[crossfire] Feature proposition: [img] tag

[Mark Wedel]

Kevin Bulgrien wrote:
>> Hello.
>>
>> I'd like to suggest a [img name="xxx"] tag for client-side rich tags, as 
>> defined in "mediaTags".
>>
>> As implied, the tag would display a picture from its name :)
>>
>> Uses:
>> - illustrate a text
>> - show a bigger picture of something (map, illustration, ...).
>>
>> What do you think?
>>
>> Nicolas
> 
> I guess this is supposed to "pop-up" an image in the client or somehow inlining
> an image in the output stream?  Can you describe what you envision a client
> doing for this type of tag?  Are there constraints on image size, or other
> attributes?

  Off the top of the head, I could imagine some quick cases, like:
- Book containing information about a monster, and containing a picture of that 
monster
- Same for other objects (more likely artifacts or unique rare stuff).  However, 
from a tutorial perspective, displaying the different objects inline would make 
things much clearer, eg 'pull the lever [img=lever] to open the gate' type of thing
- Last case could be maps of the area - in this case, it could just be images 
used from the editor and shrunk down to a smaller initial size.

  However, in all cases, some hint about resizing may be needed.  For example, 
if a player is playing with a low resolution setup and has done something like 
-mapscale 50, probably any objects you are talking about that are map related 
should be similarly scaled.  I'm not 100% sure on that.  For large images (map 
areas), the client would likely need to scale down if it is too wide to fit in 
the message window (height isn't as much a problem, as at least you can scroll 
the window up/down).

  I'm presuming this will do inlining, and not pop up the image, but I suppose 
it depends on usage - one could envision maps perhaps being popped up since they 
are fairly standalone, but in the tutorial example, you probably don't want that 
popping up.

> 
> Not opposed in principle, but am not real sure we have content developers that
> are drawing and/or acquiring such images for actual use in maps.  I think you
> have said in the past we need content more than unused features, though I see
> this as having potential for richer game play.  Anyway, not to discourage your
> efforts, I suppose that does not need to matter so much.

  At least in my examples above, those are pretty much all in game images that 
currently exist (the map one would have to get created, but that can be done 
from the editor fairly easily).  I'm not 100% sure what type of images Ryo was 
thinking on the initial proposal.

  I'm not sure how hard all of this is - I'd have to look at the display widget 
thing to see about images, but I think the support is already pretty much there 
by GTK.  Any image resizing can be done with the same routines that is used to 
rescale map/icon images.

  I do think some size restrictions/suggestions are warranted.  Unless you are 
doing pop up windows, a 1000x1000 image is not that useful - it would pretty 
much always have to get resized to fit in the text display area.