12/1/2015: (Somewhat technical process ahead.)
Progress made so far.
I'd like to name this as the "I'M GETTING THERE" post. I ended up working on programming this for an additional two whole days straight (a personal Twitch broadcast record). I still haven't streamlined the process to match leimeisel's controller but I'm getting there.
So far, I have
FINALLY fixed the randomization of the question being pulled up from the database. (Had to emphasize FINALLY since I thought I got it work before...) Question selection (now) works in the sense that the program will look for all questions that match your desired difficulty (there are currently 5: Joke/Freebie, Basic/Easy, Intermediate, Extreme/Difficult... I'm going to add in a Random selector and split Extreme/Difficult) that were not played in the last 2 days. (I put in 2 days since this is meant for use in a convention like getup. At some point, I will include ways to expand it to 30 days, 60 days, No Limit) Then the program will shuffle those questions and pick one of those at random. (Originally I was relying on AccessSQL to do the randomization, only to realize that all it was doing was picking the SAME question over and over again... I fixed it now to where it pulls the questions, adds it to a list, shuffling that list, and pulling up one.)
- 50:50 Lifeline finally done. This was taking me a while since I was a bit torn in which to do. Going off of the SourceForge programs 50:50 was completely random then I watched the Behind The Scenes of Millionaire specials (both the ITV and ABC one, about to put a bounty on the ABC one in its entirety though). Watching the BTS of Millionaire, the 50:50 isn't exactly random but the producer/question editor actually SELECT the one that is kept aside from the final answer. After asking on the shoutbox for help, I was eventually given the response of: "Why not both?" (Thank you to who ever suggested that... I just forgot to screencap it. I think it was
Gagamillionaire , but not sure.) So that lead up to this:
In this image, you can see the modified controller screen and Fifty/Fifty screen. Now you get a choice of using either the automated selection (two random choices are selected as the form loads) OR you can choose which option to KEEP (usig the appropriate manual selection button and radio selectors). (You can't uncheck the checkboxes, they're there for visuals only.) Whichever one you choose, the buttons on the controller are then disabled. Then the 50:50 button is disabled. (I'm not about to let people go 50:50 twice on one question.)
- Ask The Audience was up next. This one was borderline difficult in the nature of how I was trying to do it. I know some polling systems return percentages for you while others return just RAW counts. So I allow you to choose between the two.
You can either enter percentages or enter audience counts. A bit of checking goes into place, when you enter Percentages, if the program sees that you're not adding up to 100%, you'll get a gentle reminder.
(
NOTE: If you're a math nut and a perfectionist, a deadly combo, you'll notice that the YouTube numbers don't add up to 100%. That's mostly due to the nature of integer math. It normally occurs when two numbers are the same when you're entering the raw counts. I've tried and tried and can't for the life of me figure out to fix this. So unfortunately, yes... the percentages will be transmitted as such. If you know of a way to prevent this, feel free. But shy of adding the missing one to either least popular or most popular, I'm stuck.)
But retched... what if we just simply raise our hands, can we do that? YES. You won't have the results graphic pop up on the projector but you can still "charge" the player a lifeline. (I'll have the ATA icon show up similar to how the x2 shows up for Double Dip.) All you would do is deselect all of the options on the audience row.
Phone-A-Friend: I didn't like how this on came out. Originally I was just going to stick the 30 images into the window from one of the HTML5 versions. (I mean, hell it's a clean version and looked familar.) Then I realized this whole thing was meant for customization, not necessarily sticking to just the rules from the show. Then this monstrosity came about. I forgot that there is no easy way to apply masks or pie charts or to tell VB to only show 3/4ths of a pie. So shy of applying a graphics work already... So meh, leaving it as a circle for now and will leave the animation for either the WPF or Flash projector.
Plus One - Plus One isn't too difficult really. If it's a timed game, give time in addition to the normal clock on a separate timer while the normal clock is paused. (Once the bonus timer is done, count down the regular timer.) If it's a non-timed game, just charge the player with a lifeline. Also, this timer is optional too. (I think the Australian version does timed Plus One's now.) Meaning, the game will prompt you to start it up but you don't have to start it. (Clicking Done will charge a lifeline.) (I didn't want the bonus timer to add up for the banked time, so there's that. If you want to adjust the banked time, there's a button that will let you adjust the timers (both normal and banked).
Swap The Question - And this one is another search the question out and replace it in the stack. Once the question has been confirmed, the database will time stamp it as last played. To ensure there are no mishaps, you have to reveal the question of the current question to arm the "Replace Current Question ..." button. Once you do, it'll lock in and make that new question readily available.
And here is the new "improved" Main Screen. Now sporting labels instead of text boxes since disabling all of them was a pain (and plus it made some of the fields hard to see. Next chance I get, the "Bank Time" button might be removed, since its automatically done for you when you click "Show/Hide Correct Answer (Contestant)".
(I know there is a dispute about when the host is informed of the wrong answer on the current setup, but for clarity's sake... I just went on the safe side and made a Host Screen Correct Answer button so that the host can find out ahead of time. I might remove this and just instead make it a second or two delay before it is reflected on the contestant's screen... we'll see.
Once I get through Double Dip, Jump The Question, Ask The Experts and Crystal Ball (sometime soon), it's on to Flash/WPF struggling.
Also, though its not reflected here, I also managed to get the "Bank Status fields to work properly.... Expect by the next update for this to be enclosed in a group box.
Any questions or suggestions, feel free to post them up here. Thanks for following.
) I guess the next on will be Poland then...
