~ JUN/20/2020 ~
Hello, everyone. As i'm sure most are aware, yes, DreamPI Companion is currently suspended; Kazade, the creator of DreamPi, has made improvements and additions to the Dreamcast.Online API, which are not compatible with *any version of DreamPi Companion.
On top of this, earlier this month, I had discovered that the latest version of DPC had shipped with in insanely horrendous bug that completely broke the 'favorites list' feature. This bug was completely invisible and I had made any changes to the code what-so-ever, So i'm still heavily unsure how this bug even started.
Of course, As I've stated time and time again, DPC was never meant to be a public project and as such resulted in spaghetti code. What started out as a simple and personal networking debug tool ended up being a feature rich experience enhancement for Dreamcast.Online; It's even endorsed by Kazade himself! -- Over the plethora of updates, I've tried to 'tidy up', re-work and optimize a fair chunk of the foundation, but it wasn't enough in the end; The API changed drastically and features started to become a nightmare to maintain, so see this as a lesson.
If you're a programmer and you're writing a personal project, *keep* it personal; Especially if you wrote the code 'fast'/'dirty'. If there's any shred of chance that the project may become public, or if there's public interest, then do yourself a favor and re-write the code proper before you make any major implementations. You will save yourself the headache.
Personal rant out the way, yes, DreamPI Companion is NOT dead; I know some of you eagerly miss it and are awaiting it's return, and I truly thank you for this. I'm very happy my tool could improve your Dreamcast multiplayer experience.
But yes, DreamPi Compantion is not dead; In fact, it is now time for Phase 2, a-la 'Gorillaz' style, as I like to call it. If you've been keeping up with this thread, you probably have seen the 'design' mock I've teased; One of them anyways.
Yes, it's true. DreamPi Companion is getting a rewrite; Full API support with all the features you've come to love, but with a fresh coat of paint and brand new engine written specifically for the project.
See you soon.
Thanks everyone for the 380+ downloads.
~ABOUT~
DreamPi Companion is a desktop application for Microsoft Windows (XP/VISTA/7/8/10), Apple Mac OS/X (El Capitan tested) & Linux (Linux Mint tested). DreamPi Companion, (DPC), aims to be a lightweight replacement for the Dreamcast.Online web interface while adding much needed features to enhance a user's experience while also tapping into the web interface's unused features.
~FEATURES~
Multi-Platform & Lightweight (No need for a bloaty browser)
Viewing your DreamPi's Status over the local network
The ability to individually show/hide your IP & MAC address
Dreamcast.Online profile integration
Live player-count and player-list
View each player's libraries; See what games they play on DreamPi
The ability to 'search for' and 'favorite' players
Receive notifications for 'favorited' players when they go online and offline
Game filtering (blacklisting certain games being played from view)
User filtering (blacklisting 'unnamed' and 'No-Game' players from view)
Interface themes (OEM)
Viewing your DreamPi's Status over the local network
The ability to individually show/hide your IP & MAC address
Dreamcast.Online profile integration
Live player-count and player-list
View each player's libraries; See what games they play on DreamPi
The ability to 'search for' and 'favorite' players
Receive notifications for 'favorited' players when they go online and offline
Game filtering (blacklisting certain games being played from view)
User filtering (blacklisting 'unnamed' and 'No-Game' players from view)
Interface themes (OEM)
~DOWNLOADS~
Downloading DreamPi Companion is currently suspended. The latest release, v2.2, contained a severe bug to where the favorites list suddenly just 'broke' without any real reason; Nothing changed between 2.0 and 2.2, even comparing the source(s). Just broke.
There's a long post about it within the comments - However, after 9 hours of debugging, and having some close friends crunching time with me and wrangling the spaghetti with our forks, the problem has been isolated and is patched, since the community seemed let down.
Yes, we went out of our way for YOU, the people. Thanks for nearly 400 downloads.
This being said, v2.3 still needs a fuggggggg*-ton of nitty-gritty testing, which also requires a lot of users to be online at once. So v2.3 is in development / pseudo suspended until testing criteria is met.
~THEME DOWNLOADS~
Due to v2.2 being broken, all downloads are suspended. Please see above information.
~Q/A~
Q: I have a question about the promotional advertisement included in DPC.
A: If you have any questions about that, definitely send me a message. I'm not currently giving any major public information on that project, but I will try to answer as much as possible.
Q: Are there any downsides to using DPC instead of the web interface?
A: No, unless you want to know which country a player is from; That is the only missing feature and I will be inquiring with Kazade in the future about supporting it.
Q: Are there any actual benefits to using DPC instead of the web interface?
A: Yes, Quite a few. - While the web interface is "official", DPC is endorsed by Kazade and he's the reason DPC is on DCTalk to begin with. Secondly, DPC offers a slew of new/exclusive features that are advertised above AND you can use the tool while offline, as users are cached.
Q: DPC crashed or when into fail-safe mode! What do I do??
A: Report it here, of course! Failsafe mode gives a whole bunch of info, so make sure to post all of it. Also, remember to include your OS/OS Version/OS Build Architecture etc.
Q: DPC stutters a lot when loading or isn't registering input properly?
A: If loading is taking some time, especially when flipping through pages of users, definitely go into settings and enable 'Cache User Icons'. Also, make sure you're interacting with DPC when the 'refresh icon' isn't on screen.
Q: Where's the Discord link?
A: Due to DPC currently being suspended for further testing, The server is also suspended. You're not missing out on much and I'm considering either moving the channel to it's own server OR removing it all together. We'll see.
