GUI for the emulator?

Sourdough35 · #1 07-23-2006, 02:45 PM

Not sure if this has been seen already, but it seems like it would make a perfect addition.

http://eqemu.sesmar.net/forum/index.php?topic=71.0

This guy developed a GUI for eqemu.

**fathernitwit** · #2 07-24-2006, 01:47 PM

we will not likely make an official gui application as the web interface could be made to do everything that any other UI could, and is cross platform.. nobody has taken the time to write anything for it though.

Sourdough35 · #3 07-24-2006, 05:12 PM

That makes sense. To be honest, I always envisioned this project would slowly perfect the emulation first and then somewhere down the line, take care of all the bells and whistle-type niceties that could make the program really sparkle. Graphical interfaces and such.

Sarepean · #4 07-24-2006, 11:47 PM

Why? A GUI just takes up a little more memory you could be using for a server.

I believe a Firefox window takes up 10-20mb of memory, and I can't remember how much an internet explorer window takes. Seriously, why is a GUI necessary? It's already damned simple.

Sourdough35 · #5 07-25-2006, 01:53 AM

Here's my thinking. And these are just thoughts- I respect the developers' decisions as they are. But from start to finish, installing Titanium. installing Eqemu, intalling Mysql, installing perl, running command line functions, downloading DB's, sourcing them in, sourcing out old info, changing eqhost texts, and about 10 other steps I can't remember off the top of my head..... my point is that it's a fairly involved process, simple or not. As a new user, I was able to figure it all out without a whole lot of pain, but I've seen tons of posts on this board from people who can't. Eqemu could use a gui to locate all these relevant elements on a user's machine and tune them appropriately. Furthermore, the myriad settings available to a server administrator could be set up from there before the server is run.

Right now, Eqemulator works fairly well with emulated public servers but I think it also shows a ton of potential for langaming. I've always someday hoped this project would turn everquest into a diablo-esque game. An online/offline game where I could create a server and log in by myself or with any number of my buddies on a lan and login for a few hours of fun.

A GUI means more of the low-knowledge users, which is probably a wider user base, would start using Eqemu, which means more activity on these boards, more people logged in, and more bug reports.

Having said that, I also think a GUI would be a long way off because there are more important things to work on. I also think the emu works well enough without one, but at some point, now that we're sticking with Titanium, the program might actually be polished enough for th developers to want to work on other elements of it.

I think that makes sense, right?

Sarepean · #6 07-28-2006, 05:26 AM

I think what you describe in your first paragraph was remedied by the EQ Server Installation Pack. I started to download this as per.. I believe... the wikis instructions for setting up a 7.0 server. However, upon realizing that it was going to set everything up for me, I immediately cancelled that download and, so, remain completely ignorant of what that actually does. XD

However, what you're wanting is an Installer and not necessarily a GUI for the server. Like I stated, I *Believe* (could very well be wrong) that we have an installer. As far as them setting up a lot of the things ahead of time, it turned out when I finally figured out where the hell the config file was, that almost everything HAD already been configured for me. In fact, I'd just like to state that in their efforts to make the setup more user friendly for everyone, they actually somehow made the process even more difficult for me. (Maybe others, too???)

And, btw, the emulator CAN be used for a LAN, although I'm not sure that it's available in this version of the emulator. Back in 6.0 and 6.1, I ran a LAN party at a friend's house roughly every two weeks. We had between 4 and 14 computers every time and then we had one set off being the server. Really was a ton of fun. As for the part about you logging in by yourself--- you can either lock the server (you should be able to still get in if you have a status high enough on your account) or you can change a few settings to only point to local ip address in your config and it'll make it LAN only (you'll need Minilogin if you do this).

Since you can't really do anything with the zone.exe and world.exe windows (that I know of), a GUI for these would just be a lot of unnecessary overhead, but, if the installer for these isn't already out, then I agree that it would be a good idea for a lot of less technical and/or newer users.

Sorry if I've misunderstood you in this post or my last, but it sounds like you're wanting two different things. =/ One of which isn't necessary and the other which I thought we already had. =(

-Sarepean