VCF Phobia

[Menchise]

One of the more common tech support responses in this forum (even more common than RTM and RTFM) is 'Read the VCF'.

Usually, I have no problem with reading documentation, but the VCF is freaking me out a little.

First of all, the document is 71 pages long ( ). Secondly, it's not printer-friendly. Finally, whenever I see the words "Read the VCF", there is no reference to a particular section.

In other words, I have VCF Phobia, and I want to be cured. So, I'm going to ask a few questions; the answers should treat my ailment well enough (hopefully).

Question 1: If I wanted to know whether a feature was up and running in a demo's kernel, would I need to search all preceding VCF entries for a mention about it?

Question 2: What do all the colour codes indicate?

Question 3: If I want to get a general idea of the current state of the game, which sections should I read (apart from the green stuff)?

[Kush]

I understand your fear but it is baseless I tell you, baseless.

All new features should be in the demo readme file.

Green text indicates new information. Occasionally new information doesn't appear in green but very very rarely and looking for new info is half the fun.

If you want to know the current state of the game, look at the latest update and the Known Bug file. That's what I do. After a while, you get a good idea what's being tackled first and what has been put on the shelf.

I've become a little addicted to the VCF. Sometimes I think it's better to not look at it EVERY DAY, but I can't help myself. It's a good idea. Wish more developers did things this way.

[Guest $iLk]

Not that I'm a professional, but here goes my answers...

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Question 1: If I wanted to know whether a feature was up and running in a demo's kernel, would I need to search all preceding VCF entries for a mention about it?

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IMHO, that would be the most prudent thing to do, the Version Control File after all lists completed features and bugs as they are found and listed, however it may help to read from the bottom up, and check the VCF entries for the dates up to the release of the demo in the case of Episode 2 the 22 of June. So everything listed up to that date is in the demo (minus high content features like all the sound effects and music since it would bulk the size of the demo). I hope that helps.

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Question 2: What do all the colour codes indicate?

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One of those questions where I could say RTFVCF but to be nice I will post the answer here...

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Entries in light green are new to this version. Note that only items that are obvious to the Beta team are listed. Internal fixes, optimizations, modifications etc, are not listed.

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As for what red means, I imagine that is an unfixable glitch - such as

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ALL PREVIOUS SAVED GAMES ARE INVALID. DELETE ALL FILES IN THE SAVE FOLDER IF THEY EXIST AFTER PATCHING!

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And white being previously posted information.

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Question 3: If I want to get a general idea of the current state of the game, which sections should I read (apart from the green stuff)?

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My advice is two-fold. You could benefit by reading the entire thing at least once. But what I normally do to check out how I feel about the current status of the game- is check the green area, the WIP section at the very bottom, and the Bugs section at the bottom. Then I just wait for those things to balance out.. I hope this was helpful.

[Papi]

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First of all, the document is 71 pages long ( ). Secondly, it's not printer-friendly. Finally, whenever I see the words "Read the VCF", there is no reference to a particular section.

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First, you should be glad to have such a information from the developer, right? Secondly, how come not printer friendly? I have not experienced any problems printing VCF, I'm using IE 5.5. Finally you can search through the VCF easily for a specific words, you shurely knew that, right?

As for you other questions I think Kush and $ilk covered it quite nicely , except I would to add:

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As for what red means, I imagine that is an unfixable glitch - such as

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ALL PREVIOUS SAVED GAMES ARE INVALID. DELETE ALL FILES IN THE SAVE FOLDER IF THEY EXIST AFTER PATCHING!

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The red colour is SC shouting at blockheaded testers

[Epsilon 5]

What i do: I read the whole VCF one time, and then i "patch" my knowledge of the game with the updates.

...and when I post comments on VE people start to think it's Derek under another alias because i know too much. LOL!

[Menchise]

OK. When I have time, I'll try reading the whole thing once.

Time to face the fear.

[Joel Schultz]

Personal VCF layout notes, HTH:

Section 1 (VERSION CONTROL BULLETINS)

Nothing much interesting in here. I generally ignore it.

Section 2 (VERSION CONTROL)

This is the meat and potatoes of the file. Here is where you will find all ongoing additions and fixes as they take place. It is organized in dated subsections, from most recent to least recent. One goofball subsection sits at the top and has an invalid date; I assume this is "current". Stuff in current seems to spill downwards into dated sections as time passes.

If you want to get a developmental perspective of how BCM Beta has evolved, start at the end of section 2 with the last (least recent) dated subsection and work your way backwards through the file. Makes an interesting read, though kind of tedious.

Anyway, if all you want to do is find out what's been going on now and during the past few days, you only need to bother with the top of this section.

Section 3 (WORK IN PROGRESS AND DESIGN ISSUES)

SC said in some post that this is where he sticks things to let the beta testers know not to yammer at him about them. Doesn't change very noticibly (it does change).

Section 4 (KNOWN BUGS AND REPORTED ISSUES UNDER INVESTIGATION)

This is the section we hope keeps shrinking (and it has). Unfortunately, green text keeps appearing at the bottom periodically. Oh well...

[Supreme Cmdr]

Most of you got it right, especially Joel

Basically, the internal version (which only I and the dev folks have access to) has entries in Green. This tells the testers what will be in the upcoming version (the one I'm working on). I only put a date in the upcoming version section when I actually release it. At that point, I simply change it from Green to the default color and release the patch.

At the bottom of the file, the same rule applies in the bugs section. If its Green, it means that it was recently reported AND reproduced in the current internal/external version.

With all this, the testers know what is fixed, working and/or inbound.

[Menchise]

I just finished reading the entire VCF in one sitting; it took about five hours, I think.

I thank you all for your helpful advice; reading the file is now much easier than it used to be.

I'm cured!