ReadMe.pdf

WorldGate v1.8

- connecting worlds & players -

Overview

All persistant worlds for nwn2 share the same problem: at least one file - the *.pwc - has to

be transfered to the players' pc before one can login and join any multiplayer module

except the official campaign. Most pw team will want to add custom content as well, like

clothing and placeables, custom soundsets, ingame music or even movies. All files have to

be stored in the right place and must be updated at all players' pc's whenever the builders

change them.

And some of these files are considerably large, especially all erf-types (*.mod, *.pwc,

*.hak, *.erf), downloads for an average pw can easily sum up to more than one gb total!

This makes it painfull - if not impossible - to update files regularly, and thus stops builders

from changing their worlds dynamically, e.g. in reaction to some ingame events.

WorldGate was designed to help pw builders create and maintain a download-system for

all files related to their pw, and to help players download and update these files as easily

and as fast as possible - typically with one click.

Features

● WorldGate understands ERF-Files, so builders can change modules and hak-packs

as often as they like, only the changed parts will be distributed.

● WorldGate knows about both the nwn2-installation-folder and the user's "my

documents" folder. It will store files to the right place automatically.

● WorldGate's client can download it's config-file directly from the internet - all players

need to know is the URL of your pw's homepage.

● WorldGate uses state-of-the-art LZMA compression (best known as 7-zip) to

minimize up- and download filesize, thus saving bandwith and download-time.

● WorldGate needs no special serverside-software, any ftp- or web-server will do.

● WorldGate is designed to manage multiple pw's - one tool for all!

● WorldGate can even manage multiple override-folders!

Please read the "ChangeLog"-section at the end of this document!

NWN2-Tools

tanita@elfenwald.homelinux.net

WorldGate v1.8

Setup & Installation

The worldgate package contains two programs:

● WorldGateAdmin.exe

This is the tool pw builders use to collect, update and upload the files to the server.

● WorldGateClient.exe

This is the tool pw players use to download and update their files from the server.

Both files depend on obsidians OEShared.dl l 1 (comes with nwn2, packaged with worldgate

for your convenience) and edtFTPnet.dll (opensource ftp-library from enterprisedt.com,

distributed under lgpl). WorldGate can be stored anywhere you like as long as both *.dll

files are copied to the same place. Both programms will create a subfolder "worldgate"

where ever you put them, which holds configuration.

If you don't like to setup files manually you can now use our simple Installer.

1. Setting up Worldgate-Host (admins do that)

With worldgate you can download files either by http- or ftp-protocol, depending on what

server you want to use. Http tends to be easier to set up and will be provided with virtually

any hosting option, but we still like ftp more, because it's faster, more reliable and doesn't

use as much cpu-time on server side as http. If you can run your own ftp-server, do it.

Especially if running on your game-server you will benefit from ftp's simplicity. But if you

have to use http-server that's ok as well. Your players won't notice any difference.

a) If you want to use ftp

Before you can start uploading your pw's data files you need to setup your ftp-server

correctly. First, create an empty folder within your ftp-root to hold all WorldGate files (we'll

call this "pw-folder" for now). Then setup (at least) two different ftp-accounts for worldgate:

● Set up an admin account, e.g. "myworld-admin", which has full rights to access your

pw-folder. This account will only be used by WorldGateAdmin to upload your pw-

files and accompanying data. It is to be kept private to your pw's admin!

● Set up a players account, e.g. "myworld", which is only allowed read-access to your

pw-folder. This is the account you will provide to your players, so be sure not to use

your admin-account, and choose a simple password.

Remember: This account will be public, don't give away your secrets!

Please try and login to your ftp-server using both accounts, and try up/downloading some

files to make sure everything is setup fine before you go on to configure WorldGate!

If you can not (or want not) create two different ftp-accounts you may be better of with http-

transfers. For normal use you'll still need one ftp-account for WorldGateAdmin, this will be

used to upload all files to your server - set it up as told above, and don't worry: this one will

only be known to your admin (as long is he's trustworthy...).

If you even can't (or want not) use ftp for uploading you can instead create a folder on your

harddrive that will hold all worldgate resources. It is then up to you to synchronize that

folder to the website your players will download from...

1 WorldGate is written in managed c# and linked to a specific version of OEShared.dll . When nwn2 is patched, this

library will be updated too, so it is best not to store WorldGate in your nwn2-folder - if you do so, every new patch

will break WorldGate until i recompile the executable for the new OEShared.dll.

NWN2-Tools

tanita@elfenwald.homelinux.net

WorldGate v1.8

b) If you want to use http

In this case you simply need to create some folder on the webserver that will hold all data

files. It is convenient if you can upload the files by ftp, so if you can, add a ftp-account that

has writing permissions on this folder; if you can't, don't worry. We'll deal with this situation

as well.

2. Creating your pw's definition file (also admins do that)

Start WorldGateAdmin and click on "new". This will open the "new pw definition" dialog:

pw definition using ftp for up-/download

using folder & http for up-/download

General settings:

persistant world

Enter some creative name for your persistant world - this will be

listed in WorldGateAdmin's main window.

label

Enter a short name for your pw - this will be used to name the filelist

(<label>.pwi) and the message-file (<label>.msg) on the server.

nwn base install

Enter the path to your nwn installation files - this should usually be

auto-detected from your registry's information. if it is not you can

change the path by hand or use the "..." button to browse to it.

nwn user data

Enter the path to your nwn folder within "my documents" - this also

should be auto-detected most of the time.

Both folders are very important, as all files you want to upload for

your pw have to be in or within subfolders of one or the other!

nwn 1 mode

If you want to use worldgate for nwn1 worlds you should check this

box. It will disable user-data-folder, which is neither used nor

present with nwn1.

NWN2-Tools

tanita@elfenwald.homelinux.net

WorldGate v1.8

Administrator Settings:

FTP or HDD

Select whether you want to use ftp for upload. If you chose hdd all

files will be stored to a local folder which you have to upload to your

server by hand.

worldgate host

Enter either URL (eg. www.myworld.net) or IP-address of your ftp-

server. If you selected HDD above this will hold the path to your

local folder instead.

port

Enter your ftp-server's port - this will be 21 for most servers but can

be changed if you own your ftp-server yourself.

ftp-account

Enter username and password for your admin's ftp-account here.

directory

This is the folder iside your ftp-folder where your players can access

the data files. Depending on your ftp-setup this might be the same

folder as for the admin-account.

game-client start

Enter the name of your nwn2main.exe and the commandline options

for direct-connection to your server. These will help your players

setup the "check & connect".

As of patch 1.21 there is still no commandline-option for direct

connection - so don't bother, this field may only be usefull in future

versions of nwn2! This feature is now disabled in WorldGateClient.

Worldgate will do some simple checking while you enter all of the above, like testing if your

folders actually exist. As long as something is obviously wrong the corresponding field will

be drawn with a red background to indicate the error. You can't continue until all data has

been filled in correctly (all boxes white)!

Once everything looks all right you can press "test & exit". This will test your ftp/http-setup

and send you back if something's broken. Please note: you'll need to be online to do this

test!

When everything is setup ok WorldGateAdmin saves your pw's definition as a config-file

"myworld.pwa" in the folder "worldgate" and adds this file to the listbox in the main window.

NWN2-Tools

tanita@elfenwald.homelinux.net

WorldGate v1.8

3. Adding files and Uploading (again admins do that)

Now press "add files" or "add folder" and select all files you want to be distributed to your

players' pc's. WorldGateAdmin will store information about each file in a two-rooted tree,

all paths relativ to the nwn2-install- or user-folder setup one moment ago. ERF-files

(*.mod, *.pwc, *.hak, *.erf) will be opened and all contents listed like files (which in fact

they are). If you add a folder, worldgate will include all files inside it and reflect any

changes to this folder automatically (new as of v1.4).

Please note:

● You can't add files outside either nwn2-base- or user-data-folders, as WorldGate-

Client wouldn't know where to put them on your player's computers. If you try to,

WorldGate will warn you.

● Importing large files may take a while, because WorldGate calculates md5-hashes

in order to intelligently detect changed or broken files later.

NWN2-Tools

tanita@elfenwald.homelinux.net

WorldGate v1.8

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