Clone - Chinese Problem

Area to discuss development and bugs of official clones (Clone, Arbiter, MSX, Viennasweeper)
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thefinerminer
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Clone - Chinese Problem

Post by thefinerminer »

Clone videos made on Chinese computers do not work on Western computers (and vice versa) unless the language is installed and the user goes to the Control Panel and changes the "date, time, or number format" to Chinese. Both Vista and Win 7 have Chinese installed, but XP users have to install a language pack. The problem is related to some countries using " , " and some countries using " . " for decimal places.

Clone 0.97 is used by the China ranking even though it was banned by the IMC. They want to use Clone 2007, but videos get corrupted if you use some combinations of operating system and Clone. The webmaster, Shen-Jia Zhang, emailed me in 27 Sep 2011:

"Win 7 was more and more popular in China now. I just want to find a way to accept the players who use Win 7. So far, they setup a virtual machine on Win 7 and run XP on it. It's too complicated. Many players refused to used Win 7, because they will not able to upload videos on my site. Instead Clone 0.97, I would like to choose Clone 2007 as the version for popularize. Videos recorded by 2007 can play on Chinese system, both on XP and Win7. But I need to confirm if it works on English system."

The following chart (I helped Zhang with the English testing) shows the problem facing the community. Remember you need to change the format to Chinese to watch. To summarize:

1) 0.97 on Chinese Win7/Vista: video is corrupt for any other combination
2) 0.97 on Chinese XP: works every combination except XP and Clone2007
3) 2007 on Chinese Win7/Vista: works on all systems but only in Clone2007
4) 2007 on Chinese XP: works on all systems but only in Clone2007

Now you know why I allowed Clone 0.97 videos from Chinese players onto the World Ranking temporarily. When I first talked to Zhang he claimed Clone2007 did not work on his computer, but this problem seems to be fixed.

Rodrigo - fancy fixing the format problem so all videos can be viewed on all systems? Then we can get rid of this 0.97 problem.
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Tommy
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Re: Clone - Chinese Problem

Post by Tommy »

I don't think that clone 0.97 should be accepted at all... http://minesweeper.info/wiki/Funny_Mode

It's too bad if there are problems with clone 2007, but it's also not as if arbiter, msx and vsweep weren't viable alternatives. Arbiter in particular has a feature set to match the clone's. And to make an old and buggy version legal just because it's called "clone" is madness, in my opinion.
Don't anthropomorphize computers - they don't like it.
qqwref
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Re: Clone - Chinese Problem

Post by qqwref »

Yeah, Clone 0.97 should only be allowed if there is absolutely no alternative. (Would anyone be willing to look through all Clone 0.97 vids to check for Funny Mode?)

Also, if we can't contact Rodrigo by e-mail... I did find a recent-ish address for his school, so maybe an inquiry there would help.
NF player. Best scores 1-10-39.
thefinerminer
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Re: Clone - Chinese Problem

Post by thefinerminer »

I have talked to some Chinese players recently.

Chun-Xi Liu said "The video of Clone97 is the only kind of video accepted by saolei.wang,it's also a reason I use Clone97. I really hope saolei.wang can accept other kinds of videos." He also said Clone2007 does not work on his XP computer, it gives error messages ('Unhandled Exception') when it tries to save a video.

Mao-Qi Chen said "I am always confused that saolei.wang only allow us to use clone 0.97.Maybe it's because the videos made by clone 2007 can't be opened by the administrators of the site.So if the players want to join the ranking of saolei.wang they have to use clone 0.97 on win xp.But I believe if one love the game,he or she won't cheat in the game. Maybe you can discuss it with Zhang Shen Jia or other administrators. "

The top Chinese players are using VSweep at Scoreganizer and like it. The main problem is that the admin team can approve scores but have no permission to edit the site or the rules - the person in charge (ShenJia Zhang) is very busy.



NOTE: @qqwref - I scanned all Clone videos and found only 5 that were 'Funny Mode'. All were from 2008, and they are not on the ranking.
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Tommy
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Re: Clone - Chinese Problem

Post by Tommy »

Would any of the chinese players be willing to translate scoreganizer? If so, I'd make a chinese version of the site. I'm also willing to build in new features, in the hope that saolei.wang won't be needed anymore (not that I want to compete with saolei.wang - but if it isn't being actively developed, and isn't capable of doing important things, I think we need to replace it).
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CBright
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Re: Clone - Chinese Problem

Post by CBright »

qqwref wrote:Yeah, Clone 0.97 should only be allowed if there is absolutely no alternative. (Would anyone be willing to look through all Clone 0.97 vids to check for Funny Mode?)
But Funny Mode is trivial to activate without going to the trouble of signifying that you are using it, so I don't think this really helps much. And submitting to saolei is the only case I can think of where Clone 0.97 is your only option.

P.S. I've been looking at that diagram for a long time and I don't see how it matches what you said.
gacord
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Re: Clone - Chinese Problem

Post by gacord »

Huge number of players using clone 0.97 are suffering of the bugs.
Bug always happen when you breaks your record! It is really terrible.We call the bug as "Mao zhang wen's gift"
Both arbiter and Vienna sweeper is capable on chinese system. We are going weekly tournaments on scoreganizer.
It is my pleasure to make translations of scoreganizer!
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Tommy
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Re: Clone - Chinese Problem

Post by Tommy »

gacord, that is awesome :) I'll send you the texts to translate as soon as I can. It might take a while - I am a bit tied up with other projects at the moment.
Don't anthropomorphize computers - they don't like it.
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