Introducing the New Hugi Interface

Chris Dragan


Dear Readers. I am proud to present you a new Hugi Interface. This version of the browser doesn't differ much from the old one from your point of view, but it has been entirely rewritten (significant parts of the code have been cleaned and ported from the old one).

Now the program is more stable and it is faster. This may sound like a joke, since 96% of the sources are in object-oriented C++, but it is true. (The rest 4% go for some C routines forced by Win32 API and some inline asm. The great de-JPEG code by the Independent JPEG Group and the UnRAR routines aren't counted.)

If you encounter some undesired behavior at startup, especially locking up or crashing, this is not a bug in the browser. It is fault of the display drivers (known to happen with some drivers of S3Trio and Intel740). The solution is to disable some display options.

A few people complained that the previous version worked extremely slowly. This is also true for this version. The reasons: a huge amount of work to do to load articles - decryption, unraring and the most CPU-intensive JPEG decompression. Hugi.GER might work yet slower, since it uses mode 800x600. But if your hardware meets the minimum requirements (Pentium 120, 32MB RAM, 2MB+ video card like S3 ViRGE) everything should work smooth enough for you to enjoy (at least in hi-color mode).

If you haven't noticed yet, the songs aren't looped but are played one by one. If you want them to loop, press the L key. If you want to have random playback, press the R key. You can always get back to the cyclic mode with the C key. The cyclic and random playback modes do not concern your custom tune nor hidden tunes.

If you do not like the startup dialog box, which replaces the legacy commandline options, you can turn it off with a proper setting. You can always get back to it using /config or /cfg commandline switch. There are two more commandline switches, but you have to discover them on your own. Sorry, no hidden features (yet!).

You can also view Hugi 18 with the new browser.

And there is also a small bonus - just turn the video mode in Display Settings to 8bpp (256 color) and then run the Hugi Interface in windowed mode. Enjoy!

I would like to thank all of those who sacrificed a little of their precious time to give me some feedback. All your suggestions have been considered and I am working on implementing them! You can also expect versions for other operating systems in the nearest future.


Chris Dragan