Please rate PC Gen

[MonkeyBoy]

WORKING Well = 15 to 21 seconds to start with auto load sources + 6 to 8 seconds to start a new character or load a premade.

Horrrible = start and walk away for a couple of minutes, load character walk away for a few more minutes then it works without much hassle.

There's the crux:

Your working well is my "stupidly slow", your horrible is, well, uninstall time

 

[Leopold]

There's the crux:

Your working well is my "stupidly slow", your horrible is, well, uninstall time

i have a 1.4tbird with 512mb of ram and it still takes 10secs to load on my computer. This is acceptable as it takes 15-20 on my 266 laptop and 25-30 on a p75.

Java may be slow but where else are you going to get the cross platform support. Once they move to 100% xml which is phase 3:
phase 1 gui rewrite almost complete
phase 2 clean up phase 1 of any bugs, impliment all FREQs and release for full version
phase 3 XML conversion for 100% of the files.


Once XML is implimented than you can use pcgen on anything that uses XML pages from palm to your IPAQ to your Mac to that funky lil 3com aero and on your pc. And it WILL run faster garunteed. But this is sometime off. The plan to make a release with documention in phase 2 is by gencon which allot of us will be attending to show off pcgen.


As for the developers going willie nillie with the code, this is partly true. They pick what part they want to work on and impliment and they go ahead and write the code for it. Granted we have a set schedule on what needs to be done and since we have some 10+ developers working on it on their spare time we do get allot done even though some people only want to work on the spells tab or the buttons or what have you. there is structure to the madness it takes some time to see though.


Customize magic items: Couldn't be easier now. Take a item, right click on it, select mastercraft, and pick your abilities for it. Simple, easy, takes all the effort out of scrolling through 100s of items looking for that longsword +1. Get lost? Select the filter and search for the item.


Bugs: If you spot any go on over to the yahoogroup and post what you find. Chances are that someone has found them and found out how to fix them. We just need your input to tell us that they are there. If noone tells us it's broken we can't fix it. We have a list of bugs that are in place on our sourceforge site. If your bug is mentioned on there that means it's already reported and who is working on it. This way you know that it is being addressed. If it's not there, feel free to post it to there.


Revisions: Too fast? One time we went through 4 revisions and releases in one week . Currently it is one a week and we didn't get a release this week as they are cleaning up the final spells tab for a release next week. We do this to squash the bugs that are out there, update the gui which we are working on, push out new data files, and get general feedback on the state of the application. The weekly release allows us to gauge how the community is using the new features, what is broken and what is working, and what needs to be added. Once the STABLE version is out we will be releasing the data files weekly for everyone to update and pretty much leaving the core program alone. So weekly updates for data files is rather common in the industry. Microsoft does it all the time.

Thanks for creating this poll, this always brings in feedback good or bad on pcgen that we can take back to the developers and show them what needs working on.

 

[francom13]

Hi MonkeyBoy,

15 - 20 second load time is to slow?

A total of 30 seconds to be working on your character (with a system that is 2 years old) is fine with me, but if it isn't for you then you can buy a faster sytem for the performance you want. A P4 2.2 Gig, 1-3 Gig RAM, High RPM HD, Gforce4 128 Meg video card and you should have the program loading in 5 seconds.

but this is my opinion you are entitled to yours. I just don't know many programs that load in under 15 seconds on my system your mileage may vary.

-Matt

 

[CRGreathouse]

20 seconds total load time is much too high for me. I measure the time it takes to create a character in seconds, and the extra load time counts heavily against PCGen. I typically create characters without any generator software, though I'll occasionally use my stat block generator when making spellcasters for spell progression and turning calculations (load time: 3 seconds to change windows and double click the icon, <1 second to load). I don't often use it if I'm not making a caster, simply becasue I can make the character in MS Word before I could make it in the generator.

Most of the characters I make are in the CR 8-15 range, with or without monster levels. I really don't see what's so hard about making them - equipping them may take a few minutes, but everything else is fairly easy.

 

[PosterBoy]

PCGen is great

I think PCGen is great. Sure its got bugs. but its Beta software. I see alot of comments related to thinking is DONE. Its not. If you don't want beta software don't download it. And if you do, don't bitch because its exactly what it says it is, BETA.

Complaining that it's released too often is ridicules. How else will they crush bugs if people don't test it? Release early and often is the best way to accomplish that.

And I don't use windows, so the fact that its in Java is great for me. I run it on a 850 mhz with 392m ram. I find it runs fine for me. But I guess that's a little subjective.

 

[MonkeyBoy]

"I just don't know many programs that load in under 15 seconds on my system your mileage may vary."

The only programs on my system which take longer than PCGen to load are; NS4.76 (notoriously slow), Adobe Photoshop (likewise) and Adobe Acrobat.

I should also mention that my observed times are when loading only my chosen subset of .lst files (about 12), not the full set.

 

[Leopold]

"I just don't know many programs that load in under 15 seconds on my system your mileage may vary."

The only programs on my system which take longer than PCGen to load are; NS4.76 (notoriously slow), Adobe Photoshop (likewise) and Adobe Acrobat.

I should also mention that my observed times are when loading only my chosen subset of .lst files (about 12), not the full set.

12 .lst files and that's it? or 12 selected campaign sources? if it's 12 .lst files that should not take long. BUT if it's 12 different sources than yes it will take a bit of time to load. That is normal.

 

[MonkeyBoy]

.lst files; just the bits I use.

if i were silly enough to load all that data, i'd be impressed if it didn't crash, let alone load fast

though to be fair, I did go and count, and 12 is more than a tad low - its more like 25 .lst files.

its most of the PHB, some of the DMG, and little bits of the MM - strangely i felt that the elephant as a playable race had somewhat limited value - plus some over-rides of my own for deities and coins etc.