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#115 JPG support from the web?
I have no idea if this is even possible. But I've been thinking about this for a BBS door game I am currently writing that will probably being running on CNET BBS on an Amiga.
With SyncTERM running on a PC, would it be possible for a BBS door game that you are connected to make a call out to a URL/File on the internet that has a static image for example.
I have a window in my game dedicated to just show static ASCII images that changed at times based on the area of the game you are in. However could the game running on a BBS just make a call to an image that's on the internet and display it inline on the terminal screen in SyncTERM?
Could you do that same with music/sound effects? like point to a .mp3 or something?
Discussion
Anonymous
I do have a plan to do something like that in v2, but that's likely years away yet... but I may never support JPEGs. However, SyncTERM already has a feature to do what you want (without the web bit) today.
Currently, SyncTERM has the ability to display JPEG XL files downloaded from the BBS, can display parts of the image, and apply a mask. It also caches the images between sessions, so you can put them in the cache at one time, and it will stay there until the user manually deletes them.
So you could preload all the JPEG XL files into the client cache, and just tell SyncTERM which to display when it's appropriate... that's basically how Synchronet Minesweeper works.
The features was designed for exactly what you're doing, and I suspect it would work well.
As for audio, I'll likely be doing the same thing with at least basic WAV files fairly soon. mp3 and tracker files are also being considered, but they're fairly complex formats so I would need to find a library I'm happy with for them and make sure it can coexist with the ANSI music support, so that's later... likely in the next year or two though.
Oh interesting, I had no idea that was in there already... I'm going to have to look into that....
Thanks!
I just checked out Syncronet Minesweeper, I see images, but they looks like ASCII images, what I was thinking was having actual graphical images in higher resolution than you would normally see on a BBS. like a full blown picture of something sitting in a window in one corner of a BBS game... Is that what you were talking about?
Not sure what version of SyncTERM you were running, but for a more obvious example, connect to nix.synchro.net (Example requires SyncTERM v1.5 or higher I think).
There should be a demo with the Synchronet logo bouncing around the screen, and a full screen video when you connect.
Ok, now that is impressive... That's pretty damn cool. This is pretty much what I was looking for, some higher rez images than just ASCII. I will keep this in mind.
Side Note you are in NH? I am too!
Actually, the video is of Rob Swindell (Synchronet author). I'm in Ada, Michigan these days.
So I am getting around to start trying to get some high res graphics working on a BBS. Does this feature in SyncTERM require a Syncronet BBS? I have a Mystic BBS setup to host my own games and I was wondering if you could have the initial BBS login screen be some sort of higher rez picture? I'm not sure how Mystic BBS would even trigger SyncTERM to do anything like that but I figure I would ask. I tried reading through the manual for SyncTERM but it doesn't really make sense to me.
No, it in no way requires a Synchronet BBS. It's entirely possible to have the initial screen be an image, though you would absolutely want to detect the feature first so that anyone using something other than SyncTERM can connect as well.
As for how to do it, you need to use escape sequences, see the cterm manual for more information. CTSFI, CTLJTB, and CTPBTS are the most useful.