3D Mud Client

In order that people can play your game they will download an install of the mud client and all of your models, textures etc and then connect to your game. This is a description on how to create mud client distribution.

There is a tool in the mud building package that helps make the distribution. It is called the 'pakmaker'. This tool can copy all of your models, sounds and textures to a clean directory and then build a pak file. This pak file is a single file that contains all of your models, sounds etc and make it harder for people to copy your sounds and models etc. The mud client and pak file is then included in an in install built with an inno script that comes with the mud building package.

Making a pak file
To begin making the client distribution first make a pak file using the pak maker. This is a picture of the pak file maker:

By default it will copy models, sounds, textures etc from your c:\program files\mudclient\client directory but can be changed by modifying the 'source directory' edit box. The pak maker will copy these resources over to a clean directory in

c:\program files\mudclient\installbuilder

by pressing the 'Copy from source' button in the pak maker.

You then press the 'Convert to pak' button and it will put all the files underneath the

c:\program files\mudclient\installbuilder

directory into a single 'data' file in the same directory as the pak maker. It should be around 30 Meg if you are making a pak file from the models etc from the original mud building package.

The pak maker will exclude files with the word 'old' in it. Thus if you have the files:

dog.ms3d
dogold2.ms3d
dogold3.ms3d

in the source directory only dog.ms3d will be copied over. Also folders called 'redundant' are ignored. In this way it is possible to keep old copies in your source directory without them getting copied over to your distribution.

Making the install
Once youve created the pak file ('data' file) you can then create the install using the inno script mudclientinstall.iss in the c:\program files\mudclient\installbuilder directory.

The script assumes that the data file is in the 'installbuilder' directory. Notice also the smallimage.bmp and install.bmp files. These can be modified to suit your game. You can also change the inno script to suit your game aswell. Eg change

DefaultDirName={pf}\mudclient

to

DefaultDirName={pf}\Palace of Pleasure

if your new game is called palace of pleasure.

Once youve made your install a good place to distribute it is 'download.com'.

Config file
The pakmaker will put the 'config.xsl' file from your source file into the 'data' file and it will be used by default. But it is possible to have players download a config file from a certain URL every time they run the mud client. This will allow you some flexibility in changing things like the 'host' and 'port' and the font for example used by the mud client. Refer to config file for more information.