Google Drive and updates

I've checked out the capabilities of the Google Drive in terms of programmatic access. Here is an example for the main game file:

https://googledrive.com/host/0B4T7ZW3brESKeU1jWnpqMGVnZ0k/open-ig-0.95.130.jar

Luckily GD has this host feature for a public directory where each file and subdirectory can be accessed by its proper file name instead of the cryptic File ID (this allows even hosting web pages).

So, the procedure will be as follows: game files will be kept on Google Code site, but changing bits will be now served from my GD account. One drawback is that there is no download counting on GD yet.

Google Code won't support file downloads any more

I came across this blog post about changes in the Google Code hosting. This is kind of sad, since the project relied heavily on the download section for the game files. Now I have to find a place for them. Google Drive is mentioned as a candidate.

In theory, this should not affect the self-update capability of the game, since the version check URL already points into the SVN, and the inner links may point to anywhere I choose. Hopefully, the Google Drive links are static and don't get disabled for too much traffic.

Java 6 support to be dropped

I'm about to drop the Java 6 support in Open Imperium Galactica. This means the game won't run on Java 6 anymore, nor the source code will be compatible with Java 6.

The reason for this is twofold:

• Java 7 language features allow me to write less code for the same purpose. This helps in maintaining and improving the game.
• The official Oracle support for Java 6 has ended, which might leave your system vulnerable to Applet based exploits, not to mention the performance drawbacks.

The upcoming version 0.96 with the multiplayer will use Java 7 only. My expected delivery time is about 1 month from now. The change will affect the Launcher as well. Since Java 6 won't run Java 7 class files, I'll add a small Java 6 bootstrap code that warns the user about the version problem.