Substantial progress on the Java Netrek client.  Still a work in progress but given that there’s a 6PM PDT game Thursday I wanted to get the current improvements out the door.  I have another heavy project for a few weeks so this may be it for a while.

https://github.com/netrek/JavaNetrek/releases/latest <https://github.com/netrek/JavaNetrek/releases/latest>
I have a prebuilt executable .jar file attached to the release.

Version 0.9.8 adds the following improvements:

+ You can resize the main window, and the galactic and tactical windows resize appropriately
   - But the icons inside the tactical and galactic windows do not yet resize
   - Still substantial alignment issues related to window layout when you resize.

But it is cool to play Netrek in fullscreen! (Shameless plug: my MacOS Swift client supports that too)

+ Added initial sound support
   - But the sounds are “single threaded”, so (for example) if you fire a 2nd torpedo the sound from the first torpedo will be interrupted.

If any java hackers want to contribute to Netrek source, improving the sound should only require modifications to https://github.com/netrek/JavaNetrek/blob/v0.9.8/src/jtrek/visual/SoundEngineActual.java <https://github.com/netrek/JavaNetrek/blob/v0.9.8/src/jtrek/visual/SoundEngineActual.java>   I think it would be as simple as using a short array of sound clips for each type of sound, and then cycling through the array for each torpedo launch.  (Credit to the old MacTrek client for teaching me that technique).

Improving the scaling in the tactical screen requires modifications to https://github.com/netrek/JavaNetrek/blob/v0.9.8/src/jtrek/visual/LocalPanel.java <https://github.com/netrek/JavaNetrek/blob/v0.9.8/src/jtrek/visual/LocalPanel.java>.  That’s a more involved operation.

Overall layout fixes require modifications to https://github.com/netrek/JavaNetrek/blob/v0.9.8/src/jtrek/visual/NetrekFrame.java <https://github.com/netrek/JavaNetrek/blob/v0.9.8/src/jtrek/visual/NetrekFrame.java>.  In particular my new resizeWindows() function.

If anyone is in contact with Robert Temple (the original Java Netrek client author), I’d love to get in direct contact with him.

Darrell

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