ADO in QuakeC

[Broccoli [JmB]]

I'm a professional programmer now and have recently gone back to the QuakeC code I wrote the better part of a decade ago in college.

The vision I have is a server that tracks a whole bunch of data on players as they play. The events are already trapped nicely in the code, so it is just a matter of creating a call to store the data inside the existing functions.

It is the storage of the data that seems to be the pain in my ass at the moment. I have a few ideas, but have so far found nothing for any of this.

1) The best method would be if I could use ADO and shove all the info into a database directly.
2) If I could write to a flat file I could whip up a simple external program to parse the file and shove it in the database indirectly.
3) If I could reference an external dll I could put the ADO functionality in there and just call it from the QuakeC code.
4) If I could shell an external program (using the info I want to store as a command line argument) from within the QuakeC code I could store the data.

Thusfar I have not discovered any way to do any of these. In fact, I keep finding documentation explicitly stating I CAN'T do some of this stuff (like the inability to write files was an intentional omission in QuakeC).

I'm hoping somebody here may either have a partial or whole solution to this.

--
Broc

[Solecord]

That is a great idea... I know that America's Army captures player data as the game is being played and all the info is dumped into a database. It even gets as detailed as where your bullets tend to hit enemies (in the neck, shoulder, head, foot, etc.) Very interesting indeed. If something like that could be incorporated into this 10 year old game, that would be excellent.

While I can't help in terms of the QuakeC stuff (never got into that kind of programming) I can help with web or database stuff. But it sounds like you got all of that covered?

Good luck with your project. Hopefully someone can help and this idea can be implemented!

[Baker]

(like the inability to write files was an intentional omission in QuakeC).

There are very well written tutorials at QuakeSrc.org on how to add FRIK_FILE support to an engine, which extends the QuakeC functionality to allow commands like fopen. (Link: QuakeSrc.org). QuakeSrc.org also has an engine development forum, you can find the source codes for various engines here or at every engine homepage, which are listed on the left side Links Block about 1/2 way down the page.

DarkPlaces dedicated server has FRIK_FILE support, for instance. (Although regular Quake clients cannot to a DarkPlaces server at this time).

So it is possible to do everything you are interested in doing, you would just have to (presumably) modify the ProQuake engine to support what you want it to do (maybe just FRIK_FILE, maybe more than that).

Inside3D.com, QuakeSrc.Org and QuakeDev.com are excellent places for asking the hordes of engine developers and QuakeC developers for assistance in advanced topics.

So are the IRC development channels (see Quake Navigator, click Developer Tab.)

Basically everything you want to do is possible, but would involve some work. There is an outstanding tutorial at QuakeSrc.org on how to compile Quake (I tried it, it works like a charm) and at #qc and #darkplaces, the participants at those forums are extremely knowledgeable (#darkplaces is for more than just DarkPlaces, it is an excellent advanced topics channel).

[IEEE 802.11]

I think Baker nailed it on the head, the only way would be a modification to the engine. Well not exactly, someone devised a method which I think uses a service to poll servers for score every XX minutes. Once the level changes it would log the frags.

That method doesn't require using QuakeC or modifying the engine at all.

Try what Baker'sman said.

[Lardarse]

You would almost certainly need to be running an engine capable of at least FRIK_FILE, and some other useful extentions would be nice as well.

If you ever do get something like this working... then you might want to ask Pat Aftermoon about how his WorldServer for Coop or Die works.

And if you can get that working... then you could effectively make Coop or Die for Q1. Which would fucking rock...