MMOSG development

[Devloper886]

Hi people! I'm with a problem. I want to create a mmosg so I'm going to use Allegro, SQLAPI ++, and nanoSVG for vector graphics. The only problem is that as the game is not an internet browser, for parties and updates the player would have to install the game again on the computer, but I don't want that to happen. Can help me, maybe with a library (remembering that I'm developing in C ++).

[Devloper886]

an option for the problem would be to install the updates without having to search the internet and install again, but through the game created by Allegro

[jonnin]

Most modern games call into a server, check for update, see it, and self-update from there by downloading the new content (usually a file or two, not the whole thing and certainly not a reinstall).

You can also have the users go get the latest update/version manually from some free file download site or something. Here again, no reinstall, just give them the files that changed.

[Devloper886]

when there is a party, i will have to modify the game code and compile it again in addition to changing the graphics so i would have to re-install it, so i was thinking of some way to load the new content every time the compiled game opens you understand?

[jonnin]

I understand just fine. And like I said the first time, no matter what *you* think, there is no reason to reinstall it. Just update it. You can update compiled files. Try it locally... change something in a copy of the project, recompile it all, whatever. Take a file that changed, like the executable file, and copy it over the original. Run it and it will be fine, without any kind of 'install'. You don't even have to install software (gasp, I know, who does that?) you can just dump the files in a folder and run the program. Installing software is done to give the user some flexibility in where it lands and to reuse things already there (say your program is part of a suite, then you may already have all the libraries and only need the executable and config files instead of a full copy of all of it). It helps manage and control things for large software, but its not 'required' by any stretch. I routinely give my coworkers a zip file with the executable and a dll or and they unzip it and run it, nothing more to do. There is nothing magic about programs, you can overwrite their files to update them. The previous install tells you where it landed (eg windows, a reg entry) and from there you know how to update it (copy graphics.dll over the old one, for example, and program.exe over the old one, and its done!).

And, there are tools out there for these things. Im out of the loop a bit since everything I code in c++ is for my own use or maybe my team, but you should be able to find some kind of tool to help build an updater for your program.

[George P]

You could design a Plugin System:

http://www.cplusplus.com/articles/48TbqMoL/