Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

How important is it to you to have alternative builds?

A couple of the devs have decided that having more than 1 person compiling is “annoying” and have removed all compiler threads from the Important Threads section.

The compilers here (myself included) (please correct me if I’m wrongfully including you) would like to know what you think about having multiple people compiling and whether or not their builds should be made easily accessible.


The poll choices:

1st choice: Not important at all. The compiler threads can be lost amongst the rest of them. We don’t need more than *Delroth's builds. (corrected)

2nd choice: They’re somewhat important. The main alternatives (tried and true, or the most popular) should be stickied so people can easily find them.

3rd choice: They’re very important. They should be moved to their own section of the Development forum. That way, people will know exactly where to go to get them. The most popular or the most trusted ones can be stickied there, and anyone else who starts compiling will have a place to make their builds available without immediately being lost in general development discussion.

You can choose multiple of the choices above. It'd be much appreciated if you could be serious and honest with your selection (please do not pick all three).


As far as I can tell, these are the main arguments:

Arguments against the importance of multiple compiling sources:
-“Annoying”
-Clutters the Development Discussion forum
-May or may not actually be useful
-Different compiling methods yield builds that perform differently (ie difference in speed and/or stability) (can be good or bad).
-Custom builds may cause confusion or issues if not compiled correctly
-Custom builds are not officially supported

Arguments for the importance of multiple compiling sources:
-Custom builds offer the ability to request custom patches and branches
-Different compiling methods yield builds that perform differently (ie difference in speed and/or stability) (can be good or bad).
-Custom builds may provide a much-needed increase in speed for those who need it
-Custom builds are a key part of "Open Source" and open testing.
-Custom builds provide an alternative source of builds during the periods in which mamario's compiler goes down or does not work correctly.


If you have more arguments for either side, feel free to post them.

As far as I'm concerned, as long as the forum has a place to get the latest builds quick and easy and is always up-to-date, that's all that is needed. Delroth's build bot seems to provide that. Only when the official forum bot does not do its job is when alternate compilers are needed.

Quote:A couple of the devs have decided that having more than 1 person compiling is “annoying” and have removed all compiler threads from the Important Threads section.

I did that.

If we keep unofficial builds threads stickied there are too many threads stickied and the important infos (official builds, for example) are in the middle of unofficial stuff.

If we remove some unofficial builds to keep only 2 or 3 then there is the issue of deciding which thread to keep there. I don't want to judge any of your threads, mostly because I don't really care.

I don't see how having your threads stickied matters, to be honest.

Quote:Custom builds offer the ability to request custom patches and branches

All branches are built by the new buildbot. Most of the unofficial patches are hacks and as a dev I'd rather not have builds compiled with such things. Even less in a thread that is stickied at the top of the forums. And especially when the people adding these patches to their regular builds don't even know what these patches do (for example, DefenderX and the SMS heat effect hack patch).

Quote:Custom builds may provide a much-needed increase in speed for those who need it

Still waiting for a benchmark. Every test I've done on my computer gave me the same result: no average speed difference between official builds and ICC "optimized" builds.

Quote:Custom builds provide an alternative source of builds during the periods in which mamario's compiler goes down or does not work correctly

See, this is why having too many sticky threads sucks. You didn't even notice that we have a new buildbot managed by the dev team which does not have these issues.

(09-28-2012, 09:48 AM)Starscream Wrote: [ -> ]As far as I'm concerned, as long as the forum has a place to get the latest builds quick and easy and is always up-to-date, that's all that is needed. Delroth's build bot seems to provide that. Only when the official forum bot does not do its job is when alternate compilers are needed.

Thats why we've suggested new subforum in Development section called Unnoficial (custiom) Builds e.t.c. where our (compilers) threads could go.

No one is saying you can't have your threads, they're just not stickied.

*Vote 4 number 3*

To be fair,

Quote:We don’t need more than mamario’s builds.

should read

Quote:We don’t need more than delroth's builds.

Plus, you don't really have a "They're kinda important, but they don't need to be sticked" option.

(09-28-2012, 09:53 AM)delroth Wrote: [ -> ]And especially when the people adding these patches to their regular builds don't even know what these patches do (for example, DefenderX and the SMS heat effect hack patch).

This patch removes the heat effect in Super Mario Sunshine. One person didn't like the heat effect cause it ruins the graphics (in his opinion) and as neobrain is a friendly person, he created this patch .
-> You see, I know, what this patch do. (How could I overlook the thread for this patch? ) But the patch is no longer integrated in my builds, I stopped including it some weeks ago.

I think this poll's phrasing is deceptive. "How important is it to you to have alternative builds?" has nothing to do with how they are displayed here on the forum. The poll choices are disconnected with the voting, and the headline is skewed to imply that custom builds might be removed entirely; the combination makes it far more likely that people will vote that it's "important".

I think they should have their own sub forum section on the development discussion forum, and certainly they don't have to be stickied in the development discussion forum because it may cause a misinterpretation and confusion in a lot of the most common users that don't even care in read that those builds are alternative and not officials.

What im saying is:

They are important: yes of course

They have to be stickied on the main Development Forum : no, for the above mentioned reasons.

They need their own subforum section: yes it make them easy to find and you can keep following your favorite compilers, if you don't like the standard build, or you are looking for certain unsupported Hacks/optimizations etc.

Come on guys, don't make a fight of this, it is just a little forum reorganization here, we are not grampas that some one change the remote of place and all become a nightmare xD.