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a1batross's posts Post Back to profile
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eukara
@a1ba It'd just take your in-game name. You had a scrollback buffer on the left, a user list on the right (no modes or anything of that sort) and a 'Type message' field. It was very bare bones. Your own messages were white and everyone elses dark yellow (almost brown-ish). I know in some pre-release shots on IGN the scrollback buffer is grey/white regardless of user status.

In terms of people using it... lots of people would still prefer IRC because that meant not having the game open. GameSurge was basically the go-to place for Half-Life players and modders hosting #svencoop and #mapcore. But there's also other networks obviously that people had their own preferences for.
23 May 2023 at 22:04 | Wall-to-wall | Open on idtech.space
10 comments
eukara
@a1ba The chat in FreeHL's menu does actually work (and tries to be very faithful) and uses IRC underneath. Partially because that avoids me having to have the game open. It may even be the very first IRC client written in QuakeC since we added the ability to open sockets just for that... :S
23 May 2023 at 22:11 | Open on idtech.space
a1batross
@eukara woah, it's cool.
I also wanted to restore this feature, and it's quite easy without making engine or menu too complicated, especially IRC is easy enough for this, but just never actually implemented it.

By the way, do you also have a working download mods section in Custom Game menu? :)
23 May 2023 at 22:26 | Open on idtech.space
eukara
@a1ba Yes. You can download mods, install and play them directly from the menu in FreeHL. There's some stuff that needs to be done in terms of getting those downloads signed however and FTE's package manager is kinda flaky - but it mostly works.
23 May 2023 at 22:27 | Open on idtech.space
a1batross
eukara
a1batross
@eukara huh. I really missed that menu somehow. Actually, I haven't built FreeHL for myself for a while. Should try it again later.
Good job man
23 May 2023 at 22:31 | Open on idtech.space
eukara
@a1ba there's some major changes coming to how releases are distributed, so some things are kinda jank still. in theory all you'll need soon is an FTEQW binary - plop it into a valid HL WON install and it'll figure itself out and automatically recommend FreeHL from its builtin menu/package manager. We're not quite there yet, but soon(tm)
23 May 2023 at 22:34 | Open on idtech.space
a1batross replied to eukara
@eukara is the engine hardcoded to suggest downloading FreeHL?
23 May 2023 at 22:38 | Open on idtech.space
eukara replied to a1batross
@a1ba More or less, it will (when it either detects a HL install in its path, or via -halflife launch args) automatically recommend the FreeHL package via the frag-net.com package provider.

Under UNIX, that means you only need to have the HL data files statically placed under usr/share/games/halflife and FTEQW installed for everything to work and for it to be continuously updated. That is not released/ready yet but I'm getting close to flicking the switch.

A copy of my public key is also baked into the engine so no impersonation can happen at a DNS level either. Spike took great care when designing the package management system in FTEQW. It also wouldn't execute unsigned/verified progs menu-logic either.
So there's a lot of work that goes into making sure everything is air-tight in terms of security.
@a1ba More or less, it will (when it either detects a HL install in its path, or via -halflife launch args) automatically recommend the FreeHL package via the frag-net.com package provider.

Under UNIX, that means you only need to have the HL data files statically placed under usr/share/games/halflife and FTEQW installed for everything to work and for it to be continuously updated. That is not released/ready...
23 May 2023 at 22:56 | Open on idtech.space
a1batross
@eukara that's interesting. It would make sense to chat use colors from colors.lst, but there is no dark yellow in it, except Half-Life-ish orange.

Yeah, I've also got told by somebody else that they never used this feature, and also used Gamespy instead of this server browser.
23 May 2023 at 22:20 | Open on idtech.space
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