Graal Forums - Graal v2.3 & v3.13

New Graal version have been released. After more than one year v2 got a new version too. Here the feature list:

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New features/bug fixes in v2.3
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Graal v2.3 brings several huge improvements.
The most important are:
- Editor and online client are separated exes now; this
increases the security and makes it possible to update
them more often
- Filename cache: To avoid slow NTFS-operations, Graal
is now able to cache the file names and times, so that
it doesn't need to scan the subfolders at each startup
- New Timer: Graal doesn't take 99% cpu time anymore,
the timer has been chanced to be as precise before but
not using the cpu as much as before anymore
- Fast NPC Lookup: Using new BTree-technology, Graal can
detect the visibility and blocking behaviour of
objects more efficiently, good for servers with gmaps
- Classic Clientside-mode removed: Classic has been
switched to use NPC-Server, so the client doesn't need
insecure script commands like "toweapons" anymore
- ATI 32 bit mode fixed

An almost complete list of improvements and bug fixes:
- Editor and online client are separated now: You will find
a Graal.exe and a GraalEditor.exe in the Graal folder.
To easily start the editor there is a button in the
starting window which automatically starts the
GraalEditor.exe, but you can of course also start it
directly with Windows Explorer or add a file association.
The button "Offline Test" also starts the editor, but
with option "-play".
The editor is more or less the same than before. The
online client is more secure now because it doesn't
have any functions for loading levels or npcs anymore.
- Filename cache: Previous Graal versions sometimes took
a long time to start because Graal scans each subfolder
at startup, to easily find the files when needed do
display objects. The default Windows file system NTFS
is very slow for that though. To make Graal also start
fast on NTFS, it is now caching the file names, their
location and modification time. It is saving all
information into FILENAMECACHE.txt, and reading that
at the next startup.
Disadvantages:
- While the startup is much faster, the login to
servers might take slightly more time
- When you copy files into the Graal folder then
Graal will not see that - delete FILENAMECACHE.txt
in that case, or disable the filename cache in the
Graal options
- New Timer: Graal doesn't take 99% cpu time anymore,
the timer has been chanced to be as precise before but
not using the cpu as much as before anymore
- Fast NPC Lookup: Using new BTree-technology, Graal can
detect the visibility and blocking behaviour of
objects more efficiently, good for servers with gmaps;
On some servers (especially Zone) some areas are
10 times faster now (or 10 times less laggy). It
speeds up all areas that have many npcs.
Together with the lookup some other small bugs with
drawing objects have been removed too. Things that
are affected by the new npc lookup:
- Script functions "onwall" and "tiletype" are much faster
- Objects using huge ganis (e.g. houses) are drawn
correctly and not disappering when half of them are
still on the screen
- New script functions onwall2(x,y,width,height) and
onwater2(x,y,width,height) - these functions have been
added because of the new npc lookup which is made for
checking rectangles, not just points;
with them you can check if a rectangle area is blocking
or under water
- Script function testplayer(x,y) has been fixed for gmaps
- When moving on other parts of the gmaps then the focus
is not reset anymore (script command setfocus(x,y))
- ATI 32 bit mode has been fixed - Problems with the 32bit
color resolution where some images were not drawn with
correct transparency were fixed
- Profiles are correctly displayed even if the option
"Save PMs/Profiles" is disabled
- New Server Tab: Graal3D
When clicking on a Graal3D server in the serverlist then
Graal3D is automatically started and connecting to the
selected server; if you often play Graal3D server or
want to play Graal with better speed you can also start
Graal3.exe directly
- When typing in a server name in the text field below the
serverlist then the correct server is chosen - perfect
matches are preferred, instead of taking the first
name on the list
- Graal is automatically registering the browser protocol
"graal://" and "graal3://", so if you type in
"graal://Servername/options" in a webbrowser then it is
automatically starting Graal, connecting to the right
server, and sending a "serverstartparams" trigger to the
Control-NPC of that server with the specified parameters.
This is made for making it possible that people can
directly join an event or similiar on a server by just
clicking a link on a website.
If this doesn't work, then please start Graal one time
as administrator (for registering a protocol you need
administrator rights, although good webbrowsers like Firefox
are asking you can again if you really want to start
the executable).
- The editor doesn't delete levels anymore when it is
crashing while saving levels - it is first making a copy and
renaming the new level when succeeding
- "clientside" triggers by the server are always working now
- triggers on gmaps sent by the server or other clients
have been fixed to always work
- entering gmaps has been improved to not crash or display trash
- Support for sending and receiving player positions in full
precision has been added, also npc positions and moves can
be received in full precision now - this will be enabled
once all clients are switched to the new version
- Scripting variable timevar2 has been added which is giving
the time since the start of the machine, but with milliseconds
resolution (is not identical to timevar2 on the server,
for synchronization of time events use "timevar")
- String variable #v(floating point) has been improved to
display also integers with more than 6 decimals correctly,
which makes it possible to fix the item sorting on
Graal Kingdoms
- when the player is hurt then the showimgs of the weapons
are not removed anymore
- When the background image or time of Windows is changed
on desktops using comma as decimal separator then Graal
is automatically switching back to dot as decimal separator,
so not messing up scripts or level warps anymore
- Several improvements of the hacking checks
- Script variable downloadsize is correctly giving the size
of the file that is currently downloaded - works together
with downloadpos and #D

Updates in v3.13:
- You can send Mass-PMs with the player list now
- When right-clicking on players on the playerlist you can
now directly watch their profile
- fixed problems with invisible heads when reconnecting to
a server
- Script command "serverwarp" is not crashing the game anymore

Updates in gif2mng:
- when giving the option "-b" you can use this tool for fixing the colors of body images, usage: gif2mng -b body.png