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Hi all, question for the developers...

I've done a bit of age building in the PotS engine, and I'm wondering what new features CWE offers. I know of a couple, but not sure on all of them. >.>

Actually, I'm more asking two things here.

1) What features does CWE have over the PotS engine?

and...

2) What features does H'uru-Plasma have over baseline CWE (essentially, MO:ULagain's build 902)

I know you guys have been hard at work adding various fixes, etc, so please include your various fixes, as well. (So, what works better, or is improved over Cyan's build 902, in H'uru-Plasma)

I know a few, but I've also realised, I don't really know the half of the things your tireless effort has gone into so far.

The ones I know of, improve the game quite a bit, make it feel much more polished, and actually make the game playable for me - compared to it being essentially unplayable when I go back to using Cyan's Build 902, now. >.<

This list last updated: December 7th, 2011

• In progress: Support for language switching and localization (done but waiting further testing for potential Vault problems)
• In progress: Work to make Plasma compile under minGW on Windows, and g++ and clang on Linux (See this spreadsheet for status)
• Some groundwork for proper 64-bit support (necessary for Mac/Linux)
• Much better input key support, preparing for fully Unicode chat
• Improved the cursors
• Added PNG image support (including saving KI images as PNG)
• Support for Unicode in KI chat messages
• Removed DirectSound dependency
• Fix for animated detector regions
• Fix for saving JPEG images (no more invalid KI shots)
• Prevent remote code exploit by screening network messages
• Update PlasmaMax for newer 3D Studio Max versions
• Speed up certain Vault tasks with asynchronous callbacks
• Support compiling with Visual Studio Express Editions
• Add support for multiple servers through config file (server.ini)
• Updated Python runtime to 2.7 (from 2.3)
• General code cleanups to compile on Visual Studio 2010
• Remove old dependencies (IJL, HawkVoice, custom WinHTTP code)
• Do not disable the numpad when launching Uru
• Convert Plasma to CMake to support multiple Visual Studio versions

I noticed a large number of these bullet points are essentially code cleanup type fixes that either make the client simpler to compile or work on for programmers. For players who are wondering what they are getting out of all this, I've quoted a few notable fixes Dox just mentioned below, with an explanation of what they mean for users.

Support for Unicode in KI chat messages

Some international users will be happy to hear that the KI will now let them text chat using common characters in their language.

Fix for saving JPEG images (no more invalid KI shots)

Those files that get dumped into KIImages you take a screenshot with F5 are now no longer corrupt and can be opened with regular image viewers and editors.

Speed up certain Vault tasks with asynchronous callbacks

This is the most unambiguous improvement. Some of you may have noticed those periodic game freezes (often multiple seconds long) that happen when you're not doing anything particular or when you're checking your KI mail. This happened because the entire game would wait on a response to a vault fetch. Those don't happen anymore.

Improved the cursors

What this means is that the cursor images are now stored as external files, which can easily be replaced. Want to use the MystV pointing hand cursor in Uru? Now you can. (with less work) Also, the basic cursors have been updated to make them more visible in some cases by giving them a slight drop shadow.

Prevent remote code exploit by screening network messages

It is now slightly less likely that the real evil haxxors will be able to steal all of your files simply by sending you messages while you're logged into Uru.

An interesting feature (for agebuilders) of CWE is, that you can now make mirrors and things like a securitycam. And you can use the vertexshader for grass in the wind or something like this. You can now also make your own custom-avatars and avataranimations.

The cursor improvement actually is directly visible to users: The image was slightly changed to make the cursor visible on light backgrounds.

diafero wrote:The cursor improvement actually is directly visible to users: The image was slightly changed to make the cursor visible on light backgrounds.

Not to mention they're no longer lopsided. >_>

The other visible resources previously embedded in the executable have been replaced as well by facsimiles. They can be improved upon much easier now, or replaced entirely by those wanting to customize their Uru experience (or the experience of those visiting their shard). This includes the speaker/microphone icons for voice chat, the loading screen book, and more.