ZPTCustom client (old hack of 1873)

I'm releasing a client from an old server I worked on with my wife... we closed it down about 8 months ago now through lack of interest and impetus. I was keen to get working on something based less on the Korean servers and more natively English, and players weren't particularly bothered so...

At the time it went by the working title ZPT, the Z didn't really stand for anything, except it is my middle initial and the final letter in the alphabet. Kinda like an Omega final version. ^_^

Interesting things about this client include:-

• No reliance on HanDes.dll
• No hotuk.ini
• No ptReg.rgx
• Vista and XP fixes and security descriptors. (only partial compatibility due to the devious and poor coding nature of the 1873 base, but it is better)
• High resolution 256x256 Vista icon.
• Some additional translation and bug fixes. (IMS)
• Some extra code caves.

This is the last, unreleased version of the client, so it's kinda beta. I don't recommend it for instant deployment on your server, and you will probably want to replace the ZPT loading splash (credits to *ME* :lol:) for your server anyway.

An example client.cfg file (the replacement for all the other stupid configuration files) is provided, but don't ask me what all the parameters and stuff are, I have no clue now, it's too long ago. And if you are looking for "shortcut.ini" it's now called "HotKey.ini".

The line "(ELEMENTGUIDE) PACKAGING_ORDER /0" is the admin mode one.

Check it out, compare it to 1873 and your own clients... see if you can learn anything, or try and fix up the rest of the stuff I couldn't be bothered to sort out. :thumbup:

Please don't just steal that ZPT artwork, if you really want something like that for your server, and you like my "artistic style" just give me a rough idea what you are looking for and I'll happily make you one for your own server.

http://b.imagehost.org/0062/Bitmap_IDB_LOADING.png

I quote out "artistic style" because I am not, never was, and never will be an "artist".:lol:

Download Uploading link.
Download Deposit Files Link.
Attachment 96880 <- Attached!!! \o/

nice release bob,

good job :thumbup:

It's old data, I'm not using it any more, it's probably bug ridden as it was a test version that was never released to the masses, but people here may learn a thing or two that it hadn't occurred to them to try before.

I don't know that it's a "nice release" as in, "wow this is really useful" but it's got some funky (if simple) little tricks in it that make it just a bit more unique than most.

The thing that really arsed me off with all the KPT clients (even the current official ones) is how buggy they are on "current" Windows OS. (that's Vista and Windows 7)

Suba have done a good job getting some of these ironed out, but if you run even theirs through the logo certification test tool from MS they still get killed off after the first 7000 odd non-compliances before the window is initially opened. :(: (cries)

Nice work. I think you will success. Good luck to you. :D

Can reup the file?

I can't guarantee this is exactly the same as I uploaded before, but I made a new RAR of the client and it's config file, made a couple of amendments to the write up.

This is really old experimental stuff anyway, back from before I ever posted on RZ. Some interesting experiments in it though. I hope it provides inspiration, as I doubt it's much use for anything else. :D:

Actually I wanted the game, the icon just to get it ^ _ ^, you have the icon of this game?

It's in there. It's not hard to use a resource editor to extract the Icon resource. ;)

Just because you asked for it, I put together an archive of all the Icons I've made for PT over the years. 2 are no quite the full 256x256 Vista/7 size.

All together, they look like this:-

http://b.imagehost.org/0766/Image1.png

Download thanks to SendSpace.

The Updater was as good as I could make for XP / Panther (about 128x128) the Archer, (HanGame) I can't find that image of her at higher rez, but am working on Vectorizing the image the way I did for the server. (make an svg icon that can be used at any resolution on the (superior?) Linux desktops, ( XD ) but even her face alone is far more detailed than the Server Icon, so it takes a while, and I may loose some detail. (And I hate doing that.)

This is the WIP:-

http://b.imagehost.org/0512/Image1.png

Thank you bob:) what program should I use to change the icon without bugar the the image of the game?

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/149/xdddddz.png

The image is bugged =(

Try using a more professional & recent icon software to do this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HrxLux

Try using a more professional & recent icon software to do this.

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What do you advise?

The image isn't Bugged at all. That's exactly how I designed it to look in 16 colour 32x32px. XD

Okay, you're using ResHacker.Which is fine BTW (that's what I used on the ZPT exe as there was little else at the time, it was that or LordPE) it only cannot display the Vista PNG compressed icon, but it can semi-handle it.

The thing about icons on Mac and Windows is that they aren't just an image file, they are more like an animation, with lots of images in one file. The way they differ from a GIF or PNGA (MNG anyone?) animation is that each frame is a different resolution and, or colour depth. (GIF can do this, but very few people try it)

If you use ResHacker to simply replace the icon group, since PT only has one resolution and colour depth image for each icon group, it will pick the first image with the right dimensions (the ugly 16 colour one) to replace the old image with. I've added lower resolutions as well as higher ones, to make it look nice on Start Menus and stuff, and the Microsofr "Style Guide" tells you to include at least 16 & 256 colour images in at least 16x16 and 32x32, and preferably at least one image in one of those colour depths at 24x24. (Start Menu / Quick Launch size) One problem is that once you add a 32-bit icon, Windows 2000 often reads it as a 24-bit icon (since 2K doesn't support the XP/2k3 alpha channel, but does support 24-bit icons) and prefers it over the 256 colour (8-bit) one, which looks absolutely fugly.

What you want is to add all the new images from one of my icon files, and update the icon group to point to all the images from the .ico file as resource number 111, and ensure that that is still the first icon group recorded in the resource file... because that's the one Explorer will show. The resource number must still be 111 because that's the resource number PT looks for when opening it's window, and will be shown in the top left of the drag border in window mode and on the Task Bar and Switcher. (Unless you are using those ugly new Thumbnail Switchers. XD)

It's now much easier to use CFF Explorer to remove the Resource Section from the exe all-together. Then add your translation section (and any additional code sections and such) in, then add a new resource section, containing all the original information, with the icons you desire at the end of the file. (like the "Style Guides" from Microsoft recommend)

CFF explorer has a rudimentary Resource Editor Plug-in that comes with it, but I prefer to export all the resources, create a new .res source file and compile it (and the associated resources) with RC. Any version. All Windows compilers have one, and they don't all use the same syntax. The free one in Visual Studio Express is fine, or GoRC which has much simpler syntax. PoRC (Which comes with Pelle's C) is quite nice too, there's one that comes with MinGW for GCC, and I know there is a very advanced (and slightly weird) one built into all the Borland Development tools. (Delphi and BCB etc)

You can also take the route of buying a professional resource editor like PE Explorer or Resource Tuner from Haven, or Resource Builder, or try one of the other free exe resource editors like XN Resource Editor (which I find buggy with hacked PT exes).

So there's a wealth of choice, and each method could almost use a Tutorial of it's own. Getting it right, adding icon images, XML security descriptors and such and not breaking the file is quite tricky, and it may well take you a couple of attempts at it. It works much smoother with a clean Exe, rather than something like the QF or Stylus ones, and I tend to do this before I add any sections, link any new DLLs or anything. But again, as it was early days and I was starting with a QF exe I didn't have the option to do this with ZPT. (so that just proves it is possible, if problematic, to do so)