H’uru logo by NetWatcher, circa 2005

What is H’uru?

• Historically, a broad group of people “hacking Uru” and writing tools since 2004 (from the COBBS forums)
• Responsible for early Uru tools like PRPExplorer, PotS flymode, pyprp, and many many more�
• Presently: A core group responsible for the following:
• Korman Blender Plugin
• libHSPlasma and PlasmaShop tools
• Dirtsand Uru server
• Guild of Writers Gehn shard
• Plasma client and game engine�
• After the MOULa client was open-sourced in 2011, we made a H’uru development copy (a “fork”)
• Over 10 years worth of performance improvements, fixes, and new features
• Ongoing work to support platform-specific macOS & Linux game clients (without wrappers like wine)
• Most of this work has not yet been included in the MOULa client

Codebase Comparison Table

Codebase Comparison Table

Timeline of H’uru Commits

11 years, spanning 4813 commits, made by 35 contributors

Link to: H’uru Development Changelog

H’uru Focus Areas

• Cross-platform support to bring Uru to macOS and Linux
• OpenGL and Metal rendering pipelines
• Performance improvements and quality-of-life gameplay bug fixes
• Better Unicode support
• Updated physics
• Better voice chat quality
• Modernized development processes, C++ & Python language features, and 3rd party dependencies
• Using vcpkg to automatically download and build 3rd party dependencies
• Improved developer experience for new (and existing) contributors
• Visual Studio: Just open the Plasma folder and CMake will build everything automatically
• Automated build system on every code change, with downloadable build artifacts
• Currently building for Windows (32-bit & 64-bit), Linux (64-bit), and macOS (Intel 64-bit)
• Includes tools and the 3DS Max plugin (for Max 7/8, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2019, 2020, & 2022)

• Clickable links in KI chat
• Faster launching & loading performance
• Better fullscreen support for Windows

Mac Client

• Native version of Uru for both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs
• First build of Plasma targeting the ARM architecture
• Compatible with the same servers and content as the Windows version
• Full end to end port built directly on top of Metal accelerated graphics
• No translation layers or emulators
• The Mac client is the result of a lot of investments H’uru made in cross platform support
• Uses the initial OpenGL & Linux work as a starting point
• Requires the H’uru 64-bit compatible codebase
• Work started with Metal in November 2021 after tooling improvements by Apple

Mac Client

• It’s been almost 20 years since Uru’s original DirectX 9 release - and Metal adds some modern features to Uru
• 10 bit color support improves fog rendering, lighting, and blending
• Variable refresh rate and high frame rate support: 120 fps Apple displays are supported
• Support for 4k/5k/6k displays and cursor scaling
• And more to come…
• Improvements and bug fixes made for Metal may also appear on other platforms�
• There is still some work to do:
• Further optimization and age testing
• Testing on Intel Integrated Graphics and Nvidia Macs - tentative requirement is any 2012 or newer Mac/macOS 10.14 or later
• Multiplayer and network testing
• Improved resolution management and support for moving between displays
• Installer, code signing, and server support for updating the Mac client