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[Pingus-CVS] r2653 - htdocs/src
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From: |
grumbel at BerliOS |
|
Subject: |
[Pingus-CVS] r2653 - htdocs/src |
|
Date: |
Mon, 15 Jan 2007 03:49:50 +0100 |
Author: grumbel
Date: 2007-01-15 03:49:49 +0100 (Mon, 15 Jan 2007)
New Revision: 2653
Modified:
htdocs/src/faq.xml
htdocs/src/news.xml
htdocs/src/welcome.xml
Log:
some small fixes to the FAQ by Michael [Plouj] Ploujnikov <address@hidden>
Modified: htdocs/src/faq.xml
===================================================================
--- htdocs/src/faq.xml 2007-01-14 23:59:43 UTC (rev 2652)
+++ htdocs/src/faq.xml 2007-01-15 02:49:49 UTC (rev 2653)
@@ -2,10 +2,10 @@
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="default.xsl" ?>
<page title="FAQ">
- <section title="It doesn't work, what now?">
+ <section title="It doesn't work! What now?">
<p>
- The following frequently asked questions along with answers will
- provide you with some solutions to common errors, problems or
+ The following frequently asked questions (along with answers) will
+ provide you with solutions some to common errors, problems or
misunderstandings when you try to compile, use or get otherwise
involved with Pingus.
</p>
@@ -14,248 +14,237 @@
<div id="faqtoc"/>
<section title="FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers)">
<faq-list>
- <faq date="21. Jul 2003">
- <question>Where can I find more levels?</question>
+ <faq date="14 Jan 2007">
+ <question>What is Pingus?</question>
<answer>
- <em>Foreword: Every level that isn't reachable via the GUI in
- Pingus is unsupported and might be completly broken, if you
- want to try them you are on your own.</em><br /><br />
-
- Beside the 22 tested and cleaned up levels of the first
- island that come with Pingus, there are also around 120
- levels that might be playable and another 100 levels that
- are incomplete at the moment. These levels can be found in
- the <tt>data/levels/playable</tt> and
- <tt>data/levels/wip/</tt> (wip = Work in Progress). The
- levels in <tt>playable/</tt> might be playable, but there is
- no guarantee for that, they havn't been tested, might be
- broken due to engine changes, might be far too easy or far
- too hard or simply incomplete. The <tt>wip/</tt> directory
- contains levels that are not playable at all, some of them
- might even lack entrances or exit, so don't even think of
- 'playing' them, instead they can be used as framework for
- levels you want to create yourself with the level editor.
- That said, yep, Pingus contains a fully working level
- editor, it might not be 100% bug free, but it was used to
- construct all the levels that you can see in the game. So
- don't hesitate and try it out and build your own levels.
+ The <a href="welcome.html">Welcome</a> page answers this question.
</answer>
</faq>
- <faq date="21. Aug 2003">
- <question>Where can I find the Windows version?</question>
-
+ <faq date="14 Jan 2007">
+ <question>How much does it cost?</question>
<answer>
- A official Windows version of 0.6.0 got never created and
- never will be created, but we hope to provide one with
- 0.6.1, which will be equal to 0.6.0, but include fixed
- fonts, corrected text and a few minor bugfixes.
+ We believe that you should answer this question for yourself. If you
+ think this game is worth some amount of money, you can <a
+
href="https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=grumbel%40gmx.de&item_name=Pingus+donation&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_code=EUR";>donate
+ to Pingus via Paypal</a>. Otherwise, you can get the game for no
+ monetary cost. Pingus is <a
+ href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html";>Free Software</a> and
+ you are not forced to pay any amount of money for this game.
</answer>
- </faq>
+ </faq>
- <faq date="15. Dec 2002">
- <question>How can I get Pingus?</question>
+ <faq date="14 Jan 2007">
+ <question>Where can I get Pingus?</question>
<answer>
- Pingus is <a
- href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html";>Free
- Software</a> under the <a
- href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html";>GNU GPL</a>,
- that means everybody can download it, distribute it, modify
- it and even distribute modified works, as long as the source
- code is still provided (checkout the GNU GPL itself for more
- details). That also means that Pingus is available at no
- cost from this webpage and will be available for no cost
- from this website in the future. But it also means that
- Pingus is available from other websites and places, for
- example most GNU/Linux distributions contain a (sometimes
- outdated) version of Pingus, there might be some shareware
- sites which contain a version of Pingus and you can even buy
- game-packs which contain Pingus.<br /> <br />
-
- But the latest version that you can get from this site is
- the only version that is supported, so if you have another
- version and have some problem, the only answer you might get
- is that you should get a new version from this site.
+ You can get Pingus from the <a href="download.html">download</a>
section.
</answer>
</faq>
- <faq date="14. Sep 2003">
- <question>How much does it cost?</question>
+ <faq date="14 Jan 2007">
+ <question>Is there a Windows version?</question>
<answer>
- As the question above answers, Pingus is available at no
- costs from this webpage. However you are welcome to make <a
-
href="https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=grumbel%40gmx.de&item_name=Pingus+donation&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_code=EUR";>donations
- to Pingus via Paypal</a>. Pingus is after all a voluntary
- project and if you don't have the time to help with
- developing it, you are very welcome to help with a little
- money.
+ An official Windows version of 0.6.0 was never
+ created and probably never will be. However, we hope to
+ provide a Windows binary with the 0.6.1 release. It will
+ be equal to 0.6.0 plus fixed fonts, corrected text, and a
+ few minor bugfixes.
</answer>
</faq>
- <faq date="15. Dec 2002">
- <question>Which Pingus version should I use?</question>
+ <faq date="14 Jan 2007">
+ <question>Where can I find more levels?</question>
<answer>
- As the previous answer told you, Pingus is available from a
- number of places, that also means that not all places will have
- the most current versions, some will probably ship an outdated
- version or an not even working version. So if you want the
- newest version <a href="http://pingus.seul.org";>the official
- Pingus webpage</a> will always be the best place to search for a
- new one.<br /><br />
+ <em>Foreword: Every level that isn't reachable via the GUI in Pingus
+ is unsupported and might be completely broken. If you want to try
+ them you are on your own.</em> <br /><br />
- If you are a gamer it is strongly recommended that you use only
- the version that is marked as playable and stable, all other
- versions, be it the current CVS or a beta-snapshot release, are
- not recommended since they will either spoil the story, new
- levels, gadgets and other things or confuse you with unfinished,
- buggy features. CVS or beta-snapshots might also delete
- your savegames, game statistics or do other thing that ruin your
- fun.<br /><br />
+ Besides the 22 tested and cleaned up levels of the first island that
+ come with Pingus. There are also around 120 levels that might be
+ playable and another 100 levels that are incomplete at the moment.
+ These levels can be found in the <tt>data/levels/playable</tt> and
+ <tt>data/levels/wip/</tt> (wip = work in progress). The levels in the
+ <tt>playable/</tt> directory might be playable, but there is no
+ guarantee for that. They haven't been tested. They might be broken
+ due to engine changes. They might be far too easy or far too hard or
+ simply incomplete. The <tt>wip/</tt> directory contains levels that
+ are not playable at all. Some of them might even lack entrances
+ and/or exits. Don't be surprised that you can't play them. Instead,
+ these levels can be used as framework for levels you want to create
+ yourself with the level editor. Yes, you heard it right, Pingus
+ comes with a fully working level editor. It might not be 100% bug
+ free, but it was used to construct all the levels that you see in the
+ game, so don't hesitate to try it out and build your own levels.
+ </answer>
+ </faq>
- If you want to test the current development version, want to
- search for bugs and are prepared to find bugs it is of course
- recommended that you stick to a current CVS checkout or the
- beta-snapshots, since testing the stable version will not be
- of much help a few weeks after the release, since most bugs
- might already be fixed by then in the development versions.<br
- /><br />
- If you are a developer and want to look at the code its
- recommended that you stick to current CVS, it might not always be
- 100% correct and compile correctly, but it should always be pretty
- close to it. If you encounter problems, just contact one of the
- authors and the problem might be fixed within a few hours.
+ <faq date="14 Jan 2007">
+ <question>What does it mean for Pingus to be Free Software?</question>
+ <answer>
+ Pingus is licensed under a <a
+ href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html";>Free/Libre
+ Software</a> license called <a
+ href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html";>GNU GPL</a>.
+ Basically, this means that everybody is free to download,
+ distribute, and modify it. Moreover, anyone can distribute
+ modified works of Pingus, as long as those works are
+ disributed under a <a
+
href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html#GPLCompatibleLicenses";>GPL
+ compatible license</a>. In other words, Pingus respects your
+ software freedoms.
</answer>
</faq>
- <faq date="15. Dec 2002">
- <question>How to compiling Pingus?</question>
+ <faq date="14 Jan 2007">
+ <question>How do I compile Pingus?</question>
<answer>
- Under GNU/Linux Pingus should compile like most other
- software, a simple <tt class="command">./configure
- && make</tt> should do. To install Pingus type <tt
- class="command">make install</tt>, but that is not recommended
- with the development versions, since it might not work or
- worse do ugly things to your file system layout, you can just
- run Pingus directly from the source tree, so there is no
- need to install it.<br /><br />
+ Under GNU/Linux run
+ <tt class="command">./configure
+ && make</tt> in the source directory.
+ </answer>
+ </faq>
- But be warned, Pingus need ClanLib and Hermes to be correctly
- installed and to have the right version, so it might
- <em>not</em> be really trivial. Unless you are a developer or
- beta tester it is therefore strongly recommended that you stick
- with the binaries that are provided in the <a
- href="download.html">download section</a> of this site.
+ <faq date="14 Jan 2007">
+ <question>What are the required built-time libraries?</question>
+ <answer>
+ Pingus needs specific versions of ClanLib and Hermes. Running the <tt
+ class="command">./configure</tt> script will tell you if you whether
+ your system has them.
+ </answer>
+ </faq>
- If you want to compile Pingus on Win32, you will need
- Microsoft Visual C++ Version 6 or higher, project files are in
- the Pingus source tree. But again, you need ClanLib and
- Hermes, so it might not be really a trivial task. Pingus will
- currently not compile with Cygwin or Mingw, sorry, porting
- help is of course welcome.
+ <faq date="14 Jan 2007">
+ <question>What do I need for compiling Pingus on a Windows
system?</question>
+ <answer>
+ If you want to compile Pingus on Win32, you will need Microsoft Visual
+ C++ Version 6 or higher. Project files are in the Pingus source tree.
+ Again, you need ClanLib and Hermes. Pingus will currently not compile
+ with Cygwin or Mingw, sorry, porting help is, of course, welcome.
</answer>
</faq>
+ <faq date="14 Jan 2007">
+ <question>Can I run Pingus from the source directory?</question>
+ <answer>
+ Yes
+ </answer>
+ </faq>
- <faq date="15. Dec 2002">
- <question>I tried compiling it, but something didn't work</question>
+ <faq date="14 Jan 2007">
+ <question>I tried compiling it, but something didn't work!</question>
<answer>
- First of all try to find out at which point it 'didn't work'.
- If it failed at the <tt>./configure</tt> step, you might be
- missing a correctly installed Hermes or ClanLib, the file
- <tt>config.log</tt> might provide you with more information. If it
- fails at <tt>make</tt> time it is most likely a bug in the
- source, such as some C++ construct that requires a g++ larger
- than 3.0, some simple typo, a missing include or other things
- that might not show up on the developers machine, a bug report
- is very welcome in such cases. Make sure that you include the
- exact error message and version of Pingus and ClanLib in your
- bug report.<br /><br />
-
- If Pingus compiled fine, but failed at startup with a message
- like <tt>Couldn't open libsomething.so</tt>, you most likely
- haven't run <tt>ldconfig</tt> after installing ClanLib or
- <tt>/usr/local/lib</tt> is missing from your
- <tt>/etc/ld.so.conf</tt>, in that case <tt>ldconfig</tt> won't
- look at the correct places to find the libraries.
+ Technically, this isn't a question. You have to be more specific. A
+ general suggestion is to search the <a
+ href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=pingus";>But Tracker</a>
+ for similar problems.
</answer>
</faq>
- <faq date="22. Dec 2002">
- <question>Why is Pingus still not done? Many years have past and
- it can't be that difficult to write a simple Lemmings clone, can
- it?</question>
+ <faq date="14 Jan 2007">
+ <question>
+ Why is Pingus still not done after being in development for so many
years?
+ </question>
+ <answer>
+ There are several factors that contributed to the long
+ development time. Some of them still cause delays. <br />
+ First of all, Pingus was my first large C++ project. After
+ all this started as a project for learning C++. As a
+ result, a lot of things have been done wrong, and I needed
+ to rewrite or fix them at a later time.<br /><br />
- <answer>Well, there are several factors which took Pingus to
- take that long and still cause many delays. First of all Pingus
- was my first larger C++ project, so it was after all a project
- for myself to learn C++, but that also caused a lot of things to
- be done wrong which I needed to rewrite or fix at a later point.
- Pingus also as the problem of being over-engineered at a few
- points, to much abstraction at places way it doesn't make sense
- and only causes problems. So in the end there was lot of cruft
- collected in the first two years which needed to be cleaned up
- in the next years. At this point the code is a lot cleaner than
- back than, but still has some ugly points in it which needs to
- be fixed before the next release.<br />
+ Pingus also has the problem of being
+ over-engineered in a few places. There was too much
+ abstraction in places where it doesn't make sense and only
+ caused problems. So during the first two years a lot of
+ cruft accumulated which needed to be cleaned up in the next
+ years. The current code is much cleaner, but it still has
+ some ugly points. They are the focus of the next release.
+ <br /><br />
- Beside the ugly-code issue one also has to see that Pingus is
- a huge game, it isn't a small game like a simple Tetris clone.
- It contains close to 800 unique graphics, 200 levels and 50'000
- lines of code, all these aren't created over night. It might
- have been possible to create this in a year, but motivation
- comes and goes and so there where month were simply nothing
- happens and weeks were large parts of the code got
- restructured or rewritten.<br />
-
- Beside all that its <em>you</em> that could make the
+ Beside the ugly-code issue one also has to realize
+ that Pingus is more complex than it seems. It isn't
+ a small game like a Tetris clone would be. It contains close
+ to 800 unique graphics, 200 levels and 50'000 lines of code.
+ All of that hasn't been created over night. It might have
+ been possible to create this in a year, but motivation comes
+ and goes. As a result, there were month where simply nothing
+ happened and weeks where large parts of the code got
+ restructured or rewritten.<br /><br />
+
+ Besides all that, <em>you</em> can make the
development go faster by contributing something to the
- project. You don't need coding skills for that, play testing
- the beta versions alone could be a big help if you send in
- helpful comments.
+ project.
</answer>
</faq>
+ <faq date="14 Jan 2007">
+ <question>How can I help the development of Pingus?</question>
+ <answer> This project needs help in the following areas:
+ <ul>
+ <li>Writing documentation</li>
+ <li>Writing stories</li>
+ <li>Programming
+ <ul>
+ <li>debugging the editor</li>
+ <li>making code 64-bit friendly</li>
+ <li>allowing for cygwin/mingw compilation</li>
+ <li>porting from Clanlib to SDL</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+ <li>Play testing</li>
+ </ul>
+ </answer>
+ </faq>
- <faq date="22. Dec 2002">
+ <faq date="14 Jan 2007">
<question>
- Pingus runs to slowly, any way to make it faster?
+ Pingus runs too slow. Is there any way to make it faster?
</question>
<answer>
- There are multiple ways to tune Pingus speed. First of if your
- computer is to slow and runs at 24 or 32bit color depth
- switching it down to 16bit might give you a boost of around
- 50% percent, depending on your hardware. X11 doesn't allow
- switching color depth at run time, so well this is a bit
- ugly.<br/>
+ There are multiple ways to tune the running speed of
+ Pingus. <br /> Firstly, reducing the screen colour
+ depth (to 16bit, for example) on a slower computer might
+ give you a boost of around 50% percent, depending on your
+ hardware. X11 doesn't allow switching color depth at run
+ time, and the exact instructions for doing this are outside
+ of the scope of this FAQ. Consult your distribution
+ documentation for more information.<br /><br />
- If you can't switch down the color depth, don't want to or it
- is still to slow you can switch down Pingus to 640x480, that
- can be done by starting it via:<br/>
-
- <tt>pingus -g 640x480</tt><br/>
+ Secondly, a gain in speed can be achieved by
+ reducing the display resolution of Pingus. For example, if
+ you want to run Pingus at 640x480 you can do this with the
+ following command:<br />
- If that still doesn't help you can run Pingus in
- <em>fast-mode</em>, it disables all costly particle effects
- and the background, thus Pingus will look more ugly, but will
- probably be a good amount faster. Fast-mode can be turned on
with:<br/>
+ <tt>pingus -g 640x480</tt><br/><br />
- <tt>pingus --fast-mode</tt><br/>
+ Thirdly, you can run Pingus in a <em>fast-mode</em>.
+ This mode disables all costly particle effects and the
+ background. Thus, Pingus will look more ugly, but will
+ probably be a good amount faster. Fast-mode can be turned on
+ with:<br />
- You might also play with the <tt>min-frame-skip</tt> and
- <tt>max-frame-skip</tt> options, both should result in a more
- uniform frame-rate, even so it will be a bit more jerky, but
- playability can be increased by that non the less.<br/>
+ <tt>pingus --fast-mode</tt><br/> Remember, the
+ <em>fast-mode</em> has lots of room for improvement. If it
+ doesn't help you make Pingus run fast enough, not all is
+ lost. <br /><br />
- You can also of course combine all the above and with 'F11'
- you can enable the frame-counter which should help you
- optimising the game. If you have a good configuration for your
- system, please mail it to <a href="mailto:address@hidden";>Ingo
- Ruhnke</a> along with a description of your system. At a later
- point all this might probably get auto-detected and the
- fast-mode also contains lots of room for optimizations, so if
- it is still not fast enough not all is lost.
+ If that is not enough, you might also want to play
+ with the <tt>min-frame-skip</tt> and <tt>max-frame-skip</tt>
+ options. Both should result in a more uniform frame-rate.
+ This can make the game jerky, but playability can be
+ improved nonetheless.<br /><br />
+
+ Finally, the 'F11' key can help you a great deal in
+ your optimisation process by showing the frame-rate counter.
+ <br /><br />
+
+ If you have a good configuration for your system,
+ please mail it to <a href="mailto:address@hidden";>Ingo
+ Ruhnke</a> along with a description of your system. At a
+ later point all this info could be used to write an
+ auto-detection algorithm for optimizing Pingus.
</answer>
</faq>
</faq-list>
</section>
-</page>
\ No newline at end of file
+</page>
Modified: htdocs/src/news.xml
===================================================================
--- htdocs/src/news.xml 2007-01-14 23:59:43 UTC (rev 2652)
+++ htdocs/src/news.xml 2007-01-15 02:49:49 UTC (rev 2653)
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="default.xsl"?>
<page title="News">
<news>
+ <item date="15. Jan 2007">
+ Porting Pingus to SDL is in progress, some spelling fixes for the FAQ
+ </item>
+
<item date="11. Feb 2006">
Time for some news, current plans for Pingus look like this:
Modified: htdocs/src/welcome.xml
===================================================================
--- htdocs/src/welcome.xml 2007-01-14 23:59:43 UTC (rev 2652)
+++ htdocs/src/welcome.xml 2007-01-15 02:49:49 UTC (rev 2653)
@@ -57,6 +57,5 @@
SRC="http://de.nedstat.net/scripts/nedstat.dll?name=pingus";
WIDTH="22" HEIGHT="22" BORDER="0" ALT="" ALIGN="right"></A>-->
- <netstat-image />
</section>
</page>
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