What should I work on?

[spbogie]

I'm looking to have a bit of free time coming up, and I'd like to put some of it to working on a project for gmod, but I'm not exactly sure what, so I'm posing the question to you. What should I work on?
(no guarentae i twill actually get done, my free time tends to disappear rather quickly)
You get 2 votes each, and you can change your votes any time.

I would also like to get a tally from those who vote of which of my currently released scripts here do you use, and which would you use if there were some improvements made.

UTeam:
Not exactly sure what I would do with this. If you vote for it please make suggestions.

UMaps:
To be honest, I'm actually rather ashamed of the code in this one. If I work on this, it will be a complete rewrite from scratch.
If you vote for this, please make suggestions as to features you would like to see in the new version.

UGest:
For this I'm considering mainly some modifications to make configuration easier (a menu perhaps).
I would also like to add support for named "gesture sets", and different kinds of gestures.
I'm really curious to see how many people are actually using this script even.

UFeed:
I'm not sure how functional this script is right now, but it definitally needs a little bit of work.
This was primarily an experiment in working with network and GUI in GMod for me.

UCal:
An idea I've been playing with for a while is an ingame Calendar.
I want to have this functioning as both a client and server script (either side optional).
The server version would allow admins to post events to the server's calendar, and distribute a simplified clientside interface to users without the client.
The client version would allow users to create events on their local calendar and set reminders for upcoming events. It would also connect to and display events from the current server's calendar. Admins would be able to manage events on both their local as well as the server's calendar through the full client.
Possible future improvements could include integration with something like Google Calendar so you could take your events with you.
If you vote for this, don't expect it in the near future as this is a large project and will prove quite the adventure in GUI development for me.

UPort:
This is a partially working, unreleased script designed to add UPnP port forwarding support to GMod for users running listen servers.
For those who don't know, UPnP is a network command protocol commonly used for things such as automatically forwarding ports on a router.
UPort would use this protocol to automatically create a temporary port forwarding entry on the router whenever the user starts a listen server, avoiding the hassel and confusion of setting up a static IP and manualy forwarding the port that has caught so many new users in the past. This is how most gameing systems open up to allow incoming connections when playing games online.
Note that with my current internet setup at school I do not have access to a router to test this on, so if I am to work on this I will require a large ammount assistance from someone who does.

Have a suggestion for something else you'd like to see me work on, mark the option and post it here.

[Megiddo]

UTeam: Make an in-game menu (for config) and make configuration a lot easier/simpler.

UPort: Nice idea!

[spbogie]

Meg, you didn't answer my second question.
Which are you using, and which would you use with improvement?

[DiscoBiscuit]

I voted Uteam (and I agree on what Megiddo said on that)
And something else. I'm not sure what, but ulib is even greater with every mod that comes in.

[JamminR]

I voted UTeam and Uport.

UTeam: I use UTeam. Some type of GUI for configs would be most excellent. Perhaps list of ULib groups available, and a text field to type in a team name for each. The GUI would need to allow 'hierarchy' I would guess like the text config does now.

UMaps: Don't use this, but some various GUI and or command improvements, perhaps (optional - chosen by server host) features to allow users to delay map change, or change the 'next' map that is changed to, if only oin a temporary basis would be a good start.

UGest:
Don't use this. Nice feature, but I've never been good enough with a mouse to double click an icon on my desktop, let alone make a precise enough movement to build something without killing it mid process.

UFeed:
Though a neat learning project for you (or anyone looking at the code), I don't multi-task well. I don't load Gmod to surf the web, let alone get news feeds. I load it to build

UCal: See UFeed - neat, good learning, useless for me personally (though again, this is just me)

UPort: Super geek learning experience - though I envision a support nightmare.
Though I like it as a great programming experience and good idea overall, I'm not sure I want it 'in the wild'
Reasons why -
1) Listen servers - Though I'm gonna sound like a crotchety old man practicing elitism, I'm not sure the world needs any percentage more of those listen server admins who aren't technically proficient enough to open up port forwarding for a router when Steam support site (and hundreds of others we've all linked to) give step by step ports to open.
If too lazy to look up how, that probably means they're too lazy to learn how to administer a server. (lazy for lack of a better word)
2) Security - Many manufacturer's are recommending disabling of UPnP on routers (or Windows security settings)

I'm sure there's more, but that's crotchety enough for now.

[Megiddo]

Meg, you didn't answer my second question.
Which are you using, and which would you use with improvement?

I'm not really using anything right now... but if I had something setup it'd be UTeam. Ditto JamminR on the rest.

[Dark_Hero]

I have voted for Umaps because its a shame that their isnt a decent map rotation plugin for ULX.

[JamminR]

So, was there ever a decision spbogie?
Or did available time go away, as it so easily seems to do?

[spbogie]

Sorry, yeah, like I said, don't expect much out of this. Available time did kinda disappear, and what little is still there has been taken by research for other non-GMod related projects.

I am a bit supprised by the results though. I still don't really see what's to be fixed/expanded in UTeam. How often does one reconfigure UTeam? As far as I can immagine it's primarily a 1-shot config on install, and based on the over 900 downloads on garrysmod.org (not even the primary download location) compared to the maybe 20 people requesting help, all of which were a simple missing bracket or quote, easily fixed, the configuration doesn't seem all that difficult for people. If this is really the case, then I just don't see the use behind wirting a full in-game GUI for it.

Re UPort, I know about the security issues, and it is one of the reasons I halted development on it, but it is continued to be the recommended method for getting a proper connection on any of the major gaming console, and thus many people have it enabled yet anyways. Per the more listen servers, the target of this is people who, like myself, have a laptop which travels with them, neededing to connect to multiple networks, and thus making it difficult to set up a static IP. I really don't think this would increase the number of people looking for ULX support on a listen server, but it would likely aleviate the frustration of many simply wanting to set up and play with a few friends.

UGest, I wish more people would try this out, because it is an amazingly useful script, and really requires very little precision at all to accomplish common tasks (ie. selecting the remover tool) very quickly.

UCal/UFeed - I understand where you're coming on this one Jam. I think UCal could prove more useful, but again, requires a much larger investment of time.

UMaps - This is really where I was expecting the most interest as there have been a few posts elsewhere about it. It is probably the first thing I will work on when I have time, simply because I'm ashamed of some of the code in the current released version.


P.S. Anyone know how to control the volume of individual applications in Vista a la SndVol.exe(The mixer that comes up when you click the volume icon in notification area). It isn't a documented public API feature, but I would really like to get access to this for a project.

[DiscoBiscuit]

What I was thinking for UTeam was some kind of in-game menu, and possibly the ability to edit it without restarting the server. Although I doubt that is very plausible.