17th of July 2010

Currently UOAI is a little bit of a messy project; too many new paths have been taken before previous parts were finished. I therefore have decided to simplify things: i will implement first of all a simple dll written in C implementing all essential functionality. COM and .NET support can then be provided by referencing this C library. Right now, however i lack the time to do any serious work, so for now UOAI will remain silent, I can only apologize for that.

Even though i just admitted that i started on new ideas before finishing previous ones, there is one new idea i'm going to work on anyway: a mobile UO Client. After buying myself an android phone i wondered whether it would be realistic to implement an ultima online client for android phones. Currently, a few week later, after reading a lot about Android development, i came to the conclusion that a project to develop a mobile ultima online client would actually not be as hard as it might sound. The project i have in mind right now (which i call "UOMobile" for now, though a suitable name is open for discussion) is essentially the development of a java based ultima online client that will be distributed in two flavors: an android version and an applet version. The applet version will also include some php or asp script to add facebook-integration (basically this means simply coupling server+credentials to your facebook credentials). The challenge of this project is mostly getting the content (Ultima Online has over a gigabyte of art, animations and gumps as content) to mobile devices, but i'm working on that. As soon as i get any first version online, i'll let all of you know!

So in summary: i will continue on UOAI, focussing more on the basics, but not until i find enough time. For now i will be working on a mobile Ultima Online Client (Android client + applet version with facebook integration), as this is the kind of project i can work on irregulary, when i find a few hours of time... this does however mean that both projects will (continue) to move on slowly!