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[conquest] Conquest 8.1.2ng2 development snapshot is available
.. at http://radscan.com/conquest/conquest-8.1.2ng2.src.tar.gz
It's not linked to from the website so you won't find it
there.
As with the previous version, this version is not quite ready
for prime-time. No changes have been made to the server in
this release, only the Icon Hud stuff in the GL client.
Here's the release notes section:
8.1.2ng2 (snapshot release) 1/30/2006
- This is a development 'snapshot' version of Conquest. It is
intended to allow people to check it out, specifically the
new icon hud from Cat, which will probably be the default hud
soon :)
As with ng1, distribution maintainers should probably avoid
this release, as there is still alot of work to do before
becoming an 'official' dev release.
- The main focus of this release was to get the icon hud
actually working. It now scales properly. Yay. The icon
code was split out of the normal renderHud() function and
given a function of it's own. Same with the geometry setup.
The geometry setup was completely redone, since the code
from Cat didn't quite work properly - probably because he
didn't know what updateGeo() was really doing :) I will add
some comments later. I promise.
Some things changed as well:
- the decal3, 3a, and 3b textures (red/yellow/proximity
alerts) are gone. Once the geometry was done, there was
simply no place to fit them in. In addition, those
textures did not provide info on the ship that caused the
alert.
So I improvised. The alert is now identified by 'alert
bars' located on either side of the iconic ship diagram.
The ship causing the alert is displayed just below the
icon.
The bars are coded the same as in the original hud, though
there is no text on them.
- steady yellow = proximity alert
- blink yellow = enemy ship in yellow alert range
- steady red = ship in red alert range
- blink red = ship in phaser range
- The torp 'pip' stuff is gone as well (though the texture
is still there). The main problem there was that each
ship was different in where in the decal texture the pip
array is located. This made it far too tedious/painful to
implement correctly. I'd also like to try to make it
reasonable for someone to add a new shiptype someday
without severe pain.
I like the idea though, so it may return in a more
'generic' way that looks and acts the same on all ships,
and is therfore easier to code and maintain.
- The 'animated' tractor icon decal was removed for the same
reason.
- The decal indicating you are carrying armies does not
display the army count. Same reasons as above. I'll
remove the empty '[]'s soon.
- there were some bugs representing a cloaked state in the
icon. Now when you are cloaked, the icon is dimmed (like
your ship).
- The warp indicator bar is not rendered. It was expensive
in terms of rendering and I could rarely see it anyway
unless I was specifically looking for it. Now the 'bar'
is treated just like a scale. I much prefer this - easy
to see out of the corner of your eye :)
- icon shield indicator textures were 'broken' in that the
textures had the color embedded in them, which made it
hard to see what was going on (status).
I redid the icon shield textures in alpha-blended white,
which allows me to programatically select whatever color I
choose at render-time. Now the shields will show the
correct color indicating their strength.
Same with the icon ship images (though no texture rework
was needed there). The icon ship is rendered the same
color as your current damage level.
- there is no room for some of the standard indicators, so
some are located in other areas, for example:
numeric warp and heading, these are displayed to the
bottom left of their respective icons.
armies/ai - this is indicated by '%d armies' displayed in
the upper left of the icon area, or by the action token
when watching a robot.
towing/towed by - this is indicated in the lower left of
the icon area.
destruct - this is now rendered in large, semi-transparent
blinking letters centered in the viewer. Don't know why I
didn't do that in the first place, 'cause it looks kinda
cool :)
- Some options are present that will go away:
- do_icon_color, do_conv_color - sorry, but this is too
messy, expensive, and confusing (for me anyway, I haven't
heard from anyone else).
Some of the textures will need to be re-edited (to
remove/re-arrange) color, but I strongly believe that red
should be DANGER regardless of which team I am flying :)
- do_icon_only - the numbers gotta stay. There just is no
substitute for accurate info in battle, so no need for it
to be an 'option'. This will not quite work properly in
ng2 anyway (you will lose the alloc gauge and the numbers
will still be on :)
- do_icon_hints - there is no more room to display text, and
it does not look good with it overlapping the other items.
It does not really work in this version anyway.
This brings up the 'language' problem. I am not fluent in
Klingon or Orion so it's difficult to work quickly :)
In the future, I think we need to remove the text from the
textures and just use the standard english fonts (except
for the logo). Until these 'alien' fonts can be rendered
as true fonts (converted to bdf format and then to txf), I
don't see any other way.
Also, I can't imagine a new user going into the CP with
Orion gauges, and sticking around for long. How can you
fly if you can't read the controls, hehe
If they could be converted into fonts we can use, then
these alien languages could be easily supported for those
true uber geeks among you who require authenticity :)
- do_icon_test - this was more of a debugging thing and ate
up way to much time in the primary rendering loop. If
this is added later (really only a developer would want
it), some other way can be found.. like ALT-L = Lamp Test
:)
The logic for this has been mostly removed/disabled,
though the option remains - just to tease you.
- changed default WxH to 1024x768 as 800x600 is difficult
with the iconhud.
- redid drawIconHUDDecal() in GL.c (moved there in ng1) to
no longer hardcode sizes (now that updateIconGeo() is
working).
- uiPutColor() can understand alpha now.
- fixed several minor conqinit parser issues.
- ALT-G will toggle the tac display on/off in LR scan.
- should be able to switch HUD modes in options now and get
a proper display. Some of the colors may be wrong though
(due to the remnants of the icon color related options
mentioned above).
- My fps at the default resolution went up from 51 to 83.
Not really noticable in play, but still comforting. :)
--
Jon Trulson mailto:jon@xxxxxxxxxxx
ID: 1A9A2B09, FP: C23F328A721264E7 B6188192EC733962
PGP keys at http://radscan.com/~jon/PGPKeys.txt
#include <std/disclaimer.h>
"I am Nomad." -Nomad