Launcher 0.1.9

Spinning rotors, buzzing wings

A quick follow-up to 0.1.8 with fixes from the first round of testing. Thanks, everyone who tried the new mounts!

Mounts

• Airship: all six rotors spin now: the big one on top, the tail fan, and one on each of the four pods. You also sit on the front deck instead of standing, safely under the top rotor. Railings, posts and other thin parts show from every side, so the roof no longer floats in the air.
• Bee: the wings beat now. Before, they stayed frozen.
• Chocobo after another mount: a plain !flymount chocobo should show up even right after riding one of the new mounts. If you still hear the chocobo music but see no chocobo, please tell us.

Graphics

• No more waves in the sky: in hazy weather (dust, fog, sandstorms) the water effect was being painted onto the clouds, with waves that turned with the camera. Clouds stay clouds now.

Known issues

• The airship's center mast is missing, so the top rotor floats a little above the deck.
• Only players on this launcher see the new mounts. Everyone else sees a stand-in: a beetle for the bee, and the Levitus for the airship and the boat. For now that includes other players on this launcher too.
• The bee's wings come out of its back right where you sit, so they may pass through your legs.

Full Changelog: v0.1.8...v0.1.9

Launcher 0.1.8

New mounts: a bee, an airship and a flying boat

This release adds mounts the game never had, and a bigger flying chocobo. It's also needed to sign in to MogHouse's server since its latest update: older launchers get stuck on "Downloading data". Please try the new mounts and tell us what you see. Screenshots help a lot.

Sign-in fix

The latest server update changed how a login's encryption key is made, and older launchers couldn't read anything from the server after picking a character (stuck on "Downloading data"). This launcher signs in to both updated and older servers.

New mounts

On MogHouse's server, GMs can ride these with !flymount. It takes off like !fly; use !flymount again to land.

• !flymount bee: a giant bee, sized to its rider. Tarutaru get a small bee, Galka a big one, and everyone else one in between. Its wings buzz the whole time.
• !flymount airship: a little copy of the airship that flies into Jeuno and Kazham, about 7.6 yalms long, with the dragon figurehead, the four propeller pods and the flags. You stand on the front deck, and the airship theme plays.
• !flymount boat: a flying sailing ship. You stand on the back deck like a captain while the pirates' theme plays.
• The game's own fliers: !flymount hippogryph, tulfaire, levitus, fenrir, pot, chair and more. Type a name it doesn't know to see the whole list.

The launcher builds these mounts from your own copy of the game each time it starts, so nothing new needs downloading.

Flying chocobo

!flymount on its own still gives you a chocobo. Its wings now stretch out to the sides and beat wider, and its legs tuck up tight while it flies. You also fly as fast as !fly now instead of at walking speed.

Known issues

• Only players on this launcher can see the new mounts. Everyone else sees a stand-in so their game doesn't break: a beetle for the bee, and the Levitus for the airship and the boat. For now that includes other players on this launcher too, until the server can tell our launcher apart.
• If a plain !flymount chocobo doesn't appear after riding one of the new mounts (you hear the chocobo music but see nothing), please tell us. This should be fixed, but it couldn't be tested before release. Logging out and back in gets the chocobo back.
• The airship's propellers don't spin yet.
• The bee's wings come out of its back right where you sit, so they may pass through your legs.
• The chocobo's wings are small, so they can only spread so far.

Full Changelog: v0.1.7...v0.1.8

Launcher 0.1.7

A new look for Vana'diel

This release is mostly about graphics: weather that changes the world, water of our own, a night sky, and a lot of things that are just for fun. Most of it is new and still being tuned, so please try everything and tell us what you see. Screenshots help a lot.

Almost everything lives in one new window: open the Overlay settings (the sliders icon on the bar) and click Graphics.... It has four tabs: Water, Weather, Fun and Camera.

Weather

The zone's weather now changes the world, not just the sky:

• Rain and squalls: the ground soaks in over about half a minute. It gets darker and shiny, mirrors the sky, and puddles form on flat ground with rings where the drops land. Raindrops strike the ground, and rain falls across the screen even in zones that never drew any.
• Snow and blizzards: snow falls, then settles on the ground in patches that fill in, glinting, and melts after the weather passes.
• Fog, sandstorms, gloom: a thicker fog rolls in.
• Hot spells and heat waves: the air shimmers in the distance.
• Thunder: lightning lights up the world now and then.
• At night: more stars come out, twinkling, with the occasional shooting star. The Stars and Star brightness sliders are in the Weather tab.

Each effect can be turned off in the Weather tab. To try one without waiting for the weather, type //xi fx weather 7 (squall), 13 (blizzard), 3 (fog), 5 (heat wave) or 15 (thunderstorms). //xi fx weather -1 goes back to the real weather.

Water

The Water tab gives the game's water our own look: waves, the sky mirrored in them, and the sun's and moon's glint. You can change its color, brightness, opacity, deep color, wave height, speed, size and direction, how much it mirrors the sky, and the glint. This is new and still being tuned zone by zone, so please tell us where the water looks good, and where it doesn't change at all.

Fun

• Aurora: curtains of light in the northern sky at night, in the color and brightness you pick.
• Wireframe: see the zone as a wireframe while people and monsters stay as they are, or put everything in wireframe.
• Filters: gray, sepia, inverted, night vision, or a color of your choice.
• Size anything: target something, or pick it from the Nearby list (things you can't target are listed too), and make it bigger or smaller. Only you see it.
• Ships rock at the dock: in Selbina and Mhaura the docked ship rises and falls with the waves, and anyone standing on its deck rocks with it. Aboard the ferries, the Manaclipper and the barge, the whole world sways gently around you.
• Birds, butterflies and fish: turn the sliders up to bring out more of the zone's own creatures, up to two thousand each. Flying fish sends the fish into the air.

Camera

The Camera tab flies a cinematic camera through the zone. Press Record, then walk or fly the route you want. Press Play or Loop to fly it back smoothly, with the interfaces hidden and black film bars. You can also save and load your flights by name, or let Tour circle whatever you're looking at. Esc ends a flight.

Interface

• Edit GUI (in the Overlay settings): move and resize the chat, map, party and target windows, then Lock the GUI so nothing gets moved or closed by accident. Locked windows have no title bars.
• Map opacity: right-click the map.
• Hidden until you play: the overlay now stays hidden on the title, login and character screens.
• Esc lets go of your target again while the overlay's Target window is up.

On MogHouse's server

• !skyfx (GMs) gives a zone a look everyone with this launcher sees: an aurora, a wireframe world, or a color filter. Other clients see the zone as usual.
• !flymount (GMs) puts you on a chocobo and takes off like !fly. The chocobo beats its wings and tucks its legs until you land. Use !flymount again to come down. This one goes live with the next server update.

Known issues

• The water look doesn't reach every zone's water yet. Some seas are drawn as part of the zone itself.
• While you fly a chocobo, other riders on the same color of chocobo near you flap too.
• The aurora and stars should stay put in the sky as you turn. If they seem to follow your camera, please send a screenshot.
• Lots of copies of birds or fish (hundreds and up) can slow the game down. Lower the slider if it does.
• Graphics debugging: //xi fx mark 9 paints what the effects see (ground green, walls red, water blue). Turn it off with //xi fx mark 0.

Full Changelog: v0.1.6...v0.1.7

v0.1.6

Flying works

On MogHouse's server, !fly turns you into a random flying creature (a bat, wasp, bomb, roc, wyvern, imp, puk and more), and now you can really fly:

• Hold Space to rise and hold X to sink.
• Moving climbs or dives the way the camera looks. At the camera's usual angle you fly level.
• Walls and the ground stop you: the server puts you back if you try to fly through them. If your own !wallhack was already on when you took off, you can fly through anything, and it stays on when you land.
• !fly again sets you down on the floor below you.

Fixes

• Holding Space or X no longer opens the game's chat line.
• Taking off again in a new costume no longer crashes the game.

Full Changelog: v0.1.5...v0.1.6

v0.1.5

Flying (early, in testing)

On MogHouse's server, !fly turns you into a random flying creature: a bat, wasp, bomb, roc, wyvern, imp, puk and more. When the flight ends, you're set down on the nearest floor.

The game itself is learning to fly like swimming: hold Space to rise and X to sink, and moving climbs or dives the way the camera looks. This part is still being worked on and may not respond yet.

For testers

• //xi find <value> lists where your character keeps a value, such as your height.
• The game's log records more about jumps, flying and how each frame is drawn, to help track down the remaining issues: smoother jumps, flying, and hair missing in character creation.

Full Changelog: v0.1.4...v0.1.5

FFXI Launcher 0.1.4

Knocked out

With the modern GUI on, being knocked out now has its own screen:

• The world goes grey (on Mac for now), with "Knocked out" and the time left until you're sent home.
• Return to Home Point answers the game's own death menu and its Yes/No for you.
• Wait for a Raise shrinks it all to a strip at the top. When someone offers a Raise, the screen steps back so you can answer the game's question.
• Chat still works: press Space, Enter, / or !. While you're knocked out, Say, Shout and Yell are held back; Party, Linkshell and Tell still go through.

Jumping

• J jumps (/jump), with the modern GUI shown or hidden. It can be turned off in the overlay's settings.
• On MogHouse's server, a jump now leaves the ground: you can leap up onto ledges, rocks and steps up to 4 yalms high, or down off them. Walls, fences and the game's invisible barriers still stop you.

Chat box

• Up and Down go back through the lines you've sent.
• The chat box hint now matches the keys.

Launcher

• Profiles: each account keeps its own settings, logs and overlay layout.
• Several games at once: play two accounts on a server side by side.
• Questions stay visible: a question from the game near the hidden chat log (like "Return to home point?") is no longer hidden by the modern GUI.

ffxi-native is now MIT-licensed.

Full Changelog: v0.1.3...v0.1.4

FFXI Launcher 0.1.3

Game updates when the server moves on

• A newer game version, on Play. When a server runs a newer version of the game than your install, the launcher asks before it starts: Update your game now? Only the files that changed are downloaded, from the server's update site. Your old version is kept, compressed, for any server that still uses it.
• Older versions over your install. A server on an older version plays from a small set of files laid over your install. Your install isn't copied, and the files are only made when needed.
• Versions in Settings. See the versions you keep, compress one you aren't using (Shelve), or remove it.
• The account chip shows the version that account plays.
• Questions that wait for you. Update, Delete account and Repair now ask first and wait for your answer. Before, they went ahead without asking.

Fixes

• Lobby error 3101 is fixed. It came from a timing problem when the character list arrived in pieces over the internet.
• Sign-in: the launcher tries again when the server turns away its data connection at once.
• Making a character no longer crashes (palette support in the graphics layer).
• Character names: we ship our own short name list, so names aren't refused for no reason and you don't need PlayOnline.
• Chat: the game's own chat log stays hidden under the overlay's chat.

The overlay (Cmd+U on macOS, Ctrl+Shift+U elsewhere; F12 for its bar)

• Chat: tabs, the game's colors, auto-translate (Tab), /chatmode, and ! commands.
• Windows: Party, Target, Equipment and Items.
• A radar map drawn over the game's own map art, for every expansion.
• Names over heads in the overlay's font, hidden behind walls.
• The game's own windows step out of the way: its party list, target box and log.

Also

• Graphics: MetalFX upscaling and 3D quality presets.
• The game window: it can be resized, has a volume setting, and uses every pixel of a Retina display.
• Closing the window in the world logs you out first.
• New accounts: you can make an account on a LandSandBoat server from the launcher.
• Steam Deck: notes in the README.

Full Changelog: v0.1.2...v0.1.3

v0.1.2

Full Changelog: v0.1.1...v0.1.2

v0.1.1

Full Changelog: v0.1.0...v0.1.1

ffxi-native 0.1.0

First release.

macOS (Apple Silicon): FFXI-Launcher-macos-arm64.zip, signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. Unzip, move FFXI Launcher to Applications, and open it: it finds your FINAL FANTASY XI folder, makes the game for it (about a minute; the first time on a Mac without Xcode's tools it downloads a C compiler, zig, from ziglang.org), and asks for your server.

Linux (x86_64, aarch64): the .deb and AppImage are attached by CI when its build finishes.

For private servers only (LandSandBoat, or private PlayOnline emulation). You need your own copy of FINAL FANTASY XI's files; none are included. Built on rubymatrix/xi-on-mac.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/tagban/ffxi-native/commits/v0.1.0