1gcfclient() gcfclient()
2
6 gcfclient - GTK client program for crossfire servers.
7
9 gcfclient [-server server] [-port number] [-display display]
10 [-split|-nosplit] [-download_all_faces] [-echo] [faceset name] [-show‐
11 icon] [-scrollines number] [-sync] [-help] [-cache|-nocache] [-dark‐
12 ness|-nodarkness] [-nosound] [-nosplash] [-updatekeycodes] [-nopopups]
13 [-splitinfo] [-mapsize xXy] [-sdl] [-mapscale percentage] [-iconscale
14 percentage] [-triminfo] [-timemapredraw]
15
17 gcflient is an GTK program for connecting to crossfire servers. Cross‐
18 fire is a multiplayer graphical adventure game that mixes aspects of
19 Gauntlet (TM), nethack, moria, and Ultima (TM).
20 This man page describes options for the GTK client of crossfire (gcf‐
22 client). Other clients of crossfire may not support all these options
23 or may support other options - man pages specific to those versions
24 should be referenced.
25
28 -cache|-nocache
29 Determines if the client will cache images for future runs.
30 With -nocache, when the server is about to reference an image
31 that the client has yet to receive, it sends that image along to
32 the client. These downloaded images are discarded once the
33 client exists. With -cache, the server sends information about
34 the image it is about to reference. The client can then check
35 its local cache (stored in ~/.crossfire/images) - if it has the
36 image, it creates it off the disk. If it does not have it, it
37 requests it from the server and then stores it in its cache. In
38 the brief time between the request of the image and it actually
39 receives it, that image will be represented by a ? in the map.
40 -cache option is strongly recommended anytime when your link to
42 the server is slower than home directory access - this is likely
43 to be the case except in case of NFS mounted home directories on
44 the server on the local LAN.
45 -darkness|-nodarkness
48 Controls whether the server sends darkness information to the
49 client or not. Turning off darkness results in a savings off
50 bandwidth for maps that use darkness code (currently, very few
51 maps use darkness code). Turning off darkness may also be
52 desirable as in some graphics mode the quality of darkness may
53 not add much to the map.
54 -display <display>
57 The display to open the windows on. If this option is not
58 given, it will use the DISPLAY environmental variable to deter‐
59 mine the display.
60 -download_all_faces
63 The client will get all the checksums from the server, and down‐
64 load any images necessary before starting play. This saves a
65 small amount of bandwidth, but more importantly reduces possible
66 latency during important play when it may not be desirable.
67 -echo|-noecho
70 Echo commands as they are entered. Normally, commands bound to
71 keys are just sent to the server without any echoing on the
72 client of what that command actually was. This option causes
73 the commands to also be printed in the information window as
74 they are sent to the server.
75 -faceset <name>
78 Uses faceset <name> if available on the server. What facesets
79 are available on each server may differ. The client will
80 request the information about the different facesets available
81 on the server, and try to find the one that matches best. The
82 default is the standard set. At current time (March 2002), the
83 only one typically available is the classic set.
84 -fog Enables fog of war code. In this mode, spaces which have been
87 seen before but are no longer visible will still be shown on the
88 game window half darkened. The data in these spaces is not up
89 to date since it is currently out of site. This has no effect
90 on bandwidth, but may consume more CPU time.
91 -help Prints out a brief description of the options to standard out‐
94 put.
95 -iconscale
98 Causes the images for the inventory icons to be scaled some per‐
99 centage value. Minimum value is 25%. Setting this to 50% is
100 very useful - doubles amount of data visible in the inventory
101 window.
102 -keepcache
105 Causes the client not to download updated images from the server
106 if it already has an image of the same name previously cached.
107 By default, if the server has a newer image, the client will
108 download it and replace the cached version with it. Using this
109 option can be useful if your cache has been populated with a set
110 of images you prefer over the one on the server, or if you play
111 on multiple servers and they have different image sets and you
112 don't want to keep downloading the images over and over again as
113 you switch between servers.
114 -mapscale
117 Causes the images for the map surface (-mapscale) to be scaled
118 some percentage value. Minimum value is 25%. This value does
119 not need to be the same as the iconscale value. Scaling down
120 the size of the map images can be useful when playing on low
121 resolution screens. Smaller images will also consume less CPU
122 as it will be less information to draw.
123 -mapsize XxY
126 Sets the desired viewable map window. X and Y are number of
127 tiles. Note that larger map sizes are likely to consume more
128 bandwidth, CPU time, as well as just screen real estate.
129 The maximum map size may vary server to server. The client will
131 try to negotiate the largest viewable map in each dimension.
132 Note that there is no requirement that the viewable map be
133 square.
134 Due to performance issues, it is strongly suggested that experi‐
136 mentation is done with this value to find a size that gets
137 acceptable performance (simple test - go to the start town, run
138 in some direction, stop running and see how long it takes before
139 the client stops moving you).
140 -popops|-nopopups
144 This enables/disables pop up windows that otherwise appear for
145 certain input. When disabled, the input will be taken from
146 text entries in the basic text pane. The default is that popups
147 are enabled.
148 -port <number>
151 The port number of the server to connect to. By default, it
152 will use port 13327 (standard port). However, certain servers
153 may use other ports.
154 -sdl This option will only be available if the SDL library was avail‐
157 able when the client was compiles. Using this option allows for
158 more complex graphics - true alpha channel, improved darkness
159 handling. Performance may be worse when using this option -
160 this depends on many factors. Like the mapsize option above, it
161 is suggested the experimentation is done to make performance is
162 still acceptable. This option does not affect bandwidth - it
163 only affects CPU performance. If this option is not used,
164 GdkPixmaps will be used instead.
165 -server <server>
168 Sets the server to play on. If no option is given, it will
169 default to localhost.
170 -showicon
173 This shows a little icon next to items in your inventory that
174 contains a brief description of some of the item properties
175 (magic, cursed, equipped, etc.) This can make spotting some
176 items easier, but some players may not like the extra space
177 these icons take up or the
178 -sound|-nosound
181 Enable/Disables sound effects. Disabling sound has a minor sav‐
182 ings on bandwidth. It is most useful if you do not want sound,
183 due to lack of hardware or lack of desire for sound. Default is
184 sound is enabled.
185 -sound_server <executable>
188 This is the name of the sound server process to execute. If the
189 path starts with a slash, this is the absolute path to the exe‐
190 cutable. Otherwise, the value of BINDIR (install location of
191 client executable) will be prepended. This defaults to cfsnd‐
192 serv. Changing this value may be necessary if the default sound
193 daemon does not work as expected.
194 Note that the input that the executable takes is special,
196 requiring an executable especially designed for crossfire to
197 work. You can not point generic sound playing programs and
198 expect it to work.
199 -splash|-nosplash
202 Enable/Disables splash screen. When enabled, a window with a
203 Crossfire logo is displayed while the client is starting up.
204 Default is the splash screen is enabled.
205 -split|-nosplit
208 -split starts the windows up in split windows mode. In split
209 windows mode, 6 separate windows are created - these individual
210 windows can then be moved around and resized as desired. -nos‐
211 plit starts the game up with a single window - this is the
212 default. The option is useful if your saved defaults are set
213 for -split (see Saved Defaults further down).
214 -splitinfo
217 This splits the information pane window into two sub windows.
218 One contains all the attack messages and otherwise fairly mun‐
219 dane information, and the other contains important messages,
220 like changes in protection values, levels, etc.
221 -sync Runs the server in synchronous display mode. This option tends
224 only to be useful in debugging purposes - using this will slow
225 down the display and not gain anything for the typical player.
226 -timemapredraw
229 Prints out debugging time information to stderr. This timing
230 information can be useful when trying to find performance prob‐
231 lems, or just how different client options change the time it
232 takes for the map to get drawn, which is the biggest CPU con‐
233 sumer in the client.
234 -triminfowindow | -notriminfowindw
237 Causes the information window to get 'trimmed', eg, remove text
238 so that the total contents of the information window remains
239 roughly the same size (20,000 bytes or so). As of 2001-11-03,
240 using this option resulted in client periodically crashing. The
241 problem appears to be within GTK, so using this is not encour‐
242 aged. However, the problems in GTK may get fixed, or this may
243 be more reliable on other platforms so is included.
244 -updatekeycodes
247 The standard behaviour when a player uses the bind command to
248 bind new actions is that they keycode is saved with that bind‐
249 ing. Keycodes are specific to keyboards - a sun keyboard will
250 generate a different keycode compared to a PC style keyboard.
251 In most cases, it is not always desirable to have the keycodes
252 get updated, as this may make some bindings unavailable. Using
253 this option will force custom keybindings to get updated for the
254 current keyboard when the client is run.
255 -pix|-xpm|-png
258 These options are obsolete. Currently, the client only supports
260 png graphics, and the other options are no longer valid.
261
267 Once you have logged into the server, you can enter extended commands
268 by typing ' (apostrophe) followed by the extended commands. One of
269 these extended commands is savedefaults. This will save many of the
270 options listed above. Note that the saved defaults are read first, so
271 using the command line switches can be used to override settings in the
272 gdefaults file.
273 The settings are saved into ~/.crossfire/gdefaults.
275 If you are using split windows mode, you can enter savewinpos as an
277 extended command. This will save the current window positions and
278 sizes into ~/.crossfire/gwinpos. Next time you run the server in split
279 mode, it will load these values and resize and move the windows as
280 specified.
281
284 This is by far a complete tutorial of gameplay. This section is to
285 provide a basic introduction to logging in and doing a few very basic
286 actions.
287 The first thing that will happen after the client successfully connects
289 to the server is you will be prompted for a name. There are some
290 restrictions to the name you can choose, but alphanumeric characters
291 are all safe.
292 After entering the name, you will then be prompted for a password.
294 When creating a new character, enter whatever you want your password to
295 be. If you get a 'login incorrect' someone else already has that char‐
296 acter name with a different password - try another name. If no one has
297 used that name, you will be prompted for the password again to confirm
298 it.
299 You now start the character creation process. It is beyond the scope
301 of the document to fully describe the pros and cons of different stats
302 and classes. The creation process has different options for swapping
303 stats and choosing a class.
304 Once you have chosen your class, you will be in the middle of a town.
306 The arrow keys will move you in the various directions. There will be
307 a red building almost directly above you - this is the inn where you
308 save your character. There are some signs to your right. To read
309 them, move on top of them and press the 'a' key. This applies the
310 object below you - in the case of signs, it reads it. In the case of
311 buildings, it will cause you to enter the building.
312 To the left of the signs is a small building - this is the beginner
314 dungeon. Enter it, and follow the directions on the signs. It pro‐
315 vides a pretty good tutorial on some of the basic actions and features
316 of the game.
317 To enter extended commands, type the ' (apostrophe) followed by the
319 command. An example would be 'help (apostrophe followed by the help
320 command). Enter command to execute the command.
321
324 savewinpos savedefaults
325 These commands were described in the SAVED DEFAULTS options
326 above.
327 scroll This toggles whether or the information windows scrolls when it
330 gets to the bottom of the window or wraps to the top. Wrapping
331 is slightly less CPU intensive, but is generally harder to read.
332 bind unbind
335 bind is used to add new keybindings. Do you want to be able to
336 press one key to cast a fireball? This is what the bind command
337 does. is bound, it is stored in ~/.crossfire/keys and will be
338 used in future plays.
339 scroll Cfclient only. Toggles between scroll and wrap mode. In wrap
341 mode, when text gets to the bottom of the message window, it
342 starts new messages at the top. Scroll is only really useful on
343 very slow systems where the performance hit of scrolling the
344 window is too costly.
345 magicmap
347 Displays the data from the last time the magic mapping spell was
348 cast. This information can be completely useless if you are now
349 on another map.
350 cwindow <number>
352 Specifies the number of unprocessed commands to the server. The
353 server processes player commands as the character has actions to
354 perform them - having this number too high can result in
355 extended lengths of time that after you stop entering commands
356 the character is still performing actions. Having this value
357 too low on slow links can result in the character sitting idle
358 even though they have an action coming to them.
359
363 ~/.crossfire
364 This is a directory that is created that is used to store vari‐
365 ous files.
366 ~/.crossfire/gdefaults
368 This contains default settings. This file can in theory be
369 edited by hand - just be careful to keep the same case and
370 whitespace.
371 ~/.crossfire/images
373 This directory is used for the image cache if -cache is being
374 used.
375 ~/.crossfire/keys
377 This contains keybindings you have edited. This file can also
378 be theoretically edited - changing existing entries is much
379 safer than trying to figure out the syntax for new entries.
380 ~/.crossfire/gwinpos
382 Window positions and sizes to use in split window mode. This
383 file can also be edited by hand.
384 Please let me know about any bugs you find in the client.
387
389 Copyright (C) 1994,2001 Mark Wedel & Crossfire Development Team GTK
390 port by David Sundqvist (azzie@netpolicy.com) SDL support added by
391 Scott MacFiggen (smurf@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU)
392 There are a great many other contributors to both the client and server
394 that are not mentioned here.
395 gcfclient()