Friday, May 11, 2012
Failed Update - Please read for resolve
8:12 PM | Posted by
Patrick Roza |
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Due to a failed software update, some might experience issues starting the application.
The issue has been resolved in the meantime, and an update is available on auto-auto and in the Download section.
For those who cannot launch the software currently - please download the latest v2.9.5pre version from the Download section
When asked to remove configuration files/database during the upgrade, answer NO to keep your configuration.
Apologies for the inconvenience!
The issue has been resolved in the meantime, and an update is available on auto-auto and in the Download section.
For those who cannot launch the software currently - please download the latest v2.9.5pre version from the Download section
When asked to remove configuration files/database during the upgrade, answer NO to keep your configuration.
Apologies for the inconvenience!
Monday, March 12, 2012
Six Updater v2.9.5pre24 released
3:48 PM | Posted by
Patrick Roza |
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This update focuses on dealing with Encoding issues plagueing the Six Updater program and libraries.
Fixed
Encoding Issues
Fixed
Encoding Issues
- Server MOTD
- Server name
- Preset name
- Player Profile selection
- Cannot start SU when installed in a path with special symbols
- OutOfMemory exceptions caused by encoding issues
- I18n and TZInfo libraries have now been embedded into IREmbeddedLibraries.dll. Setup file size slightly smaller again.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Six Updater v2.9.5pre15 released!
1:27 PM | Posted by
Patrick Roza |
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SU v2.9.5pre15 released, and available in the Download Section!
The milestone is nearly 60% complete
The milestone is nearly 60% complete
- Active status and progress output during startup logo, incl a working taskbar icon
- Override Multiplayer functionality from commandline
- Improved mod version and status determination
- Start SU even after minor upgrades
- Reduced setup size by ~2.5 MB. Migrator utility is now downloaded on-demand, for those migrating from the old SU to the new (2.9.5.x).
- Updated Dutch translation by SteelRain
- Several minor fixes and enhancements
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Six Updater v2.9.5pre1 released
1:56 PM | Posted by
Patrick Roza |
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SU v2.9.5pre1 released, and available in the Download Section!
The milestone is nearly 50% complete, and focuses on improving Performance and general user experience, tying up loose ends before the big v3.0 UI/usability overhaul.
Read more background about the performance enhancements in the blog: Improving performance and memory usage.
This version is for the time being not automatically installed by the auto-self-updater, if you wish to install this release, please download the setup, and run it. It will uninstall the old version. It will ask if existing configuration files should be removed. If you want to keep your existing settings, answer NO.
When running this version for the first time, if existing configuration data is detected, the data will first be migrated to the new SU db-format. This could take 30-60 seconds, please be patient.
It should be the last time you had to endure such long initialization time :)
Stay tuned for another intense Six Updater year!
Changelog
The milestone is nearly 50% complete, and focuses on improving Performance and general user experience, tying up loose ends before the big v3.0 UI/usability overhaul.
More performance improvements and tweaks are still planned before the stable release.
Read more background about the performance enhancements in the blog: Improving performance and memory usage.
This version is for the time being not automatically installed by the auto-self-updater, if you wish to install this release, please download the setup, and run it. It will uninstall the old version. It will ask if existing configuration files should be removed. If you want to keep your existing settings, answer NO.
When running this version for the first time, if existing configuration data is detected, the data will first be migrated to the new SU db-format. This could take 30-60 seconds, please be patient.
It should be the last time you had to endure such long initialization time :)
Stay tuned for another intense Six Updater year!
Changelog
- New database format, removing many of the bottlenecks and issues experienced before. Especially in terms of Performance and Memory usage, but also general user experience.
- Initialization, synchronization with SU portal and gamespy is signficantly faster
- Switching presets is signficantly faster, given that if the preset contains a server/customrepo, these are available and accessible without Timeouts. Further improvements planned.
- MultiPlayer features are optional now, for those who prefer Single Player and do not use Multi Player, you can now answer "No" to the Multiplayer question at first-startup. Which will result in improved performance and reduced memory usage.
- Prepared new Busy-overlay located at the bottom, showing Main and Sub Action progress when performing actions
- The setup package has temporary increased several MB's due to included DB Migration tool. No worries, it will be removed in future versions.
- More minor improvements and fixes
Monday, January 30, 2012
Improving performance and memory usage
3:52 PM | Posted by
Patrick Roza |
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Improving performance and memory usage has been planned for a very long time,
Which in turn gives us a great return value on Performance and Memory usage:
as I believe (especially considering limited resources) that features/functionality and bug-fixes take a much greater priority.
However, performance as well as usability are two things that do sell the product to the user, and make it easy and fun to use.
Both Performance and Usability are on the menu right now, and while both will take a while to properly improve, I have already made great progress in regard to performance.
First a couple of things on Performance and Memory usage:
- SU is written in a managed language (well two actually; .NET (C#) and IronRuby).
This gives a lot of programmer comfort, but at the same time often results in lower performance, and higher memory usage (or slower return of free memory), compared to unmanaged languages like C++ or C. - SU uses .NET WPF UI which is vector based, has to realtime render the UI on screen (like a game), and generally is less optimized than legacy frameworks like Windows Forms.
- SU's database back-end is based on SQLite (considered slow, and useful only for basic applications), and suffers from several issues caused by experimental IronRuby implementation.
- IronRuby's experimental nature poses several complications that require workarounds, e.g doing things not the optimal way.
- (over)Optimization generally complicates the development process and can limit a developer's creativity and progress
- Performance is only important where it makes a real difference. E.g waiting 10ms or 1ms on an action to complete is not even noticeable by a human.
But of course if you do 1000 of those actions, suddenly it's 1 second or 10 seconds; a very noticeable difference, but if it actually matters is depending on the performed action, and user's expectation.
I prefer programmer comfortability, and I prefer the Ruby and .NET (C#) languages, as well as the WPF UI framework,
So going for a leaner programming language, or even low-level like C++ and C, is not a realistic option for me.
That said, there are several ways to improve the performance and memory usage:
- Replace the limited SQLite database back-end by something better.
- Improved Code (obviously).
Better, faster code that accomplishes (basically) the same thing in a shorter amount of time (using less resources) - Move more data, and processing over to the server-side
Last weekend I have started with replacing the limited SQLite database back-end, with a custom, imo better solution: Serializing the objects and marshalling them from and to disk.
The result is that we're freed from the SQLite limitations, and the limitations of the IronRuby database driver, and all the issues that came forth from that, as well as the countless workarounds that I had to implement for this.
The result is that we're freed from the SQLite limitations, and the limitations of the IronRuby database driver, and all the issues that came forth from that, as well as the countless workarounds that I had to implement for this.
Which in turn gives us a great return value on Performance and Memory usage:
- Startup time decreased by 2x up to as much as 10x
- Sync with SU portal time decreased by 2x up to as much as 5x
- Sync with Gamespy time decreased by 2x up to as much as 5x
Also the changes make it possible to switch to a different back-end more easily in the future, e.g a .NET ORM etc.
Coming days I will be finishing the implementation and a new test version should become available probably by next weekend.
I feel this is already a significant improvement, and there will be even more improvements possible in the future, through the other mentioned means.
After Performance, Usability will become the topic of coming months... stay tuned!
For those interested in what WPF is and what the difference is to Windows Forms, have a look here.
For those interested in what WPF is and what the difference is to Windows Forms, have a look here.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Six Updater 2.9pre4 released
8:12 PM | Posted by
Patrick Roza |
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Small Six Updater v2.9 update:
New version released with support for Min and Max game version or build constraints on Mods.
For instance, there's now @JayArma2Lib that still supports the older game versions, and the new @JayArma2Lib_new which supports the newer game versions.
Depending on your currently active game version (determined by Beta if beta is enabled), the correct version of JayArma2Lib will be loaded.
A couple of more issues were solved: https://dev-heaven.net/projects/six-arma-updater/activity
More Six Updater v2.9 news to come soon.
New version released with support for Min and Max game version or build constraints on Mods.
For instance, there's now @JayArma2Lib that still supports the older game versions, and the new @JayArma2Lib_new which supports the newer game versions.
Depending on your currently active game version (determined by Beta if beta is enabled), the correct version of JayArma2Lib will be loaded.
A couple of more issues were solved: https://dev-heaven.net/projects/six-arma-updater/activity
More Six Updater v2.9 news to come soon.
Friday, December 23, 2011
ARMA 2 1.11 and OA 1.60 patch, ARMA 2 Free available on SU
8:13 AM | Posted by
Patrick Roza |
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The new mega patch for A2, A2 Free and OA has been officially released in the meantime!
Be sure to check out the blog entry about v2 signatures and MP security in general.
ARMA 2 Free - Combined Ops Lite
Recently basic game-distribution support was added to Six Updater, currently you can download ARMA 2 Free from the Games section of the software.
Be sure to get your free key from the Activation site.
ARMA 2 Free can be played online, or used to combine with OA (Operation Arrowhead) / RFT (Reinforcements) to get ARMA 2 Combined Ops lite!
You'll still lack the ARMA 2 original campaign and missions, and have some reduced texture quality, but you can join any Combined Ops server successfully.
This configuration is automatically supported in Six Updater if you install ARMA 2 Free!
Enjoy!
Be sure to check out the blog entry about v2 signatures and MP security in general.
ARMA 2 Free - Combined Ops Lite
Recently basic game-distribution support was added to Six Updater, currently you can download ARMA 2 Free from the Games section of the software.
Be sure to get your free key from the Activation site.
ARMA 2 Free can be played online, or used to combine with OA (Operation Arrowhead) / RFT (Reinforcements) to get ARMA 2 Combined Ops lite!
You'll still lack the ARMA 2 original campaign and missions, and have some reduced texture quality, but you can join any Combined Ops server successfully.
This configuration is automatically supported in Six Updater if you install ARMA 2 Free!
Enjoy!
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About Me
- Patrick Roza
- is a Ruby programmer from the Netherlands and develops software and modifications for the ARMA military simulation franchise by Bohemia Interactive.