Name: Summoning Wars
Website: http://www.sumwars.org/index.php?p=1
License: GPL
Description: Summoning Wars is an action RPG with point-and-click fight system. Choose from 4 Classes with 24 unique abilities each and jump into a campaign playable in both single and multiplayer mode. Multiplayer mode is usable by up to 8 players. There are hundreds of items to collect and dozens of monster types to fight. Meet citizens and sinister puppet-masters with secrets of their own and trade with well-equiped traders - or search for the blackmarket and stock enchanted items.
Note: With recent influx of high quality games like SuperTuxKart, FreeCiv, HedgeWars, Wormux, EZQuake, GZDoom, BosWars Pool Rebel and many more into the development test forum I thought I'd find a high quality open source RPG game. Lo and behold, I found Summoning Wars.
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I'll take a look at it.
When I downloaded the program and ran it, got the following error:
I googled d3dx9_30.dll and found this article:
D3dx9_39.dll Not Found Error Resolution
It says that the file has to do with DirectX.
DirectX can't be made portable (at least, not legally). It could be made portable, but would not be usable on all computers, so I don't think this is a good candidate for making portable.
If I've got something wrong, let me know, and I'll take another look at it.
So you don't have Direct X installed on your computer? I'm not knocking you or anything, just curious. I don't recall seeing Direct X come up in the great "ubiquitous enough dependency or not?" debate. Interesting question.
I do all of my PortableApp development in a VM, and that VM doesn't have that file, or the program can't find it. The program doesn't have an installer, just a zip file, so maybe I missed a configuration step.
Still, the question remains; is Direct X an integral part of a Windows install and can we safely assume that it's present? if so, then I guess there aren't any issues... unless you're using a VM to run Windows that is.
A version of DirectX does come with Windows, but if it requires a specific version, then that could be an issue. If I remember correctly (please correct me if I'm wrong), there has been discussion about applications that require Internet Explorer, and those were not considered good candidates because of that dependency, in spite of the fact that all versions of Windows (supported by PortableApps) comes with IE.
A similar discussion has been had about .NET applications. .NET is an integral part of Windows, but .NET applications are not good candidates for making portable because there are different versions and you can never be sure which version will be available.
Oh, and my VM does have DirectX 9.0c installed, but it does not have that file. I'll look some more.
Edit: Reinstalling DirectX fixed the DLL issue, but then it crashed creating the Splash screen.
I did a bit of searching in the forums, and I couldn't find a direct discussion about DirectX and PortableApps, but I did find ZSNES Portable 1.51 Pre-Release 1 (Testers Needed), which was submitted by John T. Haller. That app required DirectX 8.1 (and even checked for it as part of the launcher), so I guess I was wrong and DirectX is OK for PortableApps (unless John has changed his mind since 2007).
I'll keep looking at this to see if I can get the game working. I may have a corrupted download.
I don't think .Net is an integral part of the operating system. Windows can function just fine without .Net, but I'm not sure if the same could be said of DirectX (ignoring version issues).
Internet Explorer was/is an integral part of the operating system, many functions outside of Internet Explorer rely on IE components to be able to function (at least they used to in pre Win7, but that may have changed now).
using IE for browsing means that all of the pages you look at in the browser will be stored in the local cache and history, and can't be made portable, so "uses IE" is tantamount to "leaves personal data sprayed across the host machine".
DirectX on the other hand doesn't have such issues, but may well not be there, or at least, it may not have been updated to DX9 on the PC in question.
It's not just browsing. I'm sure there are libraries used by IE that handle GUI elements or something like that, and other applications can make use of those libraries. Anyway, I don't think this is a discussion worth pursuing.
I personally think that having DirectX be a requirement is not a big deal and doesn't really exclude an app from being considered portable. I suppose John has the final word on this.
Maybe .NET isn't an integral part of the operating system, but .NET is installed by default on Vista and Windows 7, and is a recommended update for XP. DirectX has been around longer, so some version of it is installed by default on all versions of Windows supported by PortableApps.
Maybe checking the .NET version is more complicated than checking the DirectX version, I don't know. My initial assumption was that the same arguments against .NET also applied to DirectX (many versions and you don't know which will be installed), but it appears that PortableApps that require DirectX are OK, while those requiring .NET are not.
Maybe, after PortableApps drops support for XP, .NET apps will be allowed; I don't know, it's not my call.
Oddly enough, I tried to run the Summoning Wars on a typical install of Windows 7 Professional, not in a VM, and I got the same DLL not found error. I checked to make sure that DirectX was installed, and I have DirectX 11 installed. *shrug*
http://www.d3dx9.net/download-missing-d3dx9_30-dll/
You can get the d3dx9_30.dll file from the above link.
this is the source which is best for solving this sort of dll related issues.
Click the Link on this page and it will fix your problem.
I would suggest just have Directx listed as a requirement in the application's development thread. The simplest solution is usually the best
PortableApps.com Advocate
I just completed this game and I thought I would give it a review, based on its merits as a game, rather than the technical issues involved in making it portable.
I like it! The interface is a simple point and click system. Left click is used for movement and environmental interaction including attacking, talking to NPCs, and manipulating objects such as doors.
Right click is a secondary attack (at least when playing as the magician class).
It has a standard experience point based level up system. You can allocate points toward multiple skills as you see fit, which when combined with a wide selection of available equipment means you have a huge degree of control over your character stats.
The TAB key brings up a map of the current playing area, and believe me you will need it! Playing areas are large and can be very complicated.
There is far too much to this game to detail here, but those are the basics. At this point Summoning Wars is in the early design stage. It is missing several basic features including music. The current version ends after the initial stage of the story, and is essentially just a demo, but it is still darn fun to play and shows great potential.
"My dear Mr Gyrth, I am never more serious than when I am joking."
~Albert Campion