ShiftOS Wiki - User contributions [en]

Video Player

2019-01-05T20:51:17Z

2001:1970:4C21:AD00:CC5E:C89B:101C:9C0F: Created page with "'''Video Player''' is a program that you can buy off of Appscape in the Shiftnet in 0.0.x, 0.1.x and 1.0. It allows playing of various media files through the use of an Active..."

'''Video Player''' is a program that you can buy off of Appscape in the Shiftnet in 0.0.x, 0.1.x and 1.0. It allows playing of various media files through the use of an ActiveX Windows Media Player control. This was demoed in the 0.0.8 development update.

== Bugs and issues ==
Because the Video Player was built on ActiveX and Windows Media Player, it meant that, theoretically, the player could both '''break out of ShiftFS''' through Media Player's user interface, and '''access fullscreen mode''' exposing a Windows Media Player user interface. However, these issues are hypothetical and based purely on a cursory look in the game's code. These theories are untested.

Furthermore, the use of Windows Media Player would prevent the game from ever running on Linux or macOS.

== Becoming a 0.1.1 mod ==
Because of the aforementioned problems, in ShiftOS 0.1.1, Video Player would become a '''mod program''' meaning that the game wouldn't come pre-packaged with the Video Player in the code. It would only be accessible by downloading the mod from Appscape, which turned into a modding distribution hub for the game.

Web Browser

2019-01-05T20:44:29Z

2001:1970:4C21:AD00:CC5E:C89B:101C:9C0F: Created page with "The '''Web Browser''' is a program only accessible in 0.0.x that the player can buy from the Shiftnet. Sold on Appscape, this program would magically allow access to the '''re..."

The '''Web Browser''' is a program only accessible in 0.0.x that the player can buy from the Shiftnet. Sold on Appscape, this program would magically allow access to the '''real-life Internet''' from within ShiftOS.

The web browser used the stock '''Windows Forms web renderer''' control, meaning that there was poor JavaScript support and limited CSS support. Most websites would load incorrectly, including the ShiftOS forums themselves. Most notably, the game would direct the player to Google when opening the browser, which would laughably recommend the player install Google Chrome for the browser they were using was extremely outdated.

Code Points

2019-01-05T20:41:16Z

2001:1970:4C21:AD00:CC5E:C89B:101C:9C0F: Created page with "Codepoints are one of the in-game currencies in ShiftOS, the other being Bitnotes. == Usage == Codepoints are primarily used for buying upgrades in Shiftorium, however they c..."

Codepoints are one of the in-game currencies in ShiftOS, the other being Bitnotes.

== Usage ==
Codepoints are primarily used for buying upgrades in Shiftorium, however they can be exchanged for Bitnotes later in the game.

=== Bitnote exchange rate ===
In 0.0.8, players could exchange Codepoints for Bitnotes after unlocking the Shiftnet. For every 24 Codepoints given away to the Bitnote Shiftnet site, the player would gain one Bitnote - allowing them to buy programs and services off sites like Appscape.

== Earning Codepoints ==
Codepoints would be earned by doing almost anything in ShiftOS. The most effective way to earn Codepoints was '''Pong''', which soon became a meme in the community as ShiftOS would soon become '''Pong Simulator 2032''' during 1.0's development.

Other ways of earning Codepoints included getting 10 items right in '''Knowledge Input''', customizing the OS in '''Shifter''', writing long documents in '''TextPad''', and drawing pictures in '''ArtPad.'''

The amount of Codepoints earned, and the effort required, would depend on what the player is doing and how the program they are using is written.

ShiftFS

2019-01-05T20:34:41Z

2001:1970:4C21:AD00:CC5E:C89B:101C:9C0F: Describe the lore and later technical details of ShiftFS.

ShiftFS is the in-game filesystem format for ShiftOS. It started out as just part of the game's lore, and took many names, but would soon become an actual RAM disk format used in the game's engine.

== Lore ==

=== 0.0.x to 0.1.x (2013-2016) ===
In the introduction sequence for 0.0.x releases of ShiftOS, the operating system would format the player's C: drive and repartition it with the "ShiftFS" filesystem format. In reality, this was the game creating the C:\ShiftOS folder - the player's save file - and creating all the folders and files necessary for the in-game environment. The rest of the introduction screen would be reserved for creating the illusion of installing an operating system on the player's drive, well after this save directory was generated.

In ShiftOS-Next builds, the game would reference this in-game filesystem format as "ShiftFS_Ultra," as a reference to Michael's earlier ShiftOS-like game, UltraDOS - which served as the foundation for ShiftOS-Next's codebase.

=== 1.0 (2016-2017) ===
In ShiftOS 1.0, ShiftFS became an actual RAM disk format. This means that ShiftOS would reserve an area in your system's memory for an in-game filesystem where you could store files. The game would only mount this RAM disk when you played the game, and would dismount it when you exit - writing it to a file on your actual drive, called "ShiftOS.mfs"

The .mfs file extension signified that the filesystem was ACTUALLY stored in the "Merloc File System" format, a JSON-based filesystem image format written by ShiftOS developer '''cjhannah''' for the game.

== Merloc FS ==

=== Advantages over C:\ShiftOS ===
This filesystem format allowed the game to sandbox its filesystem outside of the host computer's. This meant that the player truly could not go above ShiftOS's root folder, a feature in 0.0.x. While in 0.0.x this feature was hacked in to prevent the player from accessing their real life filesystem in-game, ShiftOS 1.0 and MFS actually had a technical reason for doing this.

Moreover, because the filesystem was mounted in RAM, read and write speeds were PHENOMENALLY better. Furthermore, the game would take on a COSMOS-style path format, eliminating "C:\ShiftOS" from all path strings in the UI and replacing them with "0:/" to create a feeling of immersion within the OS.

=== Memory usage concerns ===
Because the filesystem was JSON-based, the game would have to fully load the filesystem into memory in order to access it. JSON is not a streamable serialization format, meaning ShiftOS could not just seek around the filesystem - like a real-life hard drive would do.

This meant that, among other issues, the game would consume tons of RAM keeping the filesystem loaded. It also meant that your disk space was directly limited by the amount of RAM you have.

=== Derivatives ===
The most notable derivative of MerlocFS is PlexFS, a format created by Declan Hoare in late 2017 for The Peacenet. While retaining the same API as MerlocFS/ShiftFS, it would address the memory usage concerns and memory limitations by storing the disk image in a streamable format. This also meant it was no longer a RAM disk, and worked more like a traditional disk image file - like that of a VHD or VMDK file, used for real-life hypervisors like VirtualBox and VMware Player.

However, the disk space was limited to 512 MB to prevent players from overtaking disk space on the now defunct Peacenet multiplayer servers.