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README

1
2                           Alien Arena
3                           Version 7.66
4
5
61. Scope
7
8This document includes information about the GNU-Linux/Unix
9version of Alien Arena.  Custom options and other information
10specific to Alien Arena are included here.
11
12For general information, licensing, and contributers, see the
13README.txt and license.txt documents (in the docs/ subdirectory
14in the distribution archive).  For generic information about
15installation, see the GNU INSTALL document.
16
17
182. Version 7.66 - For Players
19
20The performance of Alien Arena 7.66 is much better that previous
21versions.  Recent desktop and notebook computers with 3D
22acceleration for OpenGL will perform well.  Use the Video
23Settings menu to override the automatically selected performance
24level.
25
26Alien Arena installation alternatives:
27
28  * Your distribution's package manager.
29
30  * PlayDeb or Desura distribution service.
31    PlayDeb is at http://www.playdeb.net/.
32    Desura is at http://www.desura.com/.
33
34  * Build from source.
35    See the "Installation from Distribution Archive" section below.
36
37For more detail see these sections
38  * Help and Support
39  * Configuration and Troubleshooting
40  * Network Information
41  * Running the Program
42
43
443. Version 7.66 - For Packagers
45
46  * The incompatibility with ODE 0.12 has been corrected.
47    The configure option to use the system libode is --with-system-libode.
48    If the system libode causes problems with ragdoll animation,
49    configure the program to use the integrated libode.
50
51  * There is now direct dependency on zlib.
52    The configure option --with-zlib should be used.
53
54  * The configure.ac status report has more information.
55
56  * Some little used options have been removed from configure.ac
57
58  * The documentation installation override configure option should work now.
59    The configure option is --disable-documents.
60
61  * --with-xf86vm is the default.
62
63  * --without-xf86dga is the default.
64
65  * The Autotools build used autoconf 2.68, and automake 1.11.6.
66
67
68The default standard install follows this file system scheme:
69
70  * ${bindir}/alienarena             (the client program)
71  * ${bindir}/alienarena-ded         (the dedicated server program)
72
73  * ${pkgdatadir}/arena/             (read only configuration files)
74  * ${pkgdatadir}/botinfo/           (read only bot control files)
75  * ${pkgdatadir}/data1/             (read only resource files)
76
77  * ${datadir}/icons/alienarena.png  (the official icon)
78    The configure option is --with-icondir=DIR
79
80  * ${docdir}/                       (documents, licenses)
81
82The shared directory is defined at build time to be exactly
83$(pkgdatadir). The preprocessor symbol, DATADIR, is set to
84$(pkgdatadir), The program expects the arena, botinfo, and data1
85shared, read-only subdirectories to be there.
86
87The program defaults for the user's home directory are:
88
89  * ${HOME}/.codered/arena/   (read/write configuration and resource files)
90  * ${HOME}/.codered/botinfo/ (read/write bot control files)
91  * ${HOME}/.codered/data1/   (read/write resource files, rarely created)
92
93At build time, the environment variable, ALIENARENA_HOMEDIR, can
94be used to override the default .codered user home subdirectory.
95
96At run time, the environment variable, COR_GAME, will override
97the user home subdirectory program setting.  This should normally
98be left as a user option.
99
100The arena subdirectory in the user home directory receives most
101of automatic resource downloads. By convention, it is where 3rd
102party maps are placed. The files in the user home have priority
103over the same name files in the read-only, shared directories.
104
105
1064. Help and Support
107
108The Alien Arena Home Page URL is:
109
110  http://red.planetarena.org/
111
112There are links there to the Alien Arena Forum and other helpful
113Internet resources.  The Alien Arena IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
114channel is now served by:
115
116  irc.planetarena.org
117
118The in-game IRC connects to #alienarena there.
119
120There are web sites with 3rd party maps, skins, etc.  See the
121Home Page for links.
122
123There is a Subversion (SVN) repository for Alien Arena.  See the
124topic "Getting Alien Arena from SVN" below.
125
126Alien Arena is on IndieDB.
127http://www.indiedb.com/games/alien-arena-2008
128
129Alien Arena is on Facebook and Twitter.  See the Homepage for
130links.
131
132
1335. Network Information
134
135These ports are used by the program:
136  * UDP 27900 for the master server. Used for getting server list.
137  * UDP 27901 for the client.
138  * UDP 27902 for account/stats system password validation.
139  * UDP 27910 is the default for a server, but is often configured otherwise.
140  * TCP 6667 is the default for in-game connection to the IRC channel.
141
142The cURL library is used to retrieve game resources, player
143ranking information, and current version information from these
144URLs:
145  * http://red.planetarena.org/sv_downloadurl
146  * http://stats.planetarena.org/playerrank.db
147  * http://red.planetarena.org/version/crx_version
148
149Online performance will vary depending on the network connection
150between the your computer (the client) and the server.  Servers
151with *lower* ping are better.
152
153Playing online may require firewall configuration.
154
155
1566. Installation from Distribution Archive
157
158This describes the standard installation. There is another
159installation method described below in section, "Alternate
160Install".
161
162If you are reading this, you may have already unpacked the
163distribution archive (aka, "tarball") into your HOME directory.
164Otherwise, the terminal command line for unpacking the archive
165is:
166  $ tar -xzf alienarena-<some version numbers>.tar.gz
167Or, using the graphical file browser, right click on the file
168name, and left click on "Extract Here."  Then follow the
169instructions below to build the program.
170
171To build Alien Arena requires the compiler and various libraries.
172If you have built other programs these will probably be
173installed. If they are not there will be errors and the configure
174procedure will fail.
175
176If it fails, check the error messages for required software
177packages that may be missing.  Check the forum for easy ways to
178install the required libraries for the operating system you are
179using.  Alien Arena uses these components (in parentheses: some
180example file name variations):
181  *X11         (libx11-dev, libX11, libxxf86dga-dev, libxxf86vm-dev, libXxf86vm)
182  *OpenGL      (libgl1-mesa-dev, libGL)
183  *OpenAL 1.1  (libopenal, libopenal-dev)
184  *Ogg-Vorbis, (libogg-dev, libvorbis-dev. libogg, libvorbis, libvorbisfile)
185  *cURL,       (libcurl, libcurl4-gnutls-dev)
186  *FreeType2   (libfreetype, libfreetype6-dev)
187  *JPEG        (libjpeg8-dev)
188  *ZLib        (libz)
189  *ODE         (libode, libode-dev)
190
191Using the terminal, change to the "alienarena-7.66" directory and
192enter these commands:
193
194--- Simple Version ---
195
196  $ ./configure
197  $ make
198  $ sudo make install
199
200--- Not-so-Simple Version ---
201
202In the following the command options are listed on separate lines
203with short explanations. They are entered on one line with the
204command, of course.
205
206$ export CFLAGS=
207    -O3              (more optimization than -O2)
208    -pipe            (faster compile)
209    --march=native   (tuned for CPU on this machine)
210    -DNDEBUG         (remove assert statements)
211
212    -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2   (improved security)
213    -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4  (improved security)
214
215If not configuring with the --with-system-libode option then set
216the same options for the c++ compiler:
217
218$ export CXXLAGS=
219    -O3
220    -pipe
221    --march=native
222    -DNDEBUG
223    -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2
224    -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4
225
226$./configure
227    --with-system-libode       (use the system libode)
228    --disable-silent-rules        (verbose output)
229    --disable-dependency-tracking      (speed up one-time build)
230    ALIENARENA_HOMEDIR=some_other_dir  (override default ~/.codered)
231
232$ make
233
234$ sudo make install
235
236The variable, ALIENARENA_HOMEDIR, is relative to the user home,
237NOT the full path.  For example:
238  $ ./configure ALIENARENA_HOMEDIR=my_alienarena
239
240Check the notes about using the system libode in the "Custom
241Configure Options" section, if ragdolls do not work right, or if
242enabling ragdolls crashes the program.
243
244By default, 'sudo make install' will install the game programs
245and data like this:
246
247  /usr/local/
248    bin/
249      alienarena
250      alienarena-ded  (dedicated server)
251    share/
252      alienarena/
253        arena/
254        botinfo/
255        data1/
256      doc/
257        alienarena/
258          <various documents>
259      icons/
260        alienarena.png
261
262Following installation, intermediate files generated by the build
263may be removed using:
264
265  $ make clean
266
267To uninstall the program and data that 'sudo make install'
268installed, run:
269
270  $ sudo make uninstall
271
272The uninstall procedure may not remove all files and directories.
273Some manual removal may be required.
274
275
2767. Running the Program
277
278To run:
279  $ alienarena
280
281In the menu, Single Player will run a simple pre-configured local
282game.  For more single player options, go to the Host Server
283menu.  Setting "public server" to "no" will keep your local game
284from being broadcast with the master server list.
285
286For multiplayer, online play, first enter your player name and a
287password in the Player Setup menu.  Then go to the Join Server
288menu to find a Server.  Bots will always show ping of 0.  They
289have some mean sounding, but amusing, taunts.  Do not let it
290bother you, just frag 'em.  They may attack with the "probe", if
291you let them get close, watch out!
292
293Command line options to alienarena are NOT standard.  They follow
294a format inherited from Alien Arena's Quake 2 roots.  Command
295line options are the same as console commands, normally using a
296'+' character prefix.  The details are beyond the scope of this
297document; but a simple example is:
298  $ alienarena +set maxclients 10
299
300When the program is run, a directory is created in the user HOME
301directory.  Various kinds of data (config files, downloaded data,
302custom bot setups) are written there.  The default directory name
303is ".codered/".  That can be changed using an environment
304variable, COR_GAME.
305
306For example:
307  $ export COR_GAME=/home/user/.my_codered
308
309
3108. Configuration and Troubleshooting
311
312When the game program exits, it stores settings in "config.cfg".
313The default location for this file is
314"/home/<user>/.codered/arena/", but it might be elsewhere
315depending on your distribution or configuration.
316
317For custom settings, create a file, "autoexec.cfg" in the same
318directory as "config.cfg".  Settings in "autoexec.cfg" will
319override settings in "config.cfg".  Details about settings are
320beyond the scope of this document.  Go to the websites, the forum
321and the IRC channel for more information.
322
323If there are problems, sometimes it helps to delete "config.cfg",
324and then re-enter menu settings.
325
326Alien Arena is based on Quake games.  Many of the cvars are the
327same as Quake 2.  More information can be found on the Forum and
328on the Web.
329
330Version 7.66 adds new console variables related to new features.
331The important ones are set using the menu.  Check the forum for
332more info.  Or ask the friendly people in the IRC channel.
333
334If the game does not run smoothly, graphics settings may need to
335be adjusted.  It is best to start with the video card's setup
336utility, then adjust the Alien Arena settings.  A different or
337updated video driver may be needed.
338
339There are settings in both the "Game Options" and "Video Options"
340sections that affect performance.  Enable the video frame rate
341display in the "Game Options" menu by setting "display fps" to
342yes.  The maximum frame rate is set with the console variable
343("cvar"), "cl_maxfps".  Get more information on the Forum,
344Websites, and IRC channel.
345
346For sound problems, check OpenAL documentation about
347configuration settings in the "alsoftrc" file.
348
349If you have a high resolution mouse, you may need to set the
350mouse sensitivity cvar.  The cvar name is "sensitivity" and it
351may be set to fractional values between 0.0 and 1.0.  Use the
352console to determine the value, then put it in autoexec.cfg.
353
354The mouse may behave badly (always pointing up, for instance).
355This can usually be fixed by setting the console variable (cvar),
356"in_dgamouse", to zero.  Put this line into the "autoexec.cfg"
357file:
358  set in_dgamouse "0"
359By default, the program is built without DGA, so this only
360applies if the following configure option was set.
361  --with-xf86dga
362
363If the display will not go into full screen mode, it is likely
364the Xxf86vm library (libxxf86vm-dev or libXxf86vm) is missing on
365your system.
366
367
3689. Custom Configure Options
369
370Run './configure --help' for a list of options.  Note that many
371of the options are built-in and some are not meaningful or useful
372for Alien Arena.  Options are entered on the command line in the
373usual way; the help output has the details.  Refer to the GNU
374INSTALL document for general details.
375
376To build the dedicated server only, use the following configure
377option:
378  --disable-client
379
380By default, configure produces a status message giving
381information on the configuration.  To hide that message, use:
382  --disable-build-status
383
384To rename the programs, use the standard configure option.  For
385example:
386  --program-transform-name='s/alienarena/alien-arena/'
387
388To install to a different location, use the standard configure
389option.  For example:
390  --prefix=/usr/local/games
391
392To specify an installation location for the icon, use the
393following option.
394  --with-icondir=DIR
395
396To use the system-supplied libode, rather than the integrated
397ODE, use this option:
398  --with-system-libode
399If 'pkg-config --cflags ode' returns -DdDOUBLE, it is probably
400safe to use the system library.  The integrated ODE is built
401using these compile options:
402  * -DdDOUBLE
403  * -DdTRIMESH_ENABLED
404  * -DdTRIMESH_OPCODE
405  * -DNDEBUG and -DdNODEBUG
406Using a libode built with -DdSINGLE makes ragdolls excessively
407"raggedy".  Other libode build variations will likely result in
408program failure.
409
410To disable installation of documents, use the following option.
411  --disable-documents
412
413The server terminal will output color if the following option is
414used.  This converts Quake-style color codes to ANSI color
415escapes.
416  --enable-ansi-color
417
418Other Alien Arena custom options are intended mostly for
419developer use.  If you use them, it is assumed that you know what
420you are doing.
421
422
42310. Tools
424
425Tools/fuse.tar.gz contains a game server browser.  See documents
426in that package for details.
427
428Tools/LinuxScripts contains tools for server management.  See the
429README there for details.
430
431
43211. Alternate Install
433
434This configures the installation to use the "traditional", single
435directory, in-place install.  It does not define DATADIR, and the
436executables need to be in the top game directory.  Normally, this
437install would be done somewhere in your HOME directory.  Root
438privileges would not be required to write the game data.  The
439configure option for renaming of the executables is not
440supported.
441
442If you are a map-builder, you should use this option.  Some
443mapping tools may not work with the "standard" install.
444
445If you regularly update to the latest development code from the
446Subversion Repository, you may prefer this option.
447
448The two install methods are not mutually exclusive.  With some
449care, it is possible to use both.
450
451The configure option is:
452  --enable-alternate-install
453
454Following the usual 'make', it requires
455
456  $ make install-alternate
457
458This just copies the executables to the top game directory.  The
459effect of using any other 'install' make target is "undefined".
460
461
46212. Getting Alien Arena from SVN
463
464The repository has the latest development version of Alien Arena.
465It contains tools and other resources that are not a part of the
466regular distribution.
467
468The SVN repository may be browsed at:
469
470http://svn.icculus.org/alienarena/trunk/
471
472Anonymous read-only checkout is available using this command:
473
474svn co svn://svn.icculus.org/alienarena/trunk alienarena
475
476More information about Subversion may be found at:
477http://subversion.apache.org/
478
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