Feature request: connection wizzard

Gamer's Internet Tunnel, formerly Gamer's IPX Tunnel

Feature request: connection wizzard

Postby Vortexx » Mon Mar 01, 2004 12:26 pm

Just like XP has the setup a home or small bussines network wizzard or Nero a burn a cd for dummies wizzard (thats me lol)

First the wizzard could determine wich operating system and IP adress(es) and if you are behind firewall/nat, then it asks you wich of the known games you want to be a client or a host (or import a config file made by fellow git users)
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Postby Ark » Mon Mar 01, 2004 12:57 pm

It may be possible, to some extent, but the very nature of a program like GIT requires that the user really understands what exactly they are trying to accomplish by using GIT. If you don't know the answers to some of the questions the wizard asks, its not going to help you any more then just setting the options in the two options pages.
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Postby CyberVenom » Fri Mar 05, 2004 12:01 am

Maybe instead of a real wizard, GIT could just have a loadable config file, with the ability to prompt the user for particular options (kinda like what you can do with saved queries in Access). This would allow the community to create its own "Wizards" in the form of config files with embedded prompt strings. This seems to be in line with Ark's stance of something like, "I only want to have to deal with technical problems with GIT itself, not the peculiarities of your particular game that I have never heard of; let the community help you with that..."
For example, a user could create a "WC3 Client config" that prompts for the server IP and the external local IP, while filling in everything else automagically with the saved config values. (of course this config would need to be used in conjunction with a "WC3 Server config", but you get the idea...)
If the format were simple enough (INI or CSV or XML), people could just post their custom "wizards" to this forum. ;)
This would also be a useful way to implement saving different profiles for playing different games. That would make creating these "Wizards" very easy: a user could just save a working config to a file, open the file, insert the appropriate prompts, and now that file is a "wizard"!
-CyberVenom

e.g.:
wc3.ini
Code: Select all
options=20
frames=20
packets=0
protos=131072
multimax=0
sockshost=
natinternal=[Your Local Internal IP Address]
natexternal=[Your Local External IP Address]
sockets=0


numhosts=1

[host0]
method=3
name=[Remote Server's External IP Address]
port=213


numports=1

[port0]
min=6112
max=6112
desc=Warcraft III
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Postby Ark » Fri Mar 05, 2004 12:21 am

I was thinking maybe some text files but named *.git and have the file association launch GIT with those options. For what GIT needs, INI format might be best, but I would consider XML also. Instead of allowing a "custom wizard" though, maybe just an option like "save current config to *.git file" and have the .git files use $variables in place of a few key options that you could set in one central small config place such as $localIP and such.
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Postby CyberVenom » Fri Mar 05, 2004 5:17 pm

That would work too. INI format would be good because it would be easy to mimic your current registry entries, and is a format already famaliar to many hardcore gamers. The ".git" extension is a good idea. Variables was my first thought too, but I thought about how Access prompts the user for missing entries and that seemed to be a simpler, more powerful way to do it.
In the config example I gave above for example, you could simply test each value as you parse the INI file and if the avlue is enclosed in square brackets, pop up a small dialog box (like an MsgBox) with a single text entry field, and a single lable set to display whatever was inside the square brackets as a prompt. Then once a value is entered, take this as the config value and move to the next line for parsing.
A small "simple config" area as you suggest would be ok, but would have the limitation of only prompting for those pieces of data that you think the user may want to prompt for. For example, in the dialog-box method, the user could create prompts for any value, even things like forwarded port, to allow creation of config files that prompt for the possibly non-standard port on which your WC3 server is set to run as well as the usual info. To make config saving simpler, if the prompt method is used, you could simply save default prompts for the NAT IP fields and such that should never be the same on two machines.
(I hope that made sense...:roll:)
-CyberVenom
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Postby stryder » Sat Mar 13, 2004 11:24 am

I was going to request for a simple ini/text version of writing configurations out but it seems you've already got it in the pipeline.

The simple problem I was trying to deal with, was someone that was less computer lit. on the other end on the game that was wanting support setting up his configuration. If there was a text ini or similar file, it would be posible for myself to write up his configuration and then send it over to him, to which a click of a button would then have his system set itself up with the correct configuration and not take hours of "What button do I press?" questions.

Also something I would question that hasn't been done I don't think is 56k modem support, any way of emulating its frames into usage?
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Postby Ark » Sat Mar 13, 2004 11:28 am

Well really you can just export HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Git to a .reg file (make sure its v4 format if you are under 2000/XP and they are under 9x/ME) and they can click on it, pick yes to merge the registry settings, then run GIT.
The only thing this doesn't give you is a more wizard-like option that could ask you to fill in extra details or load settings + start GIT from one click...
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Postby CyberVenom » Sat Mar 13, 2004 3:51 pm

right. This also means that you will obviously need to enter the IP addresses and all settings as from the perspective of your friend on the pther end, save the settings, export the reg patch, and then set the settings to the correct settings for your end.

One thing that may not translate very well to a different computer is the currently selected network interface. This is stored in the registry key as an ordinal value, so "1" means first network card, "2" means second. This should not make any difference if you both have only one card ("1" on both machines) installed, but it may be an issue if you or he has more than one card. Just make sure he double-checks that setting to be sure.

-CyberVenom
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Postby Ark » Sat Mar 13, 2004 5:22 pm

Well "device" is a 0-based index, but yes, it may require some tweaking, but eventually you could produce a .reg file to set up your friend's GIT however he neds it..
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Postby CyberVenom » Sun Mar 14, 2004 10:26 pm

oh, zero based then. sorry. :oops:
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Postby Carlos_Ed » Tue May 18, 2004 6:17 pm

Hey! Just got an idea! That registry-file-profiles-like-thinggie-just-double-click-and-voilla-config-made, does it need to have ALL the settings on the "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Git" exported? Can't we export just the stuff that's common to every user on a GiT tunneling? Like the stuff on the Advanced Config (except for the NIC bind...), and the Forwarded ports on the Config screen? Like that very little is left for the user to customize... it leaves the IPs and NIC binding. Ok can someone tell me what all that stuf on the "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Git" mean? Some params are not all that obvious... :?

If I can make a program to generate reg importable files, would you like to see it done? Perhaps with a little bit more work we could have that wizard that would work like this:

1 - Ask the game the the user is trying to play. (This is required to set the common parameters stated above, the values would be stored in a database of some sort...)
2 - Ask for the needed "personal" parameters (IPs, NIC binding, etc...), depending uppon the game chosen previously.
3 - Generate *.reg file.
4 - Import profile to the Windows Registry.
5 - Delete the temporary *.reg file that was imported.
6 - Launch GiT directly to the system tray without user prompt (I think this is the default GiT behaviour after it has been configured...)

I do have some experience with C++ but it really isn't much. So... don't expect much. I will probably need lot's of help to do this. Most of my projects up till now are Console Based Win32 aplications... not much of a deal but I think it's a good start!
Anyway, the first step is having the idea! I now took that step... the next one is implementing that idea!... :D
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Postby Carlos_Ed » Thu May 20, 2004 4:46 pm

Ok, I finally was able to sort out the common options for the machines and have been using "*.reg" files to setup GiT to play with my friends. And... EVERYTHING runs smooth! :D I thought I'd never see "Plug & Play" associated with GiT, lol. All we do now is: Choose game, add corresponding *.reg file to the windows registry, start GiT, play game.
No more fiddling arround for half an hour with parameters for me here! hehe... :twisted:
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Postby Ark » Mon Sep 13, 2004 8:54 pm

Git v0.99 Beta wizard:
viewtopic.php?t=224
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