Empyrean 0.3.0

Highlights

• The Dereth Network: with [federation] on, players tell, befriend and chat with characters on other worlds, speak in the Global room with /dng, and link their characters to one Discord account (/dn lists the commands).
• A [federation] setting the world cannot serve stops start-up, saying which and why.

All changes

Operations

• Dereth Network channel lines are drawn as channel lines, not as tells from the channel

Other changes

• Dereth Network: a hub that federates worlds, /dn with channels and friends, Discord linking, and an ACE mod

Full changes: empyrean-v0.2.2...empyrean-v0.3.0

Downloads

Empyrean 0.3.0, the Asheron's Call server (a Rust port of ACE), for Windows, Linux (glibc 2.28 or newer, x86-64 and arm64) and macOS (11 or newer, Apple silicon and Intel).

No game data is included: the server reads the client's data files from your own install, and empyrean-import fetch --pack builds the world from ACE-World's database release. SETUP.md in each archive is the guide.

The source of this release is https://github.com/dereth-network/dereth/tree/d217932f5012f4ad32014d61982940ec92a14aaf, and GitHub's source archives of the tag, Source code (zip) and Source code (tar.gz), below.

Verifying a download: sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing

Dereth 0.4.1

Highlights

• Turning your character with the right mouse button in Horizon no longer stutters.
• Horizon can draw characters and creatures moving smoothly between their animations' frames, at any frame rate: Smooth Animation, on the Client page of its options, on by default.
• Horizon can draw other players, creatures and missiles moving smoothly at any frame rate, rather than stepping thirty times a second: Smooth Movement, beside Smooth Animation, on by default.
• Horizon's names stand on the heads of the people and creatures they name, however tall (a lugian's over its head, not on its chest; a rat's just over its back), and stay on them as they and the camera move rather than trailing a frame behind.
• Turning the camera with the mouse hides the pointer and holds it still, as the original client did, and it comes back where the drag began; in the browser, holding both mouse buttons now runs forward in Horizon.
• On a 60 Hz display (and at 30, 120 or 240 Hz) the world moves on a steady 30 steps a second instead of stepping unevenly 20 to 25 times a second.
• Horizon's experimental effects gain Weather (rain that roofs keep off, wet ground, puddles, and snow over snowy land), and /weather sets the weather this client draws: clear, rain, snow or auto.
• A new player starts in Horizon; a player who chose the modern or classic interface keeps it.
• Horizon's character select and character creation can be full screen: Alt+Enter, or the switch at their top right, and the choice carries into the world and back.
• Horizon's interface scale chooses itself until you choose one: the largest the window holds, up to 200% (150% at 1440p, 200% on a 4K monitor), and only the scales the window holds are offered.
• On the wgpu renderer, Horizon's experimental effects no longer say they need wgpu or that the graphics card lacks ray tracing: a box first ticked says to restart, and the restart turns it on.

All changes

Gameplay

• Horizon camera: stops directly behind after a turn, re-centres after a portal
• Horizon: Smooth Movement draws other players, creatures and missiles moving smoothly between the server's ticks
• Horizon: one press of an attack key or height button is the whole attack, repeating until interrupted
• The physics tick opens two milliseconds short of the quantum, so a 60 Hz display steps the world on a steady 30 Hz
• Horizon's stance controls stand centred beside the spell level filters

Graphics & sound

• Hi-fi sky: land seen through windows keeps its colour

Interface

• Camera drags hide and hold the pointer
• Horizon is the interface a new player starts in, with smoothing on, full screen before the world, and a scale that fits the window

Fixes

• Hi-fi lighting: sloped ground is no longer lit face by face
• Horizon's Weather effect: rain, puddles and snow fixed in the world, and /weather sets the weather this client draws

Other changes

• Animation: extreme server speeds can't freeze the client; mouse turns draw smoothly
• Horizon: Smooth Animation option
• Horizon: names stand on the heads they name and keep up with them in motion

Full changes: dereth-v0.4.0...dereth-v0.4.1

Downloads

Dereth 0.4.1: the launcher, with the Dereth client inside it, for Windows (10 or newer, x86-64), macOS (11 or newer, Apple silicon and Intel) and Linux (x86-64, glibc 2.35 or newer: Ubuntu 22.04 and later).

system	download
Windows	dereth-0.4.1-windows-x86_64.zip	unzip anywhere and run dereth.exe; no installer
macOS	Dereth-0.4.1-macos-aarch64.app.tar.gz (Apple silicon), -x86_64 (Intel)	unpack and move Dereth.app to Applications
Linux	Dereth-0.4.1-linux-x86_64.AppImage	mark it executable and run it

The launcher keeps itself and the client up to date from this repository's newest Dereth release.

No game data is included: the client plays with the data files of your own Asheron's Call install.

These builds are not code-signed yet. Windows SmartScreen asks once (More info, then Run anyway); macOS asks once (System Settings, Privacy & Security, Open Anyway).

Verifying a download: sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing

Empyrean 0.2.2

Highlights

• A character waiting to be deleted shows how long is left before it goes, where ACE always shows one second.
• Sharper icons in the title bar and the taskbar.
• Creatures and missiles meet the furniture of rooms and dungeons and the trees, rocks and other objects of the landscape, as on ACE: a monster stops at them or goes around, a missile that hits one is spent, and a monster that cannot see past one picks another attack.
• Objects the world database places stand where it records them wherever the cell dat's furniture, landblock objects and scenery alone would move them or keep them out. Those on a dais or a platform stay on it, where they used to sink to the floor below: the Town Network portals by a quarter of a metre. Those it records partly inside something else stay there too, where ACE moves them up to 4 m away or leaves them out: 25 portals are sent on their stone plinths and platforms rather than beside them (a client still steps a portal aside where its swirl does not fit the arch around it, as retail's does), and 86 objects ACE does not create are there: 61 large waterfalls, 21 hot, cold and putrid air effects and a volcano's heat, a pressure plate, a spirit, and the portal to Samsur in its dungeon.
• Rocks and other scenery that the landscape sets at a slight pitch stand at the angle they are drawn at, where ACE posed them up to 4.4 degrees off it: 11,961 large rock formations and 564 smaller objects meet creatures and missiles where a player sees them.

All changes

Operations

• Icons: small frames redrawn for their size, and frames for 125% scaling

Other changes

• Statics are solid in the cells they are placed in, as retail places them
• Horizon: a third interface, with its own art, orbit camera and key layout
• The server gives the cell dat's statics collision bodies; world-database objects stand where recorded

Full changes: empyrean-v0.2.0...empyrean-v0.2.2

Downloads

Empyrean 0.2.2, the Asheron's Call server (a Rust port of ACE), for Windows, Linux (glibc 2.28 or newer, x86-64 and arm64) and macOS (11 or newer, Apple silicon and Intel).

No game data is included: the server reads the client's data files from your own install, and empyrean-import fetch --pack builds the world from ACE-World's database release. SETUP.md in each archive is the guide.

The source of this release is https://github.com/dereth-network/dereth/tree/8ec32deda8348059e0e40a8692c67dc58df9f5f5, and GitHub's source archives of the tag, Source code (zip) and Source code (tar.gz), below.

Verifying a download: sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing

Dereth 0.4.0 (Web)

Highlights

• Horizon gamepad mode (experimental): the whole game played with a controller.
• Horizon's options choose the renderer for the next start.
• Horizon has highly experimental rendering effects, off by default and only on the wgpu renderer: better lighting, sun shadows, global illumination, ambient occlusion, lamps and torches, and sky.
• The browser client loads Horizon's art beside the module, so it fits Cloudflare Pages again.
• Horizon shows the client's real version.
• /tod sets the time of day this client draws, for looking at the world by day or night.

All changes

Graphics & sound

• Horizon gains highly experimental rendering effects, off by default on the wgpu renderer
• /tod sets the time of day this client draws

Other changes

• The browser client loads Horizon's art beside the module, and Horizon shows the real version
• Horizon gamepad mode (experimental): the whole game played with a pad

Full changes: dereth-v0.3.0...dereth-v0.4.0

Downloads

The Dereth client 0.4.0 for web browsers: static files to serve from any web host (dereth/web/DEPLOY.md says how, and which headers to send).

file	what
dereth-web-0.4.0.zip	the page, its scripts and the WebAssembly module, under dereth-web-0.4.0/
web.json	the release's manifest: version, commit, and every file's size and SHA-256, for hosts and tools that update themselves

No game data is included: each player's browser reads the data files of their own Asheron's Call install, on their own machine.

Verifying a download: sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing

Dereth 0.4.0

Highlights

• Horizon gamepad mode (experimental): the whole game played with a controller.
• Horizon's options choose the renderer for the next start.
• Horizon has highly experimental rendering effects, off by default and only on the wgpu renderer: better lighting, sun shadows, global illumination, ambient occlusion, lamps and torches, and sky.
• The browser client loads Horizon's art beside the module, so it fits Cloudflare Pages again.
• Horizon shows the client's real version.
• /tod sets the time of day this client draws, for looking at the world by day or night.

All changes

Graphics & sound

• Horizon gains highly experimental rendering effects, off by default on the wgpu renderer
• /tod sets the time of day this client draws

Other changes

• The browser client loads Horizon's art beside the module, and Horizon shows the real version
• Horizon gamepad mode (experimental): the whole game played with a pad

Full changes: dereth-v0.3.0...dereth-v0.4.0

Downloads

Dereth 0.4.0: the launcher, with the Dereth client inside it, for Windows (10 or newer, x86-64), macOS (11 or newer, Apple silicon and Intel) and Linux (x86-64, glibc 2.35 or newer: Ubuntu 22.04 and later).

system	download
Windows	dereth-0.4.0-windows-x86_64.zip	unzip anywhere and run dereth.exe; no installer
macOS	Dereth-0.4.0-macos-aarch64.app.tar.gz (Apple silicon), -x86_64 (Intel)	unpack and move Dereth.app to Applications
Linux	Dereth-0.4.0-linux-x86_64.AppImage	mark it executable and run it

The launcher keeps itself and the client up to date from this repository's newest Dereth release.

No game data is included: the client plays with the data files of your own Asheron's Call install.

These builds are not code-signed yet. Windows SmartScreen asks once (More info, then Run anyway); macOS asks once (System Settings, Privacy & Security, Open Anyway).

Verifying a download: sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing

Dereth 0.3.0

Highlights

• Horizon, a third interface beside the modern and classic ones, chosen in the options and switched live: its own art and fonts, an orbit camera that eases behind you, its own key layout, a HUD you can lay out, chat tabs that pop out, and every game window and dialog.
• A building seen from a distance no longer shows its rooms' contents through its simpler, distant shell: as in retail, a building opens only through the doors and windows of the shell it draws.
• Stairs, timbers, porch roofs and other structure that reaches out of a room are drawn from outdoors again, at any distance; a room's hidden furniture is no longer drawn.
• Furniture and scenery are solid in the same places as in retail: a few objects that reached into the next cell could be bumped into from there before you reached them.
• Forests no longer thin out along every landblock boundary: 289,589 trees, bushes and other pieces of scenery that retail grows within about 35 m of a boundary are drawn, and solid, again. Drawing them costs frame time in dense forest, about a quarter more.
• Rocks and other pieces placed to follow a slope stand upright and face downhill, as in retail, where 57,662 of them were tipped over on their sides.
• A creature whose body reaches over a cell boundary is solid from the cell beyond, and you are drawn with the landscape only once you are through a doorway, as in retail.

All changes

Gameplay

• Statics are solid in the cells they are placed in, as retail places them
• Moving bodies and scaled scenery are registered in the cells retail registers them in
• The house payments each answer whether they are paid in full from their own list
• The server gives the cell dat's statics collision bodies; world-database objects stand where recorded
• Horizon: slidecasting through a cast's windup in both cameras
• Hooks, storage chests and corpses are put down where they are sent, and a re-created object moves as a position update

Graphics & sound

• A building seen from outdoors opens its interior only through the shell level it draws
• A room's furniture is drawn piece by piece by every cell it reaches, as retail places it
• Scenery at landblock lines grows, and slope-aligned scenery stands upright, as retail places them
• Cobwebs are drawn over what stands behind them, and go on the clip list with the cut-outs

Interface

• Horizon: a third interface, with its own art, orbit camera and key layout

Fixes

• Fix test hygiene

Full changes: dereth-v0.2.1...dereth-v0.3.0

Downloads

Dereth 0.3.0: the launcher, with the Dereth client inside it, for Windows (10 or newer, x86-64), macOS (11 or newer, Apple silicon and Intel) and Linux (x86-64, glibc 2.35 or newer: Ubuntu 22.04 and later).

system	download
Windows	dereth-0.3.0-windows-x86_64.zip	unzip anywhere and run dereth.exe; no installer
macOS	Dereth-0.3.0-macos-aarch64.app.tar.gz (Apple silicon), -x86_64 (Intel)	unpack and move Dereth.app to Applications
Linux	Dereth-0.3.0-linux-x86_64.AppImage	mark it executable and run it

The launcher keeps itself and the client up to date from this repository's newest Dereth release.

No game data is included: the client plays with the data files of your own Asheron's Call install.

These builds are not code-signed yet. Windows SmartScreen asks once (More info, then Run anyway); macOS asks once (System Settings, Privacy & Security, Open Anyway).

Verifying a download: sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing

Dereth 0.2.1 for the web

Highlights

• The web client opens on a launcher: pick a world from the community list or add one by address, choose the data files kept in the browser that the world takes, and play. The client is told the world's era, systems, logon version and rules as the desktop launcher tells it. The page says which worlds the browser reaches directly (Empyrean with its WebSocket endpoint on) and which need a local web relay.
• The web client keeps each world's overlay in the browser's own storage: a world that patches its data files is drawn with its patch at once, and a later visit downloads nothing it already sent. A world's overlay can be removed or refused from its page.
• A world that updates its data files no longer needs a private copy of them in the desktop launcher when it is played with the Dereth client, which keeps the update in the world's own overlay.
• Worlds that run a client of their own (Dekarutide, Unfamiliar Shores, Seedsow, Snowreap) are known to the launcher: it sends their logon version, plays by their rules, and says where their own data files come from.
• A world that patches its data files is drawn from the patch at once, the character screen included, without a restart.
• The classic interface says why a session ended in a sentence ("Server connection lost") rather than a string id; @version and the classic options window name the running version in every session, not 0.0.0; lists in panels made taller than their default keep their rows in place; and the experience to the next level reads INFINITY (classic) or Infinity! at the cap.
• The launcher keeps the world list where it was scrolled, takes a Modern data set without client_highres.dat, and asks for the Modern files beside the Classic ones for a world before Throne of Destiny.
• Sharper icons in the title bar and the taskbar, at every display scale.
• The web page's fields take a paste, the password included.

All changes

Interface

• Classic session-end sentences, the program's version, taller panels and the cap's infinity
• The client's window and taskbar icons are taken at the display's scale
• Web: pasting into the page's own fields works; only a paste while the game has the keyboard goes to the game

Launcher

• Worlds that run a client of their own: logon version, world profiles and the launcher's table
• Launcher: opening a world's row keeps the list where it was scrolled
• Launcher: a Modern data set without client_highres.dat is still a set
• Launcher: Seedsow's and Snowreap's 1802 logon is confirmed
• The web client opens on a launcher and keeps each world's overlay
• Launcher: a world before Throne of Destiny needs the Modern data files beside the Classic ones

Other changes

• The web page lets go of its stored data files before reaching them again, and says when another tab holds them
• After a data patch every view reads the patched records
• Icons: small frames redrawn for their size, and frames for 125% scaling

Full changes: dereth-v0.2.0...dereth-v0.2.1

Downloads

The Dereth client 0.2.1 for web browsers: static files to serve from any web host (dereth/web/DEPLOY.md says how, and which headers to send).

file	what
dereth-web-0.2.1.zip	the page, its scripts and the WebAssembly module, under dereth-web-0.2.1/
web.json	the release's manifest: version, commit, and every file's size and SHA-256, for hosts and tools that update themselves

No game data is included: each player's browser reads the data files of their own Asheron's Call install, on their own machine.

Verifying a download: sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing

Dereth 0.2.1

Highlights

• The web client opens on a launcher: pick a world from the community list or add one by address, choose the data files kept in the browser that the world takes, and play. The client is told the world's era, systems, logon version and rules as the desktop launcher tells it. The page says which worlds the browser reaches directly (Empyrean with its WebSocket endpoint on) and which need a local web relay.
• The web client keeps each world's overlay in the browser's own storage: a world that patches its data files is drawn with its patch at once, and a later visit downloads nothing it already sent. A world's overlay can be removed or refused from its page.
• A world that updates its data files no longer needs a private copy of them in the desktop launcher when it is played with the Dereth client, which keeps the update in the world's own overlay.
• Worlds that run a client of their own (Dekarutide, Unfamiliar Shores, Seedsow, Snowreap) are known to the launcher: it sends their logon version, plays by their rules, and says where their own data files come from.
• A world that patches its data files is drawn from the patch at once, the character screen included, without a restart.
• The classic interface says why a session ended in a sentence ("Server connection lost") rather than a string id; @version and the classic options window name the running version in every session, not 0.0.0; lists in panels made taller than their default keep their rows in place; and the experience to the next level reads INFINITY (classic) or Infinity! at the cap.
• The launcher keeps the world list where it was scrolled, takes a Modern data set without client_highres.dat, and asks for the Modern files beside the Classic ones for a world before Throne of Destiny.
• Sharper icons in the title bar and the taskbar, at every display scale.
• The web page's fields take a paste, the password included.

All changes

Interface

• Classic session-end sentences, the program's version, taller panels and the cap's infinity
• The client's window and taskbar icons are taken at the display's scale
• Web: pasting into the page's own fields works; only a paste while the game has the keyboard goes to the game

Launcher

• Worlds that run a client of their own: logon version, world profiles and the launcher's table
• Launcher: opening a world's row keeps the list where it was scrolled
• Launcher: a Modern data set without client_highres.dat is still a set
• Launcher: Seedsow's and Snowreap's 1802 logon is confirmed
• The web client opens on a launcher and keeps each world's overlay
• Launcher: a world before Throne of Destiny needs the Modern data files beside the Classic ones

Other changes

• The web page lets go of its stored data files before reaching them again, and says when another tab holds them
• After a data patch every view reads the patched records
• Icons: small frames redrawn for their size, and frames for 125% scaling

Full changes: dereth-v0.2.0...dereth-v0.2.1

Downloads

Dereth 0.2.1: the launcher, with the Dereth client inside it, for Windows (10 or newer, x86-64), macOS (11 or newer, Apple silicon and Intel) and Linux (x86-64, glibc 2.35 or newer: Ubuntu 22.04 and later).

system	download
Windows	dereth-0.2.1-windows-x86_64.zip	unzip anywhere and run dereth.exe; no installer
macOS	Dereth-0.2.1-macos-aarch64.app.tar.gz (Apple silicon), -x86_64 (Intel)	unpack and move Dereth.app to Applications
Linux	Dereth-0.2.1-linux-x86_64.AppImage	mark it executable and run it

The launcher keeps itself and the client up to date from this repository's newest Dereth release.

No game data is included: the client plays with the data files of your own Asheron's Call install.

These builds are not code-signed yet. Windows SmartScreen asks once (More info, then Run anyway); macOS asks once (System Settings, Privacy & Security, Open Anyway).

Verifying a download: sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing

Empyrean 0.2.0

Highlights

Added

• Eras: an [era] profile chooses the era a world plays. The end of retail, the default, is unchanged. Infiltration (February 2005) plays by ClassicACE's rules: characters start outdoors in their chosen town with recalls enabled, the level cap is 126 with the three original heritages and the era's 36 skills, and combat, vitae, starter gear, the Welcome Letter, loot and magic items are the era's. Empyrean credits ClassicACE beside ACE.
• Empyrean runs on the February 2005 data files (portal.dat and cell.dat), checks a client's files against them, and turns away a client with the wrong set, saying why.
• empyrean-import --era builds a world pack for an era, and the server refuses a pack built for another; empyrean-import fetch --world 16py downloads ACE-World-16PY for Infiltration.
• A world's systems (trade, housing, apartments, tinkering, cantrips, spell research, chess, titles, contracts, luminance, aetheria, cloaks, trinkets) follow its era and can be set in [era]. The server refuses what the world lacks, and an item worn in a slot the world lacks goes to the pack at log-in.
• Data overlays: a world can serve its own changes to the data files as an overlay over a locked base set ([dat_overlay]), and patches Dereth clients to it; empyrean-import dat-overlay makes one from a world's data files and its base. Other clients are patched as before.
• GET /status and GET /v1/world report the world's era, its systems, its data files and the client versions it admits.
• Status ping: a launcher can ask a world on its game port, with no login and no web address, whether it is open, how many are on, its era and systems, the server software and the world's name. It is on by default; [status] udp_ping = false turns it off, and the section's rate limits bound how often one address may ask.
• Spell research: with spell_research on, a tested formula of components teaches and casts the spell it makes. A test is judged in order: an impossible formula, then a wrong target ("Incorrect target type"), then a formula that makes no spell, which is spoken and fizzles.
• The character screen carries a message from the world: server.character_screen_message, or "Welcome to !" when none is set.
• On Infiltration, experience keeps arriving at the level cap, up to 4,294,967,295.
• swear_xp_cost (on for Infiltration): after breaking from a patron, swearing again costs five percent of the next level's experience, between 100 and 5,000, a quarter more for each break.

Changed

• On an era before the item auras, a weapon enchantment such as Swift Killer or Blood Drinker cast on yourself lands on your wielded weapon or caster, and fails with one message when you wield nothing it can take.
• Speech, emotes and local chat reach the players who know the speaker within range, as ACE sends them, instead of everyone in the nearby landblocks.
• On older data files, motion is sent and read in the numbering of the world's files, so a February 2005 logout plays its departure in full.
• On the February 2005 data files a new character's arms and hands are bare, as character creation dresses them.

Fixed

• A beneficial spell cast on another player who is not a player killer lands again: every spell between two non-player-killers was refused with "... is not a player killer".
• On the February 2005 data files, start-up no longer logs the tables and records those files never had.

All changes

Gameplay

• The screens leave out what the world's era lacks, and the web client plays its server's era
• Spell research: a world can turn on the early clients' formula test
• Empyrean: the character screen's message defaults to a welcome to the world
• A word the language filter censors keeps the punctuation at either end of it, so a censored first or last word of a message keeps the line's quote (CD-024)
• Empyrean: before the auras, a weapon enchantment cast on oneself goes to the wielded weapon
• Empyrean: a spell research test is judged legality, then target, then match or fizzle
• Empyrean: a player's PK check on a spell is given the spell
• Empyrean: a weapon enchantment that fails to affect its own caster says so once

World and content

• Empyrean runs on the February 2005 dats, and the client draws that world
• Infiltration plays by its own rules, formulas and loot; Empyrean credits ClassicACE
• Every record of every held dat capture decodes, 1999 to 2017
• An older world's objects without a detail record of their own draw themselves
• Empyrean on the February 2005 dats reports no missing records it does not need
• Speech, emotes and local chat go to the players who know the speaker within range, as ACE sends them
• One dat folder, with the classic set found beside it or in --classic-dat-dir
• A dat's identity and iteration count in a few small reads, in either layout
• An iteration list is decoded only up to a million values, and no run past its count
• Cleanup the bad dats message

Operations

• A client on the February 2005 world logs in, materializes, casts, and keeps its ground and clothing
• A world's systems are announced, configurable and enforced
• Empyrean sends the character screen's message when one is configured
• A world answers a status ping on its game port, and the launcher and client share one era-feature bitfield

Other changes

• Empyrean plays an era: where characters start, the level cap and the world pack's era
• Infiltration magic loot: the era's spell levels, spells, cantrips, scrolls and item names
• Motion commands in the numbering of the world's data files
• Object Mode draws each part, interior and body wholly from one era
• Earlier eras keep earning at the level cap and charge for a second oath
• Correct Classic drag feedback and adaptive panel layout
• Empyrean serves a world as base data files plus a data overlay, and patches Dereth to it
• A client that keeps overlays is patched at the overlay's own rate
• Read the 1999 to mid-2001 character-generation tables again

Full changes: empyrean-v0.1.2...empyrean-v0.2.0

Downloads

Empyrean 0.2.0, the Asheron's Call server (a Rust port of ACE), for Windows, Linux (glibc 2.28 or newer, x86-64 and arm64) and macOS (11 or newer, Apple silicon and Intel).

No game data is included: the server reads the client's data files from your own install, and empyrean-import fetch --pack builds the world from ACE-World's database release. SETUP.md in each archive is the guide.

The source of this release is https://github.com/dereth-network/dereth/tree/f572c68516d1da93142c3a102fe460ebc37e81a6, and GitHub's source archives of the tag, Source code (zip) and Source code (tar.gz), below.

Verifying a download: sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing

Dereth 0.2.0

Highlights

Added

• Every era of the game's data, 1999 to 2017, is read, and worlds built on the February 2005 data files (Infiltration) play: the client logs in, draws their palette-shifted ground, objects, clothing and portal tunnel, casts and logs out as on an end-of-retail world.
• The classic interface, the game's interface from before its 2005 redesign, is a choice on the options page (Interface), switched live at the character screen or in the world. It needs the early-2005 data files. On later worlds it shows their systems in its own style: titles, contracts, the journal, Friends and Squelch pages, the eighth-level and Void spells, and the cloak, trinket and aetheria slots, which open from an Accessories button beside the shield.
• The web client plays in the classic interface too, with the early-2005 files picked beside the later ones.
• The classic interface runs on macOS and Linux, and its text in the web client comes out the same in every browser: it is drawn with the Liberation fonts the client carries, at the sizes and spacing the Windows desktop gives it, so every line is as long and wraps where it does on Windows.
• The screens follow the world's era and the systems it announces: what it lacks (Contracts, Titles, the journal, luminance, cloak and trinket slots, House) is left out, and the tabs and panel buttons left close up without a gap. On a February 2005 world, character creation uses that world's own texts and shows a dot on the map for each starting town.
• The launcher lists the community's worlds, with each world's era and emulator, and keeps a Modern and a Classic data set, each with its own default.
• The launcher shows an Empyrean world's live state, players, era and systems, server version and name from the world itself, with no status page, refreshed every minute, and hands the world's systems to the client.
• A world can keep its own changes to the data files: the client keeps them in a separate overlay for that world and never alters the installed files. One data folder (--dat-dir) holds both the later and the early-2005 sets; --classic-dat-dir names another folder for the early set.
• Terrain Mode (Palette Shift, Classic Blend, Modern Blend) and Sky Mode (Classic Software, Classic Hardware, Modern) draw any world's ground and sky in another era's style, given the older data files. Object Mode draws the world's objects, buildings, rooms and bodies, the paper doll included, in another era's look, switched live.
• Landscape Detail Textures lays the fine ground texture over nearby land, as the clients of 2005 to 2012 did. Off at first.
• Spell research, on a world that has it: the magic window's Create Spell tab, in both interfaces, takes up to eight carried components, by double-click or drag, and Test casts the formula. A spell learned there brings up the spellbook.
• The character screen shows the world's message in both interfaces: in the modern interface, an Announcements window beside Create Character, scrolled with the wheel.
• A performance panel over either interface shows the frame rate, frame times and where each frame's time goes. It is an option on the client options page and an action a key can be bound to.
• Every key that can be bound does something in the modern interface: Show Cloak, Select Self, Give, Drop, Move to Main Pack, hold sidestep, and the trade and spell research windows. This client's own actions are listed under Dereth on the key page.
• On a world that charges unassigned experience to swear allegiance again, the swear confirmation and the classic allegiance panel say what the oath costs.

Changed

• One options set for both interfaces: the same pages (Game and Support, Character Options, Chat Options, Client Options), each drawn in its interface's style. A change on either page shows on the other, takes effect when applied and lasts past logging out; rows for what the world's era lacks are left out. Urgent Assistance and Report Abuse open the in-game forms.
• One set of key bindings for both interfaces, each with key map files of its own (<name>-modern.keymap, <name>-classic.keymap). Each key page lists only the rows its interface acts on and offers both interfaces' defaults, and a cleared key stays cleared at the next start. The classic defaults are the game's 2004 key map, and classic keys held with Shift, Ctrl or Alt work.
• Multiple Pass Alpha softens the edges of cut-out textures such as leaves, and particles and translucent objects are drawn in their true order by distance.
• Detail levels are measured from the eye the frame is drawn from, and Degrade Distance applies on every world.
• The modern interface's 3D view fills any screen, however wide.
• The chat font's face and size are chosen on the modern interface's Chat Options page.
• Use Mouse Turning Settings sets the mouse-turning preset; it no longer restores the defaults or changes the character's options.
• The client starts in a 1024 by 768 window, and Defaults keeps that size.
• A word the language filter censors keeps the punctuation at either end of it, so a censored first or last word keeps the line's quote.
• A crash log is kept only for a run that goes wrong, without the login, and only the newest 20 are kept. DERETH_SETTINGS_DIR names the settings folder outright.
• --world-dat-dir, --legacy-dat-dir and the LegacyDatDir setting are gone: one --dat-dir holds every set.

Fixed

• Animated scenery and objects move: butterflies flutter over the meadows, and the other placed objects with an animation of their own play it instead of standing frozen in their first pose.
• Switching interface from the options page no longer leaves the other interface needing an extra click for every switch made.
• The classic chat log shows the world's welcome once, however often you log back in or switch interface.
• A random heritage in character creation is always one the screen offers: Aluvian, Gharu'ndim or Sho in the classic interface, and one the world has in the modern one.
• @version names the client's own version instead of 0.0.0.
• At a load of exactly 110% the burden penalty shows 20%, as the game's own client does.
• Components carried at log-in are listed in the Components tab whatever order they arrive in.
• Component icons, in the magic window and a spell's examination, have black outlines instead of white, and an examined spell shows its icon composed as the spellbook does.
• Scenery and buildings draw each part at its own scale.
• Logging off releases the world, its objects and its sounds, so the next login starts clean.
• With mouse turning on, the body stops turning when the mouse stops under mouse look, and when the mouse-look button is let go.
• Switching back to the modern interface brings it up on the screen the game is at, with the paper doll at its own size and every option as the other interface left it.
• The classic interface: its Brightness slider no longer doubles the world's brightness; the pointer no longer trails the mouse; text is drawn as the game's own glyphs are; it draws in a fraction of the time it took; the copy key copies the chat log's selection; a drag in the 3D view picks up only what is under the pointer; a salvaging tool opens the salvage window; inverted mouse look reverses every step; holding the run key walks; tells read "Name tells you"; the wheel scrolls every list and the window under the pointer; the startup screen's text is centred.
• On a February 2005 world, objects without a detail record of their own (Holtburg's cottage stairs, doors, beams) draw their own models, and the portal tunnel is no longer black; drawn in the later look, a room's furniture keeps its detail up close.

All changes

Gameplay

• Infiltration plays by its own rules, formulas and loot; Empyrean credits ClassicACE
• Spell research: a world can turn on the early clients' formula test
• Spell research in the classic interface follows the world
• The later paper-doll slots wear classic slots made from the early portal
• Earlier eras keep earning at the level cap and charge for a second oath
• Classic lists report a press on the row already chosen: Break Allegiance and Dismiss act on a selected vassal or fellow, and a chosen attribute or skill pressed again is unselected
• Classic Options page: Show Trade tab (off at first, on worlds with trade), Show Friends tab and Show Squelch tab (on at first, on any world); a hidden page's tab goes and the others share its room
• The Create Spell page's slots stand on the empty item slot's frame
• Classic vitals text sits in the middle of its bar, down as well as across
• Components carried at log-in are listed whatever order the server sends them in
• Examining a spell shows its icon composed and its components with black outlines
• A word the language filter censors keeps the punctuation at either end of it, so a censored first or last word of a message keeps the line's quote (CD-024)
• A stretched part is lit along its true surface when it moves too
• Count selected vendor purchase quantities once in both interfaces
• Preserve vendor carts and synchronize basket controls
• Reconcile vendor receipts and apply described player scale
• Use the active viewport for interior portal clipping
• Reconcile merchant baskets after independently ordered inventory delivery
• The patch's log lines name the file actually patched: portal.dat or cell.dat beside an older world, and the overlay container when one will not write
• Retail interface: a spell learned on the Create Spell page brings up the Spells tab

Graphics & sound

• The dat readers read the February 2005 files: the older container and every record's layout
• Empyrean runs on the February 2005 dats, and the client draws that world
• Ground and sky styles for any world, and the landscape detail texture
• Object Mode: any world's objects drawn with ano...