[CF-Devel] arch/object changes.

[Yann Chachkoff]

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      I also suggest the creation of a user command "changegfx <id>", where id is
     
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      the graphic set sent by the server.
     
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     What is this for?
     
     Allowing each user to choose between several concurrently installed gfx sets.
This of course would require the server being able to handle more than one gfx 
set at the same time, but this should not be that difficult to implement. It 
would also solve the "battle standard vs alternate", since each player could 
then choose what he/she prefers.

>
     
     
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      Now for the old XPMs: I agree that supporting more than one gfx format was
     
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      somewhat useless. Now what you need to understand is that some people still
     
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      used it because of the smaller size of their screens (XPMs were smaller
     
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      (24x24) than PNGs (32x32)).
     
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      Wouldn't it be possible to convert all the existing XPMs into PNGs and make
     
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      them an alternate gfx set ? This would remove the needs for XPM support 
     
     while
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      allowing crossfire to be still played without problem on smaller screens.
     
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     GROAN. The alternate set originally was for players of xpm who didn't like 
     
     the style. When PM decided to do it, we agreed that it was best to stick with 
32x32 and thus remove the whole redrawing images specifically for a set. This 
has been a blessing, images can easily be transfered between sets, nps. let me 
say right now, that trying to implement a 24x24 set would completely destroy 
the point of the png sets really. The reason we moved to only 32x32 was to 
avoid having to redraw (or simply edit) images to cover all the sets. As soon 
as we need a new size, we will need to scale the image which is tragic, and 
any image which new will have to have this done.. this process is amazingly 
tiresome. Is it possible to use an sdl scale image command? What level output 
do you get? and how fast is it?
>
     
     
     I agree that rescaling causes quite some problems whatever you try to do. I 
also understand the work overload for gfx makers. I simply wanted to underline 
a problem not so uncommon, even now. Using SDL for rescaling seems 
unconvenient, since most "low-screened" machines are also often "low-cpu'd", 
and rescaling on-the-fly proven to be too slow in most cases.
Maybe someone has a satisfying solution to this ?

Chachkoff Y.

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