FAQ for FreeCraft (fka ALE Clone) Version 1.17


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			  T H E   W A R   B E G I N S
	   FreeCraft - A free fantasy real time strategy game engine

(C) Copyright 1998-2001 by The FreeCraft Project. Distributed under the "GNU General Public License"


Any questions not mentioned here, please contact aleclone@FreeCraft.org.

Q: I was playing in 800x600 mode, and the graphics around the edge didn't paint the full screen?
A: The original graphics aren't designed for this resolutions, you could design your own user interface, see "data/ccl/ui.ccl".

Q: The graphics didn't fit on 800x600 or higher resolution?
A: The original graphics aren't designed for this resolutions, you could design your own user interface, see "data/ccl/ui.ccl".

Q: gzseek already defined or undefined!
A: You have an incompatible libpng version, better you install the latest libpng1.0.X. You get it here: SwRI

Q: The software cursor is too slow
A: I will improve the speed later, but I was told:
Using Accelerated X on a Pentium 75 FreeCraft is now playable.

Q: Did FreeCraft work with ALSA?
A: Yes, FreeCraft works with the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) - Driver. I have tested it with version 0.3.2 - 0.4.1.

More informations http://www.alsa-project.org

Q: How did I get big maps?
A: If you want a map of the size 256 x 256. Create and edit 4 maps (128 x 128) in the original editor. Save them as bigmap1.pud, bigmap2.pud, bigmap3.pud and bigmap4.pud. Now create a file bigmap.cm containing:

	(define-map 256 256)
	(load-pud "bigmap1.pud")
	(load-pud "bigmap2.pud")
	(load-pud "bigmap3.pud")
	(load-pud "bigmap4.pud")

If you now load this file as map (freecraft bigmap.cm), you see this big map. bigmap1.pud is in the upper left corner. bigmap2.pud is in the upper right corner. bigmap3.pud is in the lower left corner. bigmap4.pud is in the lower right corner.

Soon CraftED - The FreeCraft map editor, will support the creation of big maps.

Q: Can I use the original without expansion?
A: There are only more graphics and sounds in the expansion CD version. Me was told, it works without problems with the german version. Just try it. With the new versions this should work without problems.

Q: I get the error message "gcc: No input files", when I build freecraft. (Reported with pgcc version 1.1.1.) What should I do?
A: Try changing the line in the freecraft toplevel Makefile
$(CC) -Lsrc -lclone $(CLONELIBS) -o freecraft -I. $(CFLAGS)
to
$(CC) -Lsrc -lclone $(CLONELIBS) -o freecraft -I. $(CFLAGS) dummy.c

and execute the command "touch dummy.c" in the freecraft toplevel directory.

Or install a better gcc version without this bug.

Q: I have tried to start a level with './freecraft data/puds/internal/internal01.pud.gz' and I only get this error message 'pud: fopen,gzopen,bzopen(): No such file or directory'.
A: We have changed the loading syntax: This means you must type './freecraft ./data/puds/internal/internal01.pud.gz'!

Q: The mouse react after seconds on my moves?
A: I didn't found the real problem. Currently use the threaded sound support and enable it (in data/ccl/sound.ccl) or and add to the line

DFLAGS= $(THREAD) $(CCL) $(VERSION) $(VIDEO) $(ZDEFS) $(DSOUND) \ $(DEBUG)

"-DSLOW_INPUT" in Rules.make.

Q: I want play but do not want use CD... can i copy files from cd to hdd ? what i have to copy ?
A: After running 'build.bat' (WINDOWS) or 'build.sh' (UNIX) the CD isn't longer needed. This script converts the data on CD into our own format.
A: You didn't need to copy, the installation did it for you.

Q: The game becomes very slow under X11.
A: Give your X11 server a higher priority than the clients.

renice -5 <pid-of-your-x11-server>

newer linux distributions (debian) does this automatic.

or start freecraft with

nice -n 5 ./freecraft

Q: Can I use FreeCraft to join in an original network game?
A: Sorry, FreeCraft use its own network protocol. You can only play with FreeCraft against other FreeCrafts.

Q: I only have the original BNE version, can I use it?
A: No. Until now nobody has written a converter for this, if you want to write it, please contact me. It is only a question of time and you must understand writting C.

Q: I get only a black window, after I have installed it on windows. What have I done wrong?
A: Install FreeCraft to C:\.

Q: Can I compile FreeCraft with VC++ or Borland C++?
A: This C compiler aren't support yet, you can build a project and than mail it to us.

But you can use cygwin or MinGW both are GNU C compilers for windows.

http://www.libsdl.org/Xmingw32/

Informations how to use MingGW and libSDL for cross development and native development.

http://www.libsdl.org/Xmingw32/mingw32.zip

Compiler packet for windows, build by Sam Lantinga.

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/freecraft/mingw-fc-native-010701.zip

Based on above this is my build. Contains SDL 1.2.1, libpng, zlib and zziplib. Install this and download the newest FreeCraft source and start FreeCraft development with windows.

Q: What port or ports did FreeCraft use for network play?
A: As default is the port 6660 UDP is used on client and server side.


Last changed: $Id: faq.html,v 1.27 2002/04/03 16:53:14 johns Exp $
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