MantisBT - Doomseeker
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IDProjectCategoryView StatusDate SubmittedLast Update
0003958Doomseeker[All Projects] Epicpublic2021-12-23 13:082024-11-03 19:11
ReporterZalewa 
Assigned ToZalewa 
PrioritynormalSeverityminorReproducibilityN/A
StatusclosedResolutionfixed 
PlatformOSOS Version
Product Version1.3.2 
Target Version1.4.0Fixed in Version1.4.0 
Summary0003958: SRB2 plugin is unmaintained
DescriptionI don't play SRB2. My main purpose for implementing the SRB2 plugin was to improve the plugin API of Doomseeker itself, while gaining a support for another game as a bonus. SRB2 was a good choice for that because it was a Doom port that wasn't a Doom game.

However, it appears that they have distanced themselves technologically from us and we weren't informed. Moreover, their mods tend to be '.exe' mods where you need to download a variant of the engine, which is a rather odd way of modding and isn't something that Doomseeker is adapted to at all. Supporting such mods would require the scale of work that was done for the Zandronum Testing binaries.

I wish to state I will no longer keep the SRB2 plugin up-to-date. If there's no one else, preferably someone from SRB2 community, who will clearly say here "Yes, I will maintain this plugin", then I will discontinue it.
Steps To Reproduce
Additional InformationSince I don't play SRB2 I wasn't aware that their Master Server has stopped responding. I was informed about that by an user of Doomseeker by a PM on the Zandronum forum. SRB2's MS was known to have stability issues, but this time the MS was down for a longer time. I asked them what happened to the master server and, tl;dr, I received a response was shut-down permanently.

Link to the thread on their forums, seems to be private:'https://mb.srb2.org/threads/ms-srb2-org-28900-doesnt-respond-doomseeker-cant-get-server-list.34041/ [^]'

I'm attaching a screenshot of the thread. I also asked them if they want to take over the maintenance of the plugin, but so far there was no response.
TagsNo tags attached.
Relationships
related to 0003510closed WubTheCaptain Remove SRB2 engine plugin distribution 
parent of 0003961closed Zalewa SRB2 plugin is missing a deprecation notice 
parent of 0003962closed Zalewa Doomseeker builds an unmaintained SRB2 game plugin by default 
related to 0003662closed Zalewa SRB2Kart engine is handled poorly by our SRB2 engine 
Attached Filesjpg srb2-ms-thread-p01.jpg (330,807) 2021-12-23 13:08
https://zandronum.com/tracker/file_download.php?file_id=2700&type=bug
patch 0001-Deprecate-the-SRB2-game.patch (1,646) 2021-12-28 11:22
https://zandronum.com/tracker/file_download.php?file_id=2701&type=bug
Issue History
Date ModifiedUsernameFieldChange
2021-12-23 13:08ZalewaNew Issue
2021-12-23 13:08ZalewaFile Added: srb2-ms-thread-p01.jpg
2021-12-23 13:23WubTheCaptainRelationship addedrelated to 0003510
2021-12-23 13:28WubTheCaptainNote Added: 0022002
2021-12-23 13:28WubTheCaptainStatusnew => acknowledged
2021-12-23 13:28WubTheCaptainNote Edited: 0022002bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=22002#r13503
2021-12-28 11:11WubTheCaptainAssigned To => WubTheCaptain
2021-12-28 11:11WubTheCaptainStatusacknowledged => assigned
2021-12-28 11:22WubTheCaptainFile Added: 0001-Deprecate-the-SRB2-game.patch
2021-12-28 11:23WubTheCaptainNote Added: 0022030
2021-12-28 11:23WubTheCaptainStatusassigned => feedback
2021-12-28 11:26ZalewaNote Added: 0022031
2021-12-28 11:26ZalewaStatusfeedback => assigned
2021-12-28 11:27ZalewaNote Deleted: 0022031
2021-12-28 11:32WubTheCaptainNote Added: 0022032
2021-12-28 11:32WubTheCaptainAssigned ToWubTheCaptain =>
2021-12-28 11:32WubTheCaptainStatusassigned => feedback
2021-12-28 11:33WubTheCaptainNote Edited: 0022032bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=22032#r13522
2021-12-28 11:34ZalewaNote Added: 0022033
2021-12-28 11:34ZalewaStatusfeedback => new
2021-12-28 11:36ZalewaNote Edited: 0022033bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=22033#r13524
2021-12-28 12:19WubTheCaptainStatusnew => acknowledged
2021-12-28 12:56WubTheCaptainSummarySRB2 plugin needs a maintainer => SRB2 plugin is unmaintained
2021-12-28 13:01WubTheCaptainCategorySuggestion => Epic
2021-12-28 13:02WubTheCaptainRelationship addedparent of 0003961
2021-12-28 13:13WubTheCaptainRelationship addedparent of 0003962
2021-12-28 13:17WubTheCaptainTarget Version => 1.3.3
2021-12-28 13:18WubTheCaptainNote Added: 0022038
2021-12-28 13:19WubTheCaptainStatusacknowledged => confirmed
2021-12-28 13:24WubTheCaptainTarget Version1.3.3 =>
2021-12-28 13:55WubTheCaptainNote Deleted: 0022038
2021-12-28 14:11Blzut3Note Added: 0022042
2021-12-28 14:16WubTheCaptainNote Added: 0022043
2021-12-28 14:32Blzut3Note Added: 0022044
2022-09-10 14:40ZalewaTarget Version => 1.4.0
2022-09-10 14:50ZalewaRelationship addedrelated to 0003662
2023-01-04 15:44ZalewaAssigned To => Zalewa
2023-01-04 15:44ZalewaStatusconfirmed => assigned
2023-01-04 16:54ZalewaNote Added: 0022629
2023-01-04 16:54ZalewaStatusassigned => needs review
2023-01-05 12:40ZalewaNote Added: 0022666
2023-01-05 12:40ZalewaStatusneeds review => needs testing
2023-01-26 16:59WubTheCaptainNote Added: 0022748
2023-02-19 14:10ZalewaStatusneeds testing => resolved
2023-02-19 14:10ZalewaFixed in Version => 1.4.0
2023-02-19 14:10ZalewaResolutionopen => fixed
2024-11-03 19:11ZalewaStatusresolved => closed

Notes
(0022002)
WubTheCaptain   
2021-12-23 13:28   
0003510:
Quote from WubTheCaptain
I suggest to let the SRB2 team to take responsibility of distributing (and developing) their engine plugin if they so desire, while Doomseeker could still support the required APIs for functionality.

0003510:0019814:
Quote from Zalewa
Of course, there are valid reasons to remove features, delete their whole code and forget they ever existed. Let's try to state some events when such action should be considered:
[...]
* When the reason the feature was implemented is no longer valid. In this case: if SRB2 dies off, there will be no reason to keep the plugin and it should be either removed altogether or moved to the legacy section as has happened to the Vavoom plugin. We don't spend time on maintaining the legacy plugins. Another example is the ZDaemon plugin which was completely removed after ZDaemon devs encrypted their protocol to block our plugin off.

* When the maintenance cost vastly outweights the benefits this feature brings.

You said it yourself, so I support removing this (in addition to my reasoning in 0003510).
(0022030)
WubTheCaptain   
2021-12-28 11:23   
I've attached 0001-Deprecate-the-SRB2-game.patch. Are you okay with this approach? (Target 1.3.3 if so.)
(0022032)
WubTheCaptain   
2021-12-28 11:32   
(edited on: 2021-12-28 11:33)
I saw your earlier note, which you already deleted Zalewa.
There's also this:
static bool isForbiddenPlugin(QString file)
{
        return QFileInfo(file).fileName().toLower().contains("vavoom");
}

I don't understand why some plugins (the only other legacy plugin) can be forbidden, so I'll unassign myself. But I understood you want it disabled (not built) by default for 1.3.3.
(0022033)
Zalewa   
2021-12-28 11:34   
(edited on: 2021-12-28 11:36)
Quote from Wub
already deleted

Yeah, I haven't decided yet whether the removal of that plugin is for 1.3.3 or the release after that.
Quote from Wub
I don't understand why some plugins (the only other legacy plugin) can be forbidden

Loading a DLL that stops being compatible can have dire consequences, so instead of loading said DLL and comparing the baked in ABI version number or whatever to decide whether to discard it or not, it's safer to ban it from being loaded at all.
(0022042)
Blzut3   
2021-12-28 14:11   
In regards to 1.3.3 or after, I guess a question I have is if it's just the master protocol that's broken or is it also not able to query info from servers? If it's still possibly useful for the latter lets do one more release, otherwise lets remove it immediately. No sense shipping an objectively useless plugin.
(0022043)
WubTheCaptain   
2021-12-28 14:16   
What will happen to the DRD Team Debian repository doomseeker-srb2 package?
(0022044)
Blzut3   
2021-12-28 14:32   
Been awhile since I dealt with this particular scenario so this might not be exactly right, but I think when we formally drop the plugin we should add conflicts to the main Doomseeker package to tell Apt to uninstall it. I think I can also delist it from the repo at the same time.
(0022629)
Zalewa   
2023-01-04 16:54   
The SRB2 plugin moved to the legacy plugin list:'https://bitbucket.org/Doomseeker/doomseeker/commits/368f0df909fbb7834ff8c78bfd735f529476ecce [^]'

I will include the last srb2.dll update in the auto-update package, but I will remove it from the next release package.
(0022666)
Zalewa   
2023-01-05 12:40   
Beta package for Windows available at the beta auto-update channel and at:
'https://devbuilds.drdteam.org/doomseeker/doomseeker-1.3.3~beta-230105-1140_windows.zip [^]' [^]

Please test that the SRB2 plugin doesn't appear anymore in the program even when it is on the engines path. Keep in mind that the provided beta package doesn't contain the SRB2 plugin anymore.
(0022748)
WubTheCaptain   
2023-01-26 16:59   
SRB2 still appears to be offered for Doomseeker 1.4.0 from the DRD Team Debian Package Repository. 0003958:0022044