Character Builder Beta available

[Asmor]

Except that I can install adobe acrobat reader (or any other pdf reader) in my ubuntu-running computer

That fact alone is what prevented me from getting a DDI subscription.

I'm not sure what version of .Net the character builder targets, but the Mono project will run most .Net applications on Linux up to a certain version. I think last I heard it was 2.0, but I don't know. Worth a try.

Of course, that also requires that the programmers went out of their way to make the code platform-independent, which is probably not that likely. Most of the stuff you don't need to worry about, but there are some bits that one wouldn't think of if that wasn't one of your goals (e.g. Windows uses \ as a directory separator character while Linux uses /)

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I'm not sure what version of .Net the character builder targets, but the Mono project will run most .Net applications on Linux up to a certain version. I think last I heard it was 2.0, but I don't know. Worth a try.

Of course, that also requires that the programmers went out of their way to make the code platform-independent, which is probably not that likely. Most of the stuff you don't need to worry about, but there are some bits that one wouldn't think of if that wasn't one of your goals (e.g. Windows uses as a directory separator character while Linux uses /)

As far as I know and see, the Character Builder uses WPF. Won't work on Mono, and according to the current plans, might never. I am disappointed about that.

 

[CubeKnight]

As far as I know and see, the Character Builder uses WPF. Won't work on Mono, and according to the current plans, might never. I am disappointed about that.

Assuming by "WPF" you mean the Windows Forms namespace (been a long time since I coded in .net), I seem to recall a *nix .net project that managed to emulate said namespace, and run apps that depended on it.
One of my teachers was a standard Unix Geek, and he could still run most of the stuff we coded in OOP class.

Now, if I could remember its name

 

[avin]

What, CB doesn't work on Linux? I was assuming a LOT of D&D players are Linux-only users.

 

[Obergnom]

well, you can allways run it in a Virtual Machine, if you have an old XP disc somewhere... thats what I do. Makes the CB rather useless for netbook level computers with linux, though

 

[drothgery]

Assuming by "WPF" you mean the Windows Forms namespace (been a long time since I coded in .net), I seem to recall a *nix .net project that managed to emulate said namespace, and run apps that depended on it.
One of my teachers was a standard Unix Geek, and he could still run most of the stuff we coded in OOP class.

Now, if I could remember its name

WPF = Windows Presentation Foundation (from the .NET 3.5 framework); the successor to Windows Forms (being mostly a web guy, I haven't fussed with the Windows stuff, but Silverlight is a subset of WPF, which is kind of interesting, because if you reworked the Character Builder into a Silverlight app, then it could run with MS plugins on Windows and OSX, and via Moonlight elsewhere).

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

WPF = Windows Presentation Foundation (from the .NET 3.5 framework); the successor to Windows Forms (being mostly a web guy, I haven't fussed with the Windows stuff, but Silverlight is a subset of WPF, which is kind of interesting, because if you reworked the Character Builder into a Silverlight app, then it could run with MS plugins on Windows and OSX, and via Moonlight elsewhere).

What drothgery said, except WPF was already available in 3.0.

I don't know how "small" the Silverlight subset is of WPF exactly, but I think the basic templating and binding to XML (or other data) sources should be available in Silverlight, so it is not impossible. The CB has the advantage that it's still mostly for displaying tables and text with a limited amount of images, and doesn't need much access to hardware.

But it would still require tons of work, and I am not too optimistic they'll do that. Maybe fans could start by demanding a "Silverlight Character Sheet Viewer" from WotC that reads the character file and displays it like the regular app?

 

[drothgery]

What drothgery said, except WPF was already available in 3.0.

... but since Visual Studio 2005 is .NET 2.0 out of the box, and Visual Studio 2008 is .NET 3.5 out of the box, .NET 3.0 development isn't exactly all that common.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

... but since Visual Studio 2005 is .NET 2.0 out of the box, and Visual Studio 2008 is .NET 3.5 out of the box, .NET 3.0 development isn't exactly all that common.

Windows Vista is .NET 3.0 out of the box. That's my reason for working with it, actually.

 

[Asmor]

But it would still require tons of work, and I am not too optimistic they'll do that. Maybe fans could start by demanding a "Silverlight Character Sheet Viewer" from WotC that reads the character file and displays it like the regular app?

I haven't really examined the format too closely, but the character files are just XML and pretty simply to work with.

The catch is, all the important stuff (i.e. text of feats and powers, etc) are in the encrypted database. The XML files just give the name and maybe an ID to look them up, I forget.

Oh, what I wouldn't do to be able to decrypt that data and poke around in it... *drools*