt by these decisions. Developers like myself can feel the sting of this too.

So far, you can use reactive SWL lobby developed by @Ikinz, it can connect to Zero-K server.
Though I don't follow how "i'm not fan of" => "i cannot absolutely use ZKL"..
You are developer, you can help improving it instead.

Win 7 can be found and made to run as a hacked copy too and it's a worthy successor of XP I'd say.

xponen made ZKL for .NET 4.0 today... he will probably release it soon.

Basically my proposal for split was to duplicate code that server needs (which absolutely needs 4.5) from what ZKL needs.
But it turns out springie and ZKL share tons of code and springie and springie should also run on 4.5 to avoid overload issues...

That means there is no point setting up the long term 4.0 compatibility.

*but*, there are relatively easy steps one can take at *any time* to create ZKL which runs on 4.0.

=> change all projects zkl needs to 4.0, add BCL async, run command to reinstall nuget packages, mass replace Task.WhenAll to TaskEx.WhenAll -> done

So at major milestone, when there is demand, ZKL for 4.0 XP can be created.

yes, communication with server can be done with previous NET version and old code,

the problem is because of Licho's philosophy of: "avoid code duplicate"

So Licho made all code interconnected and shared, so when he upgrade Server's code, ZKL is automatically upgraded too! That is +1 and -1 :)

(he's stuck to his system :))

Shadowfury333 , yes, all Licho's modules are neatly separated into different dlls :)

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Someone with Window XP try http://zero-k.info/lobby/Zero-K_NET4.0_(winXP).exe ?

alternate thread http://zero-k.info/Forum/Thread/11658