Hey Guys

I run the Empires of Blood Server and I'm having issues with this Gzip thing. First a little Background. EoB runs on a win 2k Advanced Server with MySql 4.0.18 & Php 4.3.6. My web server also uses the Php4isapi.dll file instead of the standard exe.

I got it running pretty good, zlib enabled, GD enabled, etc etc. The one thing I cant do is enable Gzip. When doing PhpInfo I show it there in the Php Varibles under Http_except_encoding.

When I run the installer it tells me I can enable it. When I try and enable it instead of a game screen coming up I get a box asking me what I want to open it with. There is No file extension to the file.

I thought I had it when I noticed in the smarty2 directory a file talking about copying all files under libs to the Include directoy of Php. I did that and set the include directory in my php.ini file and now when I try it I get just a white empty screen.

Ive played and played and just cant figure it out. Any Ideas?

Other things Ive wondered about are like the switches shown in the install screen, do they need All need to be enabled such as safe mode.

The Backend files, smarty2 & Adodb. Do I need to do anything with them or are they already configured in the game.

Can Bounties be turned completly off, I want to run a No bountie game.

Anyway I can get my hands on a copy of the v.022 Game

Thanks Guys, Keep up the Good Work


LordVngr

Under the Admin, Config, Bounty Config...

Set all the ratios to zero, this will disable bounties.

Neongreen

Thanks for the heads up on the bounties. I will check the config file.
As far as version .22 goes, Well dont mean to be rude guy But If it was out on sourceforge I wouldnt be asking for it. Also If you look at the login screen of the game you will see it says [Release 0.21] which I copied and pasted right from the login screen. So I do believe the version is 0.22

While I show to be a newbee on the forums I have actually been running a Alien Assualt server for about the past 6 months. I run one of the most Successfull servers and not just a flash in the pan. A here today/gone tommorow server. Also EoB is successfully running on a windows machine. No small feat brother I can tell you.

I was hoping that maybe the developers would like to see how their new version runs on a windows server complete with ZLib, the graphics extension gd2 installed, and last night I successfully got MMCache installed and running.

Yep my server rocks, Not only is all the options enabled except for gzip But I use the Php4isapi.dll file which is much faster then the Php.exe file. Yes Sir, my server would be a Great place to test out the newest versions of Alien Assault and see how it works on a on a machine running Win 2K Advanced Server. I f I have offened you by my comments then I appoligize.


LordVngr

Now that sounds like a problem with the browser not being set to decode gzip html files. What browser are you using and are you using the default settings? I have tested gzip enabled on IE6 and Opera (any version) and everything works great. You might want to check your browser settings (both security and advanced). Have you tried a different browser or a different computer to access the site after you enable zgip?



That is something you shouldn't do as it may cause even more problems. The game comes with smarty already pre setup so you don't have to do anything with it. I would set everything back to where it was.



It will tell you what MUST be enabled for the game to work. If you don't see any warnings saying specifically that an item must be enabled then you are ok.



Yep, everything is preconfigured for adodb and smarty. You just unpack or copy everything directly. You con't have to move anything around to get the game to work as it is all self contained.



Set the ship and planet bounty ratios to 0 to disable ALL bounties in the game.



Glad you like the game. We try.

It is going to be maybe a couple of weeks before 0.22 comes out as it is going to have a radical change in how planets work. So that is taking alot of rewriting and testing. We had to to do it now as we are finally templating the port code and it is just easier to change the ports and planets at the same time.

I hope you figure out your gzip problem.

Have you installed the zlib yet? Also for windows to get a dll you may need to go here, not sure how well it works as I have not tried this. http://www.gzip.org/zlib/



Yes just load up the admin and select configuration editor and select bounty settings. Set the top 3 settings to 0 and the server will have no bounties. Careful of eveil players like myself that love those settings. Newbies will be pod people




Can't yet as thier are quite a bit of fixes and adjustments that PJ wants to make before he gets it released

Ok, lets see if I can answer both of your questions with this one post.



Kinda sounds like that dont it But no thats not It. I use IE 6.01 and get the same popup box no matter what machine I try from. My webserver is deerfields Visnetic webserver and it really requires the php4isapi.dll. the only way it will work with the php.exe is if I use a Old version.

So I installed Another web server thats does use the regular php.exe and it seemed to work ok. I could enable Gzip and get a screen anyway. I was using IE 6.01 to access it.



Thats nice to know. after a solid week of trying to fix this issue I was getting desperate and reaching for straws. I figured the Backend was preconfigured but did wonder when I looked at the Install doc. Hell, I actually got Excited when I read the part about coping the includes and saw there was php file in there setup for alien assault gzip compression.

I will say that by default my Php.ini file doesnt have the "Includes" directory populated. When I point that to the C:\php\pear directory as instructed then the game and admin menu give me a white screen and nothing else. I get this weather Ive copied the smart2 lib directory to the includes or not dont matter. white screen.

Shouldnt the Includes be setup in the php.ini file and what would cause the white screen.



The only thing I dont have enabled is Safe Mode, this is set to Off. Originally I was running with register_globals on But was having issues with the gambling not working and saw your post about turning it off. Turned Off Register_globals and now the gambling seems to work. Should this switch be on or off.

Then about 2:30 last night I saw your post about MMCache so I installed that thinking that would help. nope same issue Although mmcache is Sweet and a must run for Any php script.

The current Zlib is what was installed by default so I will try the New zlib later and see what happens.

Yep Ive racked my brain over this and just cant figure it out. When I look in the Phpinfo file everything looks good and I think the php.ini file is setup right. When I open the admin screen everything shows green for enableing G-zip. When i try to enable it I get a box. Just dont understand it.

Another factor that might have a effect is the Mysql server.
Although I did a fresh install of Mysql 4.0.18 I notice that php comes default with its own built in mysql client. When you go look in the phpinfo it shows to be a version 3.29.something. The game does give a warning on this but everything seems to work but GZip.

I did research on this to and the Only way to point Php to a new Mysql clinet is to Recomplie it. Since I use the DLL file instead of the EXE Im not even sure I can recompile it. My Other Headache....


At this point I'm so burned out on trying to get this Gzip up and running that I'm about ready to give up on it.

Besides, when you consider that I use the Dll instead of the exe for php, Use the Zlib Compression, MMcache, And got the GD v2.022 module up and running the server is actually pretty quick. Im not sure just how much the Gzip would help and using the php.exe file I think would actually slow things down.

Any more ideas let me know, I will try the newer zlib to see what happens. Thanks for your input and keep me in mind if you need a windows server to test out new features on..............

Later Guys

LordVngr

For gzip, try setting the gzip compression level to "0" (the lowest). Its still compressed.

On Apache2 in my testing of AAT, I couldnt get anything BUT level 0 to ever work, on any platform. I have zlib installed, have everything configured correctly, and have two other gzip apps working just fine, so that might be the ticket for you.

We run HP-UniX 11.11_rec06 servers at work. And when using Gzip we too use compression level of 0 due to cross-platform compatibility issues that we have discovered.

Heck - even between major and minor version of our OS we noticed issues.

Just so people dont reinvent the wheel I tested on:

Fedora Core 1, and Core 2 (default installs of mysql, php, and apache2).
OpenBSD (with considerable changes to get it working)

In all cases, I did eventually get gzip working, but only at level 0.

I tested all of the compression levels from 0 to 9 when I made the plugin for smarty and they all worked as they should. The server is running Redhat 8.0.

I will admit that I didn't test the compression levels on IE so it may be an IE problem in not being able to detect the different compression levels properly, if you are using IE. In Opera they all worked great.

And we are using the latest libraries as well.

Hmm. Odd.

I know I tested with zlib compression off, and got that result.. I redid it a dozen times to be sure.. yet today on the same server, same settings, all comp levels worked fine unless zlib.compression was on, in which case (of course) no compression level would work right.. (zlib.compression in your php.ini is incompatible with gzip, and it will warn you of that if you have warnings on).


I tested in Firebird, IE, and Konq.. but, as I said above, something odd is afoot, as its not consistent today.

Very confused.

Holy shit Batman. You guys are Right.
Setting the Compression level to Zero
Works on my Setup. No other level does
however.

When running with G-zip enabled
I get Strange strange characters at
the top & bottom left corners of All
Game pages. Any body else get this.
Some examples would be like

Top Left ---> ‹̺3E

Bottom Left ----> ˜è®ë%

One other thing I noticed now with
G-zip enabled is on some screen changes
the screen will flash white before loading
the page. No bid deal but it is noticble and
distracting


Finally I would add the following.
If you can run the Php4.dll in place
of php.exe then you should do it.
The difference in Performance is
Very Noticable to Me on My Windows
Web Server and probaly will be on
Yours too....


LordVngr

If you get those, you almost definitely have zlib.compression enabled in php.ini, which is INCOMPATIBLE with gzip compression.

Turn off zlib.compression, and everything will work right.

You are correct, I do have Zlib enabled.
I will turn if off and see what happens. Doesnt other PHP scripts use Zlib though and will I lose any speed on other php scripts if I turn if off.

If as a windows server I can only set the Gzip compression to 0 am I really getting any performance increase verses say keeping zlib enabled to use with All scripts and turning G-zip off. Using the php4.dll file makes the game pretty quick anyway.

Thanks for the info.

LV

Ok, here is your problem.

If you have zlib installed and enabled in PHP DO NOT ENABLE IT IN THE GAME. If you do then you will be compressing the output TWICE. The game will compress it and then the server will try to compress the compressed data AGAIN when it sends it out.

The gzip option in the game uses zlib and should only be used on servers that have zlib compression disabled but installed. The game doesn't check to see if zlib is enabled but we may add that check (since the installer will tell you if it is enabled) and force the games gzip OFF if zlib is enabled to prevent people from turning it on when they shouldn't.