Talk:Wiimm's Custom Archive

SHA1s

Hello. First of all, well done on your work to recover and restore the tracks after the recent take down, and I like the idea of a central repository such as yours. I was wondering if, as an extension, it might be possible to display and/or allowing searching for tracks by SHA1 using the same system as CTGP. That way we could interlink the archive with the leaderboards at www.chadsoft.co.uk/time-trials/other-leaderboards.html. Our systems simply use the SHA1 of the decompressed U8 archive as the track ID. We also include the author intended slot as part of our ID, which may also be something your archive could log. Chadderz (talk) 08:20, 22 October 2017 (UTC)

Sounds like a good idea but I don't know if this is possible. Wiimm stores the tracks in WBZ format, and when converting that back to SZS/U8, the result may not be exactly the same file as the original, even without compression and at least if the original SZS was not created with Wiimms tools. There might be other paddings, the files in the U8 may be in the wrong order, ... -- Leseratte (talk) 09:02, 22 October 2017 (UTC)

Agreed, but presumably the WBZ conversion does put it into a stable order; it won't change further. It doesn't necessarily matter that it is not equivalent to the original U8 going forward, as if everyone is downloading the tracks from the archive everyone will get the same version. Possibly a workaround for the existing tracks would be if the original U8's SHA1 (before WBZ) is also included if you still have it. Chadderz (talk) 09:07, 22 October 2017 (UTC)

WBZ makes it stable, yes. But If you used the original SZS to put the track into CTGP and we use the WBZ, the SHA1 in CTGP and on Wiimms page may not be the same - unless you redownload all tracks from Wiimms archive and replace everything that differs. -- Leseratte (talk) 09:11, 22 October 2017 (UTC)

In deed, the database uses a sha1 checksum of the decompressed file (wszst sha1 FILE...). So packing as U8, WU8, WBZ or SZS is irrelevant.

A general distribution support is planned. But let us delay this for some weeks until I finished the first steps of the new archive.

(Written before Chadderz last edit)

-- Wiimm (talk) 09:12, 22 October 2017 (UTC)

Many thanks Wiimm, I've now added links from our time trial pages to the archive (e.g. Abyssal Ruins). I note that if the track doesn't exist, the resultant page is blank, which may perhaps confuse people, so might I suggest adding a "track not found" message in that case (e.g. Alpine Mountain).

Chadderz (talk) 15:19, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

Fixed! (There are more small issues)

However, it's now time to give me all missed tracks. This is the way how this community works: Open and free data!

-- Wiimm (talk) 16:19, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. Indeed, CTGP v1.03's security is only intended to stop cheating, I never meant it to hide things. Bean used to make many small edits to tracks before adding them so that explains why many are not in your database. I've suggested he uploads them once you add a submission form. Chadderz (talk) 11:21, 4 November 2017 (UTC)