SkoBrowser FPS-games mIRC server browser

SkoBrowser is a game server browser, that is a tool which allows to find and display available servers of various online games. This tool is designed to be used from mIRC (IRC client) and is handling a lot of features and almost all popular FPS games

Here you can find latest beta of my SkoBrowser.
Though the "beta status", this script is 100% usable and no big bug known on my side.

Link : SkoBrowser Beta 12 (mIRC v6.35 & v7.1x) ; Full list of changes : SkoBrowser Beta 12 changes

Shots :

This is a must-have script for every FPS online players who are aswell IRC users because it is cumulating advantages of a powerful server browser & a smart monitoring system for IRC.

A powerful server browser :

• totally free (no ads,...)
• intuitive (easy and clear GUI with cascaded menu & popup menu)
• powerful (customisable filters, players & rules friendly display ... )
• upgradable (Easy to support more games & tweak display)
• no annoying install with crap on your reg...  this is a script ! add or remove the directory from mIRC and the install is done/remove

A smart monitoring system :

• be warned on activity on your favorites servers
• automatically join the first server available meeting your requirement !
• be the first to join a full server as soon as a slot is free !!!
• "idle smart" in IRC instead of loosing your time in the crappy ingame server browser...

Here is short list of features supported by SkoBrowser :

• Over 50 recent games in this beta  (8 differents protocols supported) ...  The full list (below) can easily get a lot bigger with your help !!!
• Favorites  (Either sorted by game or all mixed together so you have the best overview possible !)
• Master server query
• Players listing  (& displayed in teams if info available)
• Password support
• mIRC copy/paste : Catch IP, Paste server info to mIRC channel, Copy IP, map to clipboard...
• Powerful "find text" tool
• Monitoring system : Be aware of every interesting event on your favorite servers and automatically join them
• Game launch with custom command line options
• Map preview display

and many other nifty features...

Game list supported on latest beta :

Only UT3 is fully defined in this beta but all other games data can be filled aswell. I require info from game owners.

Everything is coded in mIRC :

• no external dll used (except DCX.dll which is a -very good - extension to graphical interface dll)
• no qstat or gslist...  I coded all protocols in MSL (mIRC script language)  !  (Thx Luigi Auriemma for support)
• you can check the code that there is nothing harmfull for your system...  (good luck as the code is quite optimised & packed)
• you can even tweak the code by yourself if you master MSL ; but please don't share modified versions...

I need help !

To release my first version, I need your help for:

• a site & a forum to host my SkoBrowser script
• users to promote the script, help noob mIRC users, be my "ambassadors" as I got very low time for users support myself... game owners to help me fill the "gamelist.ini" files with default command line & test everything is OK
• players of other games to give me data to add their favorite game (A cool 32x32 ico and the game settings (protocol, master ...)

You can contact me by mail for bug report, host proposals, features suggestions, etc... : SkorpSSS

What to expect in first released version :

• A bigger game list with data filled (default command lines, rules & gametypes) ; For that I require help of game owners...
• Monitoring part recoded  (to remove the "monitoring stopped" when you use again the browser)
• A few code optimisation...
• Bugs reported removed !

My script experience :

I am not exactly new to mIRC scripting as I started coding my first server query (FavUT) in ... 2003 !  Since then I coded : FavUT, SkQ4 (Quake 4), SkUT3 (UT3) (awarded with MSUC prize) and SkUTx (all UT series) with more or less popularity according to the online community health... but now that all games are supported so I hope to have a very big user community !

FAQ :

Can I get my game XYZ supported ?
It is very likely that your game can be very easily added to SkoBrowser, only by filling its info in the "gamelist.ini" and putting a 32x32 icon in Games directory.
In fact, it depends on the protocol used by the game. SkoBrowser is supporting 7 protocols which are used by almost every games ... except a few ones like BattleField Bad Company 2 :-(
Anyway, you are welcome to ask me !

Is it possible to port SkoBrowser to another IRC client ?
It should be possible, but not by me ! :-(
I only know MSL (mIRC script language) and am helpless in others script languages.
If you are skilled in other script language (and MSL), you are welcome to discuss with me for a port.

Why coding SkoBrowser in IRC ? Why not doing a stand-alone tool so that everyone can use it ?
As mentionned above, I only know MSL but that is not the only reason. This tool has been thought-over to be included in the IRC environnement.
At the moment, it is a lot more confortable for competitive online players who are constantly idling in IRC to get info on their favorite server via a PM from SkoBrowser or to open the GUI in mIRC than to use another tool one more time.
Moreover, as a past competitive player, I know that a lot of information on server are shared via mIRC and having an easy and powerfull catch-ip / paste info to channel is so handy...
I have in my mind for years to incorporate a powerful community and pickup system to replace current pickup bots which are a bit "simplistic". I have very interesting ideas and concepts but I require time to code and users to test.
Because all those features are requiring to have a lot of SkoBrowser users willing to help me on that task !
I rely on the incredibly good current server browser to get a lot of those users :-)

When the server list is long, SkoBrowser is a lot slower than other server browsers... Is it possible to speed-it a bit ?
I really wanted to code the whole tool in MSL (protocol querying and parsing, etc...).
Good points are that I totally control every aspect of the tool and can fix or upgrade any part (except the GUI part related to DCX) without relying on other tool dev or people... Moreover it is an instructive script for people interested in MSL (but I understand that users-only doesn't care on the last point)
Bad point is that MSL is an interpreted code and as a result the tool is a lot slower than other compiled server browser... The script is optimised to be the fatest possible but is still slow.
The biggest trick to speed up the whole list query is to set a very restrictive "country filter". A result list with less than 1000 items is confortably handable.

There are visual glitches when resizing the dialog... when clicking a checkbox quickly sometimes the result is unexpected... etc...
A few bugs are linked to DCX.dll, not to my script. As a result, I can't fix them but I ask nonstop DCX devs to fix those annoying bugs...
Unfortunatly the DCX dev is a bit inactive at the moment. Maybe with a horde of SkoBrowser fans, it could motivate them to pursue their good work ! :-)

Please share the good new !

Enjoy SkoBrowser

SkorpSSS