Liquid War (v5.4.0) - Source code




General remarks
===============


  Liquid War 5 is basically a big C program, and this section explains what you
  can find in source files. I've splitted the source code in many small files
  for I do not like to have to handle big monolithic sources, but this does not
  mean Liquid War is very modular. In fact Liquid War 5 is quite bloated with
  global variables and other ugly stuff 8-(



List of C source files
======================


  advanced.c / advanced.h
  -----------------------

    Contains the GUI advanced options menu.

  alleg2.c / alleg2.h
  -------------------

    Contains some tweaked allegro functions. I wanted to use bitmaps with
    sevral colors for my fonts, and change some of the allegro default
    behavior. So rather than modifying the allegro source code right in the
    library I copied it in this file and then modified it.

  area.c / area.h
  ---------------

    Contains functions to create the game area. Basically it contains functions
    to create the data structures in which the level is stored during the game.

  army.c / army.h
  ---------------

    Functions to create the armies, and place them on the battlefield.

  autoplay.c / autoplay.h
  -----------------------

    Contains the code for the computer AI. This module simulates keypresses
    from the computer, then the computer is handled as any other player.

  back.c / back.h
  ---------------

    This modules displays the background image.

  base.h
  ------

    Contains global constants used in many different files.

  basicopt.c / basicopt.h
  -----------------------

    Handles basic command line parameters such as "-v" or "-h".

  bigdata.c / bigdata.h
  ---------------------

    I had a really hard time with the malloc function with DJGPP under Win95
    dos box. I tried to have it working for hours and hours but my program kept
    being buggy. So I decided to allocate the memory myself, in a memory zone I
    create at startup. This is what this module does: create a huge memory zone
    and then give parts of it to the rest of the program.

  code.c / code.h
  ---------------

    This file contains the code to handle key presses during the game. That's
    to say the pause key for instance.

  config.c / config.h
  -------------------

    Contains everything that is related to the game configuration. This module
    contains in global variables all the parameters that are stored in the
    config file.

  cursor.c / cursor.h
  -------------------

    Contains the code to init the cursors and place them on the battlefield at
    the beginning of the game.

  decal.c / decal.h
  -----------------

    This module makes the link between teams and players. Its coding is quite
    ugly, for some modules in LW assume that when 2 teams are playing they are
    always teams 0 and 1. So when 3 teams are playing are playing and the
    second team loses, one has to make team 2 become team 1. That's what this
    module is for.

  dialog.c / dialog.h
  -------------------

    Contains code for standard dialog boxes.

  disk.c / disk.h
  ---------------

    Contains all the code to access data from the hard drive. In fact, all the
    HD access is done at startup.

  disp.c / disp.h
  ---------------

    Contains functions to display the battlefield.

  distor.c / distor.h
  -------------------

    This module contains code to create the "wave effect". It uses a lot of
    data tables, and is quite complicated to understand...

  error.c / error.h
  -----------------

    Contains functions to display error messages once the game is in graphical
    mode.

  exit.c / exit.h
  ---------------

    Contains code that is executed when the game ends, it shuts down Allegro
    and displays messages on the console.

  fighter.c / fighter.h
  ---------------------

    Contains code to move the armies, once the gradient has been calculated.

  game.c / game.h
  ---------------

    Contains the main game loop.

  gfxmode.c / gfxmode.h
  ---------------------

    Contains code to set up the various video modes, and defines which modes
    are available for each platform.

  glouglou.s / glouglou.h
  -----------------------

    Assembly module, it is a replacement for some functions of distor.c. It
    goes much faster but does the same.

  grad.c / grad.h
  ---------------

    This module calculates the gradient for each team. One could say it's the
    "kernel" of the game, since most of the CPU time is spent in this module
    (except if you have a slow display...).

  graphics.c / graphics.h
  -----------------------

    Code for the graphic options menu.

  help.c / help.h
  ---------------

    Generic functions to display the various help pages.

  info.c / info.h
  ---------------

    Contains code to display the info bar. The info bar is the bar which
    display the time left and the amount of players for each team while the
    game is running.

  init.c / init.h
  ---------------

    Contains code to initialize Allegro with proper options and analyze
    failures.

  joystick.c / joystick.h
  -----------------------

    Contains code to support joystick input. It wraps joystick buttons to
    virtual keyboard keys, so that joystick and keyboard behave exactly the
    same.

  keyboard.c / keyboard.h
  -----------------------

    Contains code to handle key presses.

  keyexch.c / keyexch.h
  ---------------------

    Functions to send and receive keys to the server. Used on the client.

  level.c / level.h
  -----------------

    Contains code for the menu where the player can select a level and its
    options (texture or color).

  log.h
  -----

    Common header for logcli.c and logsrv.c.

  logcli.c
  --------

    Contains code to display messages on the console. It's usefull for console
    may have different behaviors when the games is used on different platforms.
    This file is used to compile the client.

  logsrv.c
  --------

    Contains code to display messages on the console. This file is used to
    compile the server, which does not use Allegro at all.

  main.c / main.h
  ---------------

    The file where the main C function is declared. Doesn't contain much except
    calling init functions and running the GUI.

  map.c / map.h
  -------------

    Contains code to load the maps from a datafile raw data or a user defined
    bitmap to a usable structure in RAM.

  menu.c / menu.h
  ---------------

    Contains the code for the main menu.

  mesh.c / mesh.h
  ---------------

    Contains code to set up a usable mesh with a map. Mesh are re-calculated at
    each time a new game is started, the reason for this being that meshes are
    *very* big so it would not be reasonnable to save them directly on the HD.

  message.c / message.h
  ---------------------

    Provides an API to display messages during the game. Very useful if you
    want to debug the game: you can trace and display anything.

  monster.s / monster.h
  ---------------------

    Assembly functions to speed-up the game. It's a replacement for some
    fighter.c functions.

  mouse.c / mouse.h
  -----------------

    Wraps the mouse movements to virtual keyboard keys. This way the mouse can
    be used to control the players.

  move.c / move.h
  ---------------

    Provides an API to move the cursors.

  netconf.c / netconf.h
  ---------------------

    Code to send and receive the config of the clients over the network.

  netgame.c / netgame.h
  ---------------------

    Contains the code for the net game menu.

  netkey.c / netkey.h
  -------------------

    Contains some tools to manipulate key strokes over the network.

  netmap.c / netmap.h
  -------------------

    Code to send and receive the maps over the network.

  netmess.c / netmess.h
  ---------------------

    Contains a parser to interpret plain text messages. Used when exhanging
    information over the network.

  network.c / network.h
  ---------------------

    Contains some network related functions and constants used on the client.

  options.c / options.h
  ---------------------

    Contains the code for the options menu.

  palette.c / palette.h
  ---------------------

    Contains function to set up the current color palette. Liquid War uses
    different palettes, depending on what colors are chosen for teams.

  parser.c / parser.h
  -------------------

    Contains code to parse and analyze the command line parameters.

  pion.c / pion.h
  ---------------

    Contains code to display the cursors.

  play.c / play.h
  ---------------

    Contains the code which ties the menu to the main gameloop.

  profile.c / profile.h
  ---------------------

    Provides tools to calculate how fast the game is runnning and what
    operations slow it down.

  protocol.c / protocol.h
  -----------------------

    Contains the sequence of messages send and recevied by the client when
    connecting on the server.

  rules.c / rules.h
  -----------------

    Code for the rules menu.

  score.c / score.h
  -----------------

    Functions to display the scores at the end of the game.

  server.c / server.h
  -------------------

    Main code for the server (equivalent of main.c for the client).

  sock2cli.c
  ----------

    Code used to wrap low-level network function on the client.

  sock2gen.h
  ----------

    Header for sock2cli.c and sock2srv.c.

  sock2srv.c
  ----------

    Code used to wrap low-level network function on the server.

  sockdos.c
  ---------

    Network API for DOS.

  sockgen.h
  ---------

    header for sockdos.c, sockunix.c and sockw32.c.

  sockunix.c
  ----------

    Network API for UNIX.

  sockw32.c
  ---------

    Network API for Win32.

  sound.c / sound.h
  -----------------

    Functions to play sound.

  spread.s / spread.h
  -------------------

    Contains assembly replacements for some functions of grad.c. These
    replacements do the same than the original ones from grad.c, but faster.
    Could still be optimized.

  srvchan.c / srvchan.h
  ---------------------

    Code used to handles channels on the server. A channel is associated to a
    given computer and may manage several teams.

  srvcont.c / srvcont.h
  ---------------------

    Global network controler used on the server.

  srvteam.c / srvteam.h
  ---------------------

    Code used to handle teams on the server.

  startup.c / startup.h
  ---------------------

    Analyzes the command line parameters and stores them into global variables.

  team.c / team.h
  ---------------

    Code for the team menu.

  texture.c / texture.h
  ---------------------

    Contains code to handle textures. Textures are stored in a special format
    which uses 5 bits per pixel.

  ticker.c / ticker.h
  -------------------

    Sets up a timer callback.

  time.c / time.h
  ---------------

    Functions to know how long the game has been running, knowing that it can
    be interrupted.

  volume.c / volume.h
  -------------------

    Code for the sound menu.

  disk.c / disk.h
  ---------------

    Contains all the code to access data from the hard drive. In fact, all the
    HD access is done at startup.

  watchdog.c / watchdog.h
  -----------------------

    This module waits for "secret codes" to be typed while the game is running,
    and traps them.

  wave.c / wave.h
  ---------------

    Code for the wave menu.

