[CF List] SDL Client

[Mark Wedel]

Todd Mitchell wrote:

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      I picked up the SDL client from /~michtoen (thanks) and can fire it up - but
     
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      how can I change the server list - it seems to only pick up localhost or the
     
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      metaserver.  There is no where I can see to edit in my crossfire server
     
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      address.  Is the SDL client the main push now, how close is it to working?
     
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      The DX client is really tickin me off (the cache and DX is buggy for me in
     
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      general) and I need a good, simple to install client for Win32 if I expect
     
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      to lure people into playing.
     
     

  Best I know, the SDL client is not currently being developed.  MT put it into 
CVS (not sure if it is the latest of what he was working on or not), but 
generally speaking, I don't think anyone else has done much (if any) work on it 
  - the unix users/developers were generally happier to continue to work on the 
gtk clients.

  My granted limited experience with SDL is that it is a very low level 
interface - this means that if you want to have scrollbars, you need to make 
your own widget to do so.

  I'm not a windows user/developer myself, but I know some people have mentioned 
that there is a windows gtk port.  Someone seeing how feasible it might be to 
make the gtk client compile on windows (and release a windows version of it) may 
be interesting.

  If work on the SDL client is serious, I would suggest it gets merged into the 
existing 'unix' client setup, if possible, as then it could share more of the 
common code, and if something is added there, then everyone benefits (where as 
right now, if I make a change to the unix clients, the sdl client gets no benefit).


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      Also what is the deal with the ISO arches vs the regular arches?  I have
     
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      been working on a friend of mine to help out with some graphics but don't
     
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      want them all to be obsolete due to format changes in the near future or
     
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      unusable since the ISO are not being pushed for some time.  (I did make an
     
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      pretty crystal ball, but gave up on spiffin up the poor pirates - I am not
     
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      an artist).  I noticed that lots of the ISO arches were the same as the
     
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      .clsc. (clasic vs base?) arch images.  There did not seem to be a whole lot
     
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      of ISO in the set up on michtoen's directories.  Is there a more complete
     
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      ISO somewhere?
     
     

  The ISO arches were started by MT.  Iso crossfire has split from 'main' (flat) 
crossfire (for lack of a better term) several months back.  Iso crossfire is 
registered at sourceforge - I'm not sure of its current status. Currently, the 
iso images/archs are not progressing in the flat crossfire.  There is a iso_arch 
directory in CVS.  That started off from the main crossfire arch, and iso images 
put in as they were done, which is why it is not as complete.  Plus, my 
understanding was that a fair number of the 'flat' images would work just fine 
in the iso layout (eg, most objects).


In theory, it could be possible to make the iso another alternate image set 
(like the 'classic' one is right now).  There are some complications to this - 
ignoring for the moment that the current server still breaks apart big objects 
into smaller images (which do not re-assemble properly in iso - that will get 
fixed some day), there are also issues of images/archs between the two sets not 
matching the same footprint, eg, in the iso set, a titan for example would have 
a smaller footprint (basically where is feet are), where as in the flat set, its 
footprint is basically the entire area the image is.


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      Yadda Yadda - anyway I like the cartoony arches -  I would like to see more
     
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      in this vein (the Wraith is great).  Too bad they are being depriciated but
     
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      I can see the need for visual consistancy.
     
     

  The two image sets currently in crossfire (main/base and the 'classic', which 
is a mix of the more cartoony looking images and non scaled xpm images) are 
likely to remain indefinately.  Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, only 
the unix clients really support playing with the other set.