New Site Progress

[infoxicated]

Hello everybody - thought I'd give you an idea of what's been going on behind the scenes for the last few months.

Development on the new site has been slow ideed - with our daughter arriving on new years eve I haven't had as much time on my hands as in the past.

Even so, I did think I'd have it finished around three weeks ago. However, I made a poor decision regarding the structure of the new record tables and I've had to go back and undo a lot of work. Due to that, despite spending around ten hours working on the site over this weekend I'm only slightly further forward than I was after the previous weekend's work! :brickwall

Anyhow, here's what you can expect to see in the new version of WipeoutZone:

- Records for all versions of Pure.
- Records for the Japanese version of Wipeout 3.
- Record tables sortable by customisable criteria (for example, you could view Porto Kora over all games W3, W3SE and Pure, if you wanted).
- Multiple records per track (you could have a record time in each ship, if you like).
- Records are time stamped so you can see the most recently updated records.
- Pilot profile page - vew all records over all games by any pilot.
- Content search

There's probably more stuff going on than I can remember right now - I've been working on the site since before Christmas so, as you can imagine, I cant quite remember everything.

Right now I'm about 70% done with the records table code and, if it all hangs together nicely, I might make the bulk of the new site live when that's done, before completing some of the smaller stuff. The slow bit is trying to import all the old time data into the new structure and it's a painstaking process - so far only the 2097 / XL data has successfully been ported, so there's quite a bit still to do. (Every game and track now has a unique ID and matching that up with all the old data is a bitch)

Anyhow, that's a brief summary of where we're at right now - I figured it would be good to let everyone know where things are and to confirm that the new site is, in fact, on its way. :)

[eLhabib]

Sounds VERY sweet, Rob. Just take your time and make sure everything works perfectly :)

[lunar]

+1. Thankyou Rob, I`m really looking forward to this. :)

[Hellfire_WZ]

Sounds great, hope it all works out :)

[Mobius]

I'd completely forgot about that, kool.

Take as much time as you like. Seeing as it doesnt really need to be done by 2050 thats okay. :)

[Lance]

Well that certainly goes beyond the 'Piranha Switch'. ;) yaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy!!!

lotsa new niceness. eagerly waiting.

[Zerow]

Sounds great, infoxicated. Looking forward to it. :)

[Rapier Racer]

Sounds very cool indeed! :hyper

[Smoothly Does It]

Multiple records per track: t3h win! :)

[Zero [RG] [HG]]

Maybe we could see what happens if you make ol' Al multi-record Talon's Reach on Phantom --- all on different music tracks. (ZZZT)

[Asayyeah]

This is a huge work Robb. Many thanks for the time you are spending for us .
I am looking forward to those XXL table records !!

[JABBERJAW]

This is going to be a great addition to the site, thanks alot!

[infoxicated]

Progress continues at a slow pace.

Due to home commitments and the fact it's a gloriously hot summer here, I'm working on the site on my laptop during my lunch hours at work. Admittedly that doesn't get a huge amount done, but it is keeping the ball rolling.

I'm hopeful that I'll be able to deliver the new site by the end of August, however we'll be moving server again in the not-to-distant future, so it might be that the site update wont happen until the new server happens anyway.

I'll keep you posted. :)

[Dominator]

In your own time Robb ;)
Seriously though mate "thanks" all this for us "you legend" can't wait for the finished version, keep up the great work :D

[Zerow]

Aye, in your own time, no rush. :)

Again, thanks for all the hard work, keep it up!

[infoxicated]

Some good progress made this week - I'll be spending some time travelling to and from London on the train this weekend, working away on my laptop as I do so, too.

The site is still a bit rough and ready looking - there are plenty of things still to refine and lots of work still to do on converting the old records over to the new system. Anyhow, here's "work in progress" shot of the new look records page:

http://www.wipeoutzone.com/site_images/wip_scrn_sml.png (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/site_images/wip_scrn.png)

It's almost within touching distance... and only a year late, too! ;)

[Hellfire_WZ]

Wow, looking good Rob, even in its current state. :)

[lunar]

wow fantastic :D I love the "show only best times for each pilot" option, too. With multiple records possible, I thought of asking if we could have that, so some of the tables don`t have to be just something like:

Arnaud Senand Piranha
Al Sartwell Piranha
Alistair Douglas Piranha
Arnaud Senand Qirex
Alistair Douglas Qirex
Al Sartwell Qirex
Arnaud Senand Auricom
Al Sartwell Auricom
.......
and so on, with us earthlings only getting a look in when they`ve run out of ships ;)

Looking great, thanks for all your work :)

[Lance]

Will there be a way to show only times for specific ships [teams]?


It seems likely that the new tables will stimulate a whole new major round of competition, and the Wipeouts will be played in a volume and intensity that we've not seen in a long time. I hope so, anyway. :)

[stin]

Well it`s started to take shape bit by bit and I`m looking forward to see it.

stevie:)

[infoxicated]

Will there be a way to show only times for specific ships [teams]?
Yes.

It'll have a "advanced sort" options so you could, for example, list the pilots from America who used Auricoms, if you wanted.

All this is the reason why it's taken so long, really - in order to do sorts like that I had to completely re-structure the records system. In the end I'm hopefull we'll be able to do stuff like comparing Talons Reach times regardless of version, for instance.

[Lance]

That's one helluva ''Piranha Switch''! Worth the wait.

[stin]

Looks like competiton is back on through the winter again, yeah Lance? (it`s time for you to click your fingers and your spectacle (well a visor;)) on)

stevie:D

[Lance]

Yeah, I really haven't played for.... [gasps] two years! :o

No wonder so many of my old times have been trashed. I wonder if I still have the same reflexes at age 63 that I had in the good old days when I was 61.

I've been playing my ancient original copy of GT this last week, first time I've played anything in ages [see above], and I set some new personal bests, but I think that's because I tweaked a suspension adjustment or two on a couple of my favourite cars. [My absolute fave is the Cerbera coupe.] I don't think GT takes much in the way of reflexes, quite unlike WO.

[Zerow]

Yup, it looks good already, nice one! :)

[Kowkat]

Great information

[Asayyeah]

WOW Brilliant stuff Rob !

These new records tables sound very promising for all of us , die-hard wipers :cowboy
I agree with whats been written above : this could be a new fresh air for competition on the whole wipeouts
:dizzy

ps Lance : i am pretty sure you are going to clean the dust from for marvellous qirex and get a ride with it ;)

[q_dmc12]

the title bar image map looks better now:+

[infoxicated]

I moved your topic about that to the Evolution Engine forum and answered it there. I guess you were looking at cached versions of the banner images, which is why they looked squashed to the wrong size. :)

[eLhabib]

Okay Rob, one more thing to annoy you with (sorry!), but this just stings my eye typographicly:

on the 'WipEoutZone Forum' banner, the spacing between some letters is bigger than between others (to be precise between the i and the p, the o and the u, the o and the n, the r and the u). This simply looks wrong, but hey, I'm just picky. ;)

btw the little subtext has some spacing issues too...

[Sausehuhn]

That is because the font is not anti-aliased but set to "none" or something like that, so the font looks sharp. But that also causes letter spacing issues and on the "WipEoutZonE Forum" writing itself different width of the letters. If you look that the "u" for example you can see that the left side is wider than the right one.

So that's my guess, maybe its also just the font :P

[infoxicated]

Perhaps I had auto-kerning switched on by accident - it doesn't tend to make the best job of it. To be honest I'm so used to seeing the banner that I hadn't even noticed, so I'll take a look at it to see if I can improve the kerning.

In other news I got the basic record table output working today for both "best times only" and "all times". I still need to add the advanced sort options so people can filter by other criteria, but once that's done it'll be down to cleaning up the design and just general polish and attention to detail.

I've got a bit of a rough and ready admin system in place that allows me to add games, tracks, teams, speed classes, and stuff like that on the fly without having to touch the code. However, there's no reason to hold off the launch of the site while I'm completing that, so it can wait. :)

[Lance]

I suppose the answer to the question of when the new table structure will be online is... When It's Ready. Just like on the Opera forums. WIR. :D

[q_dmc12]

I moved your topic about that to the Evolution Engine forum and answered it there. I guess you were looking at cached versions of the banner images, which is why they looked squashed to the wrong size. :)
Actually it was quite different from what you are explaining but in any case it looks alot better now. :D

Ooo, and it's always on top - i just noticed that.

PS> i like the little shadow under it - very esthetic ;)

[Zerow]

I second what q_dmc12 said, the new look of the top bar is very cool indeed. 8)

[infoxicated]

I found out today that the version of MySQL used on our server is of the dated variety. I had wrongly assumed that it was a newer version, so that's kind of put a spanner in the works.

What it means is that the functionality of the new record tables is pretty much out of the window unless we can upgrade the server. If not, the new version of the site will not be fully functional until we move to a new server, and I have no idea when that'll be.

The problem lies in allowing folk to have a record for each team per track. In order to get the best times only, it involved doing a sub-query - this is the functionality we're lacking in the old version of mysql.

We have a small handful of options.

One, I could make some changes that disallow multiple records per track for the time being, although it seems a shame to undo work I've already done. Two, I could implement it as-is, although the records tables might become cluttered by multiple records that couldn't be filtered out. Thirdly, I can hold off on the new site until we move server, with the added bonus that I might be able to add more polish to it.

Myself, I'm not sure which option I prefer - none of them are as desirable as being able to implement the site as I'd intended.

Anyhow, that's how things stand right now.

[lunar]

That`s got be a bit gutting after all the work you put in. I know how annoying it is when you set your sights on a goal with a project, then something gets in the way. I don`t know what moving server involves and, as you say, you don`t know when that will be. If you decided not to wait for a server move, I think we could live without multiple times per track, and if it was added later that would be a bonus. Only one time per track would certainly be better than a cluttered table, in my opinion. :)

Whatever you decide to do, thanks for all your massive work. :+

[Hellfire_WZ]

If upgrading MySQL on the current server is not an option, then I guess it'd be best to wait until the server change rather than have the site in an unfinished or buggy state. Unless of course you feel that implementing the new features after the change with most of the new site in place would not be more hassle than waiting and doing it all at once. I know we're all dying to see how this site will turn out, but I for one would be happy to wait and see the site as good as it can be.

[Asayyeah]

'till we can upgrade server ' how much it is for that kind of upgrading ?
It's my own opinion : you know i am not very rich but maybe with old members we can give you a financial help for that upgrade ?
If this is nothing in relation with money we can live without multiple times per track like Stephen said

[Dominator]

Your more qualified than any of us in this area Rob so the decision should be yours to make. :)

[infoxicated]

Wow... nobody has ever accused me of being qualified before!

Even when I was an electrician! ;)

Arnaud, it has nothing to do with money - the server is just getting a bit outdated, which is why we'll be moving to a faster one when the stars align.

[Zerow]

It's up to you infoxicated, but I'd personally go with waiting untill we can move server. The other two options don't sound anywhere near as beneficial.

[infoxicated]

Okay, I got the site working fully on the current software.

However, I'm sure that something odd has happened during the import of times from the old structure. I'm noticing some W3/SE times that are in the the high 40's, for instance, and I'm talking minutes not seconds. So that's one alarm bell that suggests I've messed up somewhere. Either that or Arnaud has some sort of evil twin / exact opposite.

I'm going to have to re-import all the XL/2097 times, too, as they've had a zero added in the wrong place due to them ending in tenths rather than hundreds.

Pain in the ass, isn't it?

Anyhow, just to let you know that the site is just about done bar the importing of times. Yay, etc. ;)

[Hellfire_WZ]

Great stuff Rob, good to hear it's nearly done. :)

[Chill]

Awesome buddy!!! Though I admit it will be awhile before I'm able to enter times, but I'll do it when I can, about 3 weeks, just for the hell of it. I'm almost positive I haven't won anything!! ;)

[infoxicated]

I've got to the bottom of the weird time problem, and again it was due to MySQL sucking ass. :-

Anyhoo, it means that all the data I imported is borked, so I'll need to run through the process again. Bit of a pain, but at least I found it quickly. All things going well and we'll be up and running before the weekend. :)

[infoxicated]

Live.

Like I said on the homepage, I'm away for a couple of days from tomorrow, so any bugs and glitches found in the new records table system should be reported in the Evolution Engine forum and I'll get to them when I return.

Oh, I know there are no Omega Pack tracks for Wipeout Pure - I'll add them when I get back.

[Sausehuhn]

Good work, Rob!!!
Really good work!!
I like the fresh new look and I'm sure I'll post a few times in future to the updates system, now where Pures alive there :)

[lunar]

Rob, you`re a star :beer

As Max says the fresh new look is :+

many thanks!

[Hybrid Divide]

Loving the new look of the site, Rob! Cheers! :D

[Tokken]

Site is indeed looking good!

[stin]

As Mr Burns says "Excellent!";)

stevie:D

[Zerow]

The new look's awesome, great job! :+

[JABBERJAW]

very nice

[Dominator]

Thanks Rob for all your great work with the new tables, glad we could help out too. :D

[Chill]

Tight site!!!!! It's sawweet!! ;)

[Tomahawk]

Great work Rob! The new site is looking brilliant! A double thumbs up for all your efforts!:+:+

[Asayyeah]

:clap Rob:clap
Brilliant design : it's like Porche with their 911 they changed softly the design during the last 30 years and this car is always a top hit.
Wish your site will live as long as the 911 career and always be loved by purists and new incomers
Cheers matey :beer

[username]

purly amazing! lol, good work! very very impressed :) :)

[Mad-Ice]

Thanks Rob for the good work. The site looks very nice, new records will be coming in very soon.

[infoxicated]

Thanks everyone :) :+

[jospicy]

looks like things calmed down for me at just the right point..
the new site looks pretty nice and is a comfort on sore eyes (3 months of web deving for clients who have no taste does have it's effects...)
but anyway i'm now finished work and back to uni so i hope to be around a lot more than i have been the last 3 months, not that that should be too difficult
if this were a restaurant "my compliments to the chef" would be appropriate but seeing as it isn't in true student style :beer cheers Rob the new site looks fab

[Rapier Racer]

So cool! 8) saw the tables for pure up and got all excited, scuse me :cowboy

[Lion]

I quite liked the idea from the test site where the text pair in the black band changed on page load like the quotes

practise.perfection
adrenalin.amplified

there were others but I forget

why was that idea canned?

[infoxicated]

Erm...

//strokes chin...

I dunno. I guess I figured it'd get old after a while - there were only six or seven alternatives, and Adrenalin Amplified was what I wanted as the new site's tagline. Wipeout = Adrenalin, WipeoutZone = Adrenalin Amplified.

So it seemed silly to muddy the waters by rotating the banner all the time. All I did was comment out the code, actually - it's still in the page header files, so I could re-introduce it if I think of a nice way of doing it. :)

[RJ O'Connell]

So, new layout...this looks totally awesome.

And I'm really digging the new features. Now if I can JUST get my e-mail to validate an account...

[Sausehuhn]

would like to see the changing banner back, Rob :)
Maybe we could make a thread for posting more ideas :)

[infoxicated]

So, new layout...this looks totally awesome.

And I'm really digging the new features. Now if I can JUST get my e-mail to validate an account...
PM me your account details and I'll check it out.

[lunar]

Rob, thankyou for adding the Omega packs. :) I hope it didn`t hurt too much ;)

[infoxicated]

Worse was adding the teams for it. :brickwall

With the teams being listed alphabetically I'm now regretting not adding an order column to the team look-up table, like I did with the track look-up table, 'cos now all the stupid omega craft are mixed up with the regular craft.

[Asayyeah]

Omega tracks are great and thx for adding them into the tables:+ , omega ships are only :turd . I am sure we can mentally switch them off when toggle a ship.

[Dominator]

Yeah thanks Rob for adding the Omega tracks very much appreciated!! :D
As for the Omega ships i am seriously thinking of deleting them from my Pure file, permanently, wish i could do the same with Medievil & Zone too. :turd

[Lion]

you've never done a 1 shield challenge then :p
everyone takes zone or medieval and cranks around the track at flash or rapier speeds. weapons tend to get used a LOT more by those further back as they are far more effective on the featherweights
the leaders also can't barrel roll as often as there's just not enough shield to burn
it's fun skating the edge in a fragile ship, there's usually a lot more eliminations in a series with these ships

also, I know it's not one of the omega ships, but I like flying the daxtinator - which everyone else seems to dislike, it moves differently to every other craft... tends to throw it's tail out a lot more.
fun to fly :)

[Dominator]

daxtinator?? never heard of it!! :)

[Lion]

it's one of the secret pack ships, based on Jak & Daxter
a long golden-yellow thing that looks like some kinda 1930s land speed record attempt car, with a face painted on the front
only available for the US version

[Dominator]

Guess im not missing much then!! :- :D

[Sausehuhn]

btw: where's the new logo gone to? I liked it very much :)

[infoxicated]

btw: where's the new logo gone to? I liked it very much :)You'll have to explain this one further - I have no idea what you're on about. :dizzy

[Sausehuhn]

this one just with a circle around it :)

http://www.wipeoutzone.com/site_images/wz_top_right.png

[infoxicated]

Oh... that.

It ended up in the recycle bin. ;)

[Sausehuhn]

:frown:

shame.

[Thruster2097]

+1 more for the great work on the old girl, rob! Better than ever.
Please accept this emoticon :clap as a sign of my approval!

Oh, and is your pay pal account still open for donations?

[infoxicated]

Thanks Thrusty. :)

Nah, I don't think that WipeoutZone Paypal account exists any longer.

[Thruster2097]

ok friend, just thought that the move to the new server and all that we could chip in to help you out with the bills.

[infoxicated]

It's cool - the new server costs me the same as the old one. :)

[Smashing Young Man]

If you ever need help designing a theme for the forums, I'd be glad to help. I do a lot of freelance vBulletin theme design. See my site www.spacebuffs.com/discussion/ as an example of my work.

My, the years I've lurked here! :p

[infoxicated]

It wouldn't be a case of "help" because I'd never actually do it myself to need assistance! :D

You're welcome to contribute a design, though :) :+

[Sausehuhn]

I would love to see the forum in the mainpage's style :)

[Smashing Young Man]

It wouldn't be a case of "help" because I'd never actually do it myself to need assistance! :D

You're welcome to contribute a design, though :) :+
I'd be glad to. I could dupe the frontpage design per Sausehuhn's suggestion if you like, or do something from scratch. I also suggest upgrading the forums to 3.6.2.

[infoxicated]

Thought I might as well re-use the old "new site" topic... just for the fun of it.

Anyhow... there's a new version of the site on the way, featuring improved record sorting mixed in with some AJAX features to keep everything working smoothly. By improved sorting, I mean you'll now be able to filter records by team, so you can find out who the top pilots are in an Icaras, for example.

http://www.wipeoutzone.com/images/wz07wip_sml.png (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/images/wz07wip.png)

Click on the small pic for a great big version so you can see what I mean in the dropdown.

This is a work in progress, of course, and is probably a train-wreck in IE7 (haven't been checking much), but I reckon we could be good to go in the not too distant future.

Oh, I also have to re-do the home page now that the sidebar has gone away, so Zerow, if you want to zip up all the screen grabs you took from Pure, now would be the time to send me them. :)

[AmigoJack]

nice to see that feature coming (selecting only one team). i also see youre now enabling a wysiwyg/richedit-editor for posting. havent checked it yet, but it would be wise to let the user choose between plain textbox and this (i bet some firefox users are too restrictive with their settings).

as for optics its your choice :) but personally i would re-use the wipeoutzone-font - the new one looks a bit sluggish... (to me of course)

[infoxicated]

The rich text editor for posts has been in place since we moved to vBulletin. That was in November 2005, so I'm pretty sure that if folk were finding it a hardship they'd have made it known to me by now.

Like I said, it's a work in progress - colours and everything else might well change, but thanks for the font feedback. :)

[Lance]

I've been using the maxxed-out editor since Rob switched to vBulletin.

-----------

Rob! Dude!! The ''Piranha Switch'' at last! Bless you. Thanks. :)
Although we sorta had it when you rewrote the records code to allow multiple entries; but this makes it complete.

[Asayyeah]

Purely great Rob :)

[Zerow]

Oh, I also have to re-do the home page now that the sidebar has gone away, so Zerow, if you want to zip up all the screen grabs you took from Pure, now would be the time to send me them. :)

*passes over the suitcase* (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showpost.php?p=60880&postcount=90) :)

[conrad]

looking good!

nice work

[infoxicated]

*passes over the suitcase* (http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showpost.php?p=60880&postcount=90) :)
Thanks :+

[infoxicated]

:|

I might have made a mess of things tonight... I kind of accidentally copied up some of the new record table functions, which broke the old version of the site. So then I had to copy up the new version to fix it... but it's not exactly a polished effort.

I'll get it all fixed as soon as I can, though. Probably.

[Lance]

^hunts for a bookmaker^ ;)

[stin]

It`s a bit late for you to work on your WZ and have you been drinking lately to mess it up?....foxy!;)

Actually, totally different and cool.

stevie:)

[Rapier Racer]

The new homepage looks really good :+ I like the design and the first picture I saw was a plasma being shot at Blue Ridge, very nice work indeed :nod

[Mad-Ice]

Nice one Rob! It looks very stylish. About the filter feature in the records table. I really miss a filter feature where you can filter out Triakis or Icaras or Piranha and see all the other records of all the other ships in a specific track, instead of seeing just one ship with all the records made with it. Or did I totally miss this!?

[stin]

Rob, did you leave the stats out? just being curious cos I always checking them whos enters in the records per week.

stevie:)

[Zerow]

Yup, the new front page looks very cool. =)

My Pure screenshots* are on the front page! WOOOOOOOO! :g

I also like the new ship filter, but it feels a bit constrictive at the moment - i.e. you can only filter all but one ship. Hopefully we'll get more freedom with it in the near future. :+

* - While I'm on that subject, I like the new size the screenshots are displayed in, as we can see the WO3 pics more clearly (I haven't seen a Fusion pic since I visited today, if they're still there). Nice one, Rob!

[infoxicated]

Fusion pics are gone - I didn't have the originals handy to re-do them at the new size, but I'll trawl around for them. I was thinking of adding a special file type to the user files area so that folk could upload screen grabs that would be included on the home page, but we'll see how it goes.

I'll keep working on the code so that we can select more than one ship at a time - that'll give a true Piranha toggle for 2097/XL.

[infoxicated]

Rob, did you leave the stats out? just being curious cos I always checking them whos enters in the records per week.:)
****!

That's a fair point... yes, yes I did leave the stats page out. I was intending to make it part of the records page - sorry about that Stevie - I'll get it fixed. :)

Edit: you can still access the stats page here: http://www.wipeoutzone.com/record_stats.php

[stin]

cheers mate!

stevie:)

[The Gracer]

oh man, i forget about the internet for all of about a week and look what happens!!
Top work Rob, the new homepage looks brilliant!
The hard work and un-ending effort you put into the site really reflects how closely-knit this community is, and without you, we wouldnt have a place to meet up and chat!!
keep it up :) :) :)

P.S. Are you still going to include the quotes into the site? or am i just not looking hard enough?

[Dominator]

I havn't been around for a while so when I saw the new homepage I initially thought I was somewhere else!!
As always Rob great work :nod

[Hacker X]

Heyyyy nice new look Infoxicated! Very stylish, and very cool. Keep up the good work.

[q_dmc12]

Ah, some rearranging of the forum i see - wipeout future in discussion now

[Sausehuhn]

Rob makes some space for the new officall title ;)

[infoxicated]

Not really, it just dawned on me that discussing future sequels didn't really belong in the game discussion section, so I moved it.

[Sausehuhn]

notice the ";)" mate

;)

[Rapier Racer]

Hasn't the Wipeout Pure forum had a couple of name changes as well. Wipeout on PSP then Pure, PSP then Pure again

You trying to confuse us eh :D :dizzy

[infoxicated]

Very much so. ;)

I did say one time that it was called Wipeout for PSP in case there were future sequels on PSP, because creating a new forum for every sequel wasn't sustainable. However, I've had a change of heart on that.

[username]

I like the new look also, keep it up ;)

[Sausehuhn]

like the new favicon :)

[infoxicated]

Thanks, but now we're talking about this in two seperate topics...

I suppose could post a poll to decide whether we discuss this here or in the Evolution Engine topic... but that'd just confuse the issue even further! :D