Rocks'n'Diamonds 4.3.0.0 released!

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Holger
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Rocks'n'Diamonds 4.3.0.0 released!

Post by Holger »

A new major release of Rocks’n’Diamonds is available, which finally comes with support for the new high score server, to save your high scores to a central server, and to also view other player’s high scores of the level you are just playing!

When starting the new version for the first time, you are offered to upload all your existing tapes to the high score server, so you don’t have to play and solve all those levels again to see them in the Hall of Fame! When done, the high score server will validate your scores and tapes (which takes some time, but usually not more than five to ten minutes, depending on the number of uploaded tapes in the queue), and then you and others can see them!

After successfully solving a level, your score and tape will also be sent to the high score server (you will be asked for permission the first time), so all your high scores for newly played and solved games will also be available on the high score server!

(If you don’t like the idea of your scores being sent to a server, you can just disable using the high score server in the setup menu, or just say “no” to uploading your scores and tapes when asked. The game won’t upload anything if you don’t want it, and you can still easily use R’n’D without ever using any remote server just like before.)

You can have a look at your and other player’s high scores at the Rocks’n’Diamonds high score server web site!

It does not only list all available high scores, but also all level sets and levels for which scores were uploaded, and the players who played them.

There are already thousands of high scores preloaded to the server, so you can already see entries in the Hall of Fame for many level sets!

If you want to check it out from the R’n’D perspective before installing the new version, just take a look at the browser version of Rocks’n’Diamonds!

The new version is available on the download page!
filbo
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Re: Rocks'n'Diamonds 4.3.0.0 released!

Post by filbo »

> look at the browser version of Rocks’n’Diamonds!

I've poked at that a tiny bit, but not seriously since I have my local version...

A few questions:

- if you play in the browser, quit, come back later, does it retain your player name & settings?
- if so, is that a key cookie in the browser + server-side settings file; or entire settings file in cookie?
- does that data include the player_uuid, and are scores & tapes created in the browser edition submitted to the score server?
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Holger
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Re: Rocks'n'Diamonds 4.3.0.0 released!

Post by Holger »

A few questions:

- if you play in the browser, quit, come back later, does it retain your player name & settings?
Yes, it does! Both player name and settings.
- if so, is that a key cookie in the browser + server-side settings file; or entire settings file in cookie?
No cookies involved at all -- all data is stored in a pseudo-filesystem in an IndexedDB in your browser.
- does that data include the player_uuid, and are scores & tapes created in the browser edition submitted to the score server?
Yes, it does! It behaves just like the Linux/Windows/Mac/Android version, in that a persistent player UUID is stored and used to submit your scores and tapes to the score server. The only difference here is that the browser version does not use TCP connections directly (as this is not possible from within the browser), but uses URL requests by the browser. But the result is just the same.

The main disadvantage I can see with the browser version (in comparison to the native programs for various platforms) is that I currently have no idea how to get level sets (potentially created with the level editor) out of that IndexedDB in the browser. (The other direction -- adding level sets -- could be done in a future version that might support downloading level sets from the API server one day.)
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armanelgtron
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Re: Rocks'n'Diamonds 4.3.0.0 released!

Post by armanelgtron »

I thought I could be lazy and just keep using an rc version but change api-test. to api. in the config, but trying to upload after doing so gives a 403 permission error, so I guess not...

Sort of don't understand the point of separating scores here between rc and release
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Holger
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Re: Rocks'n'Diamonds 4.3.0.0 released!

Post by Holger »

I thought I could be lazy and just keep using an rc version but change api-test. to api. in the config, but trying to upload after doing so gives a 403 permission error, so I guess not...
The reason for this "permission denied" error is simply that I added a missing field to the data that is transferred to the score server. (It was the flag "use step counter" here, to be able to show "50 steps" instead of "00:01" for the playing time. Yes, this could also be read from the level file on the score server, but I thought it's better to have this flag already available also for newly uploaded scores, before the validation process starts.)

As the latest version of the server checks if all fields are complete, it fails on the HTTP request of the last RC version where this field is missing. (For the test server, this field is not tested, to match the RC6 version's HTTP request format.)

So the intention was not to prevent using the test server with the final release version, but ...
Sort of don't understand the point of separating scores here between rc and release
The point is that the RC versions are not final, but for testing, and the "api-test" score server is also not final, but for testing -- this might include deleting all scores or other data on the test score server. (For example, I planned to set up a fresh, empty test score server for each new RC version, but then did not do that, because it seemed not really needed, and "seeding" an empty score server takes really long (several steps that in summary take something around eight or nine hours, mainly for the validation process of ~25'000 score tapes).

The final release version automatically uses the "real" score server, and also asks again to upload all scores, so all should be fine without manual user interaction (like editing config files, which most people don't want to do).

New features or new R'n'D development or RC versions may be tested against a fresh, newly seeded test server again...

P.S.: The R'n'D release version also has some last minute bug fixes (one even a potential crash bug), so I would recommend using the release version in any case.

P.P.S.: The format and some additional database fields also changed over those six RC versions, so the database content is also not consistent over the time of RC testing anyway.
Algebroot
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Re: Rocks'n'Diamonds 4.3.0.0 released!

Post by Algebroot »

Based on what happened with my username, I think the API is listing all embed users as being "from Germany" (where the game was created). It does accurately show the correct country for installed versions though.

Just wanted to say that just in case someone later finds a large amount of "German" users, when in reality they may or may not actually be from Germany and are just using the embed.

Anyways, I like the new global score system. It just sometimes makes me feel like competing with others, sometimes finding ways to add to my score.
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Holger
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Re: Rocks'n'Diamonds 4.3.0.0 released!

Post by Holger »

Hi Algebroot,

with "embed users", you mean players of the Emscripten / web browser version of R'n'D, is that correct?

Well, thank you for pointing me towards this issue -- indeed I wondered why you were shown as "from Germany"! And you are right, it just reports the web server's location in that case. I have to fix this, showing "unknown" or something like that.

I'm pleased that you like the new score system! And whenever you think that you don't want to compete with others some day, just select showing local scores only in the setup menu -- scores are still sent to the server in this case, it just does not show them in the Hall of Fame with that setting. (Alternatively, you can also choose to shown only server scores, which may make sense if you have a lot of local score entries that you don't want to see together with the server scores.)
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Holger
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Re: Rocks'n'Diamonds 4.3.0.0 released!

Post by Holger »

OK, players of the Emscripten version are now listed with the correct country. (A few already existing wrong player countries are also fixed now to their correct countries.)

Thanks again for mentioning this issue (and helping me keeping player information correct)! Highly appreciated! :-)
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