civil-devel Mailing List for Civil

> >No probs, I'll have a look into it tomorrow night. It's my ladies birthday
> >today! :)
>
>A good advice is to *not* sit in front of your computer tonight... :-)

Oh yes. Extra special effort to pull myself away from the PC will be 
happening around 5pm...

:P

G

>--------------------+--------------------------------------------------------
>Jan 'Chakie' Ekholm |     Balrog New Media    http://www.balrog.fi/
>    Linux Inside     | I'm the blue screen of death, nobody hears your screams
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Civil-devel mailing list
>Civ...@li...
>http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/civil-devel

On Tue, 30 Jan 2001, Gareth Noyce wrote:

>
>>
>>I'm not sure I know what you mean here. I took the original dialog as it
>>was, put on a fullscreen black surface with 128 alpha, which generates the
>>faded effect. Then I just blitted on top of that the "message box" (in
>>this case the splash) without any alpha ort similar.
>
>It's the background for the message box I was referring to, the alpha 
>covered 'dialog' BDrp is fine.
>
>You'd need a backdrop for the message box, one with and without a progress 
>bar, and I'd like both to emulate the style of the background to the rest 
>of the dialogs (old school photo, with few colours etc...) -- I'm probably 
>going to run the 'Network Loading' splash screen that you've been using 
>temporarily so that it is also matches the sepia scratched photo feel.

Ah, ok. We'll see then.

>No probs, I'll have a look into it tomorrow night. It's my ladies birthday 
>today! :)

A good advice is to *not* sit in front of your computer tonight... :-)

--------------------+--------------------------------------------------------
Jan 'Chakie' Ekholm |     Balrog New Media    http://www.balrog.fi/
   Linux Inside     | I'm the blue screen of death, nobody hears your screams

>
>I'm not sure I know what you mean here. I took the original dialog as it
>was, put on a fullscreen black surface with 128 alpha, which generates the
>faded effect. Then I just blitted on top of that the "message box" (in
>this case the splash) without any alpha ort similar.

It's the background for the message box I was referring to, the alpha 
covered 'dialog' BDrp is fine.

You'd need a backdrop for the message box, one with and without a progress 
bar, and I'd like both to emulate the style of the background to the rest 
of the dialogs (old school photo, with few colours etc...) -- I'm probably 
going to run the 'Network Loading' splash screen that you've been using 
temporarily so that it is also matches the sepia scratched photo feel.

Anyway -- they'll all be done by Thursday evening... You'll see what I mean 
then.


> >This is also no problem as I've still got the splash scren minus the
> >progress bar, I can reduce colours/contrast on this and commit it for
> >you over the next couple of days...
>
>
>Now *that* would be nice! Could you give some more space for the text, as
>there is now only one line available for the text? Chrome...

No probs, I'll have a look into it tomorrow night. It's my ladies birthday 
today! :)

On Tue, 30 Jan 2001, Gareth Noyce wrote:

>Jan,
>
>This is a good idea, and something I was going to 
>suggest. However, for text based messages I'll 
>need to knock up a faded background for the 
>dialog (or the text won't show up). 

I'm not sure I know what you mean here. I took the original dialog as it
was, put on a fullscreen black surface with 128 alpha, which generates the
faded effect. Then I just blitted on top of that the "message box" (in
this case the splash) without any alpha ort similar. 

>This is also no problem as I've still got the splash scren minus the
>progress bar, I can reduce colours/contrast on this and commit it for
>you over the next couple of days...


Now *that* would be nice! Could you give some more space for the text, as
there is now only one line available for the text? Chrome...


--------------------+--------------------------------------------------------
Jan 'Chakie' Ekholm |     Balrog New Media    http://www.balrog.fi/
   Linux Inside     | I'm the blue screen of death, nobody hears your screams

Jan,

This is a good idea, and something I was going to 
suggest. However, for text based messages I'll 
need to knock up a faded background for the 
dialog (or the text won't show up). This is also 
no problem as I've still got the splash scren 
minus the progress bar, I can reduce 
colours/contrast on this and commit it for you 
over the next couple of days...


G

-------------------------------------------------
This mail sent through UK Online webmail

Hi,

I had an idea last night that I didn't have time to test out, so I stole a
few minutes today and whacked up a test.

Basically we want to be able to have some kind of "message boxes" that can
present generic information to the players. The info can be error messages
(bad server info, same scanerio not selected, both players have same side
etc), or just something that should show to the player that the game is
alive. I had the idea that the message boxes would be blitted on top of
the other stuff, but it turned out to be hard to make look good. Instead I
"fade" tghe background a little bit (well, really blit out a fullscreen
black surface with some alpha), and then blit the message box on top of
that. A sample can be found at:

	http://civil.sourceforge.net/incoming/faded-dialog.jpg

It still uses the splash screen, but it will be changed to something more
generic that contains no progress bar, but instead a message and an "Ok"
button.

What do you think? We *need* some way to inform the player that the game
does something, but a progress bar can not always be used, especially if
we're waiting for the other player to do something. The normal splash will
be used (and the progress bar too) when loading scenarios and scenario
indexes.

Back to work.

--------------------+--------------------------------------------------------
Jan 'Chakie' Ekholm |     Balrog New Media    http://www.balrog.fi/
   Linux Inside     | I'm the blue screen of death, nobody hears your screams

On Mon, 29 Jan 2001, Gareth Noyce wrote:

>Mainly for Jan,
>
>I've updated the finished BDrp for dialogs and I'm committing it as I type. 
>I've not checked yet, but I think that the wood border around it may force 
>you to jiggle the headings/button placements a little. Just thought I'd let 
>you know whilst you're working on the dialogs...

Ok, but I will not do those now, that's cosmetics that can be done later.
Btw, the border looks nice!

--------------------+--------------------------------------------------------
Jan 'Chakie' Ekholm |     Balrog New Media    http://www.balrog.fi/
   Linux Inside     | I'm the blue screen of death, nobody hears your screams

>But, I have got a lot on my mind and elsewhere, and probably won't be very
>active for at least a week or so.  It's just very much right now.

No probs! Good luck with what ever it is...

><arnold>I'll be back...</arnold>

<John>No problemo...</John>

G

>All graphics are still retrieved locally from the client?  Hmm.
>That's probably correct, I think.

You definitely don't want to download them. They aren't optimised for net 
access... :-\
However, it could be done if you ever wanted to move that direction. Would 
probably only take a weekend or so...

G

-- 
"Computer games don't affect kids. I mean if Pacman had affected us as
kids, we'd all be running around in a darkened room munching pills and
listening to repetitive music." -- Unknown
--

Jan Ekholm writes:
 > * scenarios are now totally retrieved from the server. The index files
 > too, as well as the raw XML. Works ok. Uses the list from properties.py,
 > but only the first url! I think the server should manage *all* scenarios,
 > thus they are all in one index file at the server.

That solves (even better, eliminates) a lot of problems.

All graphics are still retrieved locally from the client?  Hmm.
That's probably correct, I think.


 > Comments? What did I do Wrong(tm)?

Sounds good so far.  

My wife's new laptop arrived this weekend and she's starting to move
stuff over to it; my email access will be especially sporadic for the
next week or so, but at the end of that I ought to actually manage to
do some productive coding...

- mikee

Hi!

I just wanted to ping you to say I'm still alive and following the list.
The sourceforge account is ok now, by the way.

I really like a lot of what I've seen lately, with Win32 running, the great
new graphics, the server/client reworking and all.

But, I have got a lot on my mind and elsewhere, and probably won't be very
active for at least a week or so.  It's just very much right now.

<arnold>I'll be back...</arnold>
  Kalle
--=20
Email: ka...@gn...     | You can tune a filesystem, but you
Web: http://www.gnupung.net/ | can't tune a fish. -- man tunefs(8)
PGP fingerprint: 0C56 B171 8159 327F 1824 F5DE 74D7 80D7 BF3B B1DD

Mainly for Jan,

I've updated the finished BDrp for dialogs and I'm committing it as I type. 
I've not checked yet, but I think that the wood border around it may force 
you to jiggle the headings/button placements a little. Just thought I'd let 
you know whilst you're working on the dialogs...

G

>* new screen shown first. Lets player select server host, port and the
>name he/she wants to use.

Cool...


>* scenarios are now totally retrieved from the server. The index files
>too, as well as the raw XML. Works ok. Uses the list from properties.py,
>but only the first url! I think the server should manage *all* scenarios,
>thus they are all in one index file at the server.

This is a good thing IMHO...


>* much other stuff here and there....

Excellent! Nice work Jan! :) However, I'm curious as to how you always 
manage to do a load of updates the day before you have a project to hand 
in! ;-)

Well, nobody protested too much about splitting up Civil into a server and
a client, so now it is partially done. The current situation (as checked
in) does run, with "some" limitations. Changes include:

* new screen shown first. Lets player select server host, port and the
name he/she wants to use.

* scenarios are now totally retrieved from the server. The index files
too, as well as the raw XML. Works ok. Uses the list from properties.py,
but only the first url! I think the server should manage *all* scenarios,
thus they are all in one index file at the server.

* starting a new game is slightly changed. There is no "Setup Players"
anymore, it is gone. The functionality from that one is partially in the
"Connect to server" (first dialog) and partially in "New game". Reduces
the needed clicks to start a game. 

* the side (rebel/union) is chosen in the dialog "New game".

* the connection to the server is done immediately when the first dialog
is Ok:ed. At this point the game waits for the other client to join. This
needs some work, as the player must know what goes on.

* when "Start game" is clicked it all dies. This is how far I've got.

* much other stuff here and there....

Quite a lot of the stuff is still entangled in stuff that the
server/client needs. The server needs an own "scenario.py" (or equivalent)
and "properties.py", as these will need to differ *a lot*. Unless
objections are heard I'll do that one of these days.

Comments? What did I do Wrong(tm)?

--------------------+--------------------------------------------------------
Jan 'Chakie' Ekholm |     Balrog New Media    http://www.balrog.fi/
   Linux Inside     | I'm the blue screen of death, nobody hears your screams

On Mon, 29 Jan 2001, Gareth Noyce wrote:

>Quoting Jan Ekholm <ch...@in...>:
>
>> I noticed that the new background is checked 
>> in, it just "popped up" in my
>> dialogs when I tested some other things. It 
>> took a while for me to realize
>> that the dialogs look a little bit different 
>> now...
>
>Sorry, I would have annoucned it, but I've yet to 
>add the wood borders. I thought I'd get time to 
>do it on Sunday, but as it was I just thought I'd 
>bung it up anyway! ;-)

Oh, no problems. It just "plugged in" without problems.

>I've made some changes to my local source tree re: the dialogs.
>Basically I've upped the font size, done a little re-placement of the
>buttons and had a quick tinker with the edit fields. It looks a little
>clearer now, as the background kinda blended into the text too much...

Ok, I'm doing some redesigning to the dialogs. I put (for now) a new
dialog as the first dialog that is shown. It asks for the host/port of the
server, as well as the username the player wants to use. After this dialog
the main one is shown. This changes a few things, as the
host/port/username is no longer asked in the "Setup Players" dialog. Other
small changes too.

You could either update to the new sources, but I think I can fairly
easily integrate the patch manually too.

>It's not tidy yet, so I'll send a patch as-and- when. I don't think
>there's any hurry to incorporate these changes yet...

Sounds nice!

--------------------+--------------------------------------------------------
Jan 'Chakie' Ekholm |     Balrog New Media    http://www.balrog.fi/
   Linux Inside     | I'm the blue screen of death, nobody hears your screams

Jan Ekholm wrote:



> I'm so jealous... When is it?

This week.. I belie it starts either Tuesday or Wendesday, but I'm only 
going for Thurs and Fri.

mike



-- 
   -------------------------
Mike Szczerban | m...@sz...
   -------------------------
--

Quoting Jan Ekholm <ch...@in...>:

> I noticed that the new background is checked 
> in, it just "popped up" in my
> dialogs when I tested some other things. It 
> took a while for me to realize
> that the dialogs look a little bit different 
> now...

Sorry, I would have annoucned it, but I've yet to 
add the wood borders. I thought I'd get time to 
do it on Sunday, but as it was I just thought I'd 
bung it up anyway! ;-)

I've made some changes to my local source tree 
re: the dialogs. Basically I've upped the font 
size, done a little re-placement of the buttons 
and had a quick tinker with the edit fields. It 
looks a little clearer now, as the background 
kinda blended into the text too much...

It's not tidy yet, so I'll send a patch as-and-
when. I don't think there's any hurry to 
incorporate these changes yet...

I'm hoping to update the website this week, so 
I'll bung some screen grabs up as well...

G


-------------------------------------------------
This mail sent through UK Online webmail

Hi,

I noticed that the new background is checked in, it just "popped up" in my
dialogs when I tested some other things. It took a while for me to realize
that the dialogs look a little bit different now...

--------------------+--------------------------------------------------------
Jan 'Chakie' Ekholm |     Balrog New Media    http://www.balrog.fi/
   Linux Inside     | I'm the blue screen of death, nobody hears your screams

Much as I'd love to come to New York, I'm not 
planning on making a flight until the summer...

Take some photos and let us know how much free 
stuff you get hold of. Oh, and if there's any 
game stands, make sure you plug Civil! ;-)

G

-------------------------------------------------
This mail sent through UK Online webmail

For a few days to come, Civil will be horribly broken in CVS. I'm working
on the reorganizations to a server-based system. Please hang on or help
out. :-)

--------------------+--------------------------------------------------------
Jan 'Chakie' Ekholm |     Balrog New Media    http://www.balrog.fi/
   Linux Inside     | I'm the blue screen of death, nobody hears your screams

On Sun, 28 Jan 2001, Mike Szczerban wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>just wanted to know if any of you are coming to linuxworld in new york? 
>  I doubt it but thought I'd give it a try...

I'm at least not going. The transatlantic flights cost a fortune,
literally. Not that I wouldn't like to go. :-)

>ps > this does mean that I am going, yes.

I'm so jealous... When is it?

--------------------+--------------------------------------------------------
Jan 'Chakie' Ekholm |     Balrog New Media    http://www.balrog.fi/
   Linux Inside     | I'm the blue screen of death, nobody hears your screams

Hi all,

just wanted to know if any of you are coming to linuxworld in new york? 
  I doubt it but thought I'd give it a try...

mike

ps > this does mean that I am going, yes.
-- 
   -------------------------
Mike Szczerban | m...@sz...
   -------------------------
--

On Fri, 26 Jan 2001, The Corruptor wrote:

>http://civil.sourceforge.net/incoming/mock.jpg -- Anyone fancy using this as
>the new dialog backdrop?

Oh, well, as you've made one we might as well use it. :-) Jokes aside, it
is fabulous! It will really lift up the dialogs to a new level of polish.
If just the code would work as well as the dialogs look.

>The current one has always been a bit of an issue. Jan can no doubt remember
>the various versions I've already been through! ;-) Anyway - seeing it run
>fullscreen on a monitor (instead of my laptop which up to now I've been
>testing stuff on) kinda rammed home the need for something a little more
>'professional' than the crap rocks we currently have.

There were a few of them, yes. I had been very satisfied with the old
tiled background too, but this is just a few magnitudes better.

>If it's a yeah, I'll finish the image (I've only spent a couple of hours
>playing with it...)

It's a yeah from my point of view. This turns out the be a good start for
the weekend. :-)

--------------------+--------------------------------------------------------
Jan 'Chakie' Ekholm |     Balrog New Media    http://www.balrog.fi/
   Linux Inside     | I'm the blue screen of death, nobody hears your screams

I think it is awesome.  Well done!

mikeS

The Corruptor wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> http://civil.sourceforge.net/incoming/mock.jpg -- Anyone fancy using this as
> the new dialog backdrop?
> 
> The current one has always been a bit of an issue. Jan can no doubt remember
> the various versions I've already been through! ;-) Anyway - seeing it run
> fullscreen on a monitor (instead of my laptop which up to now I've been
> testing stuff on) kinda rammed home the need for something a little more
> 'professional' than the crap rocks we currently have.
> 
> Opinions on a post card per-lease...
> 
> If it's a yeah, I'll finish the image (I've only spent a couple of hours
> playing with it...)
> 
> BTW, the rearing horse is 'Doc Keeping Time'. You'd probably be more
> familiar with it's stage name: Black Beauty. The one in the distance is
> Zorro! :)
> 
> Both riders are cavalry from some random Civil war re-enactment site I
> found -- hence the reason the rider on Black Beauty doesn't look quite
> right. He wasn't on a rearing horse when I found him. I'd need to do a bit
> more work on him if we're to keep the image...
> 
> G
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --
> 
> "Computer games don't affect kids. I mean if Pacman had affected us as
> kids, we'd all be running around in a darkened room munching pills and
> listening to repetitive music."
> 
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: PGP 6.0
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> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Civil-devel mailing list
> Civ...@li...
> http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/civil-devel


-- 
   -------------------------
Mike Szczerban | m...@sz...
   -------------------------
--

Hi all,

http://civil.sourceforge.net/incoming/mock.jpg -- Anyone fancy using this as
the new dialog backdrop?

The current one has always been a bit of an issue. Jan can no doubt remember
the various versions I've already been through! ;-) Anyway - seeing it run
fullscreen on a monitor (instead of my laptop which up to now I've been
testing stuff on) kinda rammed home the need for something a little more
'professional' than the crap rocks we currently have.

Opinions on a post card per-lease...

If it's a yeah, I'll finish the image (I've only spent a couple of hours
playing with it...)

BTW, the rearing horse is 'Doc Keeping Time'. You'd probably be more
familiar with it's stage name: Black Beauty. The one in the distance is
Zorro! :)

Both riders are cavalry from some random Civil war re-enactment site I
found -- hence the reason the rider on Black Beauty doesn't look quite
right. He wasn't on a rearing horse when I found him. I'd need to do a bit
more work on him if we're to keep the image...

G




--

"Computer games don't affect kids. I mean if Pacman had affected us as
kids, we'd all be running around in a darkened room munching pills and
listening to repetitive music."

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=S/8P
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