In approximately 12-48 hours (depending upon your ISP), the test server should become visible at:
The front page explains how to get to the current JGF whilst the test server is still being tested, but the test server is getting quite usable (note: no games yet) so I want to get rid of the ugly IP address. Also need to test some DNS config stuff with the site.
Sorry, folks, but nothing’s going to happen until jan 1st.
I left the source for the JGF services on an SCM server I don’t have access to until then >:( because I replicated everything except that one package. Argh!
Typical. Get within maybe only a couple of days of site being ready to go live, and … the server goes mental.
For some reason I cannot fathom, this http://www.java-gaming.org/cgi-bin/JGNetForums/YaBB.cgi?board=Networking;action=display;num=1105308753;start=0#0 is happening at the moment, which puts a complete halt to JGF development. PIty - I was just testing the automated group email and notification of when things had changed on the site (especially important for the games-submission system: need to auto-email all the game-testers when a new game appears!).
Anyway, JGF is very nearly ready now. There’s a couple of outstanding major bugs (some pages don’t work at all on MSIE 6, the spawn of Satan; some article authors can’t edit their own articles without the server deleting their text each time), and game submission isn’t tested yet, but other than that it’s good enough to go.
So…if the server would like to start working again (prayers and sacrifices to the gods of randomly breaking technology are encouraged) then you can expect to see JGF v3 very soon.
Is there a logo for JGF now? I’d quite like to a add a link/banner block to a couple of sites linking across…
For that matter, is there a link/banner block for JGO?
Kev
[quote]Is there a logo for JGF now? I’d quite like to a add a link/banner block to a couple of sites linking across…
[/quote]
Um, no. Unless you count the 3 words “java games factory” drawn at the top of the page in a plain font because web browsers are so crap (MSIE 6, I mean YOU!) at rendering large text at the same size and font and layout as each other.
It would be nice if someone would invent one…
Um, what’s that? Do you mean those thinks like the “Get java here” logo which Sun wants people to use to link to java download site?
Yeah, they’re just kinda tidy in my eyes. Little blocks linking to affiliates…
Kev
I’ll give it a shot. 
Maybe a small (read no prizes, just prestige) compo?
Kev
Sob.
Mozilla can’t reliably do scripts without breaking it’s renderer.
If you put a “script… /script” tag into a webpage, it terminates the CSS processing at that point. If you put it close enough to the start of the file, it (sometimes) works. If you put it in an “onload” tag it often doesn’t execute at all - unless it’s in the first few thousand or so bytes of the file.
EDIT: This is PEBKAC: apparently, contrary to what any normal programmer would expect, you are only “allowed” one “onload” trigger in a single webpage - yet it’s not an error to have others, they are just silently ignored. I love javascript 
All formatting that contained that part of the page is terminated.
MSIE, embarassingly, doesn’t have this bug.
Also, none of the “browser detect scripts” work with Mozilla;s current version. Don’t ask me what Moz have changed, the scripts know it’s “something NS-ish” and “gecko” but they can’t tell it’s Moz.
I am now…desperately…looking for a way to insert a link to a JNLP file using javascript that WORKS IN MOZILLA. Otherwise, we have to say goodbye to the otherwise exceptionally funky feature that if an MSIE visitor clicks on a game to play it, they automatically get Java 1.4+ installed and the game started automatically.
As always, any ideas are welcome. I’ve probably tried them all before, but it’s worth asking just in case…
Any progress on this, or has mozilla killed you off for discovering bugs in the software?
Did I understand this correctly, though? The completion of that site will also bring forth the migration of this forum? I hope so. The current forum is getting old
[quote]Any progress on this, or has mozilla killed you off for discovering bugs in the software?
[/quote]
The rush to get stuff ready was partly because I was starting a new gaming job (started) which has taken a lot of time (don’t ask; unrealistic urgent release schedule etc that I have to try and fix).
I’m doing some stuff still, and hopefully will manage to finish off the last few bugs in a few more evenings…
Absolteuly unrelated, I’m afraid. Sun won’t pay me anything and either can’t or won’t help in any other way (some help has been offered, but over the course of a year nothing has happened), so they’re working away at their own stuff in privat; you’d have to ask someone from Sun directly to know what’s going on there.
Uploaded some updates; I really hope you’ll agree that the site looks a little nicer now.
Also added the latest 1.4.x JRE (1.4.2_07) links to the java-downloads page.
Also made a few minor bugfixes in lots of places (mainly HTML and CSS bugs - still got some workarounds left to do for the EVIL MSIE 6. Grr)
It seems to me that the JAR upload is now working - and nativelibs handling seems OK too. Just need a little more free time for me to add form elements for authors to select OS + JVM version for each JAR / nativelib, and then we’re cooking.
(then I can get onto adding an upload page for 3rd-party engines, technologies, libraries, etc. Should be much quicker though, just copying the games-uploader and stripping some features)
/me is very ill, possibly flu, and would desperately like sleep, which is why this update is pretty cras
Nice work on the site.
The lack of a logo bugs me though, so I decided to make you one. 
I dunno if you’ll like it or not, but if you want to use it, feel free.
http://saber-x.com/JGFsmall.png
Here’s the bigger version:
Changes can be made per request.
Edit: Just noticed it’s games. Oh well. If you like it, I’ll change it.
[quote]Nice work on the site.
[/quote]
Thanks. Really, really want to get it finished now :(.
I love the rendered look, thanks a lot.
Would you mind having a play with it a bit more, like adding two more cogs of different sizes, and having the cogs a different colour? (cos it’s going on a red background for now, the cog ought to be non-red).
The red, btw, is just “what that stylesheet happened to be when I started editing it”. I can change it to any other colour easily enuogh (thanks to cunning use of transparent gifs). I might try changing it to the old-site’s blue, see if that looks better / worse?
So…also feel free to play around with colours. The only requirement is that it will mainly appear on a dark background (the page header) but also occasionally on a white background (e.g. the current front page).
Also…might want to reduce / vary the number of spikes because they all start to blur together when it shrinks :(.
Great work.
Understandable.
[quote]I love the rendered look, thanks a lot.
[/quote]
Hey yeah, no problem. Just my (limited) 3D skillz at work.
[quote]Would you mind having a play with it a bit more, like adding two more cogs of different sizes, and having the cogs a different colour? (cos it’s going on a red background for now, the cog ought to be non-red).
[/quote]
Hmm, I’ll give it a try, shading is like my worst area though.
[quote]The red, btw, is just “what that stylesheet happened to be when I started editing it”. I can change it to any other colour easily enuogh (thanks to cunning use of transparent gifs). I might try changing it to the old-site’s blue, see if that looks better / worse?
[/quote]
Ok, I’ll try to make a logo that is capable of adapting.
[quote]So…also feel free to play around with colours. The only requirement is that it will mainly appear on a dark background (the page header) but also occasionally on a white background (e.g. the current front page).
[/quote]
Okey dokey.
[quote]Also…might want to reduce / vary the number of spikes because they all start to blur together when it shrinks :(.
[/quote]
Good idea.
[quote]Great work.
[/quote]
Thanks. I’ll try to whip up a new version soon.
Can you lose the scrolly black squiggle? It looks naff.
Cas
[quote]Can you lose the scrolly black squiggle? It looks naff.
Cas
[/quote]
Ah, yeah…I was only thinking of adopting the cog part for now. And planning to worry about font for the text separately.
[quote]Can you lose the scrolly black squiggle? It looks naff.
Cas
[/quote]
American here; naff?
[quote]Ah, yeah…I was only thinking of adopting the cog part for now. And planning to worry about font for the text separately.
[/quote]
Please make sure it’s antialiased
[quote]American here; naff?
[/quote]
“Not very good” would be one explination
As you’ve probably noticed by now, v3 has still not yet replaced v2.
Two simple reasons:
my day job is currently a commercial game project with a very tight deadline (having to salvage tech that was screwed up and has had to start from scratch with 75% of the time already gone!) which launches very soon…and I’ve had flu, so all in all lost a lot of free time recently
I’m not yet 100% convinced that the game-uploads and JNLP generator are working perfectly. I don’t want to get lots of people to upload games if I then have to tell them all to do it again 2 days later because of some bug.
Top of my list right now are:
Other stuff I want to do as soon as I can, but probably won’t happen for a while (unless a lot of people clamour for them) … in no particular order:
6. Add the per-game forums
7. Upload all the donated source code, and make a section for browsing it
8. Make some pages for the FAQ module, and get the various FAQ’s (e.g. JOGL, Java2D, etc) ported
9. Add the entire java libraries section (like games: lets you upload libraries etc, but requires more fine control over having simultaneous versions etc 
)
10. Finish the competitions module, so that e.g. J4k and friends have a lot more features to play with
11. Run the first JGF game-coding competition
NB: The competitions module went on hold, partially complete, because woogley went off and took over all the J4K comp management on his site, so J4K was sorted - and there are no other competitions running at the moment AFAIAA, so I diverted attention to other things that were urgent.