NWNX2 Executable Released to the Public!

Post by **Orleron** » Mon Mar 03, 2003 11:20 pm

We are happy to announce the second incarnation of APS/NWNX, the real-time Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) interface for Neverwinter Nights.

Unlike previous systems, which utilize either tokens to hold information or creatively read the log file and re-compile it into the module, the Avlis Persistence System (APS) and the underlying NWN Extender 2 (NWNX2) read and write information from a database on the fly and make information stored in the database available in real-time. Supports all Windows operating systems.

Version 2.0 of NWNX offers many improvements over the original version: Faster, more reliable, unlimited result sets, GUI, Win9x support, NWNX log file, server log file rotation. Other benefits include:

* No performance hit if no queries are made. This time for real.

* NWNX2 augments the internal SetLocalString() function instead of interrupting it. That means NWNX2 is running inside of the server and not as a seperate process and thus significantly improves performance.

* Unlimited size for resultsets. A single row still has a limit of 1K (can be changed to a higher limit) but you can grab an unlimited amount of rows (previous limit: 4k for the whole thing).

* Should run with Win9x (hey... this one comes for free, so why not)

* Logs all activity to a file and may show additional info in a seperate (graphical) window.

* APS hasn't changed. (Almost) no conversion of existing code will be necessary.

* Foundation for lots of other stuff. Already made sure that ODBC is just a subsystem of NWNX2.

Post by **Orleron** » Mon Mar 03, 2003 11:23 pm

Some FAQ's:

Q. When will the LINUX port be done?

A. When a non-Avlis Team person steps up to the plate and makes one. There is no specific date, time, or intention yet.

Q. When will the source code for NWNX2 be released?

A. There is no specific date. Papillon intends to release the source code for NWNX2 when it is ready under a similar liscense as NWNX1.

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Tue Mar 04, 2003 3:20 pm

http://nwvault.ign.com/Files/other/data ... 9723.shtml

Arcanius · Post by **Arcanius** » Wed Mar 05, 2003 12:34 am

Anyone have any idea why all of the sudden my module beings to crash when i switched to nwnx2, (was using nwnx1.23). my mod have allways hung for a few min after the initial load. like if the mod load time was 5 min it would hag 2 more min (why i dunno) but it seems that it wont run under nwnx2

Post by **Orleron** » Wed Mar 05, 2003 1:50 am

These kinds of things always occur when NWNX2 include files are not properly installed. You have to make sure that aps_include is the newest version and that the module has been recompiled completely.

slabar · Post by **slabar** » Wed Mar 05, 2003 3:22 am

In the original version around line #129 of the aps_include file it had a handy spot for a file called aps_ready. For ease of use I would love to put this back in to NWNX2. I have tried and failed on my own so now I turn to you. Here's the code from the old include file for reference.

Thanks in advance.

Start Code -------

void SQLInit()
{
object oModule = GetModule();
SetLocalInt(oModule, "NWNX!READY", FALSE);

// Placeholders for ODBC persistance
string sRequest = "NWNX!REQUEST!";
string sResponse = "NWNX!RESPONSE!";
int i;

for (i = 0; i < 8; i++) // reserve 8*128 bytes for requests
sRequest += "................................................................................................................................";

for (i = 0; i < 32; i++) // reserve 32*128 bytes for responses
sResponse += "................................................................................................................................";

SetLocalString(oModule, "NWNX1!", sRequest);
SetLocalString(oModule, "NWNX2!", sResponse);

WriteTimestampedLogEntry("APS initialized. Waiting for NWNX to become ready.");
ExecuteScript("aps_ready", oModule);
}

Papillon · Post by **Papillon** » Wed Mar 05, 2003 10:43 am

Arcanius, get the update (2.01) from nwvault, please. Seems like I overlooked a small bug that is fixed in this version.

Papillon · Post by **Papillon** » Wed Mar 05, 2003 10:46 am

slabar wrote:In the original version around line #129 of the aps_include file it had a handy spot for a file called aps_ready. For ease of use I would love to put this back in to NWNX2. I have tried and failed on my own so now I turn to you. Here's the code from the old include file for reference.

aps_ready is obsolete. The script was basically a loop that waited for NWNX to become ready and is not needed anymore (because NWNX2 is ready right from the start). If you want to run some custom initialization code or database queries after the module has been loaded, make a new script and call it right after SQLInit().

Arcanius · Post by **Arcanius** » Wed Mar 05, 2003 12:21 pm

pap perfect

now the mod runs BUT only for 1 hour to 90 min the it hangs and i have to reboot the server..... any ideas?

(and yes i have made a full build of the mod and added all the new stuff)

Papillon · Post by **Papillon** » Wed Mar 05, 2003 6:23 pm

It hangs ? You mean the server doesn't react any longer ? I've seen the nwserver.exe crash, but I haven't seen it hang so far.

Arcanius · Post by **Arcanius** » Wed Mar 05, 2003 11:30 pm

aye hangs, no crash and nothing i cant do anything about it except reboot

according to the nwn vault messages to nwnx2 im not the only one

Themicles · Post by **Themicles** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 12:39 am

What OS are you running?
Are you hearing a lot of hard drive
noise?

I know that when my server crashes,
Dr Watson grabs hold of it, and I've
had it take nearly an hour before it
was done before...

Sometimes it eats so much CPU power
trying to debug it, that I can't even get
anything to work on the computer, and
can't even get task manager up to try
and kill it. And in this case, you must
kill Dr Watson, not the server, or the
server wont close.

-Themicles

slabar · Post by **slabar** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 6:40 am

papillon wrote:aps_ready is obsolete. The script was basically a loop that waited for NWNX to become ready and is not needed anymore (because NWNX2 is ready right from the start). If you want to run some custom initialization code or database queries after the module has been loaded, make a new script and call it right after SQLInit().

Papillon,

That's great news thanks. After the original version I didn't realize we could use the aps_onload to execute our load scripts.

BTW Love the new version. Keep up the great work.

Rowell · Post by **Rowell** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:38 pm

I too am having problems with the NWNX2 application.
When the NWN Server eventually crashes (within 2-7 hours of starting up), it simply hangs, NWNX2 does not restart the server application automatically. If the Ok button in the error window that pops up when the NWN Server crashes, NWNX2 is able to then restart the NWN Server. But, as long as that Error Window is displayed, NWNX2 still thinks the server is running.

System Specifications:
P4 2.4ghz processor
512mb Memory
Windows 98 SE (OS is up to date on all patches)
NWN running on Patch 1.28
Not running any other Applications, just the OS and NWN are installed on the server.

Papillon · Post by **Papillon** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 2:42 pm

Arcanius, are you using Win 9x as well ?

Silk · Post by **Silk** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 3:24 pm

In XP it's very easy to turn off the error window. I'm not sure how to do it in 9x. You may be SOL, but check the system policies in the policy editor.

Rowell · Post by **Rowell** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 6:32 pm

I know that with NWNMan (which is available on nwvault.ign.com) , that watchog app ignores the Error Window that pops up, closes the child process then starts it back up again.
Under Windows 98. unlike under Windows XP, I don't think there's a way to "turn off" the error message window that pops up when an application crashes.

BTW: Excellent work on this application. I've only had it installed for a few days and it's working marvelously!

Papillon · Post by **Papillon** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 6:41 pm

Do you have a link for NWNMAN ? Couldn't find it on nwvault.

Have you tried starting NWNX2 with NWNMAN ?

Rowell · Post by **Rowell** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 9:57 pm

The Link to NWman is: http://www.hlstats.org/nwman/

Generally, it run the NWN server as a child process and watches that process. If it sees that the NWN Server has stopped/crashed, it starts up another NWN Server. If I were to modify the configuration so that NWman started up NWNX2 (and then NWNX2 started up the NWN Server), I think NWman would be monitoring the NWNX2 process, not the NWN Server process. I'll give it a try and see if this is true.

FastFrench · Post by **FastFrench** » Fri Mar 07, 2003 10:11 am

I got this same problem a few months ago as I were coding my NWServer monitoring tool. As a solution, I always check for any DrWatson process and kill it before doing anything at all on the NWServer.exe process.

Papillon · Post by **Papillon** » Fri Mar 07, 2003 10:27 am

DrWatson on Win 9x ??

Btw, FastFrench, as you where one of the guys craving for the source code

... when will you release your tool to the public ?

Anebril · Post by **Anebril** » Fri Mar 07, 2003 10:53 am

I also had the server hang during the first day of using it. I was running a mod on version 1 for 2-3 weeks or so with no problems. Running XP. All I saw in the logs was :

* NWNX2 shutting down.

Restarted it. Will keep monitoring and let you know if it happens again.

FastFrench · Post by **FastFrench** » Fri Mar 07, 2003 11:30 am

Papillon wrote:DrWatson on Win 9x ??

Don't know exactly for Win9x, I'm using XP.

Papillon wrote:Btw, FastFrench, as you where one of the guys craving for the source code ... when will you release your tool to the public ?

You're right, I were probably one of the guys who were the most loudly begging for the code... so I understand you feel a bit disappointed to have absolutely no feed back about what pple are doing with it, if anything at all. Not very fair, and probably won't encourage you to keep giving your source code again for the current release.

So here are some explanations:
- I'm both coding on a module with few other builders (Le bouchon Lyonnais ATS, a french one) and hosting it on my own server (running XP pro). But all the other builders of this mod dedicate themself to another server, which is a Linux one (which run the very same module). So they convince me to first replace all token stuff with copyobject mecanisms (now 2 small items in inventory hold 64 base-63 ints) before considering adapt the module - and only for my server - with APS/NWNX. I know I could do much more things with NWNX than I can with copyobject (perm. chest/ATS vendors..., and also Correctly store permanent data onclientleave - wich is definitively not possible with inventory-based solutions).
- Also, I compiled your code with no problem, but got some conflicts between your part and mine when I added my code (library were different, something to do with single/multi thread and MFC use or not - despite I avoided to use them as u do)... well, nothing really impossible to solve, simply it were not as EZ as it could have been.
- As I've seen that NWNX2 were about to come out, I prefered to give up doing this to finish the 'copyobject' adaptation (now it's all done). And I kept checking the old thread where NWNX1 can be download, that just said ('til this morning) NWNX2 were about to be released...
- And also, it seems that for most guys around, the tools allready available to keep NWServer running are doing a good enough job. So I wondered if enough people need more sophisticated tools as I do, to justify cleaning/comment the code, make it more configurable, document it... sure you know what I mean here Papillon

.

Well, many promises but few acts from me...

All I can do on a very short term if it can help, it's to send you my code so you can check if you find some improvment that you want to apply on NWNX2. It's not very clean or commented, but very reliable... well, at least in my case

Also it's partially based on the same classes to manage processes (but a bit more recent), so it makes it easier to understand.

Rowell · Post by **Rowell** » Fri Mar 07, 2003 12:16 pm

I've re-configured NWman to start the NWNX2 Process, which then starts the NWN Server. I let the server run until it crashed. Neither NWman nor NWNX2 could restart the NWN Server application.

Sykos · Post by **Sykos** » Fri Mar 07, 2003 12:25 pm

That a very good news

But I'm still waiting the linux port because my PW runs on
a linux server

Nice job and I hope the linux nwnx will be relaese soon