Drizzle26!

[ddb174]

Drizzle26 has just been released, and here's what's new!

In order to test the ability to download/update through UAM, I've put it below "ErrorFix" so that most users won't see that it is there yet. Please test it out and let me know if it works or not!

The most notable new features are: the ability to save your images and textnotes from Moulagain, and Drizzle now contains a full-fledged, albeit not yet practical, Moul server!

(The official page with installation instructions, walkthroughs and screenshots for the Ages, and a more detailed description is here: http://alcugs.almlys.org/Drizzle)

(You can use Moulagain files instead of Moul files if you wish! And you can buy MagiquestOnline at http://www.magiquest.com/mqonline/)

New features:
-Memories tab can now connect to Moulagain and get pictures and textnotes!
-Improved 3dsmax conversion for Age Writers.
-Age Reports now include vertex counts.
-First Drizzle to be downloadable through UAM.
-Plays with your children when you want a nap.

Advanced features:
-Talcum (Moul/Moulagain) server!
--contains a full fledged database engine
--SDL engine
--vault engine
--File server
--Http server with administration commands
-Dataserver improvements:
--Dataserver rewritten to make maximal use of information parsed last time, so that updates are very fast.
--Dataserver now allows for an override file to make certain files belong to certain Ages.
--Dataserver creates both Alcugs and Talcum manifests at the same time.
-Feature to remove pak overrides, so that we don't need to worry about which pak file has a newer date. (useful for shards)
-Ability to download files from a Moulagain/Talcum server
-SDL parsing support
-Pak file creation
-Command-line ability to translate an Age up or down
-Many new prp objects supported
-Ability to download "Secure Download Queue" files from a Moulagain/Talcum server
-Patcher for Moulagain binaries to make them work with a Talcum server
-First Drizzle to be downloadable through UAM.
-Moulagain Proxy server(imperfect)

Bug fixes:
-Fixed error message after installing an Age.

The Drizzle team includes OldWolle with Age collection and mirroring, L.K. with walkthroughs and the German translation, myself with coding, Chacal with the French translation, and Wodan with the Dutch translation. Enjoy!

[N. Sigismund]

In plain english, what does and doesn't the new server feature do?

(Oh, and I found the update and it worked fine. Although it not replacing the old Drizzle25.jar file isn't great.)

[ddb174]

The Talcum server has every major component, but there are a number of things that it doesn't do correctly. One example was that Python code couldn't read the AgeInfo node until I changed the owner of it. So there are a number of things like that.

Some of the things you can do are: create new accounts, automatically downloads files as they are required, login, create players, link to AvatarCustomization (where everything seems to work), link to Relto, run around, kick physicals, open the door, etc. There are still some Python errors, and I know what to do next to look into them, but whatever. I haven't bothered trying to link to another Age yet. This release is intended for people wanting to do bug fixes, not for regular players, so there's no need for you to worry about it.

No, replacing Drizzle25.jar would be a big mistake. The correct behavior is for it to have the various Drizzle versions in Uru's /Drizzle folder, and links to Drizzle.exe or Drizzle.jar will automatically be using the most recent version in there. People need to be able to use old versions of Drizzle. (And deleting someone's current stuff is a really bad idea, so it doesn't do that.) It's the simplest, most reliable, easiest-to-understand way of doing it. (I.e. Drizzle25.jar starts Drizzle25; Drizzle26.jar starts Drizzle26; Drizzle.jar starts the most recent one.)

[N. Sigismund]

Thanks for the info. Time for some testing!

[ddb174]

Okay, it seems to work fine, so it's now clearly visible in UAM, and I've also put it in the regular place on sourceforge (https://sourceforge.net/projects/drizzle/), for those who like to get it manually.

[ametist]

Thank you DrizzleTeam for this ever so useful 'tool'! It's cool to have seen it evolve, I think it was drizzle 16 I started with /thumbs up

[Christian Walther]

MOUL clients popping up left and right! I’m sure you guys will have one on the iPhone before I even get started on it. Having a server to test on however is certainly going to be helpful, cool! (Though by the time I get around to it Cyan’s one may be ready too…)

[ddb174]

Talcum is properly designed so that it could be used as a normal shard (when enough things are fixed), but unfortunately Moul/Moulagain is inferior to Pots/Alcugs in most ways, so even if we had Cyan's server code, we are still better off with Alcugs. But if we ever get the *client* source, so that we could remove the stupid Moul things, then it would be a different matter.

[diafero]

but unfortunately Moul/Moulagain is inferior to Pots/Alcugs in most ways

In which regard? I mean, they managed to make the network code even more complicated, but at least they removed that broken TCP-reimplementation on top of UDP, and changed the error-prone process of having just one connection at a time with changing servers, so that there are times when the client is not connected at all.

[ddb174]

Some of the ways that come to mind are: downloading all sdl and python files each time the client starts, the TOS popup, the inability to click on anything (including people's names or KI functions) while sitting, the bug where often a person is in an Age, but they don't show up on the players list, more plasticy avatars(some prefer this, I imagine.), no vehicle support. Some things are content-based: Worse versions of some Ages, including Ahnonay and spyroom. Missing things, such as the Watcher's journals. I could go on ;)