A proposal

Post by **Yukiko** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 8:49 pm

With Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn comes a complete rewrite of the client it seems. It is time for a working independant 2D client to be written. My proposed client would look similar to the version 5 client and would use the artwork from that client. The game window would look exactly like standard UO does. No fancy moving water or spectacular eye splitting graphics. Yes, boring by todays standards but atleast that can be done and rendered cleanly. Same thing with the paper doll. It should be designed with ease of customization in mind, specifically ease of adding new art, ease of creation of dynamic gumps.

I have looked at Iris and the other clients that are out there and, in my opinion, the focus is too much on the graphics and not on the functionality and customization aspect.

I will toss the first $100 into the pot for a client that will do what I propose.

SiENcE · Post by **SiENcE** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 6:09 am

Hi Yukiko,

Iris2 is opensource. I think your statement that the focus is too much on graphics is not true. With the completely new writing of Iris2 since august2006 we first focused the playability.
At the current state we enhance the GFX part, because we need people for testing and bugreporting (i'm very sad about community help..because everyone only thinks on his shard and selfcustomization of Iris2).

I think the best would be, that (if you want) you come to Iris2 and help us to get it more playable. If you don't like the 3D Renderer, Iris2 has also a 2DRenderer and so it looks like the old 5 client. Iris2 is highly customizable and use standards like xml, lua, png, jpg, ogre-meshes.

If you want to help Varan with the 2DRender part its also fine. But currently we need skilled people who add things like Virtues, last 3 Spellbooks, PlayerHouse Buildmenu and other functionalities.

I see no reason to develop another client, because the codebase is ok.

regards
SiENcE

Post by **Yukiko** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 11:41 pm

SiENcE,

After reading your post I decided to redowload Iris once again and look at it a second time just in case I missed something the first time.

First, I was unable to find the 2D mode for the client. It clearly states that it is a 2D/3D client but there is no option or selection screen to choose the preferred version. There is a selection for OpenGL or Direct 3D rendering.

Second, I have to re-enter my "localhost" login information each time I run the client.

Third, the data entry system doesn't even recognize auto-repeat so I have to repeatedly press the backspace key to erase the default data that is in the data entry boxes for login server address, account name and password.

Fourth, once I am in game there are no animations on the character in the game window. I will give them credit for the paper doll art displaying correctly. It seems my custom clothes are being read from the gumpart.mul file.

Fifth, it is running in 3D render mode with fog effects and distant objects being hidden (not sure the technical name for it).

Sixth, when I tried to (dot) create an object it brought up the status gump. After experimenting a bit further I found out that I am unable to type anything because the client perceives my keystrokes as commands ie. camera angle, perspective, status gump etc.

Seventh, cave floors appear as black squares in a grid of cave floor coloured borders.

Eigth, at one point while typing or trying to type something the client crashed.

As far as I can see the Iris client appears to b3e in a pre beta phase. I will try to post these bugs on Iris' forums as soon as I can.

Pierce · Post by **Pierce** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 3:08 am

First, I was unable to find the 2D mode for the client. It clearly states that it is a 2D/3D client but there is no option or selection screen to choose the preferred version. There is a selection for OpenGL or Direct 3D rendering

You have to press y

From the readme:

Code: Select all

== controls ==

arrow keys for moving the player
u : walk to targetted position

n	: toggle compass
,&. : zoom compass

mousebutton middle : rotate camera
mousebutton left+right : rotate camera
mousewheel up	: zoom camera
mousewheel down : zoom camera

return	: activate or send chatline
space	: run to and attack selected mobile
q	: select neares mobile
e	: select next mobile
tab : toggle warmode
l	: hold to show iris logo
r	: say "vendor buy" (opens buymenus of nearby traders on most servers)
c	: toggle cam mode (free,ego,3rdperson)
x,z : zoom camera
t	: toggle Stats
k	: toggle Skills
j	: toggle journal
b	: toggle backpack
p	: toggle paperdoll
y	: toogle renderer 2D/3D
v	: take a screenshot, saved to screenshots/iris*.jpg , where * is timestamp
g	: repeat last chatline
h	: repeat last doubleclick

shift-click : simulates doubleclick (temporary, helpful for low framerates)

f10 : show dev tool
f11 : fallbacktool : developer tool used for removing static-part-fallbacks (billboards) for which a model exists (important for combos)
f12 : take highresscreenshot

freefly cam mode :
-hold left mouse button to look around
-use w,a,s,d,r,f to move cam

Second, I have to re-enter my "localhost" login information each time I run the client.
Third, the data entry system doesn't even recognize auto-repeat so I have to repeatedly press the backspace key to erase the default data that is in the data entry boxes for login server address, account name and password

You can edit the data/config.lua.dist File, e.g. like that:

Code: Select all

gShardList["My_UO_Shard"] = {
		gLoginname = "",	-- Loginname
		gPassword = "",		-- Password
		gLoginServerIP = "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx",
		gLoginServerPort = 5003,
		gGameServerSlot = 0,
		gCharacterSlotAdd = 0,
		gServerSeed = 1,
		gPolServer = true
	}

I think the dot commands you can enter if you activate the chat mode by pressing return. I never tried that.

SiENcE · Post by **SiENcE** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:56 am

Sorry but you should read the readme before starting anything

.

Pierce is right.

Yukiko wrote:First, I was unable to find the 2D mode for the client. It clearly states that it is a 2D/3D client but there is no option or selection screen to choose the preferred version. There is a selection for OpenGL or Direct 3D rendering.

->readme
Go inGame and press the "y" key. English Keyboard is maybe "z".

Take a look into Data\config.lua.dist
There you find Options. Copy them and paste them into your Data\Config.lua (never ever edit config.lua.dist)

You can preselect the 2D-Renderer too.

Code: Select all

gCurrentRenderer = Renderer2D

Second, I have to re-enter my "localhost" login information each time I run the client.

Shure. Edit the config.lua like a configuration file.

Third, the data entry system doesn't even recognize auto-repeat so I have to repeatedly press the backspace key to erase the default data that is in the data entry boxes for login server address, account name and password.

True. But on our ToDo the latest point.

Fourth, once I am in game there are no animations on the character in the game window.

??

Fifth, it is running in 3D render mode with fog effects and distant objects being hidden (not sure the technical name for it).

You can hide Fog effect and you can also increase the viewdistance (beware that dynamics are sent from server, so they pop in) in you config.lua.

Code: Select all

gSightRange	= 8
gUseDistanceFog = true

Sixth, when I tried to (dot) create an object it brought up the status gump. After experimenting a bit further I found out that I am unable to type anything because the client perceives my keystrokes as commands ie. camera angle, perspective, status gump etc.

->readme
Press Enter when you want to write. We make it like modern Games. Maybe we add old style too...but also UOKR has this feature.

Seventh, cave floors appear as black squares in a grid of cave floor coloured borders.

True...but i see no playable problem. Also we don't have any Artist yet. Sorry but we don't have Millions of Dollars and the Community Help is little more than Zero

!

Eigth, at one point while typing or trying to type something the client crashed.

? when do you try to type something in? We have a great Bugtracker. You should help us and submit Bugs. Sorry but we donÄ't have the time to play very much. So we need Testers. You can't imagine how much freetime we spend to develop Iris2 and we are only 4 Developers doing this beside our job.

As far as I can see the Iris client appears to b3e in a pre beta phase. I will try to post these bugs on Iris' forums as soon as I can.

Thx. Its good to hear this. Please assume all and submit also feature requests to us. We are willing to enhance Iris2 more and more. But we need also skilled people who script, write plugins, make textures, 3D-Models, Shaders aso.

Tip: Always start our Updater and update to the newest version. You can also switch to unstable, but we do not guarantee that this will work (we develop this trunk).

regards
SiENcE