PolyPaint

Warning: This site may contain poorly drawn representations of certain parts of the male anatomy portrayed in contexts not suitable for young children. Viewer discression is advised!

Advert Thine Eyes!

1. Introduction
2. Usage
   • First Time
   • Loading
   • Drawing
   • Tools
   • Chat Commands
   • Tips And Tricks
3. Download
   • Bleeding Edge
   • Original Client
4. Compiling

Introduction

PolyPaint is a multi-user art program, the latest version of which is 0.9. It has nothing to do with ZBrush or polygons. It is entirely pixel based software rendered painty goodness. The poly simply means 'many', as it can be used my multiple people at the same time. On a good day, anyway.

To see some art created with this program, look here or here.

Usage

First Time

The first time you run PolyPaint you'll be asked to enter some information:

• Server Name:
  The address of the server to connect to, which by default, is smart-idiot.no-ip.com.
• Server Port:
  The port the server is running on. Will probably always be 2020.
• Username:
  The username you would like to use.
• Screen Width:
  The width screen, in pixels. Needs to be at least 640.
• Screen Height:
  The height of the screen, in pixels. Defaults to 3/4ths of the chosen screen width.
• Fullscreen:
  Enter 'y' if you want PolyPaint to use the full screen instead of running in a window. You'll need to have selected appropriate width and height values for this to work.

Loading

While the client is expecting data from the server, an indicator will appear at the top of the screen.

You really shouldn't draw while it's going, because if there are still things to draw from other users, your client will have to keep erasing and redrawing what you've drawn in order to keep the image consistant with everyone else. This is especially true when you first start, as you might end up destroying somebody elses work, which hasn't been loaded for you yet.

Drawing

You draw using the mouse. Hold the left mouse button, move the mouse around, and release the left mouse button.

If you make a mistake and you want to change it BEFORE you have released the left mouse button, press the right mouse button to cancel your line.

This program has no undo function. Once you draw something, it's stuck there until it gets drawn over.

You can easily draw lines by holding the shift key while drawing. You can release the shift key and press it again while drawing to create a smooth curve.

If you right click on the image, you can select a colour from the image. PolyPaint will choose a nearby colour that is close to the average under your cursor.

Tools

Pressing the tab key will bring you to the tools menu. You can press tab or escape to leave this menu.

• Pen:
  This tool is used to draw fine lines.
• Pencil:
  This tool draws fuzzy lines. You can set the line width using the slider in the menu.
• Paintbrush:
  This tool draws brush strokes. Really long strokes will run out of paint. You can set both the brush size and the rate at which it runs out of paint.
• Chalk:
  This tool draws fuzzy lines, similar to the pencil. You can set the size inthe menu.
• Smudge:
  This tool smudges the image. You can set the size of the dumdge and how much it smudges in the menu.
• Stamp:
  This tool draws evenly spaced cirles. You can set the size of the circles and their spacing in the menu.
• Paint Can:
  This tool is used for setting the colour you're using. The first box allows you to select value and saturation. The second allows you to select hue. The remaining boxes are your recently selected colours. If you right click, you can mix that colour with the colour you already have selected.
• Chat Box:
  This tool allows you to see previous messages, and to chat with other users. Simply type what you want to say and press enter. The chat box can also be used to enter commands. . .

Chat Commands

• MOTD:
  Sets the message of the day.
  Usage: /motd [password] [message]
• Restart:
  Asks the server to restart the image.
  Usage: /restart
• User:
  Lists all the currently logged in users.
  Usage: /user
• Kick:
  Asks the user to kick a user.Usage" /kick [user | user-id]
• Help:
  Lists and shows how to use the various commands.
  Usage: /help [command]
• 8Ball:
  Ask a question, and it will answer. This is client side and won't be seen by other users.
  Usage: /8ball [question]

Tips and Tricks:

If you press the alt key, you can see the names of all the users and what they've drawn.

User names are used with some of the commands you can enter in the chat box, /kick for example.

If you want to clear the current image, you can use the restart command. Enter /restart into the chat box.

You can quickly get to the chat menu by pressing '/' or '~'.

Download

Bleeding Edge

Win32 Client: [7z] [tar+bzip2] [tar+gzip] [zip]

The client is the result of my cross-compiling efforts. It didn't seem to work properly in Wine, but I'm hoping that's Wine's fault.

Source: [7z] [tar+bzip2] [tar+gzip] [zip]

Git repository: git://smart-idiot.no-ip.com/PolyPaint.git [ChangeLog]

The Original Client From Way Back When:

Win32 Client: client.zip

Allegro 4.0 DLL: alleg40.zip

Compiling

Requires the following libraries:

• allegro
• bzip2

Assuming you have the above libraries installed, Linux users should hopefully just need to type make for the debug version, or DEBUGGING=NO make. I don't have any of those wonderful automake scripts.

Windows users, I've only ever compiled it with MinGW. If you have msys, you can try BERKSOCK=NO make, maybe you'll get lucky.

If you're using something else, you're on your own, best of luck to you.

Where are we going with this?

Don't know. I think later I might try porting the drawing code to render to OpenGL textures, and maybe try running it in xscreensaver.

After that, who knows? The UI really needs to be rewritten. I don't like the current GUI, there is some alternate gui code that I started but it isn't used for anything. It eventually got replaced by Grape, but I never finished that either. I'm really good at not finishing projects. I'm sure many of you can relate.

Back. . .