Battle.net Support in Hellfire

[gugutz]

Can´t seem to find much usefull information about this subject, and this seems to be the only place to ask such question.

I´ve been wondering if it would be too hard to add the Battle.net Menu under Multiplayer on Hellfire.

I downloaded the Unnoficial Hellfire 1.02 made by Marsch on this forums and noticed he added a new option there, LAN UDP.

My intention is not to player on blizzard´s servers, but actually to use the gateway feature to play on PvPGN servers.

On my reasearch i discovered that a multiplayer game on either Diablo 1, Starcraft or Warcraft 2 all simply connect users with each other, and few things are handled by the server, like the game name, player in it, and other small stuff.
So this means it doens´t require any adjustment on the server side, i can simply make PvPGN accept modified clients connections and i could connect with the Hellfire client.

Would this client modification require just patient HEX editing does it require something else?
If so, is there like a particular program that makes the modding easier?

I was thinking about getting the already great hellfire.exe from Marsch´s 1.02 patch and start from there.
Was also thinking about hex translating the exe into my native language (pt-br)

Sorry if this is much of a noobish question. I love this game but don´t have much knowledge about how to mod it to my liking, figured here would be a good place ask about it.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[qualakon]

I have yet find an answer to your question, my friend. It seems that even PvPGN has no idea. That software is geared towards Warcraft 3, D2 while it supports D1, SC and more. I think the unofficial answer would be no. I would imagine it would mean someone would have to extract the Battle.net client from Diablo 1.04. Did they have Battle.net at 1.04? Maybe someone could rewrite the Battle.net client to work with PvPGN...

I think for multiplayer on Hellfire, best bet is Tunngle.

EDIT:

http://www.thedark5.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=953

http://www.thedark5.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=799

Sad news.

[Belix]

This is long shot, but since there are apparently still people taking shots at expanding Diablo's multiplayer functionality, I'll toss this out there.

The Mac version of Warcraft II Battle.net Edition has a very unique feature... direct TCP/IP connectivity. You select it from the MP menu, type in an IP address, and off you go.

I lack the programming aptitude to even think of trying to cull the functionality and plant it into the Windows version, but, if it were possible, Diablo and StarCraft's networking behaviors are similar in nature to Warcraft II. It stands to reason, if Blizzard added UDP to StarCraft through a patch, and modders have added UDP to Diablo, then if Mac W2BNE's TCP/IP behavior could be ported over...

Like I said, long shot. But that might be the closest thing Hellfire could get to true online support. I realize it isn't Battle.net with chat channels and such, but it would mitigate the need for a VPN or similar solution.

[qualakon]

@Belix that does sound pretty awesome in a theoretical kind of way. Do you know where we can get a copy of War2BNE for Mac?

[Belix]

@Belix that does sound pretty awesome in a theoretical kind of way. Do you know where we can get a copy of War2BNE for Mac?

Fortunately, there is no seperate Mac version; Warcraft II Battle.net Edition can be installed and played on either a PC or Mac from the one CD.

[qualakon]

That is right on. Now I need a Mac.

[Mavfin]

That is right on. Now I need a Mac.

Worse. You need an old (pre OS-X) Mac.

[qualakon]

Virtual Machine?

Edit: I'm going to try this SheepShaver thing.

[Belix]

I don't know if this would be of any help, but if you open up INSTALL.EXE on the Warcraft II BNE disc with MPQ Viewer or an equivalent program, there is a MacFiles path in there, containing what I believe to be all of the files installed/written to a Mac's install path for the game. I could be mistaken though. I don't have a Mac so I can't make much sense out of it. But if you can extract these files with the same result as installing it on a Mac, you're saved the trouble of setting up a virtual one, if you haven't already.

If Windows conventions hold true where storm.dll seems to contain connection method stuff, DF.Storm and/or RF.Storm may be the targets of interest. Then again, I see seperate files with IPX in the name, so it is possible that the connection stuff was all moved out into seperate files in this version instead.

While it would certainly be a luxury we can do without, a working TCP/IP mode that prompts for a host IP address inside Hellfire would be a really neat technical achievement. Good luck.

Edit: Fixed a grammatical error. Woops.