D3GT, a PXO alternative

Tricord · Post by **Tricord** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 12:07 pm

I decided to spend some time coding things for the community, finishing D3GT would be one of them.

D3GT stands for Descent 3 Game Tracker, and will be able to replace PXO seamlessly. I don't need to tell what it does, all I say here is that it will be easy to use, will not require registration and will improve over PXO.

So I open this thread in order to collect feedback from active D3 players. I will also post updates and conduct public alpha testings with D3GT over the DBB, if it ever gets that far.

I'm waiting on word from Kevin Bentley in order to obtain the D3C source code -- which is a requirement in order to pull this off.

D3GT is between 25% and 50% complete, depending on how much functionality will be implemented. Given the D3C source, I can get a complete tracker system working in a few days, but I'd like to take the opportunity to make some things better over PXO. Such as automatic level download, whether the download URL in the level file still exists or not. I want to provide player location functionality, and also online and third party tracker support. I also have the full GameSpy framework docs and have everything I need in order to make it work, but it will require extra effort. GameSpy support would be a nice plus but not a priority.

At this time, obtaining D3C source is the only next step. From then on, I'll start working on the client code and work my way from there. I might deviate a bit from the idea I had three years ago in order to simplify things, and in order to take into account feedback and requests from the users.

I'd like to appoint someone who will be overseeing alpha tests (again, if it ever gets that far), someone who knows the game and the players, and who has the dedication to do a good job of it. I was thinking of Suncho. Would you be up for that, Sunch?

Meanwhile, stay tuned...

Suncho · Post by **Suncho** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 12:51 pm

Yes I would! I hope you can get the D3C source, Tricord. D3GT would be an extremely useful contribution to the community!

Grendel · Post by **Grendel** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 1:23 pm

Remember it has to be done for 3 platforms.. Hope you can get that going. Let me know if you need a coder.

Inquisitor · Post by **Inquisitor** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 8:13 am

If you succeed in pulling off a PXO alternative that is seemless, I know another Interplay franchise that depends on PXO that would be grateful.

We ended up building one from scratch, but it is not seemeless

Grendel · Post by **Grendel** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 11:48 am

Try talking to the kquery.com guy -- he added D3 support w/in a few hours ! Also supposedly you can add not-yet-supported games by yourself -- check it out.