Wow this dev blog hasn't been updated for so long!!!

The mod is still progressing for anybody that was doubting me and mike We're not abandoning it yet!!!

Anyway heres a small update on whats been happening since the last post (which was quite a long time ago)

The mod recode which started when Mike joined the team is going very well and has a lot of potential! All the internal code has been redone from scratch using better and more efficient methods to give the mod better stability and speed. This seems to happen with every recode but it does happen!
The network stuff is being redone using new methods which will once again decrease bandwidth while keeping great sync Its also worth mentioning that LU is currently using the latest version of RakNet (3.23) so the network layer has as little bugs as possible. RakNet gets updated everytime theres a new version released to keep it bug free

The GUI which i started before Mike joined has also been recoded from scratch to give a lot better performance and flexability. Although its a long way from being completed, it has the basic things which LU needs at the moment (Windows, Key stuff, memobox's, editbox's, static labels) so it is currently being added into the LU code and being worked on when i'm not coding LU. Its also worth mentioning that the GUI stuff has some really good features which are like Win32 gui component stuff. and all settings of the GUI can be changed at runtime which means you can change your font, character set, font size, colour etc of any text, window, memobox and whatever else is implimented as you play the game. This allows for extra customisability

Another thing i have been working on when not touching the LU client or server is the master server and server browser. Although both of these are nowhere near finished they are progressing well and run nicely Theres also some ideas floating about what we should add to the server browser to make it a bit more friendly to use and more feature based. One of the ideas is a game chat lobby type system to organise and discuss servers before you join the game (Similar to Gamespy's chat lobby) but this is just a pencilled in idea at the moment so it may not be added.

Anyway i think ill end my babbling on here... its only a small update to show once again the mod isn't dead

Been implimenting a few new things into LU today while i've been bored and not wanting to do much...

Some nifty things Heres the list:

• Implimented a '/clear' command into the chatbox - Not really anything special
• Added a colourful chat! I dunno how to excplain this really so i'll attach a screenshot below Basically you can change the colour of your text while typing by using ^ commands. The colours are in a kind of RGB format. for example: ^f00B^0f0o^00fo would be Boo This can also be used in nametags for a cool looking clan tag
• Implimented the ability to change sky gradients, light colours, cloud colours and more. See the screenshot below

Like i said, its not much but i thought its worth mentioning

Heres an example of coloured chat:

My nick was done using ^00f[^0f0Clan^00f]^---VRocker (^--- returns colours to normal)

And heres a pink and green sky!

Heres a small update i thought i'd post to show that neither me, or the mod, is dead
Nothing much has been done really. Been busy with other things lately so LU has hardly been touched. Hoping to get some free 'coding' time soon to fix some stuff.

Heres what i've done since the last update:

• Finished vehicle respawn - Vehicles now respawn after a server definable ammount of time when they are dead. Also started on implimenting an idle respawn time
• Nearly Finished Pickup sync and respawning - Pickups are now synced with the rest of the players and respawn after a definable amount of time after being picked up.
• Fixed a few netcode bugs that i noticed while optimising things
• Optimised some code and removed some unused functions
• Fixed time sync - Seems i broke it about a week ago due to changing some netcode... All fixed now though
• Started recoding the mIRC admin dll since it was still using old netcode

Like i said, nothing major has been done so this is kindof a pointless update

Well its been a while since i let you all know whats been happening. and since i'm pretty darn bored atm i thought i'd post...

Quite a lot of changes have been happening to LU recently. I would explain in big sentances and stuff to look professional but.... i cant be arsed to so heres a list

• Finished implimenting new netcode base and converted over all old netcode (FINALLY!)
• Removed CEGui and replaced with normal DirectX stuff - This was a wise decision... After some careful thought i realised that using it is not worth it since themes dont work and i was only using it for the text rendering. After it was removed i noticed a significant FPS increase on all my testing systems. My test pc (which is a 900MHz Athlon, 768MB ram, Radeon 9200SE old POS) went from 15-20FPS (With CEGui) to a stable 30FPS (Without CEGui)
• Every single weapon in the game now works!!! - Grenades and molotovs still have a small bug which will be fixed soon but everything else has perfect aim and does a lot of damage
• Fixed a small issue with the client not being able to connect to a passworded server - Somebody forgot to add client side password stuff.... 
• Added some lag compensation for players which seems to work pretty well
• Removed some old unused functions and variables to give the client and server smaller filesizes and better effiency
• Added more additional checks to fix a few minor bugs (And any bugs that may occur)

Although theres been some fixes going in and a few crashes have been elliminated, theres still quite a few issues to iron out before any kind of public testing can be done. Although with all weapons now working, i'm happy, the testers are happy, and testing is a lot more fun (Firing an M16 into somebodys face is always great)

Also on a side note... When more issues have been fixed we will throw a few vids and screenshots up

Edit: Forgot to add that in the chatbox, nicknames are now coloured to the blip colour. So when working in teams you can tell whos talking on your team n stuff Also makes the chatbox look smarter. Heres a screenshot:

Mainly been fixing small bugs and tidying up code lately. Also been adding to half finished things to get them done and dusted so i dont have to touch them again

Heres a small list of whats been happening lately

• Fixed death messages. They now say the killer and the weapon. They also say who killed the player if it was done with a vehicle (which most people wanted in MTA 0.5) so you know who to scream at when you get carkilled
• In addition to the death messages, scores now work on the scoreboard. They incriment with each kill and go down with each suicide. They do not go into minus numbers though (if you want this changed, gimme a shout)
• Added a small nifty feature It is now posible to add your own coloured radar blips (definable in the server config and scripting) using RGBA colour codes. So now you are not limited to using 8 differant coloured radar blips (which were imbedded into GTA, although you can still use them)
• Done more work on the vehicle respawning. They're nearly finished now
• Nearly completed the spawn selection screen. Just gotta throw a few things together and it should all work nicely
• Fixed a few small sync issues
• Optimised the code a bit more

Just thought i'd keep you up to date on whats happening and to assure you its still being worked on