3.00 pl0
3.1.8 NO PIXMAPS OPTION
The "-b" option disables the use of color pixmaps by the client.
3.2 Pixmaps (Full Color COW)
With the release of COW 3.00, dynamic color images are available. No
color images have been compiled into the client, so without the additional
files (described below) the client will behave as before.
3.2.1 Setup
The xpm files should be available at the same site from which you got
the client, in a file named pixmaps.tgz (PIXMAPS.ZIP for windows users).
>>> YOU MUST DOWNLOAD AND UNPACK THIS FILE TO USE THE COLOR FEATURES. <<<
It should create a subdirectory named "pixmaps" which should have several
(obviously named) subdirectories. There should be several XPM files in each
(except for Planets, which has a further subdirectory). UNIX users will see
that they are gzipped to save space. You do NOT need to ungzip them unless
you do not have gzip on your machine.
>>> DO NOT REARRANGE OR RENAME THESE FILES IF YOU WANT TO USE THEM. <<<
You need to add a line to your .xtrekrc telling the client where to look
for the pixmaps. If you do not, it will assume that they are in a subdirectory
of the directory you are in when you start the client. The option is called
"pixmapDir". Tilde and environment variables WILL NOT WORK. Relative paths
will only work if you always start netrek from the same directory.
You should be ready to rock and roll. Fire it up. You may see some
warnings about not being able to read some pixmaps. Some of the pixmaps
that the client looks for haven't been drawn yet. Feel free to make your
own set. OTOH, if you see any lines which read
"TYPE PIXMAPS NOT AVAILABLE"
it means that none of a certain type of pixmap were found. Check to make sure
that the pixmaps are where you told it to look. If they are, and you are on
a UNIX system, you may not have gzip installed. Go get it from any GNU mirror
and either install it or use it to ungzip the XPM files.
3.2.2 Configuration
In addition to simply creating your own XPMs with a paint program, you
may want greater control over the pictures used. For example, you may find
the explosions are too pretty, and you are dying because you forgot to dodge.
The crude approach is to just remove that pixmap. The client will default back
to the standard bitmaps in this case.
The more elegant approach is to turn off just those pixmaps you don't
like and keep the rest. This also allows you to switch back and forth WITHOUT
having to exit and restart. So if the machine you are playing on is busy
today, you can turn off the pixmaps until things improve, then switch back to
full color without losing your 5 kills.
Pixmaps can be turned on or off in groups on the new "Pixmap Menu" in the
options window (shift-O). Each line in the window also corresponds to an
.xtrekrc resource which you can use to set the initial values. If one type
of pixmaps is not available, you will be unable to turn on that option.
resource name default description
indPix on \
fedPix on | Control whether or not the XPMs
romPix on | for the ships of a given team
kliPix on | should be used
oriPix on /
weaponPix on Torps and plasmatorps & their clouds
explosionPix on ship and starbase explosions
cloakPix on fade-in/-out and cloak icon
mapPix on Color Planet icons on galactic
(replaces the "colorgalactic" option)
backgroundPix on Background stars & genocide/gb images
(replaces the "babes" option)
ownerhalo off Draws a colored ring around each
planet on the galactic
as a convenience, the option "shipPix" may be used to control all of the
ship XPMs in one line.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ POWER USERS +
+ +
+ The MegaResource "pixFlags" can be used in your .xtrekrc +
+ to save a bit of typing. Simply bitwise OR together the +
+ things you want turned off: +
+ +
+ 0x0001 IND pixmaps +
+ 0x0002 FED pixmaps +
+ 0x0004 ROM pixmaps +
+ 0x0008 KLI pixmaps +
+ 0x0010 ORI pixmaps +
+ +
+ 0x0020 Weapons +
+ 0x0040 Explosions +
+ 0x0080 Cloaking +
+ 0x0100 Galactic Map Planet Icons +
+ +
+ 0x0400 Backgrounds +
+ +
+ 0x1000 Halos +
+ +
+ so, for exaple, no halos and no explosions would be +
+ specified as: (0x1040=4160) +
+ +
+ pixFlags: 4160 +
+ +
+ +
+ (Note that this OVERRIDES all the other resources) +
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If you hate them all, you can either set the "pixmapDir" to "None" or
start the client with the -b (bitmap only) command line option. Then go ahead
and delete all of the XPMS. Go ahead. We don't mind at all. It's not like
we put any WORK into this ... :,-(
3.2.3 Babes/M31 and Generalized Backgrounds
Gone. You can put up any picture you like when you GENO, GB, or just
enter or hit shift-K. Just specify the genocide.xpm, ghostbust.xpm and/or
hello.xpm. It's really none of my business what you look at in your off time.
Absolutely no picture will be shown if you do not have an XPM in the
specified place. It didn't belong in the client in the first place.
DEAL WITH IT.
And BTW, the ' key (quote) has the default action of retiling your local
and galactic windows with the normal background (either black or your specified
pixmap) to repair the damage done by the other possible pix.
3.2.4 AGRI pixmaps and FEATURE_PACKETS
The client shows a different pixmap for AGRI planets than all others.
This was announced, voted on and overwhelmingly adopted (80%+ in favor). But
JUST IN CASE, this option can be disabled at the server by use of the
feature packet "AGRI_PIXMAP".
Users can choose to remove the AGRI.xpm file. The client will default
to using the regular planet pixmap if it is missing.
********************************************************************
March 1999
********************************************************************
(1) ------
Added UDP metaserver, and multiple metaserver queries to client.
Multiple metaservers is available only in UDP mode. Multiple
metaservers may be listed in the metaservers variable, or a host name
may have multiple IPs.
Client essentially sends a '?' using UDP to the metaserver(s) and
waits for a response. Client should expect anywhere from 0 to
infinite responses. Response comes back in the form:
r,NN\n
Where r is the literal 'r', and NN is the nuber of servers
returned. Server format is 1 per line in the following format, comma
separated: (from the metaserver code snippet from disp_udp.c)
sprintf(bp,"%s,%d,%d,%d,%d,%d,%c\n",
sp->hostname, /* host name of server */
sp->port, /* port number of server */
extendedstatus, /* metaserver status code */
now - sp->last_update, /* age of data in seconds */
sp->player_count, /* count of players on server */
sp->queue_size, /* length of wait queue */
sp->type[0] ); /* type code, B, P, etc */
Two notes are required:
1) Line length is defind in the metaserver as:
MAX_HOSTNAME+1 +6+1 +3+1 +6+1 +3+1 +3+1 +1+1 +1
host port stat age play que type \n
where MAX_HOSTNAME is
#define MAX_HOSTNAME 64
An example output is:
r,19
hp06.ee.ualberta.ca,2592,6,244,0,0,P
megalag.netrek.org,2592,4,1780,0,0,F
moore.machine2.dsl.psn.net,2592,6,1804,0,0,B
netrek.unh.edu,2592,6,524,0,0,B
paradise.games.uk.demon.net,2592,6,1604,0,0,P
tanya.ucsd.edu,2592,4,1781,0,0,P
defiant.theo-physik.uni-kiel.de,2592,3,630,0,0,P
europa.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de,2592,3,676,0,0,P
mit.netrek.org,2592,3,676,0,0,B
netrek.cs.mcgill.ca,2592,3,796,0,0,B
netrek.syd.att.net.au,2592,3,800,0,0,B
se.netrek.org,2592,3,864,0,0,B
soda.csua.berkeley.edu,2592,3,878,0,0,B
spamburger.openface.ca,2592,3,871,0,0,B
kirk.hal-pc.org,2592,2,121,1,0,B
continuum.us.netrek.org,2592,2,123,6,0,B
hockey.netrek.org,2592,2,123,6,0,H
monster.wormwood.org,2592,2,203,7,0,C
guinness.crhc.uiuc.edu,2592,1,323,0,4,B
2) In TCP mode, if a game server is dead, the metaserver will print
out sp->why_dead instead of sp->status. Since metastatuslevel
filters out the metaserver output based on the game server status,
sp->status had to be expanded in the metaserver to extended status
when reporting back to the client. From disp_udp.c in the
metaserver:
/* this if structure is to satisfy COW's server filtering based on */
/* the TCP ouput of the metaserver. TCP was text, this is only #s */
if (sp->status == SS_NOCONN )
extendedstatus = (sp->why_dead == WD_TIMEOUT) ? 6 : 4;
else
extendedstatus = sp->status;
And in the client, parsemeta.c:
#define SS_WORKING 0
#define SS_QUEUE 1
#define SS_OPEN 2
#define SS_EMPTY 3
#define SS_NOCONN 4
#define SS_INIT 5
/* not a real metaserver number, but overcomes a limitation of dropping */
/* text description of sp->why_dead */
#define SS_TOUT 6
This note is here mainly for people looking at metaserver and
client code at the same time.
(2) ---
A refresh button was added to the client selection window to re-query
the metaservers.
(3) ---
KEYGOD changed to clientkeys@clientkeys.netrek.org
(4) ---
New command line option behavior was added. -m and -M set the default
connection type to the metaserver UNLESS metaType is defined in the
.xtrekrc.
-m Default to UDP
-M Default to TCP
Out of bounds values for metaType default to TCP.
Changes details
For further information check: