About the CF tile system:

It is very very flexible. It is multi tiled and animated.

We use png pictures. We will use palettelized sprites and real alpha blending in the future, in fact my client can do it yet, but it is not yet in the server code.

The single tile is 32x32 pixels.

You can store the png in any format. 16 colors, 256 colors or true color - because the open pnglib every client/program use can transform them in the right format.

My client use 16bit HiColor yet. Thats only for speed, because some guys run the client on pc133. True color will give them no real better graphics yet but will drop speed.

** for rendered true color tiles with more then 256 colors please use RGB black (0,0,0) as default color key, for pngs <256 colors please use a 256 palette picture **

Remember: Because the png 16/256 palettes stores the pixel as true color pixel of course, we always have the color information as true color. So , we eat EVERY color information.

** Because the server SENDS the png to the client, the set can changed "on the fly" **

The server send every people who log in, the tile name and a checksum for all tiles, he can see on map.

The server use a dirty map for it, so he knows which tile the user knows and he send it only one time.

This will avoid lag. When the client don't have the tile in cache folder (from older logins or pre loaded from a library file) or he has an old tile, client requests the png from server who send it then to him.

Map Editor and Random maps

Maps are worked out with a map editor. CF use a very very complex real time engine for animate/control the maps. In fact, you can build crazy complex machines, which levers, teleporters, moving boulders, creators, sensors .... and so on.

There are maps out, which have so complex "engines" inside player can trigger to do some, development team need weeks to find out how because the guy who created them is gone...

WHAT WE REALLY NEED:

Is graphics for multi tiles structures. So, big pyramids or some else. Or terrain with big mountains etc.

Because you can put maps easy to a server with new tiles who get sent to client, you are free to draw ALL you want.

btw: every graphic or tile is an object in cf. Every object can be given all object attributes.

So, a simply floor tiles is the same object then the player - except he has not the right flags and the server/client handle it in different cases then.

But perhaps you can have all times a event, who give a tile/object new flags and then he will be threaded then a new object... you got the point?

We have also a random map generator like nethack or others included. In fact, in one of the next versions, we will put in the whole nethack quests. This will make nethack a kind of CF part ;)

Animation and Multi Tiles

This is easy. To every object (remember, that a simple floor tile is an object) you attach a graphic - here a png.

Lets talk about floor.png as a graphic.

At first, you pre define a standard object which get attacked with a picture. For the ground it is the simplest object.

Now you can extend this object. To animate, you put in a animate cmd. For this (and for multi tiles) you give the picture this names:

floor.111.png

This is the first tile of an animation. Every picture use this namings, even when there is no animation. This make it easy to extend a picture with more animation. Simply add the animation cmd the the object and put a

floor.112.png

in the pic lib. You also put in a speed value and then the client (or the server) plays the animation.

first floor.111.png then floor.112.png... This can be extended to floor.119.png.

This is only a animation STEP. You can add more STEPS to more complex animations. This removes the 10 frame animation limits. Steps are also used for more complex animation, for example when you look in different direction with your player picture. Every step has then a single animation row...

Also, you can create multi tiles objects!

This goes from x=1 to 10 and y=1 to 10. So a 3x4 or a 2x6 or a 1x9 monster is possible!!!!!!!!

Lets think about a 2x2 monster. It has 64x64 pixels and is has 4 tiles.

Positions:

AB
CD

This 4 pngs make this monster:

monster.111.png = A Position
monster.121.png = B ""
monster.211.png = C ""
monster.221.png = D ""

As you can see, there are the first 2 numbers for: they define the position of a multi size object. this will make 320x320 monster possible... We HAVE big demons with 6x6 inside yet!

(in later versions, we can change this to 2 chars. like monster_A.111111.png. This will make 99x99 tile object with 99 standard animations... but really... you don't want do draw often a 600x400 pixel monster with 20 animations :) If you do, we make the changes asap :)) )

Now, if you want look this monsters in a different direction (a different STEP):

monster2.111.png
monster2.121.png
monster2.211.png
monster2.221.png

Now the trick: For every tile, you can still use normal frame animation.!

This for example will let the monster move the head from left to right...
This will be played from default tile animation system.

monster2.121.png
monster2.122.png
monster2.123.png

With this system, you can do very very complex situations and animations.

What that means for an artist?

Simply draw sets of animations with the full picture like you make it for comic movie.

** You don't need to cut them in 32x32 tiles!!! **

Now a guy who has access to a server or the CVS create the object with animation data for it.

Also, the "cut off" to 32x32 will be done from him.

** You can give us every animation you can draw in normal "movie style" **

Palettelized Sprites

For the 256 colors we will go to palettelized sprites - means we change the palette by client "on the fly". This will end up in the Diablo 2 monsters, where the special monsters have fancy colors, but use the same graphic data. Or in Age of Empire, the walls have a painting in player colors. There is a mask above them with a changed palette for every player. CF will do the same. The palettes will pre defined, so many pngs/monsters can use them.

Example for a orc having the orc.png as tile:
The server then will tell the client for a palettelized monster simply: "show tile 'orc.png' (and use the original palette of this png). For the chief orc, use same tile, but use palette 5.

This will then show the orcs "normal" because every palettelized png come with a default palette - even the one who in the png file. The chief or but will shown in different colors.

The "palette 5" palette is nothing more then the png "palette_5.png". This png has no graphical data (it has, but it is only a 1,1 picture - the client/server ignore graphical data). The client safe it and then he rip of the palette when needed and attach it to other pngs.

The big big plus of this is, that the information of the different color styles are in the monster data NOT in the graphic data. So you can crate a new city, getting the standard guard but attach in map editor a different palette to them, so they show up all with blue shields for example - different from other cities. Look for Diablo 2 and other games using it for getting more ideas.

I talking about this, because i saw in many tile sets the same monsters in 4-6 different color styles. Using a set of pre defined palettes with different "ground" and "changing " colors will rip you off of all this same graphic. In fact, if you use so a set of pre defined palettes, you get automatically the different colors if you draw a new monster/graphic.

Puh, that was alot.

As you can see, CF is not one of this games "in development". In fact, we should had given out first 1.0 version 5 years ago. But the people had so many new ideas, we always go from 95.3 to 95.4...

CF is more finished yet then some commercial programs i know.
BTW, I am a professional game writer.