1cfclient() cfclient()
2
6 cfclient - X11 client program for crossfire servers.
7 gcfclient - GTK client program for crossfire servers.
8
10 client [-server server] [-port number] [-display display] [-split|-nos‐
11 plit] [-echo] [-pix|-xpm|-png] [-showicon] [-scrollines number] [-sync]
12 [-help] [-cache|-nocache]
13
15 Cfclient/gcflient is an X11 program for connecting to crossfire
16 servers. Crossfire is a multiplayer graphical adventure game that
17 mixes aspects of Gauntlet (TM), nethack, moria, and Ultima (TM).
18 This man page describes options for the X11 client of crossfire
20 (cfclient). Many of these options should also be valid for the GTK
21 clients (gcfclient and gcfclient2). The configure/make process will
22 build the GTK version if it finds the necessary libraries, otherwise it
23 will build the X11 version.
24
27 -server <server>
28 Sets the server to play on. If no option is given, it will
29 default to localhost.
30 -port <number>
32 The port number of the server to connect to. By default, it
33 will use port 13327 (standard port). However, certain servers
34 may use other ports.
35 -display <display>
37 The display to open the windows on. If this option is not
38 given, it will use the DISPLAY environmental variable to deter‐
39 mine the display.
40 -split|-nosplit
42 -split starts the windows up in split windows mode. In split
43 windows mode, 6 separate windows are created - these individual
44 windows can then be moved around and resized as desired. -nos‐
45 plit starts the game up with a single window - this is the
46 default. The option is useful if your saved defaults are set
47 for -split (see Saved Defaults further down).
48 -font <name>
50 Use the given font instead of the default 8x13. Only fixed
51 width fonts will work properly.
52 -noautorepeat
54 Disable autorepeat on directional keys. This may be useful when
55 playing on a distant remote server. This flag may be toggled
56 while playing with the 'autorepeat' command.
57 -echo Echo commands as they are entered. Normally, commands bound to
59 keys are just sent to the server without any echoing on the
60 client of what that command actually was. This option causes
61 the commands to also be printed in the information window as
62 they are sent to the server.
63 -mapsize XxY
65 Sets the desired viewable map window. X and Y are number of
66 tiles. Note that larger map sizes are likely to consume more
67 bandwidth, CPU time, as well as just screen real estate.
68 The maximum map size may vary server to server. The client will
70 try to negotiate the largest viewable map in each dimension.
71 Note that there is no requirement that the viewable map be
72 square.
73 Due to performance issues, it is strongly suggested that experi‐
75 mentation is done with this value to find a size that gets
76 acceptable performance (simple test - go to the start town, run
77 in some direction, stop running and see how long it takes before
78 the client stops moving you).
79 -pix|-xpm|-png
81 This determines the graphic image types to use. -pix uses
82 pixmap images - these are two color images with no masking (one
83 image per space.). -xpm uses XPM format images - these are
84 multi colored images with masking, so multiple images per space
85 can be displayed. XPM images require more local processing
86 power (unless you are on a very old machine, this should not be
87 an issue), the installation of the XPM library, and also require
88 more bandwidth to download (however, see the -cache option fur‐
89 ther down.) Png have all the same features of XPM, but are
90 slightly larger (32x32 instead of 24x24), appear better, and do
91 the the efficiency of the png format, actually take less band‐
92 width to transmit than the xpm images. Using the png images
93 require that the client has been compiled with png support.
94 -pngximage
96 GTK clients only. This option is only meaningful if png graph‐
97 ics are being used. It uses a GdkRgb structure - this allows
98 much better effects (especially darkness). Performance may be
99 worse when using this option - this depends on many factors.
100 Like the mapsize option above, it is suggested the experimenta‐
101 tion is done to make performance is still acceptable. This
102 option does not affect bandwidth - it only affects CPU perfor‐
103 mancs.
104 -sdl GTK clients only. Will only be available if the SDL library was
106 available when the client was compiles. This is similar to
107 -pngximage above - it still uses png images, but uses the SDL
108 library to actually draw them to the screen. This is slightly
109 faster than -pngximage - if you have SDL, you should use this
110 instead of -pngximage.
111 -showicon
113 This shows a little icon next to items in your inventory that
114 contains a brief description of some of the item properties
115 (magic, cursed, equipped, etc.) This can make spotting some
116 items easier, but some players may not like the extra space
117 these icons take up or the
118 -scollines <lines>
120 This is the number of lines to use in the information window.
121 By default, the size of the window is used (no scrollback abil‐
122 ity). With this option, a scrollbar will be created and it is
123 then possible to scroll back through old messages. It is
124 strongly recommended you set this to some value, since some
125 areas output more data than will fit in the output window at one
126 time.
127 -sync Runs the server in synchronous display mode. This option tends
129 only to be useful in debugging purposes - using this will slow
130 down the display and not gain anything for the typical player.
131 -help Prints out a brief description of the options to standard out‐
133 put.
134 -cache|-nocache
136 Determines if the client will cache images for future runs.
137 With -nocache, when the server is about to reference an image
138 that the client has yet to receive, it sends that image along to
139 the client. These downloaded images are discarded once the
140 client exists. With -cache, the server sends information about
141 the image it is about to reference. The client can then check
142 its local cache (stored in ~/.crossfire/images) - if it has the
143 image, it creates it off the disk. If it does not have it, it
144 requests it from the server and then stores it in its cache. In
145 the brief time between the request of the image and it actually
146 receives it, that image will be represented by a ? in the map.
147 -cache option is strongly recommended anytime when your link to
149 the server is slower than home directory access - this is likely
150 to be the case except in case of NFS mounted home directories on
151 the server on the local LAN.
152 -darkness|-nodarkness
154 Controls whether the server sends darkness information to the
155 client or not. Turning off darkness results in a savings off
156 bandwidth for maps that use darkness code (currently, very few
157 maps use darkness code). Turning off darkness may also be
158 desirable as in some graphics mode the quality of darkness may
159 not add much to the map.
160 -updatekeycodes
162 The standard behaviour when a player uses the bind command to
163 bind new actions is that they keycode is saved with that bind‐
164 ing. Keycodes are specific to keyboards - a sun keyboard will
165 generate a different keycode compared to a PC style keyboard.
166 In most cases, it is not always desirable to have the keycodes
167 get updated, as this may make some bindings unavailable. Using
168 this option will force custom keybindings to get updated for the
169 current keyboard when the client is run.
170
173 Once you have logged into the server, you can enter extended commands
174 by typing ' (apostrophe) followed by the extended commands. One of
175 these extended commands is savedefaults. This will save the server,
176 port, image type, split windows mode, scrolllines, showicon, and cache
177 options into ~/.crossfire/defaults.
178 If you are using split windows mode, you can enter savewinpos as an
180 extended command. This will save the current window positions and
181 sizes into ~/.crossfire/winpos. Next time you run the server in split
182 mode, it will load these values and resize and move the windows as
183 specified.
184
187 This is by far a complete tutorial of gameplay. This section is to
188 provide a basic introduction to logging in and doing a few very basic
189 actions.
190 The first thing that will happen after the client successfully connects
192 to the server is you will be prompted for a name. There are some
193 restrictions to the name you can choose, but alphanumeric characters
194 are all safe.
195 After entering the name, you will then be prompted for a password.
197 When creating a new character, enter whatever you want your password to
198 be. If you get a 'login incorrect' someone else already has that char‐
199 acter name with a different password - try another name. If no one has
200 used that name, you will be prompted for the password again to confirm
201 it.
202 You now start the character creation process. It is beyond the scope
204 of the document to fully describe the pros and cons of different stats
205 and classes. The creation process has different options for swapping
206 stats and choosing a class.
207 Once you have chosen your class, you will be in the middle of a town.
209 The arrow keys will move you in the various directions. There will be
210 a red building almost directly above you - this is the inn where you
211 save your character. There are some signs to your right. To read
212 them, move on top of them and press the 'a' key. This applies the
213 object below you - in the case of signs, it reads it. In the case of
214 buildings, it will cause you to enter the building.
215 To the left of the signs is a small building - this is the beginner
217 dungeon. Enter it, and follow the directions on the signs. It pro‐
218 vides a pretty good tutorial on some of the basic actions and features
219 of the game.
220 To enter extended commands, type the ' (apostrophe) followed by the
222 command. An example would be 'help (apostrophe followed by the help
223 command). Enter command to execute the command.
224
227 savewinpos savedefaults
228 These commands were described in the SAVED DEFAULTS options
229 above.
230 scroll This toggles whether or the information windows scrolls when it
232 gets to the bottom of the window or wraps to the top. Wrapping
233 is slightly less CPU intensive, but is generally harder to read.
234 bind unbind
236 bind is used to add new keybindings. Do you want to be able to
237 press one key to cast a fireball? This is what the bind command
238 does. is bound, it is stored in ~/.crossfire/keys and will be
239 used in future plays.
240 scroll Cfclient only. Toggles between scroll and wrap mode. In wrap
242 mode, when text gets to the bottom of the message window, it
243 starts new messages at the top. Scroll is only really useful on
244 very slow systems where the performance hit of scrolling the
245 window is too costly.
246 magicmap
248 Displays the data from the last time the magic mapping spell was
249 cast. This information can be completely useless if you are now
250 on another map.
251 cwindow <number>
253 Specifies the number of unprocessed commands to the server. The
254 server processes player commands as the character has actions to
255 perform them - having this number too high can result in
256 extended lengths of time that after you stop entering commands
257 the character is still performing actions. Having this value
258 too low on slow links can result in the character sitting idle
259 even though they have an action coming to them.
260 autorepeat
262 Toggle the autorepeat handling for directional keys. When dis‐
263 abled artificial keystrokes generated by the autorepeat of the
264 X-server are not sent to the Crossfire server.
265
268 ~/.crossfire
269 This is a directory that is created that is used to store vari‐
270 ous files.
271 ~/.crossfire/defaults
273 This contains default settings. This file can in theory be
274 edited by hand - just be careful to keep the same case and
275 whitespace.
276 ~/.crossfire/images
278 This directory is used for the image cache if -cache is being
279 used.
280 ~/.crossfire/keys
282 This contains keybindings you have edited. This file can also
283 be theoretically edited - changing existing entries is much
284 safer than trying to figure out the syntax for new entries.
285 ~/.crossfire/winpos
287 Window positions and sizes to use in split window mode. This
288 file can also be edited by hand.
289 Please let me know about any bugs you find in the client.
292
294 Copyright (C) 1994,2000 Mark Wedel (mwedel@sonic.net) GTK port by David
295 Sundqvist (azzie@netpolicy.com) SDL support added by Scott MacFiggen
296 (smurf@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU)
297 There are a great many other contributors to both the client and server
299 that are not mentioned here.
300 cfclient()