Rift Your Internet Assistant v 0.6.3 1996, Bob Jamison ================================ What's New in 0.6.3 ------------------- Two things have been added for this version: 1) Better display of server and player detailed information. Check it out!!!!! Note: if Teamplay is ON, the dialog is RED, else it is BLUE. I know that I need to adjust the colors displayed for shirt/trousers color. What I have is a best-guess effort, and I'm willing to accept any help on this topic. 2) A PAUSE ("zzzz") button has been added to put Rift to sleep, even without launching Quake. What's New in 0.6.2 ------------------- Two things have been added for this version: 1) AddMerge has been added to the server list loading, which removes duplicates, but preserves any new information which might be found about a server on different lists. This is a BIG speed improvement. 2) The seven server variables that John Cash's unconnected protocol can export are now fetched by Rift: sv_maxspeed The terminal velocity and speed of light for a map sv_gravity How fast you fall. Fun to play with!!! ;-) sv_friction Determines whether you have traction like Michelin or Wile E. COyote noexit Allow or deny jumpers teamplay Whether or not you can injure a teammate timelimit The maximum number of seconds a server will stay on a level fraglimit The maximum number of frags before a new level Again, I want to display these graphically, but getting these new features to the users as fast as possible is much more important. Rift is a user driven and designed product, and is just as much a result of the users' imaginations and suggestions as it is mine. Thanks to all who have written in, as your help has been invaluable. ;-) What's New in 0.6.1 -------------------- This is an emergency fix, mandated by the format changes at WWW.Stomped.Com and Citrix.Progress.Com. Earlier versions will NOT be able to use Stomped or ][ronman. Back to normal now! ;-) Also, window resizing is fixed! What's New in 0.6 -------------------- PLAYER NAMES! Many thanks to John Cash for releasing the Quake unconnected transactions! Now Rift can Query and display WHO is on a server. After the initial refresh is done, just select a server and hit the "details" button. Voila! The dialog lists: [shirt/pants colors] frags [time on the server] player's address I am aware of the discrepancies between the User count and the number actually listed. This is because of the timing of the calls, and I'm working on it. Honest! :-# I'm going to make the display a little more interesting, but I just wanted to get this addition out to the users as quickly as possible. Thanks also to Aurin Wildfire for passing this precious information on to me. What's New in 0.5 -------------------- A DNS cache! Now the startup of Rift can take much, much less time. Once the names have been resolved, they are stored for the next startup, and can thus drastically increase startup speed and reduce modem usage. Guys, I'm sorry this one took so long, but I'm not very smart. ;-( Automatic HTML creation! Now you can insert a Quake server list into your favorite HTML page. Merely add a line to your HTML file with nothing on it but RIFT HERE at the start of the line. Rift will make a copy of your file with a Rift table inserted into it. 1) Move your file to a convenient spot, away from Web links. 2) Add the magic line 3) Tell Rift, in its configuration file, the path to this file, and the copy you want Rift to make. 4) Run Rift. When Rift says that it has created an HTML file, check it out on a browser. Ta Da! What's New in 0.4.11 -------------------- This is just an interim release, so please bear with me, only a very few of the many, many suggestions I have in the work queue have been done. Thanks for all the e-mail and phone calls with suggestions, and I can fairly well assure you that most of everyone's ideas will be in Rift soon. I wanted to post this release right away in an effort to catch up a bit, and at least get SOMETHING out to the persevering users. Again , thanks. What do we have? o #### READ THIS ONE #### By popular demand (did they EVER demand this) the initial data load and DNS lookup is now done in the background, freeing up the user interface to be moved, resized, etc. It seemed that no amount of convincing on my part that the program was all right, even though it wasn't responding immediately, was enough. So I surrendered!!! Rift will still not do anything until the load is done (it would be illogical) but at least you can play with the window until it is. ;-) o A toolbar!!! For weeks, people have been trying to convince me to get rid of the ugly buttons. I agree, they were not pretty, just a quick-and-dirty way to get the program up and running. The new toolbar might not be beautiful, but it is definitely an improvement. o Tooltips! Hold the mouse over a button, without pressing, and a short hint on the purpose of the button will appear. o A STOP button can halt the current refresh cycle. More to come, I promise. I considered these first fixes necessary, and the fun ones had to wait. ;-( Until the next release! ;-) What's New in 0.4.10 -------------------- o Rift can be installed in its own directory, if the config file has the location of the Quake directory o The Browse button will now pause the refresh timer and will effectively put Rift to "sleep" while Quake is running, avoiding network floods during refresh and allowing normal Quake play. The button turns to "Resume," which can be pressed after a Quake game to wake Rift up. Now Browse is not nearly so much different from Go! o The server list can be sorted either by UDP response times (suggested) or ping times, also via the config file. o Slowed down the auto-refresh rate to once every 6 minutes. It appears that I overestimated some ISPs' data rates, Sorry, and shame on them for providing substandard service. What's New in 0.4.9 ------------------- .4.9 is an interim version with a few fixes/additions. o Can use the ][ronman server list, as well as the Stomped server list. Each of these can be turned on/off via the config file. o Has a much better UDP performance, polling several smaller batches of servers instead of the original "shotgun" approach. This can help accomodate bigger server lists. o Has a button for the configuration file. What's New in 0.4.8 ------------------- A configuration file, with a QUAKE-LAUNCHING ARGUMENT string!!!! This is the #1 requested feature, so I -had- to put it in. This imitates launching Quake with Q95.BAT. Rift.cfg also contains the variables "reverseDNS" and "AutoPing" which control whether those two functions are performed. More will be added later. A different appearance, because of the new features, it is becoming necessary to change the layout of the buttons, status field, and server list. You will probably notice that the window re-sizing is a bit undone, but I've been working on this for 24 hours now, it's a Saturday afternoon, the sun is out, and I need to go outside. The servers are sorted by UDP response times. What's New in 0.4.7 ------------------- Fixed the pinger; times are fairly accurate now. Added an AutoPinger that works in the background without requiring too much use of system resources or bandwidth. Now displays: Column 1: UDP response time - how soon the server's software got its answer back to you Column 2: Ping time - a running average of the pings to the site so far, either from AutoPing or by user pressing "Ping". What's New in 0.4.5 ------------------- 0.4 is a quick hack that should enable the user to obtain the popular server list from www.stomped.com. -But- what we do with it (if it is obtainable) is download the Hostname and location from Stomped, but query the servers listed from -your- machine, giving you a much more accurate view of the Quake universe, as seen from your PC. Also, Rift passes on some server information to the Quake console. A short list of servers (Quake can't store too much) is provided, along with some aliases. Once Rift has launched Quake, the 'r' key becomes hot. Pressing 'r' disconnects from the current server and displays a list of servers, much like in Rift. The first column is the command name to select the given server. Also, both "Go" and a double-click cause Rift to terminate after launching Quake, freeing up the CPU and network entirely to the voracious appetite of Quake. This cures the "freezing" problems encountered in Quake when Rift does an update. What's New in 0.3 ----------------- As the lists of Quake servers become ever longer, the cost in time required to query the Domain Name Service (DNS) servers for host information becomes ever more dear. Rift 0.2 was taking up to two minutes to display its initial host list; this was unacceptable. Therefore, the changes for 0.3 are: o Only perform domain name - to - IP lookup at startup o Display the list of possible servers before Quake server query. This lets the user know that Rift is doing its job. o Once the first Quake server query has been done, then start performing the reverse address lookup (IP -> domain name) as a background thread which will not interfere with the user's button and list commands. o Show the progress of the reverse DNS lookup in the status window. This doesn't really do much; it just looks cool. About Rift ---------- This is a simple networking tool which helps the Quake fan use the many Quake servers popping up all over the net. The program uses a server information file, "rift.dat" and queries all of the hosts in that file for their statuses. This status is updated every 90 seconds. Rift takes a few seconds to initially load the file; this is because Rift is performing all of its DNS queries at startup in order to speed up subsequent operation enormously. The first column is the round trip response time in milliseconds from the server, and can be used as a rough measure of the usability of the server from your location. To use, unzip the files into the directory where quake and qlaunch are located. Then just run Rift!. If you see a server you like, just double-click on it, and Rift will attempt to launch Quake with a connection to that server. Please note that the network interface design for Quake is very fluid at the moment, and the current version of Rift might not have caught up yet ;-( . But it will! ;-) So far, Rift has worked very well with Quake shareware versions 0.91, 0.92, 1.0, and 1.01. Check the site: http://www.phoenix.net/~ishmal/rift occasionally for Rift updates,improvements, debugs, and the like. Feel free to leave comments or suggestions that would improve the program. Questions? Contact Bob at 713-244-5769, or e-mail at ishmal@phoenix.net or look for me on DalNet's IRC #quake channel as "ishmal"