GuideMe (TeaseMe v2.0) - Current Build 0.4.4

[richman2]

Hi there,
maybe also a short feedback on the debug window: I do use it very often. I agree with the "cheating problem" :) but I'd say the possibilities opend are to be considered. Some examples:

Some teases have an "Intro" you cant skip, but where nothing than text is displayed (which is okay and necessary for the first or second time, but not if you want to play more often). I use debug window to simply skip this. Same applies for teases that have, say in the middle of the tease a series of pages with "no action". Sometimes it is assigned say 20sec for one page with 2 lines of text, followed by another, follwed by a third - and this is not for "cool down" reasosns or intended part of the storyline to make you waiting, but simply to much time considered for the slides. Sure also beginners can easily change the code in this respect...but debug window is simpler :)
Then, especially in long teases with maybe multiple instances/parts I want maybe just play my favourite part/girl/game/whatever. I this is not implemented by jumpoints-->debug window.
To me it seems the special advantage compared to guideme so far is, that you can directly select any page (not just skip one) you want.
Last: it is cool to see where different buttons lead you... for sure when playing a first, a second or even a third time a tease it is better to be surprised. But after a while it is simply interesting to try new things and to know in advance a bit about what will happen (just a loop? new path? missed something?)... maybe for coding experts it is straight and simple to have one look on the code... but for me it is better to look in the debug windwo in order to now which button leads to which page etc.

So just my two cents. Maybe it helps experts to understand better how "dummies" (in terms of coding) or generally other users use the debug window and hence to implement something appropriate.



tl; dr: Debug window with directly selectable pages is a valueable addon to teasme as it allows to play in a different way and to get all and everything out of every tease

[Trusfrated]

I'd echo what Lestrian and Richman2 said. It seems like we have similar interests.

translate
Sounds like a good idea, the api costs money so I wouldn't use that.
However the free website may work.

Sorry, didn't realize the Google API wasn't free anymore. (Apparently Bing's is, but it may be inferior?) This is not a high priority thing for me at all, just thought it would be an interesting idea.

toggle full-screen
The current development version is working dual screen (images displayed on the primary monitor, text and buttons on the secondary). I should be able to add a setting to choose which screen to use.
In the short term Guideme uses the primary monitor, so you could switch your TV to be the primary monitor to get it to work full screen and then switch back when you finish.

Thanks, temporarily switching the TV to primary worked; can't believe I didn't try that before!

Personally, I like the idea of keeping the entire application confined to one screen (as opposed to just the picture on one monitor and the text and buttons on the other), but I'm open to new ideas. Perhaps this could be an option? I just think moving my eyes back and forth and refocusing on each could be somewhat distracting and remove the user from the "moment." Also, I'd prefer to have the other monitor dedicated to something else. In my case, the two screens are not very close to each other.

Additionally, as Lestrian alluded to, the current fullscreen mode isn't "truly" fullscreen in my opinion. There is still black space above and below the picture as well as the menu bar at the top. I think ideally the picture would occupy as close to 100% of the vertical space as possible, much like TeaseMe does currently.

Debug window
I didn't use the debug screen in tease me, which is the main reason I have not implemented anything like it for Guideme. If it is useful then I can have a look at implementing something.
It may be worth having a list of what people feel is missing on the debug side, is the teaseme debug window "perfect" or can it be improved or provided in a better way.
If I am going to write something it may be better to do exactly what people need rather than just replicating what teaseme does.
(I must admit I find it a challenge to not "cheat" when I do a tease if the debug option is there so didn't want to make it too easy )

I think if the debug window was not widely advertised and was brought up with a "secret" hotkey combination like in TeaseMe, that would quell some of the worries about "cheating." For those of us that are "hardcore" users it is probably very important, but many others many not even know it exists. For me, like the others who posted above me, I use it for selectively changing pages (particularly helpful if a flash tease is published with errors), see page names, how many pages exist, what target pages there are, picture and sound filenames, and hidden and secret timer durations, to name a few. There are other elements to the TeaseMe version, but these are the main ones I use. In general it is nice (educational) to see how all the elements of the page come together to work the way it does. (Although this can also be done with the Offline Editor! ) I could even imagine a debug window that allowed basic edits to those elements on the fly...

Overall, I think the existing TeaseMe debug window is near-perfect. There are some elements I don't look at normally, but for a debugging tool it does what it's supposed to do, which is show you why each page is doing what it's doing.

[tommarr]

I think if the debug window was not widely advertised and was brought up with a "secret" hotkey combination like in TeaseMe, that would quell some of the worries about "cheating." For those of us that are "hardcore" users it is probably very important, but many others many not even know it exists. For me, like the others who posted above me, I use it for selectively changing pages (particularly helpful if a flash tease is published with errors), see page names, how many pages exist, what target pages there are, picture and sound filenames, and hidden and secret timer durations, to name a few. There are other elements to the TeaseMe version, but these are the main ones I use. In general it is nice (educational) to see how all the elements of the page come together to work the way it does. (Although this can also be done with the Offline Editor! ) I could even imagine a debug window that allowed basic edits to those elements on the fly...

Overall, I think the existing TeaseMe debug window is near-perfect. There are some elements I don't look at normally, but for a debugging tool it does what it's supposed to do, which is show you why each page is doing what it's doing.

I agree with this. It's especially helpfull with broken teases (ones you notice after 10 minutes or so). You can manually move to correct page and continue. Also you can go thru whole tease much faster and check if it's working correctly, check target pages, timers and so on

So I believe not everyone needs it but for those who have used it to debug teases on teaseme it's pretty important part. TeaseMes debug windows is pretty good so copying it to GuideMe would be nice :P

[janmb]

The whole cheating debate is moot - since the only one getting cheated is the cheater. If people want to cheat themselves, by all means let them. There is no sane reason for ever letting yourself care about that.

There are however tons of good reasons to have a debug option - a tease getting stuck on page 993 being a good example.

[xeenith]

I use them to pass the too long rest or annoying/boring parts...
If I don't have a constant stimulation (physical and/or pleasing visual) I go soft fast and I could do quite a few teases one after the other with no problems if not for "delay" buttons with the debug mode on :p
some others teases, I don't need to use it, and actually NEED some rests here & there, it all depend on the settings conforming to my kinks or not, mostly

[philo]

New standalone download program to try
https://mega.co.nz/#!gcZWzYha!f_rKOiuTG ... 8BKfxVtWko

Application preferences let you set the directory where it will write the tease.

File load will load Milovana in the browser window.

You can then do right click and copy shortcut to get the download url.

Paste it into the text field and click the button it will download the tease.

Downloaded teases should work in teaseme or guideme (I have only tested in guideme)

This is currently 64bit windows only (making it run 32bit just needs 1 file replaced so post here if you want a 32bit version)

Double clicking on the main jar file (download.jar) should run it.

The next version of GuideMe is nearly ready
Debug Window: Will let you view any page, go to any page and change the variables
Better quality image compression for images.
A select-able multi monitor mode: displays images / video on one screen, text buttons and timer on the other
Full screen mode will fill the whole screen including the task bar
Switching between screen modes automatically changes without restarting (you will need to reload a tease in progress)

[Kurdt57]

Hi, the 32bit version would be appreciated! Thank you!

[Thundercat2k9]

New standalone download program to try
https://mega.co.nz/#!gcZWzYha!f_rKOiuTG ... 8BKfxVtWko

Application preferences let you set the directory where it will write the tease.

File load will load Milovana in the browser window.

You can then do right click and copy shortcut to get the download url.

Paste it into the text field and click the button it will download the tease.

Downloaded teases should work in teaseme or guideme (I have only tested in guideme)

This is currently 64bit windows only (making it run 32bit just needs 1 file replaced so post here if you want a 32bit version)

Double clicking on the main jar file (download.jar) should run it.

working great. Thx a lot

[philo]

Hi, the 32bit version would be appreciated! Thank you!

32bit version of the download program
https://mega.co.nz/#!JFIzHSbL!BOcQ548fD ... gUWtn5pGdw

[jhorny10493]

Are there any more teases than just these 2 for GuideMe?

[Trusfrated]

Thanks for the new downloader, Philo!

Initially I wasn't able to start it with just download.jar. I had to copy over my Java folder from GuideMe and modify a start.bat file appropriately. Not difficult, but the fix may not be so obvious to some users.

I was able to download a few teases, include the Happy Edging series which seemed to give TeaseMe problems due to the "e" bug. I loaded them into the Offline Editor and observed that there were now no pages marked in red (and that color formatting was now preserved!). I loaded them into GuideMe and the first few pages looked fine.

I had a couple issues that I thought I would note: none of the newly downloaded teases seem to work in TeaseMe. I tried both a classic and a flash, and when you start them in TeaseMe I got the message "Error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object." It seems like the intention was for the downloads to work in either application.

Also, I was unable to download Pledge to the Coven (http://www.milovana.com/webteases/showt ... p?id=21630). I tried multiple times, but each time it never got past the start page and the application would hang. Can anyone else confirm this behavior?

Lastly, and this is not a big deal, but it would be nice if the main xml file and corresponding folder name matched the way the tease is listed on Milovana, preserving original punctuation and spacing (without the extra dashes), the way TeaseMe does.

[philo]

@Trusfrated

Pledge to the Coven
Did you use the link to the TOTM
http://www.milovana.com/webteases/showt ... p?id=21630
Or the one in the list of teases
http://www.milovana.com/webteases/showf ... p?id=21630
If you used showtease it will try to download it as a classic tease.

I will add java and start.bat to the installs.

I will test it in teaseme and get it working it should be something simple.

On the dashes it is me being over cautious, it is considered bad practice to use spaces and non standard characters in directory names and file names as this causes problems with some software and operating systems, so I automatically replace them when I am coding. I will change them to something a bit more readable as in this instance it shouldn't cause issues.

[ds13sp21]

New standalone download program to try
https://mega.co.nz/#!gcZWzYha!f_rKOiuTG ... 8BKfxVtWko

Application preferences let you set the directory where it will write the tease.

File load will load Milovana in the browser window.

You can then do right click and copy shortcut to get the download url.

Paste it into the text field and click the button it will download the tease.

Downloaded teases should work in teaseme or guideme (I have only tested in guideme)

This is currently 64bit windows only (making it run 32bit just needs 1 file replaced so post here if you want a 32bit version)

Double clicking on the main jar file (download.jar) should run it.

The next version of GuideMe is nearly ready
Debug Window: Will let you view any page, go to any page and change the variables
Better quality image compression for images.
A select-able multi monitor mode: displays images / video on one screen, text buttons and timer on the other
Full screen mode will fill the whole screen including the task bar
Switching between screen modes automatically changes without restarting (you will need to reload a tease in progress)

downloaded it, abit confused wat to do after to make it work...

[AllanM]

EDIT: Nevermind. The one time I try to use Internet Explorer in years and it fails miserably. I knew there was a reason I only use Chrome.

[Trusfrated]

@Trusfrated

Pledge to the Coven
Did you use the link to the TOTM
http://www.milovana.com/webteases/showt ... p?id=21630
Or the one in the list of teases
http://www.milovana.com/webteases/showf ... p?id=21630
If you used showtease it will try to download it as a classic tease.

Ah yes, that was it! Thanks for explaining that. I recall how TeaseMe has the same issue but I never understood why or when you would get the incorrect link. Now I see it comes from the TOTM section of the page, and that's where I was copying the link from. I just downloaded it successfully with your program using the proper link.

Do you anticipate developing this program any further, or is it simply to download teases and nothing else?