Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Sound support

[David Pfitzner <dwp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joel Ray Holveck wrote:

> >> Is sound support going to be included in main distribution ?
> 
> I hope so.  But I do not have the time to follow the CVS tree, so I
> will be making my diffs against the 1.8.1 release (until the next
> release is ready).

Hmm, thats a bit unfortunate because freeciv is under rather
active development...  for example, the format of the ruleset 
files has changed since 1.8.1.

> My newest changes have eliminated the sndconf file.  (Unfortunately,
> the list server was down during the earlier discussions on this, so
> they were never made public.)  Now, sounds are implemented through
> units.ruleset and a new file events.ruleset, although the latter is
> probably a misnomer.  Building sounds will be added in
> buildings.ruleset.

Sounds good.

> Up until now, the ruleset has not been loaded by the client.  It is
> entirely possible for the client to use a different ruleset than the
> server.  The client still gets the game details (such as HPs and
> names) from the server; it only uses the rulesets it loads for sounds.

Um, I'm a bit concerned about this... I think it's correct that
the client _not_ load ruleset files, because eg the server could 
be using some third-party modpack the client doesn't know about, 
maybe containing completely different units.  Instead the server 
should load the sounds data and send this information to clients.

A possible approach to avoid putting actual filenames for sounds 
in the ruleset file, and allow flexibility for clients to use 
alternate sounds, could be something like the tilespec stuff I'm 
working on (see recent post).  But maybe I just have a one-track
mind :-)

Regards,
-- David