This file contains the most recent changes to the COW client, with example .xtrekrc options to deal with them, and the clips from the documentation that explain them. If you're upgrading from an old version of COW, this file should make it a painless experience. ***************************************************************** 1) Change Log ***************************************************************** 3.00 pl0 Feb. 28, 1998 - full color client [kellen] - metaserver defaults to: metaserver.netrek.org [sven] - new cow mailing list alias: cow@netrek.org [sven] - 32 views color pixmaps [Shawn] -- recording feature [koconnor] - KDE sound support (.wav files) [siegl] - Tab key fixes [koconnor] - OpenVMS fixes [cameron] - Auto upgrade via netscape [siegl] - whydead message fixes [siegl] - GMP 2 key generator fix [siegl] ***************************************************************** 2) Cut and past changes to make COW work like it used to. ***************************************************************** 3.00 pl0 The "-b" option disables the use of color pixmaps by the client. ***************************************************************** 3) Cut and past changes to turn on *all* new features. ***************************************************************** 3.00 pl0 All new .xtrekrc entrys with defaults are: # backgroundPix: 1 # cloakPix: 1 # explosionPix: 1 # fedPix: 1 # indPix: 1 # kliPix: 1 # mapPix: 1 # oriPix: 1 # romPix: 1 # shipPix: 1 # weaponPix: 1 **************************************************************** 4) New manual sections **************************************************************** 3.00 pl0 3.1.8 NO PIXMAPS OPTION The "-b" option disables the use of color pixmaps by the client. 3.2 Pixmaps (Full Color COW) With the release of COW 3.00, dynamic color images are available. No color images have been compiled into the client, so without the additional files (described below) the client will behave as before. 3.2.1 Setup The xpm files should be available at the same site from which you got the client, in a file named pixmaps.tgz (PIXMAPS.ZIP for windows users). >>> YOU MUST DOWNLOAD AND UNPACK THIS FILE TO USE THE COLOR FEATURES. <<< It should create a subdirectory named "pixmaps" which should have several (obviously named) subdirectories. There should be several XPM files in each (except for Planets, which has a further subdirectory). UNIX users will see that they are gzipped to save space. You do NOT need to ungzip them unless you do not have gzip on your machine. >>> DO NOT REARRANGE OR RENAME THESE FILES IF YOU WANT TO USE THEM. <<< You need to add a line to your .xtrekrc telling the client where to look for the pixmaps. If you do not, it will assume that they are in a subdirectory of the directory you are in when you start the client. The option is called "pixmapDir". Tilde and environment variables WILL NOT WORK. Relative paths will only work if you always start netrek from the same directory. You should be ready to rock and roll. Fire it up. You may see some warnings about not being able to read some pixmaps. Some of the pixmaps that the client looks for haven't been drawn yet. Feel free to make your own set. OTOH, if you see any lines which read "TYPE PIXMAPS NOT AVAILABLE" it means that none of a certain type of pixmap were found. Check to make sure that the pixmaps are where you told it to look. If they are, and you are on a UNIX system, you may not have gzip installed. Go get it from any GNU mirror and either install it or use it to ungzip the XPM files. 3.2.2 Configuration In addition to simply creating your own XPMs with a paint program, you may want greater control over the pictures used. For example, you may find the explosions are too pretty, and you are dying because you forgot to dodge. The crude approach is to just remove that pixmap. The client will default back to the standard bitmaps in this case. The more elegant approach is to turn off just those pixmaps you don't like and keep the rest. This also allows you to switch back and forth WITHOUT having to exit and restart. So if the machine you are playing on is busy today, you can turn off the pixmaps until things improve, then switch back to full color without losing your 5 kills. Pixmaps can be turned on or off in groups on the new "Pixmap Menu" in the options window (shift-O). Each line in the window also corresponds to an .xtrekrc resource which you can use to set the initial values. If one type of pixmaps is not available, you will be unable to turn on that option. resource name default description indPix on \ fedPix on | Control whether or not the XPMs romPix on | for the ships of a given team kliPix on | should be used oriPix on / weaponPix on Torps and plasmatorps & their clouds explosionPix on ship and starbase explosions cloakPix on fade-in/-out and cloak icon mapPix on Color Planet icons on galactic (replaces the "colorgalactic" option) backgroundPix on Background stars & genocide/gb images (replaces the "babes" option) ownerhalo off Draws a colored ring around each planet on the galactic as a convenience, the option "shipPix" may be used to control all of the ship XPMs in one line. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + POWER USERS + + + + The MegaResource "pixFlags" can be used in your .xtrekrc + + to save a bit of typing. Simply bitwise OR together the + + things you want turned off: + + + + 0x0001 IND pixmaps + + 0x0002 FED pixmaps + + 0x0004 ROM pixmaps + + 0x0008 KLI pixmaps + + 0x0010 ORI pixmaps + + + + 0x0020 Weapons + + 0x0040 Explosions + + 0x0080 Cloaking + + 0x0100 Galactic Map Planet Icons + + + + 0x0400 Backgrounds + + + + 0x1000 Halos + + + + so, for exaple, no halos and no explosions would be + + specified as: (0x1040=4160) + + + + pixFlags: 4160 + + + + + + (Note that this OVERRIDES all the other resources) + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ If you hate them all, you can either set the "pixmapDir" to "None" or start the client with the -b (bitmap only) command line option. Then go ahead and delete all of the XPMS. Go ahead. We don't mind at all. It's not like we put any WORK into this ... :,-( 3.2.3 Babes/M31 and Generalized Backgrounds Gone. You can put up any picture you like when you GENO, GB, or just enter or hit shift-K. Just specify the genocide.xpm, ghostbust.xpm and/or hello.xpm. It's really none of my business what you look at in your off time. Absolutely no picture will be shown if you do not have an XPM in the specified place. It didn't belong in the client in the first place. DEAL WITH IT. And BTW, the ' key (quote) has the default action of retiling your local and galactic windows with the normal background (either black or your specified pixmap) to repair the damage done by the other possible pix. 3.2.4 AGRI pixmaps and FEATURE_PACKETS The client shows a different pixmap for AGRI planets than all others. This was announced, voted on and overwhelmingly adopted (80%+ in favor). But JUST IN CASE, this option can be disabled at the server by use of the feature packet "AGRI_PIXMAP". Users can choose to remove the AGRI.xpm file. The client will default to using the regular planet pixmap if it is missing. **************************************************************** 5) Changes details **************************************************************** From: James Cameron Subject: COW 2.02pl2 OpenVMS Patch [Resend] The last time I built COW for OpenVMS was back in 1994, when it was 1.01pl0. Since my department is releasing a CD-ROM to it's private customers I was asked to provide a variety of Netrek software, as pre-built binaries for OpenVMS, Digital UNIX, and others. So I took 2.02pl2 and got it working again on OpenVMS. The new DEC C compiler on OpenVMS was quite reasonable about the code and had no significant trouble. I submit the patch to you for consideration. The changes were - removal of fopen declarations from functions, as it conflicted with the OpenVMS variant of (const char *, const char *, ... ) - a macro replacement of the select() call so that OpenVMS specific code could be called; the X-Windows implementation on OpenVMS does not support the use of ConnectionNumber() and select() to wait on X events. Code to support this was split out into a new file, vmsio.c. - suppression of the tools window behaviour, in the same manner as on WIN32, since SIGCHLD and popen() are only available in recent OpenVMS versions. - minor changes to vmsutils.c to comply with ANSI standard on initialisation of structures, (before I found the qualifier to turn off strict ANSI checking). - a new file config.h.vms, with OpenVMS version checking to work around old versions of OpenVMS. I've attached the patch to this message in MIME format. Strangely, the patch included cflags.c changes. I'm not sure why cflags.c should be in the manifest ... it created a needless diff output for it. Would you have preferred me moving the OpenVMS specific files into a subdirectory? For your interest, the 1.01pl0 port I did evolved into a bridged client, using serial I/O that was OpenVMS specific. This allowed me to run the Netrek protocol over a 14k4 modem without any SLIP or PPP overhead. Now, of course, OpenVMS has joined the ranks of operating systems providing serial internet protocol layers, and so my work is no longer required. Moving to 33k6 also helped. ;-) -- James Cameron (cameron@stl.dec.com) Digital Equipment Corporation (Australia) Pty. Ltd. A.C.N. 000 446 800