Transcript crashes games online

[KVonGit]

Enabling a transcript online crashes (freezes) the game.

I seem to remember writing code to handle online transcripts in a dialog popup, but it was long ago and I'm not positive my recollection is correct.

[KVonGit]

This is the function that is missing when playing online:

// SaveTranscript added by KV to write/append to GAMENAME-transcript.html in Documents\Quest Transcripts
function SaveTranscript(data) {
    data = data + "<style>*{color:black !important;background:white !important;text-align:left !important}</style>";
    if (!webPlayer && transcriptString != '') { UIEvent("SaveTranscript", data); }
    transcriptString += data;
}

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I added that to desktopplayer.js, but I'm pretty sure that I should have added it to WebPlayer\player.js as well.

[KVonGit]

Transcript Redux

I have been working diligently for about two weeks to come up with the best overall solution for the transcript issues I introduced in Quest 5.8.0.

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Known Issues

Online

When enabling the transcript online, the game completely crashes. This is because I added a SaveTranscript() function to Player\desktop.js, but I failed to add its online counterpart to WebPlayer\player.js.

Desktop

After enabling the transcript in the desktop player, the turn scripts all cease firing until the transcript is disabled.

Also, when recording a walkthrough while the transcript is enabled, each step recorded is the HTML output from each turn.

Both Desktop and Online

There is also "scrollback" functionality that was introduced in Quest 5.8.0.

The clearScreen() function was modified to hide all the text rather than deleting it when saveClearedText is true (which is the default). If saveClearedText is false, clearScreen() uses its old method (deleting all the cleared text).

So, by default, all that text is being saved and slowing the game down exponentially each turn.

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All the Details Concerning This Update

saveClearedText in PlayerController\playercore.js is now set to false by default.

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CoreTypes

game.notranscript

• false by default
• no transcript activity at all if set to true

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game.ingametranscript

• false by default
• transcript will use scrollback functionality when true

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game.writetranscripttofile

• false by default
• transcript will use JS SaveTranscript() to write to an HTML file in "Documents\Quest Transcripts\" while the player has the transcript enabled while this is true

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game.transcriptenabled

• false by default

• This gets set to true when the player enables the transcript. If game.notranscript is not true, this allows both writing to file and the in-game transcript, neither, or whichever is set to true

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  REQUIRED

  Core InitInterface has a bit that sets JS gameName and transcriptName

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Core HandleCommand modified to add player's command to transcript if game.echocommand is false

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CoreFunctions ShowMenuResponse modified to add player's command to transcript if game.echocommand is false

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CoreCommands view_transcript_cmd

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CoreCommands transcript_on_cmd

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CoreCommands transcript_off_cmd

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CoreFunctions DisableTranscript()

• Disables the transcript, sets game.transcriptenabled to false, JS transcriptEnabled to false, and JS saveClearedText to false

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CoreFunctions KillTranscript()

• Completely stops all transcript functionality. Sets game.nostranscript to true, game.ingametranscript to false, game.writetranscripttofile to false, JS writingTranscriptToFile to false, JS inGameTranscript to false, JS noTranscript to true, and runs DisableTranscript

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CoreFunctions ClearHtmlTranscript

• Clears any saved scrollback text.
• JS.eval("saveClearedText = false; $('.clearedScreen').remove(); transcriptString = '';")

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PlayerController\playercore.js addText()

• calls SaveTranscript() if writingTranscriptToFile

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PlayerController\playercore.js clearScreen()

• hides all cleared text instead of deleting it when game.ingametranscript and saveClearedText are true

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PlayerController\playercore.js showScrollback()

• This will be the in-game transcript window when game.ingametranscript and inGameTranscript are true

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Player\desktop.js SaveTranscript()

• should do nothing if webPlayer
• in desktop, writes to HTML file in "Documents\Quest Transcripts\" if game.transcriptenabled and game.writetranscripttofile (and JS writingTranscriptToFile and transcriptEnabled)

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WebPlayer\player.js SaveTranscript()

• does nothing, just here to avoid errors online

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PlayerController\playercore.js default booleans:

    var writingTranscriptToFile = false;
    var inGameTranscript = false;
    var transcriptEnabled = false;
    var noTranscript = false;

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CoreEditorGame has an added checkbox for the transcript, and a tab if that box is checked

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Player\PlayerHTML.vb has modified code to fix the issue with using the transcript name entered by the player when enabling the transcript

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DEPRECATED

CoreCommands - UpdateTranscriptString() [gone]

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game.transcriptstring string [gone]

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game.savetranscript boolean [sort of replaced with game.ingametranscript]

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JS - savingTranscript boolean [replaced with inGameTranscript and saveClearedText]

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JS - transcriptString string [gone]

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JS - replaceTranscriptString() [gone]

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JS - showTranscript() [replaced by showScrollback()]

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JS - printTranscriptDiv() [replaced by printScrollback()]

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Comments

I tested this extensively, to the best of my ability. I found three or four forum threads concerning all the different issues during debugging and testing, and I made sure all those issues were addressed.

I ran the web player from Visual Studio to test everything out as well. Here is a PDF of the transcript: NewTranscriptTester1-transcript.pdf

NOTE: I could not actually test saving the game, but it seemed to make it all the way to end until it found that I was not logged into the site.

I also ran the web editor from VS, just to make sure the new Transcript editor controls looked okay.

I'll submit a pull request in the morning. (I would wait to post this, too, but I don't want to lose all this. It took much longer to write than I expected, haha.)