Creation/Dev/Releases/Client/2.1
From Graal Bible
Release date
2001-2003 for Windows
2.1
new standard tiles for trees and houses and signs
new interface for starting window and serverlist, it shows informations about your account; if you are in the serverlist you can go back to the starting window by pressing F8
completely redone engine for holding the images in the memory; this avoids using the windows GDI (graphical interface) which caused memory leaks and other problems; with this new engine the game should take much less resources and memory
the editor opens a new empty level when you press F4 while playing the tutorial levels instead of showing the error message that the tutorial level does not exist on the hard drive (since it is encoded in the exe and not meant to be editable)
when you are in a level where playerkilling is disabled then you see a little sign right to the alignment bar which shows a red cross on a sword
the script variable timevar works in offline mode too
fixed problem with the % operator on big values
new script function ascii(c) to get the ascii code of a character (ascii(A) is 65); the other way (converting ascii code to character) can still be done by using the #K(num) message code (#K(65) is A)
there shouldn't be 'Invalid floating point' error messages any more on voodoo cards (please disable the use of direct3D in the Graal options if the effects are too slow for you)
when a chat text or a nickname contains a line that is too long for being displayed on the screen, then only the visible part is drawn instead of hiding it like in old Graal versions
new script variable tiles[x,y] which can be used as replacement for the board[index] variable; it also works for tiles in near levels on overworlds (tiles[-1,20] will read the tile at (63,20) of the level left to the current level)
in the editor there is a new option 'Predefined npcs';
there are all scripts (text files) listed where the
filename starts with 'defnpc' and ends with '.txt';
you can select the npc, then drag&drop it onto the level
by clicking on the npc outline icon left of the choice
box and moving it onto the level;
in the script file you can insert lines like
#COMMENTS This is a door
for changing the comments that are displayed under the
choice box, and
#EDIT redvalue 1
to let the user change a value in the script:
when you add the npc to the level then
all occurances of the variable ('redvalue') will
be replaced by the entered text (in this case '1'
if you don't change the text)
some windows have been removed (sign message codes, add-npc window) and the stuff from it is integrated into other windows so the level editing is simplier; the options window and add-showcharacter windows use tabsheets
snapshots levels made with Alt+5 handle lights correctly, also fixed some other problems with snapshot levels
support for smilies in PMs: some text like :D and :eek: is automatically replaced by smilie-images when reading a PM (and having html-pms turned on); you can change the list of smilies by editing the file smiliesdef.txt in the folder levels/smilies (add a line 'code,filename' for adding a new smilie)
fixed 'vibrations' when being on a moving ship
switching to fullscreen and back to window mode should work better instead of flashing the screen several times
ganis can contain scripts, put it in a block: SCRIPT if (blabla)... SCRIPTEND It is restricted to this. variables and can only use functions for playing music files and displaying showimgs
new script function getangle(dx,dy)
String arrays! they are saved in normal flags/string variables and look like 'myarray=123,"45",67,"8,9"' Commands/Functions: addstring list,text; insertstring list,index,text; replacestring list,index,text; removestring list,text; deletestring list,index; sarraylen(list) lindexof(list,text) #I(list,index) - gives you the string on place 'index'
new script command play2 wavfile,x,y,volume; x,y specifys from where the sound should come from; volume must be between 0 and 1, if set to 1 then the default volume will be used (depending on how far x,y is away from the player)
auto mapping: the Graal program now automatically downloads map files and minimap images, and updates the bigmap (M) by drawing the screen on the map when you move 8 tiles; this options can be turned off in the Graal options if wished; when you leave a level then it saves the part of the map that belongs to that level on hard disk into the maps/parts folder; next time you start Graal it loads the map parts automatically, that way you always have an up-to-date map; the map and minimap is no longer set by the listserver, its now done by the gserver itself, which means playerworld owners can change the default map/minimap by adding lines to the serveroptions.txt: bigmap=bigmap.txt,map.png,12.2,8 minimap=minimap.txt,map2.png,5.2,7 it works exactly like the script commands setmap/setminimap
new script variable 'graalversion' to detect the Graal version the npc is running on
ghost mode, which makes it possible to let new players see Graal2001 for free; it will also be used to limit the player count on 'free' servers (if you have not upgraded then you will login as ghost and wait in a queue till you are activated)
important actions are logged in a new log window that you can open by pressing Alt+0; it logs things like initializing DirectX, Direct3D, but also the login/logout of players and sending of explosions etc.; more stuff will be added in the future
script commands callweapon and callnpc doesn't allow the 'created' flag anymore
fixed showimg synchronization
in the tiles panel in the editor you can select multiple tiles at once: select a block of tiles by clicking on the upper lef edge, then moving the mouse to the lower right edge and releasing it, then pasting it on the level
all default images included in Graal are now using the image formats png or mng instead of gif
2.101
added the ghost icon to state.png and ghostbody.png
fixed bluelampani.mng
fixed changing the body
arrows cannot hurt ghosts anymore
2.102
fixed script command setminimap
2.103
baddys can't be hurt/killed again when they are already hurt/killed
the auto-mapping works even when you are on a ship (attachplayertoobj)
fixed arrows shooting position
npcs are correctly deleted when a level is deleted
2.12
compatibility of the clients for Graal2001 and Graal2002
many new features for Graal2002, which will be listed later when the game is public
fixed updating images from the server
fixed some linking problems
new editor mode: it's now possible to do multilevel-editing (when an npc called setmap); also the drawing is using the correct npc y-order; scrolling is different: click on the player and move him around, or use the arrow keys to move to the visible level part
new script commands: * wraptext linelength,delimiters,text; Word-wraps a text into pieces each of length 'linelength'; the result can be accessed by reading #t(0..tokenscount-1) * wraptext2 pixelwidth,zoomfactor,delimiters,text; Wraps a text depending on the visible text width; instead of the numbers of characters you give the width of the text on the screen (in pixels); the text can be like in showimg, e.g. @TimesRoman@b@text
#f(index) gives you the image of the npc with the specified index
2.121
fixed ghost movement on graal2002, also ghosts can now see ganis with script like the torch lamps
2.13
in the editor single levels have scrollbars again, and on maps you see a big cursor instead of a player and the cursor is always on top so it's easier to scroll by moving the cursor
when clicking on 'play' in the editor then all modified levels are saved
in the editor it's now possible to script 'editor control-npcs'; for that you need to create a file editnpcNAME.txt and script editor actions in it, see levels/npcs/editnpcSandPath.txt for an example; you have new script variables mousex,mousey,mousescreenx, mousescreeny,mousebuttons (sum of left=1, middle=2, right=4) which only work in the editor mode; currently only changing tiles is supported, in the future there could also be things like placing random npcs or so
the map making button M is fixed (in the editor)
there is 'Translate' button in the PM window; depending on what language you and the other player have it opens a translation website
new script functions imgwidth(filename) and imgheight(filename) for getting the size of an image which is already loaded in the memory
optimized parts of the scripting engine (accessing flags and string variables, calculating values)
fixed bug with the auto-mapping which caused linking errors (player disappearing)
dont-connnect-levels option works again on normal maps
better guild tag protection at login
images are not immediatelly discarded anymore; the game will wait 5 seconds (will speed up things where you often changed the gani and the reloading of images slowed down the game)
testplayer() fixed
variable actionplayer should work better now (giving the index of the player who has triggered the 'triggeraction' event)
when the window for updating the Graal version opens then Graal will be closed so that the update works correctly
new graalshop version: undo/redo, scrolling of background when clicking outside of a sprite and moving the mouse, selecting more than one sprite when pressing Shift while clicking on a sprite (click Ctrl+mouse button to remove it from the selection), the layer of a sprite can be changed with the + and - buttons, scrolling and changing layer works also by pressing keys (up,left,down,right,+,-), right click on a sprite in the sprite panel on the left side opens the 'Add Sprite' dialog for that sprite so you can easily change it, you can drag&drop images into the gani editor, it will automatically add a sprite definition and a sprite, there are new buttons for reversing the animation and removing unused sprite definitions which makes the gani file smaller, you can also import sprite definitions from other ganis, SCRIPT and COLOREFFECT and ZOOMEFFECT commands in the gani are still not displayed but not deleted anymore
ATTACHSPRITE command in ganis: ATTACHSPRITE 100 40 -8 -18 will automatically draw sprite 40 on top of sprite 100 whenever sprite 100 is drawn; in this example it will be shifted 8 pixels west and 18 pixels north; the advantage of this is that you can just attach things like hats or armor and don't need to care about it when you edit the animations (before this command you always needed to add manually all the additional sprites and move it each time you move the main sprite)
new gani attributes 6-9 (in the game #P6-#P9, in graalshop ATTR6-ATTR9)
new RC version with file browser, server list and RC+NC in one program
2.133
the script command destroy works again
fixed compatibility with Win95/98
the setstring command sends the new string variable correctly to the server
the script variable graalversion is now 2.13 (instead of 2.1)
in the offline mode the player is on the normal layer like it is supposed to, so he is not drawn on top of objects anymore and arrow and projectiles work again
the not recommended script command playersays() works again (the script is called when the player says something); but better use if (playerchats && strequals(#c,...))
several fixes of the editor mode: caching of levels in the memory, position of the player when clicking on 'play', dragging baddies,npcs and chests onto a level works like in old days (you can release the mouse button and then move the object if you don't want to keep it pressed)
fixed memory leaks
npc actions are deleted when leaving a level (so when using setlevel/setlevel2 then it is not producing an endless loop)
emoticons are not hiding weapon showimgs anymore, emoticons have the index 0 (so don't use index 0 for showimg if you don't want it to be hidden when an emoticon is displayed)
npcservers can now attach players to local npcs (was producing warping errors before)
detection for players that are in 'hidden under carried object' mode but don't carry anything
optimized loading and 'playerenters' for npcs on graal2002 maps
2.134
fixed making/saving of new levels in the editor when using desktop links to start Graal
fixed putting tiles and predefined objects on levels
2.14
the server list has now two tabs, in one tab the servers managed by the company are displayed (Graal2001, Graal2002), in the other list you see all classic servers (classic and playerworlds); the servers are sorted by player count
to enable the new voice chatting feature open the Graal options
and enable the microphone ('Audio' options)
to test the output speak into the microphone and
see the output level on the bar on the right side of the option
window;
there is also a rectangle which is red or green depending on the voice level, that rectangle shows if the game has interpreted the voice level as high enough to be sent to the other players; it should only be green when you speak so its not sending data all the time; by moving the slider you can change the voice activation level, move it up when it's too often green, move it down when you can't hear yourself anymore;
you can also activate the mircophone by hand if you don't want to have it automatically send the voice when you speak; for that select 'Key' as the activation method and click on the rectangle right to it if you want to change the key that activates the voice
in the game you automatically hear other people speaking when they are close to you (16 tiles=256 pixels), set the voice volume to 0 in the option window if you don't want to hear other people; you can mute single players by right-clicking on a player in the player list and selecting 'Mute', or in the game by right-clicking on the players and enable the 'Mute check box in their profile
Graal automatically chooses the best voice encoding codec depending on how many people are hearing you; if there are 1 or 2 people then it uses GSM (mobile phone quality, 13 kbit), when there are 3-5 people then LPC (4.8 kbit), when there are more than 5 people then it uses LPC-10 (2.4 kbit). The quality of the voice depends on your microphone, it should have something to filter wind, otherwise the lower quality codecs have problems and make you sound like you are singing; in the options window you can choose a different testing codecs to hear if your microphone still works good with lower quality codecs
Graal now supports more music formats: ogg, mp3, mod (and other tracker formats), radio streaming, wma; you can use the normal play command to play such files; to play an url you must add the http:// otherwise it will not see that you want to access an internet stream instead of a local file; wma is only supported on machines where the microsoft wma libraries are installed (or recent media player versions)
in the Graal options you can set the volume levels for midi, mp3/ogg/mod music, radio streams, voice and sound fxs
new script functions to access the keyboard
* events:
keypressed - occurs when a standard key has been pressed; because
several keys can be pressed at the same time you get the
pressed key directly as a parameter to the script (like in
actionxxx event): #p(0) is the keycode, #p(1) the character
(when its standard key);
* functions:
keycode(character) - gets the key code for the character
(identical to the windows virtual key code)
keydown2(keycode,ignorecase) - checks if a key has been pressed,
ignorecase must be true if you want to turn off the check
for shift/alt/control key, so keydown2(keycode(A),true) will be
true whenever you press A or Shift+A or Alt+A
* a script to display 'on' when pressing '1' and displaying
'off' when pressing '2':
if (keypressed) {
code = strtofloat(#p(0));
if (code==keycode(1,false)) message on;
else if (code==keycode(2,false)) message off;
}
The same without converting it to the key code:
if (keypressed) {
if (strequals(#p(1),1)) message on;
else if (strequals(#p(1),2)) message off;
}
the script functions for accessing the mouse are now
available in the game, some new functions have been added:
* mouse variables:
mousex, mousey - position of the mouse in the level
mousebuttons - tells you which mouse buttons are pressed,
it's a sum of the values 1 for left mouse button, 2 for middle
mouse button and 4 for the right mouse button, so it's 1+2+4=7
when all buttons are pressed; you can also use the flags described
later to easier check for the mouse buttons
mousescreenx, mousescreeny - position of the mouse in the game screen
mousewheeldelta - the movement of the mouse wheel in the last 0.05 seconds
* flags for checking if a mouse button is pressed:
leftmousebutton - is set when the left mouse button is down
middlemousebutton - is set when the middle mouse button is down
rightmousebutton - is set when the right mouse button is down
* events:
mousedown - occurs when a mouse button has been pressed, so
you can do things like if (mousedown && leftmousebutton) message hi;
mouseup - occurs when a mouse button has been released
mousewheel - occurs when the mouse wheel has been used
* triggered actions (only on npcs where the player has clicked on,
is also sent to the npcserver):
actionleftmouse - the player has clicked on the npc
actionmiddlemouse - the player has clicked with the middle mouse button on the npc
actionrightmouse - the player has right-clicked on the npc
actiondoublemouse - the player has double-clicked on the npc
new GraalShop version which introduces the 'gani movie mode', where you can add and move actors instead of sprites; it allows easy editing of the attributes of the different actor types (character, sprite, text, sound), movement is automatically done when you change the position of an actor in two different frames, so you can make little movies or cut-scenes; by setting the flag 'playerlook' of an actor you can specify which actor should copy the look of the actor; when you use the gani for a player then the first playerlook actor will also be focused and possibly move the player when the movie is finished and the first actor is on a different position; 'movie mode' ganis have the same ending, to switch between (the old) sprite mode and movie mode just click on the upper right button in GraalShop; the movie mode is not meant to be a replacement for the sprite mode: for simple animations you must use the sprite mode, while the movie mode is for more complex cut scenes
the PM (personal message) window has been changed: when replying to someone you still see the original message so its easier to keep track of what the other one asked you; people that play with trial accounts can only reply to messages, they cannot start a PM conversation
the attributes displayed in the right side of the profiles window can now be customized by the server admins: in the server options this line must appear to set the default profile attributes:
profilevars=playerkills,playerdeaths,playerfullhearts,playerrating,playerap,playerrupees,playerswordpower,canspin
Variables can be playerkills,playerdeaths,playerfullhearts,playerrating, playerap,playerrupees,playerswordpower,canspin,playerhearts,playerdarts, playerbombs,playermp,playershieldpower and playerglovepower. You can also give the name of a string variable, if you write clientr.maxhp instead of playerfullhearts then it will display the value of clientr.maxhp (when its clientr.maxh=50 then it will display 50). You can also change the name that is shown on the left side (name of the attribute), for that write 'Max HP:=clientr.maxhp', which would display 'Max HP:' on the left side. You can do that do add new fields you want to show when people right-click on someone else.
in the playerlist you can set your own status, then an icon will be displayed on the playerlist and on the map instead of your head; the default status types are for 'online' (player available', 'away' and 'dnd' (do not disturb); server admins can add new status icons, for that change the 'playerlisticons=' line in the serveroptions. For adding a 'survivor' status/icon change it to
playerlisticons=Online,Away,DND,Survivor
Then in the playerlist there will be a new status 'Survivor', for the icon the game will try to load 'plisticonsurvivor.png', so you should upload an icon under that name before adding the status to the server options
with the script command 'serverwarp <world>;' you can warp the player to another server; the 'world' parameter must be the internal name of the server (for classic it is main, for Graal2001 newmain, Andor bravo, N-Pulse npulse, ...)
files bigger than 64k can be downloaded, which means that big tilesets and maps can be updated without releasing a new Graal version; to display the status of a download you can use the script variable downloadpos and the message code #D (filename)
gani scripts work for projectiles (shoot command, see more explaination of that command below)
gmaps (maps for the Graal2002 terrain and dungeons) are automatically downloaded
the automapping function now works better on the Graal2002 terrain and saves the map parts in good quality (using octree color quantitization)
the script commands callnpc and callweapon can have parameters that are forwarded to the called npc which can access them via #p(0), #p(1), ..., like when doing triggeraction on an npc
setmusicvolume should work better now
addtiledef2 works together with setbackpal (again) and is fixed (tiledefs don't stay when going into other levels)
in the npc scripting window you have a button that lets you type in text to search for in the script; by typing 'F3' you can continue a search without opening the 'Find' window again
in the npc scripting window it now jumps to the error position and highlights the correct script position where the error appeared
some stuff that has been added in earlier version but
were not documented:
* script variables anistep, playeranistep, players[index].anistep
which give you the animation frame in the gani of the
npc / player
* new script command 'shoot' for shooting projectiles:
shoot x,y,z,angle,zangle,power,gani,ganiparams;
x,y and z - specify the starting position
angle - shoot angle (when looking from the top): east is 0,
north 3.14/2, west is 3.14, south 3.14*3/2)
zangle - the angle in vertical direction, 0 means the
projectile is shoot horizontal, 3.14/2 means straight to the
sun
power - the shoot power which is used to shoot the projectile;
if it's 0 then the projectile is shoot like an old arrow
(doesn't fall down, moves 20 tiles each second)
gani - the animation that is used for the projectile; the
animation can be multidirectional, the engine automatically
selects the best direction for the flying direction; the
animation can have 1 step (not animated) or 7 steps, then the
engine is automatically choosing the good animation step for
the projectile flying angle - when its raising then step 1 is
taken, when flying horizontal it is step 4, when it is short before
the impact then the engine displays step 7
When the projectile is landing or hitting an object then some actions
are triggered. With the command 'setshootparams <params>;' you can set
the parameters that the called scripts get, call 'setshootparams' before
shooting the projectile.
Client-side events:
* actionprojectile:
is triggered when a projectile lands on the player/npc,
in #p(0), #p(1) etc. you have the parameters set with the
command setshootparams
Server-side events:
* actionprojectile:
is triggered when a client has used the 'shoot' command to shoot a
projectile and the projectile is landed; in #p(0) and #p(1) you have
the x and y position of the impact in case you want to place an explosion
or similar things on the ground (the control-npc is automatically warped
to the level where the impact happened); #p(2),#p(3) etc. contain the
params set with 'setshootparams' (before shooting the projectile)
* actionsprojectile:
is triggered when a server-side script has shot a projectile and the projectile
is landed; in #p(0) and #p(1) you have the x and y position of the impact
(the control-npc is automatically warped to the level where the impact
happened); #p(2),#p(3) etc. contain the params set with 'setshootparams'
(before shooting the projectile)
Projectiles are easy to use and don't take a lot of bandwidth because only
the shooting of the projectile needs to be sent, the movement is calculated on
the different computers. The projectile is flying like a heavy object thrown
through the air: the horizontal movement speed keeps the same (moves
horzspeed=cos(zangle)*speed tiles all 0.05 seconds), the vertical speed is
initialized as vertspeed=sin(zangle)*speed and is decreased by 0.1 all 0.05 seconds;
then the new position (calculated all 0.05 seconds) is
newx = x + cos(angle)*horzspeed, newy = y - sin(angle)*horzspeed,
newz = z + vertspeed
2.144
the voice activation key and selection of voice activation by volume or key is saved so you don't need to configure it again when restarting Graal
the voice playback and recording is fixed to not crash the game anymore when there are a lot of people speaking
corrected some voice package length errors
the soundfx volume is correctly handled (instead of soundfx volume=midi volume)
when you use the command playlooped then only one looping sound is played (fixes draisine sound on Graal2001)
players on trial accounts can send PMs (Personal Messages) to staff (double-click on players in the staff section of the player list)
2.145
fixed the problem with randomly dieing when using the voice chat (problems with fpu mode incompatibility between the voice chat dlls and Graal)
the script variable 'graalversion' is updated to 2.145 instead of still being 2.134
when the z variable of the player is different than 0 then it is transfered to the other players (formerly it was only sent when being on a 3d terrain map)
Graal takes less windows ressources (window handles etc.) by not initializing stuff at startup that is only needed in the editor mode
2.146
again changes in the floating point operations to fix some problems that appeared in rev5 (script operation %)
voice is not activated when pressing the voice activation key while typing in the chat edit field
when opening the options window then you don't get an error message 'cannot focus' anymore
2.147
major speedup on graal2001 (or other servers using many variables on client-side) when walking between levels
added script commands enablepause,disablepause,enablemap, disablemap to enable the normal pausing (P) or mapping (M), and script flags playerpaused, playermap to check if the player is in pause mode or is seeing the map; if you already want to use use these things before the next Graal version is released (and so all players have it) you can also check for the variable graalversion to see if the disabling of pausing works (if (graalversion<2.147) message please download the latest exe if you want to play this minigame;)
keydown2 now always returns false when the main graal window is not active (so the scripts don't think you are doing something when you are actually typing a PM)
2.15
This version is mainly for fixing bugs and enabling Graal2002
fixed a translation error in the starting window
scripts don't get keyboard events when the player is typing chat in the chat box
when using the script command setmusicvolume for setting the volume of the left and right speaker then it is setting the volume relative to the selected music volume in the option window (1=selected volume,0=silent)
looping of mp3 and mods work
correct coloring and shading of text in gani movies
new script command showimg2 for displaying an image in '3d-space' (inlcuding z): showimg2 index,image,x,y,z;
the letters image set with setletters is automatically downloaded
checking for updates of audio files on the server
in the editor you can scroll up/down with the mouse wheel; scrolling with arrow keys works in single levels too
optimized handling of showimgs
2.152
fixed a bug which sometimes crashed Graal on Graal2002 (and in seldom cases on other servers too)
baddies don't walk out the level when its a part of a (txt-) map
the <graalmsg>#n or other message codes</graalmsg> tag in PMs works correctly again
2.16
This new release mainly brings more ways of using ganis (animations), it also brings several speed ups, and more things for the serverlist.
Scripting
- there is now support for real transperency:
- seteffectmode mode;
- changeimgmode index,mode;
- EFFECTMODE sprite mode (gani file command)
- The command seteffectmode can be used to change the way the npc image is drawn when using the setcoloreffect red,green,blue,alpha; command (alpha<1): by default the image colors are added to the graphics below, with the intensity of 'alpha', which makes the image appear like a light since it is making the graphics below appear more bright; now there are different modes:
- 0 - lights (colors are added, alpha specifies intensity)
- 1 - transparency (alpha specifies how much visible)
- 2 - holes (colors are subtracted)
- more 'gani' attributes: #P(10-30)
- In the so called gani attribues you can store additional player attributes, which can also be used in the animation editor (ATTR1 etc.). On Graal2001 we used them to store the filename of the current hat and for the metris height, on Graal2002 we also store filenames for arms, legs, hairs and the value for the hp display of monsters in those attributes.
- They can be accessed with 'setplayerprop #P1,value', 'setcharprop' and can be read by using #P1..#P9 in text.
- Because they are quite useful for a lot of things, there was the need for more such attribute fields, so 21 new gani attributes have been added. They can be access with the message code #P(index), index being a value between 1 and 30.
- gani scripts can read all variables/flags now (except this. vars of other npcs and weapons of couse)
- gani scripts are shared between players/npcs having the same gani, meaning less lag and memory taken for parsing scripts
- ganis as gani attributes
- As described above, you can store several informations in the 'gani attributes' of the players and npcs. Once the attribute is sent to the other players, their Graal will check if the attribute is a special value, e.g. an image filename, and will load it so that the animations of the player can access it and display it.
- But plain images are quite limited. To make it possible to do more in the animations, they can do gani scripts (put in SCRIPT ... SCRIPTEND commands). So they can display special images or play randomly sound effects. A problem with those scripts is that they get replaced once the animation of the player changes, so if you want e.g. always display special graphics over the head of the player you would need to do it in some weapons script, but those are only run locally.
- So you can now use ganis as 'gani attributes'. You can try it by doing the command setplayerprop #P1,tutorial_touch.gani;
- That will display the 'Touch to get information' animation from the wizard of the new starting level on top of the player, so your player now has two animations. Since there are 30 'gani attribures', you can display 30 more animations on top of the player, and all other players will see those too. Of course it will not make sense to display 30 tutorial_touch.ganis, but you can probably imagine what possibilities open with that: you can display a bird pet flying around the players head with just one command, and making the gani for the bird of course. As long as the attribute is not changed, the bird will continue to fly. In the script of the bird gani you can also put some sounds.
- Since gani scripts can read all variables now, you can even put scripts for displaying stats in the gani, and the script doesn't need to be put in a wepaon and sent to the player with each login.
- new script commands showani and showani2 for displaying animations without adding new npcs
- showani index,x,y,direction,animation,params;
- showani2 index,x,y,z,direction,animation,params;
- Displays an animation at the specified position. It will use the attributes of the npc for the head/body etc.
- For showani there exist following modifier commands:
- changeimgvis index,layer;
- tells graal where to display the animation: 0 - under players, 1 - same layer liker players (default), 2 - over players, 4 - on the status bar, specified coordinates will work as screen coordinates instead of world coordinates
- new script commands showpoly and showpoly2 for displaying polygons:
- showpoly index,{x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3,..};
- showpoly2 index,{x1,y1,z1,x2,y2,z2,x3,y3,z3,..};
- This commands displays a polygon on the specified position. It will close the polygon (last coordinate to first coordinate) and will fill the polygon. If you only provide 4 numbers (e.g. showpoly 1,{10,10,20,20};) then it will draw a line (in this case from (10,10) to (20,20)).
- For showpoly there exist following modifier commands:
- changeimgcolors index,red,green,blue,1;
- changes the colors, red/green/blue must be values between 0 and 1
- changeimgvis index,layer;
- tells graal where to display the polygon: 0 - under players, 1 - same layer liker players, 2 - over players (default), 4 - on the status bar, specified coordinates will work as screen coordinates instead of world coordinates
- new script commands showtext and showtext2 for displaying text (instead of doing showimg 1,@@@ things):
- showtext index,x,y,font,style,text;
- showtext2 index,x,y,z,font,style,text;
- It works like showimg, but you are displaying a text on the specified position. The style is a string with the letters b (bold),i (italic),r (right-aligned), u (underscore), s (strikeout), c (centered).
- For showtext there exist following modifier commands:
- changeimgcolors index,red,green,blue,1;
- changes the colors, red/green/blue must be values between 0 and 1
- changeimgzoom index,zoomfactor;
- makes the text bigger/smaller, by default a text is 24 pixels high
- changeimgvis index,layer;
- tells graal where to display the text: 0 - under players, 1 - same layer liker players, 2 - over players (default), 4 - on the status bar, specified coordinates will work as screen coordinates instead of world coordinates
- scriptfunction for disabling features:
- enablefeatures flags;
- A description of all flags:
1 - M key (map)
2 - P key (pause)
4 - Q key (weapon select)
8 - R key (show ratings)
0x10 - S+A key combination for dropping items
0x20 - S+D key combination for switching weapons
0x40 - TAB key (if disabled then you cannot switch to the chat field with TAB)
0x80 - display of chat text
0x100 - display of the hearts over player heads
0x200 - display of nicknames
0x400 - toall/PM-icons on the minimap
0x800 - right-click on players opens their profile
0x1000 - emoticons (disable it if you want to do other stuff with control+keys)
0x2000 - Alt+5 for making snapshots
0x4000 - Alt+8/9 for zooming
0x8000 - the logframe where savelog stuff is added
allfeatures
- To disable the profile click you can do:
- enablefeatures allfeatures-0x800;
- If you want to disable everything except the tabulator key, then do:
- enablefeatures 0x40;
- new script variable 'allstats' which is the addition of all stats flags, so 'showstats allstats;' will enable all default status bar stuff again
- new script function getdir(dx,dy): gives the direction a player/npc must look when watching an object at (dx,dy) relative to the player/npc
- new script function log(base,x) the inverse of the power function (^):
- base^log(base,val) = val; e.g. log(3,9)=2;
- it tells you with what exponent the base must be powered to reach val
- new script function aindexof(value,array): calculates the positon of the first occurance of value in the given array
- new script functions min(a,b) and max(a,b): calculate the minimum/maximum of a and b
- new script functions screenx(x,y), screeny(x,y):
- convert level coordinates (world coordinates) to positions on the screen
- you must specifiy both x and y so that the functions works correctly on Graak2002 terrain
- worldx(x,y), worldy(x,y):
- convert screen positions (e.g. mousescreenx) to level coordinates
- you must specifiy both x and y so that the functions works correctly on Graak2002 terrain
- the script variables mousex/y are fixed on zoomed screen (when the player pressed Alt+8/9)
- the access if string lists has been optmized
- the showimg height (z) is fixed when displaying showimgs of other players
- in string operations the #b message code is passed instead of removed, so you can add lines to text that you want display with say2, like
setstring msg,Hello!#bHow are you?; say2 #s(msg);
- will display:
Hello How are you?
- fixed a bug with the else command that was sometimes merged with a following if that wasnt supposed to be merged
- the onwall(x,y) function is working better when used 'in the sea' (Graal2002 terrain that is under zero), it checks for npcs at the height 0 instead of the ground of the sea, since the player and npcs are normally at height 0
- the variables focusx/y have been fixed when assigning negative values to them; the limits are -64..128
- keydown2 is fixed:
- when you dont add 256,512 or 1024 (shift, control, alt) to the key number then it doesn't return 'true' when those special keys are not pressed
- a few keycodes that can be used in keydown2 to check for normally unaccessible keys (have not test all of them though):
8 - back 9 - tab 13 - return 16 - shift 17 - control 18 - alt 33 - page up 34 - page down 35 - end 36 - home 42 - print key 45 - insert 46 - delete 91 - left windows key 92 - right windows key 93 - mouse popup key 112-123 - F1-F12 144 - numlock 160 - left shift 161 - right shift 162 - left control 163 - right control 164 - left alt/menu 165 - right alt/menu
- in gani scripts you can use changeimgcolors, changeimgzoom and changeimgmode to change the attributes of sprites
- the sprite must already be in texture mode (e.g. by doing a line 'COLOREFFECT spriteindex red green blue alpha' in the gani)
- npc actions/events are no longer mixed with the 'sleep' timeout event which caused those events to get vanished
- script variables musicpos and musiclen to get the posiiton/length of the currently played music track
- this doesn't work for midis
Sound
when graal is starting it doesn set the volume to maximum anymore
there is now a special tab for the microphone settings in the options window; there is a new choice box for selecting the microphone codec used to encode the speech, you can select if it automatically selects the best codec depending on the listener count (players near you), or you directly select a codec if you e.g. want to speak with good quality when all listeners have good bandwidth; there is also a choice box for selecting the input device (sound driver)
in the options window on the 'Audio' tab you can see the filename of the currently displayed music track, and you can stop/play it again
walking sounds are only played for the default ganis
General
in the serverlist window when clicking on the class/playerworlds tab you see a new box for typing in the name of the playerworld you want to go in case it is not listed
you can go out of the pause mode by pressing the enter key or space (instead of pressing P)
on Graal2002 maps the mini-heads are displayed on the correct height
it now displays toalls and message icons for players on the big map (M), and it's possible to click on those to open the message (previously they only worked on minimaps)
when the animation of a projectile is looped then the animation will be played looped instead of displaying the animation steps 1-7 depending on the flying angle of the projectile
when the game is running too slow and you have light effects enabled (direct3d) then you get a warning and the tip that it might be better to disable it
when you have udp enabled but the client doesn't receive data from other players in the current level then it warns you and tells you to possibly disable UDP to fix the problem (since graal automaticaly sends verification data all 5 seconds it can assume that you must receive data from other players if the udp connection is working correctly and is not blocked by proxies or firewalls)
when opening the profile of a player by right-clicking on him/her the window doesn't pop up two times anymore (before it first showed the data from the cached profile from hard disk and a few seconds later the updated profile sent by the server)
updating of downloaded gani movies work correctly
the graal2002 rpg window has been changed to have not input field and to be always on top
Editor
the scrollbar position / player position in the edited level is remembered correctly when switching between levels or going into game mode
when deleting npcs in near map levels it marks the level as modified so when you click on the 'save' button they are saved
flood fill doesn't crash Graal anymore when done on near level (when editing levels on a map)
fixed undo when editing map levels and going to another level
M much faster, the scrolling cross doesn't appear on the generate map image anymore
the debugger uses 4 tabs for the vars/this.vars/npc attributes/strings instead of separate lists, so making things more organized and easier to access
only needed attributes of npcs are displayed, and it displays the gani attributes now (#P(1-30))
debugger: when moving the mouse over variables in the script then it displays a short description depending on what is under the mouse: for variables the current value will be shown, for script commands the parameters, for images the size of the image
there is a new button right of the 'signs' button in the toolbar of the editor: when clicking on it you see the currently selected tiles rectangle as text, so you can copy it for using it in scripts; that is very useful for editor npcs (the editnpc*.txt thing)
the script commands showimg and putnpc are enabled for editor npcs
with and other serverside script functions doesn't cause errors anymore when editing the script
in the script editor you see errors on the correct positions
new command line options: -play: directly puts the player in playing mode -x value: puts the player/scrollbars on the specified x position -y value: specifies the y position
2.161
- fixed an endless drawing loop when a gani is used as gani attribute and is using itself
2.162
- Alt+5 doesn't crash Graal anymore
- fixed the text on several labels and buttons
- initializing of DirectX works better, and supports more fullscreen modes
- fixed timer errors
- weapons are initialized correctly on classic servers
2.163
- DirectX Surfaces are initialized better, this should fix problems with black screen and lights problems in v2.16
- when typing in the chat field the enter key is not unpausing you
- the udp check has been improved so the error message is not poping up so often anymore without a reason
- fixed putexplosion2
2.164
- fixed Direct3D options which messed up light effects on some graphics cards
2.165
- the Direct3D options for images drawn with alpha blending or light effects have been fixed so that all images should work correctly now
- the initializing of DirectX has been fixed to work more optimized when switching to fullscreen, possibly be more compatible with some gfx cards
- a 'memory leak' with npcs has been fixed, images of npcs have often not been discarded when leaving a level, possibly making the game slower after some playing, and causing freezing of nvidia gfx cards because of too much use of the gfx card memory
- the script functions screenx/y have been fixed for being used by weapon scripts
- the layer of gani movie actors is set correctly
- the assignment operator /= has been added, so you can now use +=, -=, *=, /=, ++ and --
- the order how operators are parsed has been fixed to match normal mathematical conventions, now 4/2/2 is seen as (4/2)/2, which makes 1, instead of 4/(2/2) which gave the wrong result of 4
- the favourite-quote-field in the profile window uses the same font like the other fields
- when you switch from the tutorial into editor mode via F4 then the classic character and animations are restored
- new script variable isfocused which is set to true (1) when you have currently set a focus via setfocus
- the debugger hint for array members is fixed to only show the value of the member, not the whole array
- the script command setlevel has been fixed; this command should not be used in online levels because there is the better alternative setlevel2
2.166
- speed ups on gmaps (Graal Kingdoms) because the npc list is managed better
- fixed problems with invisble ships on Graal Kingdoms
- fixed showimgs on gmaps
- the z value of showimgs is transferred correctly to other players
2.167
- fixed body drawing on Atlantis (flat gmaps)
- fixed leaks of disablepause
- editor-map making (M) is working for gmaps
- added the gmap-option NOAUTOMAPPING for disabling auto mapping for certain maps
2.17
This release doesn't contain very big new additions, but fixes a lot of little things and does little improvements. Most major improvements have to do with Graal Kingdoms:
- major speed ups on Graal Kingdoms overworld (drawing of objects, drawing of showimgs)
- level heights are now loaded and stored in the level files instead of the gmap, so making the gmap files less big, allowing to change the heights dynamically (will be enabled on server-side soon), and making the hacking of heights on client-side more harder
Bug fixes
- showani2 finally works
- when you die the screen is correctly made black
- fixed problems with automapping when getting out of the map by wrong links or scripts when editing map levels offline then the npcs of near levels are correctly displayed when in game mode
Ganis
- gani movies work better, PARAMs and ATTRs are correctly loaded (see starting movie of Graal Kingdoms)
- in gani movies you can use message codes in text messages and in the chat text of actors
- gani scripts can access the gani parameters: when you do setani myani,1,2,3; then the script in myani.gani can access the parameters '1','2' and '3' via the message codes #p(0), #p(1) etc.
- when an animation is started again (not continuous) then the gani script gets a 'playerenters' event again
Scripting
- hideimgs startindex,endindex; hides all images/animations/texts/polygons displayed with showimg/showani/showtext/showpoly that have an index which is startindex<=index<=endindex
- when a projectile lands then the client-side can do effects now too, all weapon scripts can catch the event with if (actionprojectile);
- the first two paramters (#p(0) and #p(1)) contain the position of the impact
- #p(2) etc. are the normal parameters which you have specified with setshootparams before shooting the projectile
2.171
- corrected problems with adapting level heights on 3d terrain
- removed the default map-view animation on Graal Kingdoms when watching the M map
- script command putleaps works on gmaps
- script command showani fixed when called from a weapon script (parameters are correctly used and the animation is animated)
2.18
This new Graal version is again mainly a bug-fix release. But a new Graal (v3) is in work which is a completely remake, coded in C++: it's more compatible, faster, works on different platforms and makes it possible to add more features.
- new password encryption: once you start Graal and connect, the password will be stored more securely
Bug fixes
- removed a memory leak when saving the history (which is saved each time someone sends you a pm or you send someone a pm)
- editing gmaps fixed:
- the heights of near levels are saved correctly (modified-flag correctly set when changing the height so that they are saved when you click on 'save')
- and npcs are placed on the correct position when a level is load that is part of a gmap which is not loaded yet (e.g. when double-clicking on a level in the windows explorer)
- in the debugger you can move the mouse over text and commands without seeing new scripting variables appearing in the variables-watch-list
- the content of the variables is displayed in the caption of the debugger window, that's more fast than showing a yellow hint under the mouse
- levels are pre-loaded when entering the server, so you don't see heights changing when entering Graal Kingdoms
- when opening the profile of a player and he is online on as player account and RC at the same time, then you see the stats of the player instead of the RC
- the maps1-3 ganis are shown in more cases now, but you might need to do some replaceani-calls in case you don't want those gani appearing when the player presses M
2.181
- fixed file dialogs - it doesn't freeze Graal anymore when clicking on the folder box (Win95/98 problem)
2.19
At the same time v2.19 and v3 are released - most new stuff has been added to v3 and we will also add more things to that version, while still maintaining the old client until it can be fully replaced. Both versions use the new starting screen, better compression and speed optimizations. There are also some improvements for scripters and several bug fixes.
Development tools
We have released new development tools:
- graalshop (gani editor) can handle the attributes 10-30 now
- the level generator produces .nw levels and gmaps
- gif2mng has been updated:
- the generated mngs are now compatible to the mng standard, which is important for Graal v3 which uses the mng standard
- you can fix old mngs by converting them with gif2mng again
- gif2mng can handle short to long filename conversion now so you can convert images by dropping them on the gif2mng exe in the windows explorer
- there is the new dungeon generator which has been used to make the dungeons on Graal Kingdoms
- You will need to make your own inside tiles though to use the generated levels in your playerworld
General features
- there is a new starting screen and new server list to match more the style of the website and Graal Kingdoms
- Graal uses a better compression, to reduce download time and lag
- speed optimizations: several internal things have been improved, mainly the search for filenames and lookup of scripting variables, so the game should run faster
Script features
- this. strings:
- the client finally supports this.-strings
- previously all strings on client-side were attached to the player, irritating people who have seen this.-strings in server-side scripts
- this.-strings belong to the current npc and can be changed with the 'setstring name,value' command and read with the #s(name) message code
- on servers with npcserver the client doesn't send any strings except client. strings to the server anymore, so you don't need to start the strings with local. anymore (except when doing things for the classic server)
- ganis can use this. strings too, allowing string manipulation things in ganis
- ganis can write to i,j etc.:
- they are handled like local variables, so you don't need to store temporary values in this. variables anymore
- before 2.19 you couldn't write to i,j etc. because those were variables belonging to the current level and could influence other npcs which should not be allowed since gani scripts can be edited by players
- level variables can still be read, but once you write to them they will be handled as local variable
- #p(x) in attached ganis: it's now possible to do things like 'setplayerprop #P1,mygani.gani,param1,param2;' where the script in mygani.gani can read the params with #p(0),#p(1) etc.
- textwidth(zoom,font,style,text): calculates the pixel width of a text with the given zoom factor, font and style
- #m(-1): all npcs can use the index -1 to read their own string attributes like #m, #Px, #Cx, not just showcharacter-npcs
- new message code #R: #R(string1,...,stringx) selects randomly one of the strings
Bug fixes
- the call stack is saved and restored when doing the script command 'sleep', which means it works inside functions now
- some problems were solved with global npcs getting invisible when moving
- there is less memory use when walking on gmaps, less images of npcs are hold in memory
- the script command testplayer works on gmaps now
- when a projectile lands then weapons get the event 'actionprojectile2' instead of 'actionprojectile' to avoid problems of mixing those ('actionprojectile' is called when the projectile hits an npc or the player)
- grabbing showcharacter npcs and players is enabled again, it was disabled before to prevent harassement, but was problematic for script things
2.191
- fixed a login problem on playerworlds