COW Release Notes
Author: Kurt Siegl

# COW 3.00 Release notes

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.

## Change Log

    3.00 pl2 Jan. 7, 2000
    - New default portSwap for UDP_PORTSWAP feature [siegl]
    - System wide .xtrekrc file set to "/etc/netrekrc" [siegl]
    - Cambot recording replay [koconnor]
    - various Win32 fixes [siegl]
    - V,B core dump with rabit ears fix [siegl]
    - remove DEFINES (BRMH NEW_DASHBOARD_2 RABBIT_EARS) [siegl]
    - MAX_MACRO increased to 255 [siegl]
    - -B options for automatic bug sumition [siegl]
    - new sample netrekrc file [siegl]
    - WindowMaker docking support [siegl]
    - Win32 Sound support [siegl]

    3.00 pl1 Mar. 27, 1999
    - Added UDP queries to the metaserver. [cameron, villalpando]
    - Added Multiple metaserver support. [cameron, villalpando]
    - Metaserver KEYGOD alias: clientkeys@clientkeys.netrek.org [villalpando]
    - New xtrekrc variables: metaverbose, metaUDPcache, metaType [cameron,
                                                                 villalpando]
    - modified behavior of metaserver to do multiple metaservers [cameron]
    - changed metaserver menu. Added age of data and refresh button [cameron]
    - new option, -M for TCP metaserver [cameron]
    - changed option -m for UDP metaserver [cameron]
    - Port to Cygnus Win32 [siegl]
    - Autoconfig detects Cygnus Win32 [siegl]
    - Win32 fixes [Gosselin]
    - Fix Pixmap transparancy [siegl]
    - Added hockey rink background XPM on galactic [siegl]

    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]

## 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.

## Cut and past changes to turn on *all* new features.

### 3.00 pl1

    WARNING: Sometimes the colored ships have color disturbences
             when having the shields up. In this case start COW
             with the option:

                 [-n]   use nearest colors in shared colormap

### 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

## 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.

    ********************************************************************
    March 1999
    ********************************************************************

    (1) ------
       Added UDP metaserver, and multiple metaserver queries to client.

       Multiple metaservers is available only in UDP mode.  Multiple
       metaservers may be listed in the metaservers variable, or a host name
       may have multiple IPs.

       Client essentially sends a '?' using UDP to the metaserver(s) and
       waits for a response.  Client should expect anywhere from 0 to
       infinite responses. Response comes back in the form:

          r,NN\n

       Where r is the literal 'r', and NN is the nuber of servers
       returned. Server format is 1 per line in the following format, comma
       separated: (from the metaserver code snippet from disp_udp.c)

            sprintf(bp,"%s,%d,%d,%d,%d,%d,%c\n",
                sp->hostname,               /* host name of server          */
                sp->port,                   /* port number of server        */
                extendedstatus,             /* metaserver status code       */
                now - sp->last_update,      /* age of data in seconds       */
                sp->player_count,           /* count of players on server   */
                sp->queue_size,             /* length of wait queue         */
                sp->type[0] );              /* type code, B, P, etc         */

       Two notes are required:

          1) Line length is defind in the metaserver as:
             MAX_HOSTNAME+1 +6+1 +3+1 +6+1 +3+1 +3+1 +1+1 +1
                host        port stat age  play que  type \n

       where MAX_HOSTNAME is
            #define MAX_HOSTNAME     64

       An example output is:

         r,19
         hp06.ee.ualberta.ca,2592,6,244,0,0,P
         megalag.netrek.org,2592,4,1780,0,0,F
         moore.machine2.dsl.psn.net,2592,6,1804,0,0,B
         netrek.unh.edu,2592,6,524,0,0,B
         paradise.games.uk.demon.net,2592,6,1604,0,0,P
         tanya.ucsd.edu,2592,4,1781,0,0,P
         defiant.theo-physik.uni-kiel.de,2592,3,630,0,0,P
         europa.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de,2592,3,676,0,0,P
         mit.netrek.org,2592,3,676,0,0,B
         netrek.cs.mcgill.ca,2592,3,796,0,0,B
         netrek.syd.att.net.au,2592,3,800,0,0,B
         se.netrek.org,2592,3,864,0,0,B
         soda.csua.berkeley.edu,2592,3,878,0,0,B
         spamburger.openface.ca,2592,3,871,0,0,B
         kirk.hal-pc.org,2592,2,121,1,0,B
         continuum.us.netrek.org,2592,2,123,6,0,B
         hockey.netrek.org,2592,2,123,6,0,H
         monster.wormwood.org,2592,2,203,7,0,C
         guinness.crhc.uiuc.edu,2592,1,323,0,4,B

     2) In TCP mode, if a game server is dead, the metaserver will print
        out sp->why_dead instead of sp->status.  Since metastatuslevel
        filters out the metaserver output based on the game server status,
        sp->status had to be expanded in the metaserver to extended status
        when reporting back to the client.  From disp_udp.c in the
        metaserver:

            /* this if structure is to satisfy COW's server filtering based on */
            /* the TCP ouput of the metaserver. TCP was text, this is only #s */
            if (sp->status == SS_NOCONN )
              extendedstatus = (sp->why_dead == WD_TIMEOUT) ? 6 : 4;
            else
              extendedstatus = sp->status;

       And in the client, parsemeta.c:

         #define SS_WORKING 0
         #define SS_QUEUE 1
         #define SS_OPEN 2
         #define SS_EMPTY 3
         #define SS_NOCONN 4
         #define SS_INIT 5
         /* not a real metaserver number, but overcomes a limitation of dropping */
         /* text description of sp->why_dead */
         #define SS_TOUT 6

       This note is here mainly for people looking at metaserver and
       client code at the same time.

    (2) ---
        A refresh button was added to the client selection window to re-query
        the metaservers.

    (3) ---
        KEYGOD changed to clientkeys@clientkeys.netrek.org

    (4) ---
        New command line option behavior was added. -m and -M set the default
        connection type to the metaserver UNLESS metaType is defined in the
        .xtrekrc.

           -m Default to UDP
           -M Default to TCP

        Out of bounds values for metaType default to TCP.

## Changes details

For further information check: http://cow.netrek.org/
Comments, suggestions and bug reports to cow@netrek.org