Today's FT Update...
 

Apparently, a biggie:


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Originally Posted by FTPDoug

New this update:

A. Just about everything - The re-written table has been in beta for a few months now, and this update brings that out of beta along with a completely re-written lobby. There should be significant performance gains over the old client, especially for players on older machines who multi-table. Along with the performance, many graphic elements have been updated, many old bugs have been fixed, and we swapped the OK and Cancel buttons on the Mac to keep everyone on their toes.

B. Last Hand History window - This was completely re-written as well. There's now a replayer, a "Console" which lists all of your tables/tournaments/hands, and a separate transcript window. You can finally review a hand from a closed tournament table (often your bustout hand)! Note that this replayer uses Flash. You might be prompted to install a newer version of Flash when you first start the game. If you don't take that update you won't be able to view the replayer.

C. Mixed Limit ring games - You should see Mixed Hold'em, Mixed Omaha H/L, and a 7-Game mix (HEROS + NLH + PLO) appear in their respective ring game lobbies over the next day or two. Mixed Hold'em will be in the No Limit/Pot Limit Hold'em lobby for now, but eventually it will have a home of its own.

D. Datamining - As promised a number of months ago, we've taken some steps to curb datamining. This includes no longer writing out observed hand histories to disk. This will undoubtedly upset some of you, but the datamining policy has been in place for a long time and we've seen too much abuse of that policy to do nothing. It's also likely this isn't the last change we'll make to address the problem. We feel this is ultimately the best policy for the overall health of the game.

I'll just go ahead and ask myself the first two obvious questions...

1. What?! Still no ring game filter?!

- We worked very hard to try to get it in this update, but it just wasn't ready in time. This is at the very top of our priority list and is 99% guaranteed to be in the next major update. As far as exactly why it's taken so long, I can't fully spill the beans, but suffice it to say we aren't just slapping a little "edit" link next to the stakes checkboxes...

2. And still no additional login security?

- Unfortunately, this is now unlikely to make the very next big update. The fact that the ring game filter stuff slipped a bit has had a knock-on effect on other projects. It really should make the big update after the filter one, though. Still trying not to give a date, but you have more fingers than the number of weeks it should take. Unless they call you lefty.

3. for the love of god, double or nothing sngs!

- We still don't have plans for this, but we talk about it every once in a while.

4. my client crashes 1-2 times per 12 hour session. Any way to fix this?

- The client is pretty much brand new, so let me know if things are more stable for you now.

5. Would like to hear more on the bigger rewards plan for your bigger players that you mentioned last month.

- It's still very much in the planning stages. There isn't really anything solid to spill just yet. It's very unlikely anything will happen before the end of the year.

6. i have set the option on ftp to display tables on bet or whatever but the tables dont pop to front like on stars.

- There have been some tweaks to how things like this work in the new software. Give it another go and let me know if it now behaves more like you're wanting it to.

7. Furthermore could you optimize the speed/cpu usage of the client so that one can multitable with a mediocre PC in times of crisis

- Yes! That's one of the major reasons for the new software. Let me know how it goes.

8. Request HH available to all nowww.

- The self-service HH request is still in beta and is probably still a good number of months away from being available to everyone. However, you can write in to support and they will send you all the hands you want.

9. Increase the maximum amount of names the client saves as on your friends list. Right now the limit is 10.

- I'll look into this.

10. Request: I'd like to be able to save hand histories to subdirectories named by game type: holdem, razz, horse, omaha, omaha8, etc.

- I like it. Not a high priority, but I'll ask around and see what it would take.

11. There needs to be an FTP security token MS paint thread.

- My entry:



12. I have messaged on here a couple of times and now I am desperate/confused... I keep seeing all these people getting great response/support from FTP... Yet i have thousands in limbo with FTP and and have NEVER received an email reply. I am emailing from my reg'd email addy so that cant be a problem ... id think?

- If you PM me your email address I can get in touch with the right people who can see if there's something bad happening between your ISP and ours. If you've really never heard back from support I'd be willing to bet good money it's a technical issue and not a lack of response issue.

13. Can FTP implement a similar time limit (for ratholing) of two hours?

- Not at the moment, no. It's fairly hard-coded into the server that the max limit is 30 minutes or 30 hands, whichever comes first. I'm told it would be a good sized project to get that changed. Once most of these very high priority projects are out the door we'll be able to look into things like this. For now, though, there just isn't anything we can easily do, sorry.

14. 'Sit in all', 'sit out all' buttons please, for cash and tourney tables.

- Yep, they're down as projects. It won't be any time soon, but we'll get to it eventually.

15. Some clients let you choose to hide all empty tables...i can't seem to find an option like that for the FTP lobby. Is it there somewhere?

- This isn't something you can do at the moment. However, when ring game filters arrive you'll be able to do something like that.

16. is there any way to disable the auto-rebuy feature for CAP NL games?? The reasoning being that there's no table buy-in cap on those games, and nothing is more aggravating than the FTP rebuy feature topping up your roll on one table with your entire account balance simply because you have the auto-rebuy fuction activated.

- I talked with the developers about this the other day and we came to the conclusion that it was just an oversight putting Cap games in the NL/PL auto top-up preferences. Because they have no max buy-in, they act much more like Limit games when it comes to topping up. We'll make that change as soon as we have the time. Sorry about that.

17. Does FTP have any plans of introducing £ and Euro tables

- Distant plans, maybe. We have more immediate plans to offer different currencies to keep your balance in, though. And by "immediate" I think I mean sometime this year.

18. could you make the ante sound different from the bet/posting blind sound? the sound that I have for betting makes it slow when antes are being posted, so I wanted to use the default sound for antes, and my own custom sound for betting/posting blinds.

- Low priority for sure, but I'll ask around and see what it would take.

19. Deal making at final tables

- Coming!

20. are you ever going to fix the SNG/MTT table bug? Every time im multitabling sngs/mtts and I move tables, my old table will not auto-close, and my new table pops up in a random location, its getting realllly annoying

- The table popping up in a random location should now be fixed. The fact that your old table doesn't close (if it wasn't broken) is intentional (so you can talk smack as you leave) so isn't likely to be fixed.

21. Is it true you guys ban people and take all their money for solely using PTR?

- It all depends on the situation, but it's extremely unlikely we'd ever ban and seize for a first offense of that nature. Speaking of prohibited programs, though, we've updated our Prohibited Programs page. Hopefully people find it easier to understand than the last version.

22. Why do the 27 man turbo SNGs have a 5 minute break after 30 minutes? This is the dumbest thing ever. Remove it, please.

- This was just an error. It's been fixed now, thanks.

23. When I open the client, it always goes to the top left of my screen. Everyday I have to move it over to the top right of my screen, where I want it. Could you make it so that it remembers where I closed the client? Or give it a docking feature?

- That's weird. How are you shutting down? It should definitely remember your lobby position as long as you exit cleanly. Let me know if the new software has the same problem.

24. any chance of 2-7 and badugi being added ever?

- Yes, good chance. Just not any time soon.

25. Not sure how popular this would be but could the $216 PLO tournament on Saturdays be made 6 max rather than full ring?

- We could probably experiment for a while with alternating every week. I'll look into it.

Doug

I miss my custom card mods. :(

When someone figured out how to get them back, please post here.

And Full Tilt Shortcuts doesn't work any more either. Oh goody.

Time for a couple of days off, I guess.

I've always kinda been disappointed with FTP's software, TBH.

Looks like they threw a big curve at PTR with this update... which sucks. :(

I imagine if they can log stars hands they can figure out how to get full tilts now as well.

I hope so... I have a very nice buddy list going on PTR.

I decided to play a couple of orbits and see how much I missed my FTS.

Answer: A lot.

I also noticed that PT2 can read the HH files, but doesn't import them, and PAHud does not recognize the tables.

Time for a little poker break until the all the patches are released.

*sigh*

PT3 and HEM have released patches, but all datamining is done. So you don't get stats for any tables until you are sit (and dealt a hand?).

FTS is gone for at least a week or more.

Spade eye and PTR are both on the prohibited software list. And it looks like FTP is starting to enforce that list, so be careful RD.

Fozzy and Bar Nuthin' are working on the card mods. It's a biggie. They switched from PNG to SVG. Fozzy has converted one (or maybe two) of his from PNG to SVG but they come out a little blurry. He's actually pulled his cards from Tiltbuster until he has time to re-design, from the ground up, in Illustrator some new SVG-based cards. Apparently the tables convert from PNG to SVG with no problem though.

I hadn't heard any timeframe on FTS so Mel's info is new to me. I don't use it anyway. Also, Betpot is broken as well (at least it was as of 9:00 this morning.).

As Mel mentioned, PT3 is working fine (actually was working before this morning as I didn't do any updates) however FTP has stopped writing observed HH to disk.

But yeah, as soon as I have word on a Waffle-esque card mod I'll let everyone know.

RR-if you can figure out how to install them as well, that will be great. There are a couple of nasty card mods up at 2+2, but nothing nice yet.

I noticed this, too. i also see that use of Sharkscope during play is now prohibited. If that is indeed true, I'm glad I only was buying by the month.

has anyone else had trouble getting this update to install?

Yeah...so I'm kinda impatient. Especially when unemployed (OT - grinding SNGs...not going too badly... :)). So I've started working on a card mod.

The installation will probably be a bit of a pain as it's going to be at least 4 directories and I'm not all fancy like Tiltbuster making an installation file. But I'll include good directions on installing it. I've got the diamonds done and they look okay. I used Inkscape for that but I'm just installing Illustrator right now and going to re-tackle it using that.

After I did the diamonds I decided to play a round of SNGs since I was out most of the day. You wanna talk a bout a fucked up deck - hearts, clubs, spades all normal Tilt 4-color. Diamonds - Rob's design. Lemme tell you though - it was sick EASY to spot diamond flushes!

How does Tilt know whether you're visiting a site like PTR while you're playing?

They can tell anything you have running when your client is open. I imagine they have something in the client that can check the task manager and see what processes and applications you have running.

Okay, so here's a sample of the cards I'm working on. Let me know what you think. Any and all suggestions welcome! Font is Arial Rounded MT Bold. Original font was Segue UI but the queen was too big (guess I could of resized that one card but meh).

Diamonds are done. The rest of the Lucky Charms family are too follow soon! Spades will be grey/black, not yellow.

Okay...it looks like some have beat me to the punch over on 2+2. Damn me for having a life.

Head over to this thread:


There's a waffle-esque SVG card mod in the very first link but even better is post #59 by Abstractus. He's figured out a way to let you use your old .PNG files for both cards AND tables!

So head over there and grab what you need!

Annnnnnd one more from me
 

Okay, after FULLY reading through the thread it seems that the method for using the old .PNGs is a little flaky. Also, the deck he created uses '10' instead of 'T' for the tens.

So, I'm probably going to continue work on my deck and will release it here along with installation instructions when I've got it finished. Also, if anyone has any specific requests, let me know.

The using old .png files method is the best - in theory. But if it doesn't actually work, or is flakey, I guess I'll just go with the new mods.

I actually quite like the deck in the OP linked above, so maybe I'll just use that. It's close to my old deck, but maybe a little bit better.

As for patches (for PT2 dinosaurs like me)...

PT2:


Currently, this is the most recent patch (imports but doesn't move HH files):


No official comment about a PAHud patch yet:


FTS (which apparently is turning into "Poker Shortcuts" and will work with Starts too - hurray!!!) hopes to have something available by Sunday... at least for basic functions:


If PAHud doesn't get patched, I guess that will be the boost I need to finally upgrade to PT3 or HEM. From what I've heard, I should just suck it up and go with HEM. True?

RR, my offer still stands, particularly if you can make a deck without the big-ass suit icon in the background. Just a solid color background, the letter/number, and a small letter/number in the top left corner.

I'm all over it! Converting the deck I'm working on to a solid color will be a snap! As soon as I figure out the right settings in Illustrator as I'd rather use it over Inkscape. Should have it by the end of this week.

Okee, here we go.

Attached should be two files. Cards.zip and Cards without suits.zip. One has the background suit image and one doesn't. 99% of you should be able to figure out which is which. For that 1%...well...tough. ;)

Installation:
1) Open up My Computer and browse to your Full Tilt Directory. If you haven't done a customer install then it's C:\Program Files\Full Tilt Poker. Continue inside that folder to Graphics\NewTable\Common\Cards
2) Once there you should see about 22 directories with names like "clubs", "clubs_green", "clubs_green_lores", etc.
3) Make a backup copy of: "clubs_green", "diamonds_blue", "hearts", and "spades"
4) Extrace the 4 directories in the zip right into this folder.
5) Start Full Tilt and enjoy (restart Full Tilt if already running)

NOTE: Because of the changes to the way cards are done, if you frequently switch between 4 color and 2 color...well...you're in for an interesting 2 color deck.

If you enjoy the, donations are gratefully accepted on Tilt or Stars. :cheers:

If you have any requests let me know and we'll work something out!

The screenshot is kinda blurry. They're really rather crisp.

I've updated the zips. See further down in thread for newest versions.

looks awesome RR. $5 shipped to the "Robbie Robb" the green lizard first letter of city L. Hopefully that is you or you should change your sig line.

That is me. Received funds. Thank you very much. If you need it tweaked at all, let me know!

nice work RR, they are pretty sweet.

your cards look quite nice on this .

I assume Step #3 is only if I ever want to recover the stupid FT cards, which I never want to do, so I think I'll be skipping that step.

Nice work.

Yes, they do look pretty sweet on that table. I think I still prefer the cards in OP more (I just prefer that font), but I'm using RR's anyway.

Oh, and shipping $5 too :)

Thank you! Received! I'll see if I can figure out which font it is that they use there. The one in the .PNG screenshot I'm pretty sure is the same font I'm using - Arial Rounded but then in the .SVG files it's using a different font.

One other thing - the lores cards are still the god-awful FT defaults. I'm working on that. As a test, I substituted those cards for the lores and nf_lores ones as well. It's...an odd effect. It doesn't work properly as it actually crops the cards BUT it's kinda neat the result. It's definitely better then what the defaults are, but still not right. Gonna try to fix those too and will get those posted as well. Also, have NO clue what the difference is between "nf_lores" and "lores"

One more for tonight.

Unzip and put this one in the NewTable\Common\Cards\card_backs folder, overwriting the one that's there. You guys'll like it. Trust me.

I'll check out the card backs later, probably tomorrow. As for the font discussion, I am partial to the tighter, smaller, and fancier fonts for my everyday life (cochin and Bodoni SvtyTwo ITC TT are my favs) but for the cards you want thick strokes and broad, simple lines rendering each character as blocky and square as possible. Arial Black is my earlier favorite.

Here's the latest update. It now includes the lores files.

I'll see about making my next card mod with Arial Black. Might try something a little different with the background for those ones.

Is this to change the card backs? I'm gonna pass, if it is. I'm currently using the very bright ones from that 2p2 sample I linked to, and I love them. I can't see how you could possibly improve them, but post a screenshot and maybe you can convince me otherwise.

i think you'll like them. hopefully

Heh, cool.

I like the idea of them (and used to have similar ones, with the logo on horizontally), but I prefer the bright cardbacks, so I never miss someone in a hand.

Right now, with a black table, the midnight background, and bright green card backs, it's would be hard to miss someone.

I know you can choose 4 card backs though... so maybe you could use 3 of the bright colored ones and use this as #4. ie, keep the green, yellow and red from the other card set, and replace blue with the TP backs.

RR... I really am liking your cards and the font is growing on me. :)

The only very minor critique I have of them right now is the size of the letters/numbers (which I love) interferes with the suit in the background, especially at the top of the number.

Unlike mel, I like seeing the suits, but I wonder if this could be done in a more subtle way...? Like, maybe lose the background image and put the suit in the top, like how you have the small number, either next to it or below it or across from it - it would depends on how it looks in 4 card games like Omaha, I guess.

Just a thought.

Edit: Actually, I just noticed that the size of the 2d looks pretty good... the other numbers all appear larger?

And finally (and this is totally minor), is there any way to change the awful looking cards show in the HH replayer? I'm guessing no, sine it's built into their flash.

Oh, and WTF are "lores" anyway? I installed your latest updates and didn't notice a difference anywhere.

I have NO CLUE what the lores folder is for. The nf_lores is when you shrink the window down to it's smallest sizes. I've got a post on 2+2 finding out.

As for the replayer, it IS possible. Some guy on 2+2 did it. The cards are embedded in the SWF so I just need to get my hands on a flash program to decompile, edit and recompile replayer.swf

For the suits, yeah, I can work something up. All the numbers ARE the same size but I just noticed that the diamond image is taller than the other suits.

I'm working on a new deck right now that is a dark gradient (using Arial Black Mel!) but I'll definitely do a new version of these fixing the suit in the background by either making it bigger or moving it up beside or below the pip. And yeah, I can definitely incorporate cardbacks into the next release with the bright backgrounds with a TP option as the 4th. I just quickly threw it together last night.

RR- don't bust your ass for the thick stroke font on a solid color background. The ones you made are just fine and, with the exception of A and 4, every number and letter is quite distinct and even the A-4 similarity is not that bad.

No worries Mel, I'm not busting my ass! :-) I have the hearts done with the Arial Black deck. The backgrounds are darker though. I'm also busy tweaking other aspects of the game now too - like I change the empty seat color - just to "make it my own" LOL

I've got a lot of spare time now and it's easier to work on these while sitting out in the backyard watching the kids instead of playing poker. Wireless is sometimes spotty out there.

Plus, while sitting here writing this, I think I came up with a way to make card mods almost cookie cutter in nature. Want this font on that background? No problem! A '10' instead of a 'T'? No Problem!

Okay...I think my "cookie cutter" method is going to work pretty good. If I'm using an existing font I can put together a full deck in about 20 minutes. If I need to do a whole new font it will take a bit longer. I must say, Adobe Illustrator rocks!!!

Here's the one I mentioned with Arial Black. It's not quite ready for release yet as I still need to do the lores (nf_lores) version of it and also a version that includes a suit image. I *think* for that one, I'll move the big number over to the right for each one and then put the suit below the pip. But I'll also try it to the right of the pip just to see what it looks like. This mod will also have the bright card backs as well as the TP one.

Oh, and I *know* I've stolen the idea for this deck from a 2+2 mod - just not sure who or when, but I've seen cards similar to this in the past. (with the light->dark gradient in the back ground)

those are fricking sweet RR, release them soon! One thing, I like the light to dark gradient, but can you make the dark not so dark on the bottom of the deck so that red is still red at the bottom, green is still green at the bottom, etc.

I'll see what I can work up. I may have to lighten up the top color a bit and then have a darker shade on the bottom. I'll keep playing around with them. Look for a release in a couple days!

Add another color point to the gradient 3/4 of the way down (75% OR full black) and then back to 75% color at the bottom of the card?

I was thinking something along those very lines! I'm grinding out some SNGs tonight so I won't be working on it again until tomorrow. Got a few ideas I want to try and see how they work.

Aight (only good if said in the voice of The Count from Greg The Bunny), lemme know what you think. I should be able to get this out in card form later tonight with the lores version following tomorrow probably.

those cards make my pants feel funny.


wow, they are great! well done. Another $5 from me for sure! (don't spend it all in one place :thumbsup:)


I assume the black 6 (spades?) is weird only because of the screen capture you used.....

Yeah, I've got the path highlighted for the 6 for some reason. It's not there in the card. I've also added a '10' to the deck as an option for those that don't like 'T'.

I'm in the process of exporting it now and then I have to do up the lores and cardbacks.

Looking good.

I may actually like the less dark colors on the previous version better though. TBD.

And I need my version with suits! LOL. I think subtly under the small number is the place to go for those, but I'm sure you have it worked out already.