SoC Ideas Whiteboard 2011

This page is related to Summer of Code 2011

See the list of Summer of Code 2011 Ideas

This is a Summer of Code 2011 Idea

Implement the networked part of the Whiteboard

The Whiteboard is an interface project that was started during GSoC 2010. It has several goals:

1. Provide a means to players to visually test out sequences of actions, especially for those which can't be undone such as attacks, or for moves which uncover shroud and thereby prevent undos.

2. Allow players to plan out recruits, recalls and even attacks and moves, while they are waiting for their turn.

3. Replace features such as waypoints (still present) and Delay Shroud Updates (present in 1.8, disabled but not removed from the code in 1.9). DSU in particular complicates life a lot for WML developers.

4. Allow allies to see each other's plans in multiplayer, and possibly to visibly suggest moves to each other and to the AI.

5. Provide advanced interface features building on the work above, such as chance to kill calculations taking into account several attacks on the same unit planned through the whiteboard.

1 and 2 as well as the DSU part of 3 were finished during GSoC 2010, even though they need a lot of tweaking. 4 is the focus of this project.

Specifications

The plans for the networked part are laid out in this part of the Whiteboard GSoC 2010 page. Regarding last year's GSoC page, be aware that there are differences between those initial plans and the implementation currently in Wesnoth's code. This calendar will help you understand what was implemented and what was left out.

Additional Information

• The whiteboard interface is not set in stone and might still undergo some important changes; the network part should therefore be decoupled from the UI and visuals as much as possible.

Resources

• The devs who know the whiteboard best are Gabba (wrote most/all of it during GSoC 2010) and Boucman (mentored the GSoC project).

• Gabba will be very sparingly available during april, plan accordingly.

• A good way of getting aquainted with the code is to fix some of the whiteboard bugs.

• Feedback and ongoing discussion of the whiteboard's future goes on in this thread.