SphereCommunity - News

New 64bit builds

Tue, 14 Jan 2020 22:43:10 +0100

Starting the new year with some good news, Sphere 0.56d now have 64bit builds!

It's already available on downloads page. GitHub page also got updated with setup instructions for 64bit builds if you prefer compile it manually.

Both 32bit/64bit builds are compatible with each other and share the same source code and script pack.

To switch between 32bit/64bit build you must also switch MySQL client library to the version compatible with selected arch

Windows: replace 'libmysql.dll' file with the version included on downloaded zip
Linux: replace MySQL package (Ubuntu: 'libmysqlclient20' to 64bit or 'libmysqlclient20:i386' to 32bit / CentOS: 'mysql-community-libs' to 64bit or 'mysql-community-libs.i686' to 32bit)

32bit arch can use only up to 4gb RAM and deal with numbers up to 2^32, while 64bit arch can use more than 4gb RAM and deal with numbers up to 2^64. If your server doesn't need this, you can stay using 32bit build without any problems. But note that all modern OS's use 64bit as native arch and 32bit as backward compatibility, so 64bit build is slightly faster than 32bit build because it will use native 64bit CPU features instead 32bit backward compatibility.

Linux build is back / Interface updates

Sun, 08 Sep 2019 05:21:24 +0200

After a long time broken, linux build is finally fixed. On some quick testing everything seems to be working fine, no more exceptions at server startup or weird text characters everywhere.

It also have many new internal improvements, which are not really new because these changes are already there since some time ago, but since last linux build working was from a year ago, now people will be able to use the latest build with all these changes.

I can't test it on a live environment since I don't use linux, but feel free to test and report any problem if something still not working correctly.

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And there's also some more interface updates

Admin panel
The new admin panel script was entirely redone from scratch, now using updated code, modern dialogs, and also an new "search" feature.

Old

New

Status webpage
The old 2000's-like HTML page also got updated to a modern/clean HTML5 page, which now follow the same design from Sphere forums.
This status page is not used so often because people don't even know that it exists, but it's an useful feature. Every server have this status page enabled by default, so unless it got manually disabled on sphere.ini, you can access it on http://server-login-or-ip:port

Old

New

These changes are already available on latest build, you just need to update your sphere_admin.scp file and /scripts/web folder.

Forum updates

Fri, 28 Jun 2019 00:57:25 +0200

I just recently updated the forums to reflect the current development.
There is a section for 0.56d and one for X.
I added a forum in the outdated section for 0.56a/b/c so things are not mixed in with current development.

Nightly downloads have also been updated as requested. There is no more downloads for SphereX debug builds. Those can be obtained from devs if testing is required.

General interface updates

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 09:14:02 +0200

After stay the same for more than a decade, Sphere finally got some general interface updates to make it feel more "modern"

Help menu
- The old prehistoric code using MENUs got updated to new DIALOGs that can be easily customizable
- Players now can send GM pages directly through the dialog, and also remove the request itself

Old

New

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GM Page menu
- The engine is now softcoded and can be easily customized
- Now everything is dialog-based, GMs doesn't need to manually use page commands anymore
- GM pages can be replied remotely, where players will receive the reply on a dialog even when afk or offline (when offline, it will show on next login)
- Marking the page as "handled" will lock it, only the current GM handling it will be able to reply/delete the page

Old

New

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Information menu (command .info)
- Old T2A dialogs got updated to an modern AOS design
- Now it will show more information about the item/char
- Dialogs will show properties based on server settings (eg: it will only show elemental damages/resists when elemental combat is enabled, etc)

Old

New

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These changes are already available on latest build, you just need to update the .exe and some few scripts (sphere_dialog.scp, sphere_msgs.scp and sphere_skills.scp).
More dialogs are planned to be updated (eg: add/admin dialogs) but there's no estimated date.

Happy new year!

Mon, 01 Jan 2018 20:28:45 +0100

I know this place is not as busy as it used to be, but to all the dedicated sphereserver users, I want to wish all a happy new year!
I hope this project keeps going for many more years to come.

Compiler updated - Linux builds

Sun, 01 Oct 2017 06:47:42 +0200

This month our automatic compiler server for linux builds got updated from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise) to 14.04 LTS (Trusty), so Sphere linux builds now will be compiled under this linux version.

Usually in most cases this won't cause any drawback for users, but anyway if you get any compatibility problem on new Sphere builds, just take a few minutes to update your linux packages used by Sphere, this should be enough to keep Sphere running without problems.

Site update

Tue, 24 Jan 2017 22:54:18 +0100

Very shortly, I will have to update the php version of the site from php5 to php7. This is causing some issues with some of the sites code so bare with me while I fix it. It is possible that some pages will not be available during that time.

Thanks,
Ben

Sphere Download

Thu, 08 Dec 2016 03:55:06 +0100

Some might have already noticed that old sphere server versions are now available directly in our downloads section instead of having people looking everywhere to find them. This does not mean that we can or will fix bugs in them. Development will only continue from the latest version.

That said, the nightly site will no longer be used. We have arranged to have the automated repo builds go directly into the downloads section of this site. These builds are not updated nightly, but will be updated every time a change is made to the repo within a few minutes.

Enjoy!

Sphere 0.56c Pre-release / 0.56d Nightly

Mon, 11 Apr 2016 01:51:18 +0200

3 years had passed since the last 0.56b Pre-release, and finally today we are proud to release the final 0.56c Pre-release build and start 0.56d Nightlies development.

Download: http://prerelease.sphere.torfo.org/
Changelog: http://prerelease.sphere.torfo.org/revis...hp?rev=56c

-What's the difference between 0.56b and 0.56c?
As you can see on changelog, there's many hundreds of changes. Sphere still the same as always, but now much more stable, fast, optimized, and supporting new functions and new UO expansions up to Time of Legends (TOL).

-What's the difference between 0.56c and 0.56d?
There's no difference, we just released the final version of 0.56c and started 0.56d development using all current files as it is.
0.56c won't receive more updates and all newest updates now goes to 0.56d builds.

-What's the difference between Nightly and Pre-release builds?
There's no difference, Pre-release builds are just Nightly builds which got renamed when reach the final version.
So if you're already using 0.56c nightlies, you can update it to 0.56c Pre-Release without problems. Or if you prefer, you can jump directly to 0.56d nightlies to continue receiving all the newest changes.

-I'm using an old 0.56b build from years ago. I can update it to 0.56c?
Yes, the coding style is the same, so you can still using your current scripts and save files. But it's highly recommended update the script pack too, otherwise you will have many problems and strange behaviors. This is not an simple copy/paste work (unless you want overwrite your scripts with the default ones), so it will take some hours/days/weeks depending on your server customization.

Open Source!

Sun, 04 Oct 2015 23:10:20 +0200

After years of debates in the community, SphereServer is now open source!

As some of you already knew, the repository had been recently moved to Github, and now it's available to all.
The server repository can be found here: https://github.com/Sphereserver/Source
The scripts repository here: https://github.com/Sphereserver/Scripts

Enjoy!

Updated MySQL client

Fri, 25 Sep 2015 23:39:37 +0200

Some weeks ago the MySQL client used on Sphere 0.56c got updated from version 4.1.18 to 6.1.6.
All MySQL functions on sphere stay exactly the same as always, but now running on a much more improved code, because the old version was released on 2006 (9 years ago) and now we're using the latest 2015 release.

Sphere requires the libMySQL.dll file to enable MySQL functions, and this file also got updated.
So to keep everything working fine and without errors, we highly recommend update this file to the latest version avaible on the nightlies page:
http://nightly.prerelease.sphere.torfo.org

Temporary WIN download link

Sun, 23 Aug 2015 20:24:35 +0200

EDIT: Regular links are available again in http://sphere.torfo.org/index.php

Major improvements on Sphere internal code

Thu, 21 May 2015 02:18:26 +0200

Long time without any news, but I'm here again...
Latest nightly build 2290 (21 may 2015) got a huge improvement on the following internal code:

Skills
Walk
General ticks (status regen, timer updates, NPC AI, ...)

These codes must run million of times per day, since all players/NPCs are walking, using skills and running background general ticks at every second. But now we got an optimized code, resulting in a faster performance overall.

Of course servers with light wordsave, few players/NPCs or running on a high performance CPU won't notice any significant changes on performance, but this can be useful when we got a heavy worldsave, many players/NPCs or a low performance CPU.

These changes are already live on nightly builds, and as always, feel free to report it on BugTracker if something goes wrong.

Major update on combat engine (damage/armor calculations)

Thu, 29 Jan 2015 02:55:49 +0100

As promised, I'm bringing good news to everyone
With some users feedback, I made a huge optimization on sphere internal damage/armor calculations. This means: the code is now lightweight, faster, and support some new features.

If someone want use new features, just enable it and they will be ready to use.
And if someone want keep using old calculations, they still avaible and fully working too.

Changes:

COMBAT_SPECIALDAMAGE and COMBAT_USE_RESISTANCE settings on sphere.ini are now a single COMBAT_ELEMENTAL_ENGINE which does the same thing (but now unified)
COMBAT_ELEMENTAL_ENGINE now totally overrides old AR calculations with new AOS damage/resist types instead use both at the same time. If you want the new AOS engine just enable this, otherwise keep it disabled to use the old pre-AOS engine (AR)
The old AR was doing a wrong calculation for years and now it's fixed (calculation details explained below)
Char damage is now calculated using correct formulas. If unarmed (wrestling) the base damage will be the char DAM (default is 1-4 for all players, but it can be customizable, just make sure that your c_man/c_woman/c_elf_male/etc chardefs has proper DAM set), and using weapons the base damage will be the weapon damage. This base damage can be increased with some bonuses (if COMBAT_OSIDAMAGEMOD it will use OSI bonus calculation, otherwise it will use sphere default bonus [STR/10]).
On AOS+ clients, the char status menu now will show exactly the damage range that the char can deal (including all bonuses)
New blood effects

Removed features (as discussed here):

COMBAT_TARGETTEDHIT setting on sphere.ini. Previously it was used to set a hit prefference and make the char hit this body location. The internal code got removed to make the general code more lightweight, and if someone still using this feature, it can be softcoded on scripts without problems.
All "hit location" messages on sphere_msgs.scp. They are just tons of random messages without any real functionality.
Old [Physical/Fire/Cold/Poison/Energy]Damage properties got removed and replaced with the new DAM[Physical/Fire/Cold/Poison/Energy], which is compatible with COMBAT_ELEMENTAL_ENGINE and works using correct calculations.

These changes will be live on next nightly (30/01/15), I recommend everyone make some tests before use it on live servers, and also update your sphere.ini (CombatFlags list) and sphere_msgs.scp (just remove all combat_hit_* messages)

Feel free to test it and make any suggestion

More info about elemental engine (AOS) x old AR engine (pre-AOS):

Spoiler (Click to View)

PetSlots experimental feature

Thu, 23 Oct 2014 20:10:20 +0200

This week I took a closer look at the EF_PetSlots feature on sphere.ini to completely rewrite it.
It was unfinished for many years, but on next nightly build from 24 oct 2014 (build 2080) this feature will come back to live.

But as it will involve many pet behaviors, it need some testing before we consider it truly reliable.
It's already included on nightly builds, all we need to do is enable EF_PetSlots on sphere.ini and add MAXFOLLOWER property on all players (otherwise the pet counter will be 0/0 and the char will never be able to get a new pet because it already reached the max limit).

Feel free to test it and report any problem found.

The basics:

Quote:1) Counter will raise when:
-Unshrink the pet (@DClick on t_figurine)
-Summon a creature using any summon spell
-Get a pet transfered to you
-Buy a pet on a npc
-Retrieve a pet stabled on NPC

2) Counter will decrease when:
-Pet die or get removed
-Pet get deserted (@PetDesert, "all release" command or when owner attack it)
-Transfer the pet to someone

New test build

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 14:20:40 +0200

There is a new test build in the downloads section http://forum.spherecommunity.net/sshare.php?srt=4 for Windows and Linux
This is to test bug #2362 http://tracker.sphere.torfo.org/bugs/view.php?id=2362
which may affect the attacker system.

There is also a bonus addon not present in the nightly yet. It contains BREAK and CONTINUE for loops in scripts.

Enjoy!

Major Update!

Tue, 15 Jul 2014 01:37:37 +0200

NOT!

Just thought I'd change the news and point out how AWESOME our new team of developers is doing... cough... where ever they are... cough...

Yay for Sphere!!!

Development Improvement

Thu, 10 Apr 2014 01:49:43 +0200

So, with recent events we have had a week long discussion and we are now starting to increase the development team. I have brought on several new members inside and outside the community to try and give development a hand.

Members including Extreme, Feeh, Avatar, Xantier, and Kons. There are a few more pending addition at this point.

As I stated on the Facebook Page: This is not only for Sphere, but for the longevity of UO. Kons and several others are also working on the Unity Client and other client options in case EA is to drop UO. There is a huge movement going on right now and we are hoping the dedication to this movement for UO and Sphere's future persists.

Thank you all for being a part of this.

- Khaos

Another new facking developer?

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 15:14:29 +0100

Spread the blame, I spotted today that Awaken had been promoted to dev.

FACK!

Congrats!

Script pack changes

Wed, 05 Mar 2014 20:43:38 +0100

For a while now, changes are done to the default script pack and it's becoming hard for users to keep track of those changes.
It is also hard for us to document all the changes done to each individual scripts. Some users have asked if it was possible to have a list of changes done to each script to make it easier to do the changes to your own scripts without needing to download the whole pack again. Well, here it is

http://scripts.spherecommunity.net/

In here you will be able to check ALL the changes done to each scripts on every revisions done.

Note: the sphere.ini is not in there right now so it has no previous records of changes, but I will add it in this repository shortly.
A permanent link will be added to the forum at some point.