Wanted: Win32 Coder to Port New SCFClient

Lauwenmark · Post by **Lauwenmark** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 3:23 pm

As you may already know, I'm working on a new Crossfire client, based on the common code and the SDL libraries.

It is still quite Beta-quality code (and maybe Alpha !), yet it is already quite useable to play.

My problem is that it currently only compiles and runs under *nix systems. It is meant to run in the end under Win32 as well - that's why I used SDL for visuals, because SDL exists on both platforms in a quite optimized form. But I'm not a Win32 code specialist - I only have a basical knowledge of VisualStudio and its debugging tools.

So I now make a call for help: Anyone ready to help me on that task ? I already made some 'researches' myself - Most of the portability problems have found a solution. So if you're interested, just let me know.

If you want to have a look at the current code, it is available on http://users.skynet.be/bk339746/terror.html, in the Da Code section.

(If you just want to try it out under *nix, you're free to do so - but do not complain if it doesn't work as expected !)

Eriwal · Post by **Eriwal** » Fri Sep 26, 2003 4:13 am

Could you package the code into a tar/gzip (tar.gz) file....Winzip doesn't recognise the bz2 format (at least WinZip8.1 doesn't).

I'll download the SDL libs and see if I can get it to compile under MinGW32. If it works I'll send you the makefile for building it under cygwin and mingw.

hoxu · Post by **hoxu** » Fri Sep 26, 2003 7:08 am

Eriwal wrote:Could you package the code into a tar/gzip (tar.gz) file....Winzip doesn't recognise the bz2 format (at least WinZip8.1 doesn't).

Check out 7-Zip.

Lauwenmark · Post by **Lauwenmark** » Fri Sep 26, 2003 10:39 am

I updated the SDL client code. Now it compiles under Windows using Visual Studio 6.0.

A couple of things to note, though:

- Beta Quality: This is still early Beta-quality code, so don't be surprized if it is unstable or doesn't work as expected. I provide this for debugging purposes, not as a 'production' release !

- Metaserver: The metaserver query doesn't work under Win32, due to incompatibility of the fdopen() use. You can select "localhost", and it will connect you to Metalforge (silly isn't it ?

). If you want to use another server, you'll have to edit sdl.c manually.

- Keys: The Win32 implementation seems to consider the keyboard as a QWERTY/US, and doesn't seem to recognize other layouts - so default keybindings may be different to what they were supposed to be.

- Untested music code: I untested the background music play because I had no compatible server available. You can experiment yourself with that but at your own risks.

- Messy code: The source code and the Visual Studio project is somewhat messy - you may have to adapt it to your own settings.

The required libraries (libpng, zlib, SDL, SDL_mixer and SDL_ttf) are supplied in the archive.

Help is still needed to complete the port and stabilize things. Windows Beta-testing could also be a good thing.

Good luck !

Lauwenmark · Post by **Lauwenmark** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 11:38 am

A new version of the Linux SCFclient is now available on the terror page. Last revision date: 01/10/03.