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