RtC - MindWorX Interview

RtC - Reinventing the Craft

Q: First off, what is RtC?
A: Project "Reinventing the Craft"(Thanks to Whitehorn for name idea!) is a project that aims to add more functionality to Warcraft III, while at the same time keep it a low size, so it's still useful for mappers. RtC will be available for any type of mod, be it a map or a mod, or even a Total Conversion.
My Goals are to make a small expansion for Warcraft III, that i hope people will use for their maps. It's already really easy to install, doesn't contain any intrusive files, so you can safely use it, and then switch to normal wc3, without any hassle. I even have a "Jass" wishlist, where you can request natives that you think are missing in wc3. I'm already planning to extend wc3's Math natives and I've already added Mouse natives.

Q: What made you start this large and exciting project?
A: Well, first of all, I've always hated some of the small quirks Warcraft III, like missing Math natives, that should really be included, and takes no time to add. This was the first things that sparked me to do this. After seeing what my possibilities really were, i decided to add some more natives to that package too. When i realized what I'd made, i decided to make it a mod, for people to use.

Q: Why did you choose to call it WarSoc?
A: Because of the name windows uses for network traffic. Windows calls it WinSockets, which at first made me call it WarSock, but later, WarSoc.

Q: Did you start this project completely alone or do you have a great team?
A: Currently I'm working alone of the WarSoc project itself, but i'm also working on a map that's using it, where I'm working with a friend of mine.

Q: What are basic features of this project?
A: The project called WarSoc, aims to add WinSockets to warcraft III, so people can use it for all manners of network communication, one easy feature would be mIRC. Other features includes Mouse Support and Extended Math, but they're part of Reinventing the Craft.

Q: Is it true that you actually play as singleplayer? How does it work?
A: The game itself is started as singleplayer, but when you play it, it will look like multiplayer, by synchronizing how the game looks on each computer. This will also introduce a unique new feature, that allows client side only variables. Every client will look like the server, but only the server will decide on what happens on the clients.

Q: How would you make multiple team colors for players?
A: You can't.All enemies will be one color, all allies will be one, all your units will be one.

Q: Do you have a full-version release date?
A: So far, there's already an alpha version released of Reinventing the Craft, which includes the basics of WarSoc. The alpha is stable, and has a single demo map too, that shows Movement using a mouse. But the extended multiplayer part is far from done.

Q: Does use of RtC overwrite any of wc3 in-game files?
A: No, it doesn't overwrite any of your Warcraft III files, and you'll be able to switch between RtC and normal Warcraft as freely as you want. RtC is completely standalone, all it requires is that Warcraft is installed, so it can start itself, using the files

Q: With WarSoc, how many people will be able to join a game?
A: This is soft capped, meaning, the better you code, the higher the limit.

Q: Does project "Reinventing the Craft" means that creation of first person shooters will be far easier?
A: Yes, and many more things, involving the use of the mouse.

Q: Will there be a any key detection event?
A: Nope, but there will be key state checking, so that you can check to see if a key is pressed. That, along with a periodic trigger, will make custom events easy.

Q: Is RtC going to use already made attaching system, such as Structs and HandleVars or a new, native and custom one?
A: For now, you'll have to make do with HandleVars for attaching to units, but i'll add a native system at some point.

Q: Are there any large obstacles in creation of RtC? Like hardcoded stuff etc.?
A: That's one of the beauties with RtC, the main thing it does, is breaking hardcoded things in warcraft III. One thing that aren't possible yet, is to use wc3's own types, that is, location, unit, boolexpr and other things like that, since we don't know how blizzard handles them. That's the same reason i can't make functions work for a specific player. As you would see using my MouseAPI in->
Multiplayer would cause a desync, and there's no way around that yet. But i'm working on a way to make it possible.
And with the help of some skilled users, i think it's going to be possible.

Q: Is use of this custom engine legal?
A: Using this modified engine is perfectly legal, nothing is being reverse engineered.

Q: What kind of connection is needed to run such games?
A: Same as Warcraft III does now.

Q: What kind of editor would mapmakers need in order to make maps with those features?
A: They wouldn't need a special editor, everything in this pack will work from a normal editor.

Sweet interview!

> nothing is being reverse engineered
Well japi does include a certain amount of what can be called reverse engineering.
The whole project being legal is pretty gray until Blizzard gives a response, if that ever happens.

but this doesnt go online (via bnet) so... blizzard doesn't even have to know about this (though i know it will). But anyway, blizzard DOES benefit from this.

I think i haven't understood it well, what does it do precizely?

re-read it and you will understand.

> blizzard DOES benefit from this.
True, but the first thing that comes to my mind when it comes to custom natives is exploiting. Blizzard will probably be blamed if there is a security issue. I'm sure Mindy wouldn't do this purposely, but a bug may just slip though.
If it isn't already then a disclaimer/license should be distributed with this project to clearly state that neither the creator nor Blizzard is responsible for any potential damage.

Moving on they might simply proclaim custom natives illegal as some other people may make viruses that work though Warcraft.

Of course heads up, this was just a worst-case scenarios. For the time being it's not worth worrying about and I doubt that Blizzard pays much attention to WC3 anyway (consider this a good thing). ;)

Just what i thought. Mindy says this is perfectly legal, so it must be it. He has both GPL and LGPL licenses where he clearly states that neither he nor blizzard are responsible for any damage.

Originally Posted by SFilip

> blizzard DOES benefit from this.
True, but the first thing that comes to my mind when it comes to custom natives is exploiting. Blizzard will probably be blamed if there is a security issue. I'm sure Mindy wouldn't do this purposely, but a bug may just slip though.
If it isn't already then a disclaimer/license should be distributed with this project to clearly state that neither the creator nor Blizzard is responsible for any potential damage.

Moving on they might simply proclaim custom natives illegal as some other people may make viruses that work though Warcraft.

Of course heads up, this was just a worst-case scenarios. For the time being it's not worth worrying about and I doubt that Blizzard pays much attention to WC3 anyway (consider this a good thing). ;)

As a comment to that, i'd like to tell that i'll never add anything that can modify or in any way harm windows, this includes but isn't limited to File Writing, File Execution and Registry Editing.

so when could we expect it to be done? i mean the demo map and stuff?

There's already a demo map showing the different native sets. Project WarSoc, the subproject of RtC, wont be finished soon, because of some things that i can't test with only a single computer.

Question, since you could break the player limit, will you break the limit of ground textures as well? It would be so great if we could use all the ground textures in one tileset...

rui is so damn right! that would be awesome

Breaking the limit of doodads and map size would be good too.

We don't need HUGE maps, but it would certainly be wonderful if we could make a bigger map without the editor constantly yelling.

Originally Posted by Rui

Question, since you could break the player limit, will you break the limit of ground textures as well? It would be so great if we could use all the ground textures in one tileset...

Breaking the limit of doodads and map size would be good too.

We don't need HUGE maps, but it would certainly be wonderful if we could make a bigger map without the editor constantly yelling.

Doodad limit should be possible to change, since that's already possible now, same with map size. I could add some of the more usefull things from WEU. But breaking the texture limit is impossible i'm afraid, since the file that specifies the amount of tiles can't hold anymore data, than it already does. Making more tilesets in one map would require me to recode big parts of Warcraft and Worldedit, which isn't legal, and is something i'm not even sure how to do.