Posted: 22 Sep 2014, 05:28
If you want to join the share to see what it's all about, PM me your E-Mail address you used to register, or PM an invite request so we can get more space together. Fifteen gigabytes normally, five gigabytes more if you accept somebody's invite to join the service!
I don't know where else to put it on here, so I guess this subforum will do. Many months ago, I made a copy.com account to see if it was possible for people to share levels and tracks, and have that work for everybody. It does work, and rather nicely. But there are some hitches with different methods I've been thinking and conversing with others about.
I know what you're thinking, "Why copy?" Marv convinced me this is the best way to go because of a practice called "Fair sharing", which basically states when in a share, all free space in everybody's copy accounts in a share is a contribution to the whole sum of that share. While that means available space for everybody to store their stuff will fluctuate, everybody (should) contribute a near-equal amount of space for the entire share, so the more people that join the share, the less space you have to contribute to the share... if that makes sense. In summary; More people, more space. With that out of the way, here are the two methods I can take with this;
Method 1: Full game
To use the game in full for the share, which would allow everybody to have the exact same version, I would need to 1) use an outdated version of the game without profile support, which might write registry keys that would make it non-portable (ITs will not appreciate that if done in a public setting) People would receive the game in full, and it would permit everybody to have the same content without anything extra, or 2) have a copy of the game that has profile support disabled, but everything from the latest available release, or 3) figure out how to disable profiles altogether with the currently-available builds of the game.
Method 2: Relevant content only
While a little more involved for the end-user, with the end-user needing to make symbolic junctions or symbolic links (easily done with Link Shell Extension in Windows), it would permit people to add the copy share content into their game via these junctions / links, and no mucking about with configuration files would be necessary; People can use whatever build of the game they choose so long it works with everyone else, and profiles would remain entirely separate, which means people can use the latest version of the game with zero issues.
The problems with this method is expecting the end user to know how to make junctions, or is willing to install the Visual C++ runtime redistributables and Windows XP symlink drivers if necessary for LSE, and not much tweaking of GFX would be allowed, because GFX also has track preview graphics and intros; No personalization would be allowed in this share, unless you want to sacrifice track previews, or maintain your own version of the gfx folder in your local filesystem, which can be done somewhat easily with symbolically linking files and folders you want in your own GFX folder, and then adding your own stuff into it.
Which one should I use to keep most people happy?
I don't know where else to put it on here, so I guess this subforum will do. Many months ago, I made a copy.com account to see if it was possible for people to share levels and tracks, and have that work for everybody. It does work, and rather nicely. But there are some hitches with different methods I've been thinking and conversing with others about.
I know what you're thinking, "Why copy?" Marv convinced me this is the best way to go because of a practice called "Fair sharing", which basically states when in a share, all free space in everybody's copy accounts in a share is a contribution to the whole sum of that share. While that means available space for everybody to store their stuff will fluctuate, everybody (should) contribute a near-equal amount of space for the entire share, so the more people that join the share, the less space you have to contribute to the share... if that makes sense. In summary; More people, more space. With that out of the way, here are the two methods I can take with this;
Method 1: Full game
To use the game in full for the share, which would allow everybody to have the exact same version, I would need to 1) use an outdated version of the game without profile support, which might write registry keys that would make it non-portable (ITs will not appreciate that if done in a public setting) People would receive the game in full, and it would permit everybody to have the same content without anything extra, or 2) have a copy of the game that has profile support disabled, but everything from the latest available release, or 3) figure out how to disable profiles altogether with the currently-available builds of the game.
Method 2: Relevant content only
While a little more involved for the end-user, with the end-user needing to make symbolic junctions or symbolic links (easily done with Link Shell Extension in Windows), it would permit people to add the copy share content into their game via these junctions / links, and no mucking about with configuration files would be necessary; People can use whatever build of the game they choose so long it works with everyone else, and profiles would remain entirely separate, which means people can use the latest version of the game with zero issues.
The problems with this method is expecting the end user to know how to make junctions, or is willing to install the Visual C++ runtime redistributables and Windows XP symlink drivers if necessary for LSE, and not much tweaking of GFX would be allowed, because GFX also has track preview graphics and intros; No personalization would be allowed in this share, unless you want to sacrifice track previews, or maintain your own version of the gfx folder in your local filesystem, which can be done somewhat easily with symbolically linking files and folders you want in your own GFX folder, and then adding your own stuff into it.
Which one should I use to keep most people happy?