Odds and Ends on LUMA

This page was made for these reasons:

Ok, Now for some content:

As a programmer, I normally hand code my HTML work. I have no trouble with doing it that way, but I have noticed then many others have been intiminated with direct HTML code, and basiclly just do not make pages. As I would like to see more of LUMA's users put home pages up, I thought it would be good to try out some of the many editors out there (I actually have a number of them, just have not looked at them) . Ok, this editor is the Netscape 3.0 gold editor, and is being started from a blank page. So far I have set a background, did a couple rules and headers, and a list. The most trouble I have had was finding the place to put the background, the rest has been just pushing buttons. Now keep in mind that I am using this without reading the docs, but by just pokeing around in the menus and the buttons on the tool bars. There are a few other things I want to try with it yet though, like adding some links and a graphic or two. So far I have not done anything with the HTML code, but that is the point of doing it like this. Is it not?

Notes on E-mail links:

It comes to my attantion that some E-mail is not making it into LUMA. After doing some tests, I have found that the Netscape gold 3.0 mail program (the one you will get if you try to write mail through a link, and you are using the 3.0 gold browser) could not get mail into LUMA with the [198.110.191.106] host name, It could get it in if the mail.lumanet.org host name was used however, My mail program (1.3 meg) got the mail in with either host name though. So I have changed the mail links on this page to the mail.lumanet.org host name. WSCC is working on LUMA's host name setup though, and hoped that the name will continue to work. I do recall that I did get mail in with Netscape 1.2, as I have not tested all the mail programs, and from all hosts, if you get mail bounced, try the other host name. If you do have trouble, try to send a copy of the returned mail to SYSOP, BOB, WEBMASTER or PEGASUS on LUMA with the details of the mail program etc. you were using at the time.

Some words on the LUMA main header icon:

LUMA header iconYou may have seen this graphic on the LUMA main page, Bob was saying he would like to see more graphics on the LUMA site, so I put this together with POVray (2.9 meg). As I wanted to get it on the web as soon as I could, after I had it looking about right, and resized, cropped, converted to an interlaced GIF and made transparant, I uploaded it. I do plan on changing the texture and finish on the LUMA though. Though in fitting with some future plans for the LUMA main page, I will be making another one that is longer, but not as high. Though I have only just started planing it, I will probably move the "Information System" to the right and scale it larger. Also the camera will be backed off a bit, and repointed to a point more to the right. I may also reposition the light source to cast some shadows on the LUMA. We will see how it all looks though. So stay tuned for changes here on the LUMA WWW site, there are a number of things in the planning stage. If you have any ideas as to stuff you think would be cool, write them to WebMaster.

The Game:

A group of users on LUMA are making a computer game. It is only in the begining stages right now. As I am doing all of the actual programming, and I have had some things come up in the last month or so that have taken alot of my time, it have stalled for a bit. However, I am getting more time and have resumed work on the core render engine. So far I have only gotten 3 or 4 wall tiles and one frame of a monster, so there is still alot of things for other users to do. We are still going to need alot more graphics, sounds, level maps and just plain ideas. So far the game is a 3d ray-cast game a bit more advanced then Blake Stone (1.4 meg.) or Wolf3d (1.4 meg.), but not as advanced as DOOM (2.4 meg.). The plan right now is for a game that is more of a role playing game of the AD&D style with a much higher level of AI and interactivity then the normal shooter type games. Right now I am just getting something that will disply the world so the other users can see what there graphics look like in the game setting, it is also likely that it will be develeped into a level editor. So if you are interested in C/C++, or just in how games like this are made, come join the group. There is alot of stuff to do other then program, we even need alpha game testers. If interested write to Pegasus.

Editor final notes:

As you might have seen, I have put this page to some real use, and will most likely become a feature on LUMA. I have done this page without having to see the HTML code, though I think I will have to fix the link it has made to the LUMA GIF, right now it has the "file//..." stuff in front of the filename, I may have to erase the part before the filename itself. But other than that, I have found this to be something anyone could use to make a page, with no need to learn any HTML code.