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Wherigo Foundation: WF.Player for iOS


charlenni

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I want to devide the thread for WF.Compiler and WF.Player into two threads, because WF.Player belongs to the "Wherigo Hardware" forum, while the WF.Compiler is better hosted in "Building Wherigo Cartridges".

 

The WF.Player uses the same Core/Engine than the Player for WinPhone from Mangatome. So all the things behind the scences work on both the same way (and also on the WF.Player for Android). Here I use the original Lua implementation and a Wherigo library compatible to the GS emulator. You could play a cartridge, you could load and save a game, there are no big crashes in the last time. I use until now Google Maps as map and a tile service for other maps like OpenStreetMap or OpenCycleMap. Only online maps are supported. Beta testers missing a compass function. Some screens are not perfect.

 

Around the inner core, there must be more functionality: you could start a game, download a cartridge from a website or copy it from a e-mail to the cartridges folder. But all access to the new website API is missing. History lists or multi save files are not implemented. Also there is no posibility for offline maps. There are only english and german language files. So there had to be done some more work to make it better than the original GS app for the iPhone.

 

You could find the open source code at Github.

 

Todo:

- change to PCL and MvvmCross concept, so that more code from WF.Players on different platforms could be shared

- move to OSMSharp as map for online and offline, tiles and vector use

- AppStore review

- and much more

Edited by charlenni
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Thank you, remembering me to inform the community. There are so much conversations in the background, that I often forget to inform you.

 

The development of WF.Player is going on. The Core is the same as used for Geowigo, the Wherigo player for WinPhone. With help of Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms I joined the versions of WF.Player for iOS and Android, so that more than 90% of the source code is the same. With this, each feature for one platform appears on the other platform as well. The most things are working correct.

 

The game play works nearly perfect. Sometimes it crashes, more often on Android than on iOS :), but both versions are now very stable. Because using the official Lua kernel, you don't have to check, if this or that works on the player. If the cartridge works in the official emulator, it should work on WF.Player too. Saving and restoring works like on the emulator.

 

Outside of the game play there are some parts that don't work correct. Handling of cartridges could work better. On both platforms you could copy cartridges to the app. On iOS you could add it by download and "Open with..." too. This doesn't work on Android. Deleting cartridges, logs and save files comes with the next beta version. The next big part would be the connection to the new website, so that you could search and download cartridges directly from the Wherigo Foundation website.

 

I created a PDF with some screenshots, so that you could see, how the UI looks. You find always on the left side the iOS and on the right side the Android version.

 

If you have any questions, than I try to answer this.

 

Best regards,

Dirk

 

PS: I post this message on the other WF.Player thread too.

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Thanks for the update Dirk. I'm really looking forward to the WF.Player!

 

Not that I mind the current Wherigo app for the iPhone (okay I do mind ;) ), but when I went caching with a friend of mine recently, I was very jealous of the Geowigo app that he was using on his Android phone. The layout looks really nice and it ran much better than the Wherigo app on my iPhone.

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I started with the development of a common player on iOS and Android back in 2012 and some parts are even older. I bought software and invested many time. Since January 2013 we have started to support Wherigo as Wherigo Foundation, a group of people, that have all worked to support this incredible game in the last years.

 

Since than we (better RangerFox) talked to Groundspeak to support us. Not by money, but with an agreement, that we could create a website, players and builders. You need this, because there is a patent on Wherigo and the name "Wherigo" is registered. Up to now (3,5 years later) the only official announcement of Groundspeak was, that no geocache listing should refer to the Wherigo Foundation website at www.wherigofoundation.com. Each reviewer was instructed not to publish the geocache, if they find a link to this website. Even, if the cartridge couldn't published on www.Wherigo.com, because of limitations of this website (no update since 2008, limitations of size of cartridges). I decided for me, that I only publish the players for Android and iOS, if there is an agreement with Groundspeak, because of legal reasons.

 

With the above in mind, I decided now to drop the active development of WF.Player and waste no more time. I assume that Groundspeak isn't interessted in Wherigo but doesn't want, that anyone else develop it further. They had their time and I assume, that 3,5 years should be enough for such an agreement.

 

Both players for Android and iOS are ready. Testing of betatesters show, that they are the most stable once out there. Both use the same core as the Windows player Geowigo. Improvements could be done for the map (offline map) and the interaction with the new website (up-/download cartridges). The complete source code is available at GitHub (https://github.com/WFoundation). No need for any commercial software. You could use the free MS VisualStudio 2015 Community edition with Xamarin support (Windows) or the XamarinStudio (Mac OSX) to build the apps. Perhaps someone is interested.

 

I want to give thanks to all people, that support me in this time.

 

Best regards,

Dirk (Charlenni)

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Given that there's no longer active development of a common WF.Player for iOS or for Andriod, should be I worried that the Wherigo is going to slowly decline? The old Wherigo app for iPhone or Andriod is buggy and I can imagine that it will get worse over time? Any chance that this app will ever be release in the future? Sorry, I'm feeling a little bit discouraged at the moment. I really love this type of cache type and I enjoy making the Wherigos cartridges for the geocaching community in my area. I hate to see it fade away. :(

 

Again thanks for all time and efforts in developing the WF.Player!

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If we can ever secure the rights to maintain and run Wherigo, there will be renewed interest and a resurgence of work. As this process has been slow and we've never been shown much excitement from Groundspeak's end, the team's engagement has been eroding.

 

I've had the partnership agreement on my desk since the beginning of July. Things, such as a house I'm having built and closing on, kept getting in the way of reviewing it. I know I need to send my comments to Groundspeak to go to the next step. So, for the first time in a few years, I've been holding the process up.

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