[Re: [CF-Devel] Future of Crossfire]

Mark Wedel mwedel at scruznet.com
Tue May 22 14:35:22 CDT 2001


On Tue, 22 May 2001, Michael Toennies wrote:

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      * And there is not problem for most of our multi tile monsters for alternate
     
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      set *
     
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      * You must make the last "high" png bigger than 32x32 - like 32x40 or 32x50
     
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      or whatever *
     
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      * its a work of some minutes to change clients for this *
     
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      * the server NEVER handles with the content of a media file, so he don't
     
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      care about it*
     
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      * MORE: there is a GOOD point: For a high monster, you only include the foot
     
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      part of it
     
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        as object in the map - the HEAD is "in the air"  - so, you reduce there
     
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      some overhead *
     
     
 This is for the most part true.

 Server does not care about the media format.  So having different sized
images won't bother the server at all.

Sending only the foot will save some bandwidth (less map update information
needed).

 The hard part of this is that the handling of big monsters would need to
change (actually, all multipart objects)

 Currently all parts of big monsters are drawn/sent to the client
as individual segments.  That could presumably get changed (although
some special information would be needed when big objects are straddling
the edges of viewable maps, as the base may be off the map, but you
still want the head?)

 The bigger problem is that right now multipart monsters are
referenced with the 'head' being in the upper left.  IT sounds like for
issue, you really want to say what the base (foot) of the monster is
and not the head - especially if the graphics are of differing sizes.

 There is also other trickery, as the footprint of some monsters will likely
remain more than one space, so at least internally, the server needs to
know that so other creatures can not enter that creatures footprint.
But at the same time, for right iso, you probably only want to send
one image for the entire creature.

 Note that I'm sure all of this is fixable.  But it does start getting
a bit more code on the server side.

 On the bright side, such an approach would basically allow you to have
tall creatures/objects with the correct sized footprint (tall towers
for example would only have that one space footprint, as might things
like giants.




    
    


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