[conquest] Conquest 8.0.1a (devel) is now available
Jon Trulson
jon at radscan.com
Sat May 8 19:02:38 MDT 2004
at the usual place:
http://radscan.com/conquest.html
This is a development release.
The big thing in this release is the addition of a GLUT/OpenGL
client, conquestgl. There are a couple of screenshots on
http://radscan.com/conquest.html
Some fixes and enhancments to the conquest server and driver are
also present in this release.
Here is the snippet from the HISTORY file:
Version 8.0.1a 5/08/2004 (devel)
- Adds a GLUT/OpenGL client, conquestgl. Yay!
- See http://radscan.com/conquest/index.html for a couple of
screen shots.
- The gl client is called 'conquestgl' - use this to run the
OpenGL version of the client. The curses client
'conquest' is still present of course, for those who
really dig the retro experience.
- if you do not have OpenGL and GLUT libraries/headers on
your system, supply the '--disable-gl' command line
argument to the 'configure' script, as in:
./configure --disable-gl
This will prevent the GL related clients and libraries from
being compiled, and you will be stuck with the curses only
client :)
- Note, the GL client does not provide a 6 DOF (flight
simulator-type) playing experience. Sorry - that would be
an entirely new game. OpenGL and GLUT are used to
basically present the same game experience as the current
curses client, however, the use of a graphical client
provides a much nicer experience visually. To be honest,
I never use the curses client to play anymore :)
- phaser shots from other ships are rendered in the GL
client.
- new user option:
do_enemyshipbox
when set to 'true', will draw a 1 pixel red square around
enemy ships in the LR/SR views in the GL client.
- currently the maximum Frames Per Second (FPS) is capped
around 100. A 10ms delay will be inserted between
frames if the FPS exceeds 75, which is really more than
sufficient for conquestgl's rendering requirements.
- there are no specific GL extensions required or used.
OpenGL 1.1 and greater should be sufficient for
building/running conquestgl.
I have not tried running conquestgl on a software GL
implementation like Mesa. With a fast enough processor,
it could be playable though, since we are not talking
about Quake 3 rendering requirements here :)
- the mouse is not used in conquestgl - everything still
runs by keyboard :)
- up to 36 macros can be handled in conquestgl:
F1 - F12
SHIFT F1 - F12
CTL F1 - F12
- conquestgl can also play conquest recording (.cqr) files.
Use the -P 'cqr filename' option.
conquestgl -P dethfun.cqr
It's much nicer to watch recordings in the OpenGL version
than using the curses-only 'conqreplay' program.
Other than this, the options are the same for conquestgl
as the curses client 'conquest'.
- there are many enhancements that could be made to the
various displays still:
- a star/galaxy texture in the background of the viewer
(partially implemented but not yet enabled).
- spiffing up the text only screens in Conquest (user list,
planet list, etc)
- a better conquest logo display
- non-destructive (alpha blended) information viewing
(ship list, etc ) while in the middle of a fight.
- phasers should probably be drawn using an alpha blended
texture rather than a blended line.
- need a better way to display explosions
- need to increase line length and number of lines for the
display of incoming messages.
- the list goes on. Sigh.
- conquestd/conqdriv changes
- on entry to the game, the server will send a complete user
list to the client. Previously, only users currently
playing in the game or present in the history list were
sent to the client. This means the '(U)ser list' option
in the clients will list all of the users now.
- conqdriv now updates planet positions every 10th/sec.
Previously these were only updated every 5 seconds. This
provides much smoother planet movement, especially in the
GL client. Of course this increases the required bandwith
some. If this is too much for your internet connection,
reduce your 'updates_per_sec' option.
- conqdriv now updates a ship's orbital position every
10th/sec rather than 1/sec. This makes orbiting planets
much smoother - this is more noticable in the GL client.
- missing doomsday protocol added. Believe it or not, with
the 8.0.1 release version. I forgot to added the protocol
for the doomsday. Using an older client (pre 8.0.1a) will
results in an 'invisible' doomsday machine. Upgrade to a
8.0.1a or better client. The GL client uses a texture made
from the original Star Trek episode "The Doomsday Machine"
:)
- conqmeta changes
- meta server now sorts output server list by the number of
currently active players, rather than the server
registration order.
- fixed a bug where the meta server could not distinguish
between multiple servers that were running on the same
host, but listening on different ports.
- alot of restructuring of the code and the creation of new
libraries.
- No UI specific code is present in libconquest anymore.
- new generic libUi
- all curses functions and the functions that depend on them
are now in libUiCU
- GL related functions and their dependants are located in
libUiGL.
- curses related functions removed from libconqclnt and
libconqserv
- new color implemetation, (colors.h) - UI agnostic.
- much cleanup up of c_defs.h.
- conqnews.doc renamed to HISTORY.
- added CREDITS file to give credit where credit is due
(netrek for the original pixmaps that formed the basis of
the ship textures in conquestgl, etc)
--
Jon Trulson mailto:jon at radscan.com
ID: 1A9A2B09, FP: C23F328A721264E7 B6188192EC733962
PGP keys at http://radscan.com/~jon/PGPKeys.txt
#include <std/disclaimer.h>
"I am Nomad." -Nomad
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