I thought I should foreshadow some of the planned improvements to the next version of MUSHclient, to help plugin authors plan ahead a bit.

To summarize what has appeared in recent versions:

• Support for multiple channels of sound playback, see the New sound support in MUSHclient forum posting.

• Support for small graphical windows (miniwindows), see Miniwindows in MUSHclient - Introduction

The next version will have:

• A configurable border, into which the text from the MUD goes - see:

  

  The intention here is that you can push the ordinary text away from the window edge, making room for miniwindows along each side. My example only shows them on the right, but you can imagine extra ones on the top edge, bottom and left.

  This would let you put something like quest objectives along the top, and some "action buttons" along the bottom, above where you type.

• The ability to do minor blurring of images - see:

  

  This lets you create nice effects for headings, also if doing a border in a window make a nice "drop shadow" to make it look more 3D.

• You can generate random noise effects - see:

  

  The intention here is to let you make texture effects, like desert or roads, if drawing maps, or making borders.

• Blend images on top of each other, see:

  

  There are a considerable number of blend modes, similar in operation to those available from image processing programs, such as Photoshop, the Gimp, and so on.

  Blending lets you combine images with different effects, and/or different levels of opacity. For example, put some text at 20% opacity over a box.

• Allow miniwindows become the source for drawing in other miniwindows. Since miniwindows don't have to be visible, they can be "workspaces" for preparing text or images, intended for blending or loading into other windows.

• Draw colour gradients in a rectangle, see:

  

  This would let you make status bars that start off green, and gradually become red, or be used for other special effects.

These changes are almost ready to release, they just need a bit more testing. I am sure that with a bit of imagination, MUD interaction will enter a whole new phase of player-friendliness and immersion. :)