Kon Tiki, pt. 2

Time for another apology: The last release that I made was an honest attempt at finishing the client (finishing it for the milestone).
Unfortunately, I hadn't had the chance to test the latest changes that I made yet, because I hadn't made the protocol additions to the servers at the time I released the client. Needless to say, I ended up having to change the client multiple times when I realized what needed to happen server side.

Before writing this, I just made a new commit;

Client + server networking = DONE
Implemented and TESTED the following:

- Character creation
- Character login
- DB password hashing

Remaining: Client configuration

I could have pulled everything into a new branch on Github right now, and then that branch would have been the Kon Tiki milestone. However, I still want to add configuration option(s) to the client. Not really because I expect anyone to be running any additional servers at this point, but because I just want the client to be configurable.

I also made a new instance on Amazon AWS, and it should have open ports, so going live should hopefully be a breeze.

Because I've spent more time on this than originally anticipated, and because you guys have been surprisingly helpful in reporting bugs, I will also be releasing patch(es) after the milestone release. The patch(es) will focus on fixing the following issues:

Minimize/maximize
Dragging windows

The new (final) client will be released tomorrow when I've added configuration options. I will release it as an installer, but there won't be any additional files (except for the configuration file), so I will also release it as a zip that you can just unzip in your installation directory.

I'm disabling comments on this topic for now, until I've released the client.

Instructions

Login server now has automatic account creation enabled. Please don't misuse it - 2 accounts per user at most for now, please!
I have already released a new installer for the client, but if you don't want to reinstall, you can fetch the latest files here and just replace the ones you installed with the ones in the zip.

If you can't connect, it probably means that the LoginServer crashed, or you may need to forward port 2106 and 2107 in your router (chances are the LoginServer crashed).

The LoginServer *shouldn't* crash, but I haven't tested it with multiple clients before. And I already know that it crashes after running for a certain amount of time, but haven't had the chance to figure out why yet.

Here's what happened today:

• I got fed up with Amazon AWS, because the free tier apparently only lasts for a year, and then you start paying per hour (easily racking up the bills). So I went ahead and got a VPS at Accuwebhosting, which is a measly 24usd/month for 150gb transfer (much more than what is currently needed.)
• Configured the server, and realized that what's stopping me from connecting to it (had the same problem with Amazon AWS) is most likely the fact that the client needs to have NAT traversal built in. Therefore I won't release the client until I've confirmed this theory (releasing the client won't make any sense until I've made sure it can connect to the server, anyway).

Rest assured that the amount of code needed is getting smaller and smaller, and a live server should be right around the corner. In fact, technically, the Login server is already live, but impossible to connect to!

Today I finally managed to connect to the LoginServer with the client!
Below is the proof:



Now I just need to bring the CityServer online and figure out how to take care of account creation.
I know ya'll probably want to spam this thread now and congratulate me, but let's keep it on topic.

Questions and answers

• Q: When will I be able to create an account?!?!?!
• A: As soon as I've figured out how, I will let you know.
• Q: Will I be able to play?
• A: No, there isn't any actual gameplay yet.
• Q: Then what's the point?
• A: You can create characters, and report bugs!
• Q: Will account creation be free?
• A: Yes, absolutely, but I am working on a logo for Project Dollhouse, so I can sell t-shirts (and other things?) to cover server costs.

I'm curious....
What server specs do you think you would require? Such as Operating system, as well?

Great .
Good job Afr0 keep it up!

You are amazing!
Thank you for bring back The Sims Online.

Any ideas so far on the shirt logo? Are you aiming for similar features to the actual sims logo or something completely different?

Congrats on the progress while I'm here

Hmmm. This could seem redicoulous,But maybe you can maybe use some other part of this forum where you can sign up and use for login? Or just use these accounts? I know it seems crazy but why create another site for signing up or something? Also as it would cost having to pay even more to use the website right? So maybe just use these forum accounts? I don't know what is best as i'm pretty much trying to contribute to things,not knowing how to do any coding or stuff and all. I'm just giving the best thoughts i can give that can possibly contribute + help. And to me i would prefer using the forum accounts?

Awesome progress you guys! I'm so proud of you all!!
Thank you for the update Afr0 ^_^

I've been thinking about just enabling automatic account creation in the LoginServer - shouldn't take long. But the servers need to expose webservices anyhow, so they can be accessed remotely, so that is what I should do in an ideal situation (even though it'd probably take longer).

Whee ^^,!!

Great job!!

So I just tried to add automatic account creation... obviously thought it was going to be easy, but I'm starting to realize it won't. :\
Basically, the call to create an account is asynchronous, and the call to retrieve an account from the DB is not (or might be, I'm not 100% sure). Either way, the result is that the account is usually not created when trying to retrieve it from the DB - resulting in a synchronization issue.

... maybe I'll just cave into my own misgivings and setup a web server instead, as I figure it's likely to be about as processor and traffic intensive as if I'd run a web service from the server(s).

Edit: Nevermind, made it work. I was double hashing the password. Everything works now - see the original post.

Congratulations to Rhys on being the first officially registered user in Project Dollhouse's database!

Thanks for a very good bug report!
Troubling that it crashes going into CAS - that has never happened to me

@Enter: Lol, will add it as a enhancement to Github

Nice!

I can't port forward. Probably won't be able to run it as TSO doesn't run on Ubuntu in the first place. Oh well. Just gonna have to wait until A. WINE starts supporting more Vertex Shaders or B. Afr0 does a Monogame and Linux compile.

My video card is Intel Graphics 3000.
Client Crash when I create my sim.