Re: CF: Windows 95, NT

[John W Klar <jklar@lucent.com>]

Bob Tanner wrote:
> Any chance of an NT or 95 client for crossfire?
> Maybe a java client, so platform would not matter.

Well...

I wrote some code which comes close but not close enough I'm afraid.  Actually
it was the third or fourth iteration (Perl/Tk, Tcl/Tk (7.5/4.1 available for
Windoze), C/Tcl/Tk, and then pure C).  I discuss the caveats:

The XPM libraries, which DO compile on NT/95, are extremely inefficient or
something :)  If I remember the CF Client/Server protocol correctly, an XPM is
transmitted the first time it's used.  Unfortunately, two things can happen:
you start dropping packets (and lose animation) or the game comes to an
absolute crawl.  You may say "We don't need no stinkin animation", but I'd
think you would like to know just how far that fireball will expand, eh?

The xpm library takes an inordinate amount of time to convert the XPM data into
some sort of pseudo pixmap for NT.  Another 'feature' of the Windows XPM
implementation is that on 8bit displays, the colors are really off.  By the
way, there's another bug in the XPM libary which affects the mask (no I haven't
submitted it).  Therefore, IMO, a lightweight XPM parser needs to be written.

A problem with my code is that I'm no Windows coder and things work a little
strange.  X doesn't care what color depth you hand it, _something_ comes out,
but Windows throws a massive fit.

Oh I suppose I could share my code with interested parties, but the machine
where it resides is in pieces. I had to cannibalize it for parts to get my new
machine working until I can have words with my vendor <VEG>.  I'm not terribly
fond of the current X client (sorry) so mine looks different.

Java...

The XPM library does not compile under Java, so an implementation is called for
there.  I'm not convinced Java can handle the load that CF puts on the client
but I've been surprised before.

Protocol...

There are some buglets here.  The one that comes to mind is the combined name
and class of the character.  Since the whole field can be changed (wasn't this
deprecated?) I'd like to see the class part broken out into its own stats
field.

Enough pre-coffee rambling.

John
jklar@lucent.com
jklar@cybernex.net