INSTALL: The FreeCraft Version 1.18
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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 1998-2003 by The FreeCraft Project. Distributed under the
"GNU General Public License"
Install Unix source
Install Unix binary
Install Win32 source
Install Win32 binary
Software Requirements
You need:
- Operating system:
- Linux System with an installed X Windows System.
- Linux System with console (graphic card) supported by svgalib.
- Any BSD System with an installed X Windows System.
- Maybe any other Unix/POSIX OS with X Windows System installed.
You may have to create the configuration by hand and install
additional non-common libraries (see below) and gcc (untested).
- BeOS System with an installed X Windows System.
- MacOS System with an installed X Windows System.
- X Windows System with 8/15/16/24/32bit X Server.
Remote displays aren't supported!
- On Unix/BSD-like systems, you'll need bash for the setup script.
- Win32 system:
- For network play, Win95 OSR2 (aka Win95b) or higher is required,
since some features of Winsock2 (WS2_32.DLL) are used. We will try
to emulate this using WSOCK32.DLL features in future versions, but
that code is not in yet.
For now this MS download link might help. You must
install WS2_32.DLL even if you don't intend to play over a network,
otherwise FreeCraft won't start.
- WinNT needs to be WinNT4.0 + Service Pack 3 or higher, for the same
reasons.
- libpng.
- zlib.
- SIOD. (Included in the distribution)
- The original game CD or expansion CD for manuals and maindat.war
for graphics and sfxdat.sud for sounds.
Or use the free replacements of graphics and sounds from the
FreeCraft Media Project.
These are optional:
- libpthread (For threaded sound support)
- SVGALib (for console support)
- SDL (Additional SDK support)
- Bzip2 (Freely available, high-quality data compressor)
- ZZIPlib (Read access on ZIP-archives)
Hardware Requirements
To use this program you need the following hardware:
- At least an i586 133 MHz (faster recommended) and 16 MB of RAM
(32 MB for mp3/ogg support).
- Any graphic card running with X11 or SVGALib or Win32 in 640x480.
- with 8/16/24/32 bpp video modes working.
- Freecraft is believed to be endian and word size safe, so other
architectures like (big endian) PPC or (64bit) Alpha should also
work at least with Linux.
Installation
Unix or BSD
Unix or BSD source
Please follow the following instructions to get a working program.
- Unpack the archive freecraft-'data'.tar.gz to any directory.
(stored with path)
- Change to the top-level directory (cd freecraft-'date').
- Read doc/install.html.
- Install the required libraries (development version!).
- You own the original:
- Search the files maindat.war, sfxdat.sud,strdat.war and rezdat.war
from the original game.
This version supports the original or expansion CD!
If you have only the original CD, it should also work, ignore the
warnings.
- Edit tools/build.sh, and change ARCHIVE to the correct path.
(You could use an installed version or the CD-ROM)
Extract from "/cdrom" is the default. Just mount your CD on /cdrom.
- With the media from the FreeCraft Media Project:
- FcGP (graphic) and FcSP (sound) are now combined in the FcMP
(media) archive.
- Take the archive with the same version as the FreeCraft source.
- FIXME: for final version add the direct download link.
- Download FcMP from
FreeCraft - Download
- Extract it into the freecraft source directory. It overwrites the
content of data which is only needed with the original CD.
- Read "readme" file that is in the archive for further
instructions on how to setup the graphics and sounds packs.
Note: The current version didn't contain it.
- Copy Rules.make.orig to Rules.make and edit it or run the setup
script.
- Type "./setup" to configure the graphics, sound, and compression
options.
- "./setup --help" shows a list of available setup options
- You have the option of running "make" from the script,
bypassing the next step.
- If you have the original type "make buildit" or
". tools/build.sh", to extract and convert the needed graphics,
sounds and puds. (You need to run this only once!)
- Now it's time for a coffee break.
- Type "make". (Should compile without errors :-)
- Optional:
- Edit "data/ccl/freecraft.ccl" to configure FreeCraft
for your own needs.
- Now you could start with "./freecraft".
- That's all, I hope you have enjoyed the game.
- If you find any bug, look in todo.html
if it is already known, if not please submit it to
The FreeCraft Project.
- ADVANCED: Type "make help" for more compile options.
- If you get killed everytime by the computer, let the AI sleep with
the command line option "-s n" (sleep n frames) or set the build
costs and build times of the computer with -f 110 and -t 110 higher.
Unix or BSD binary
Please follow the following instructions to get a working program.
- Download the binary version from the web page.
- Unpack it into a directory of your choice (~/freecraft)
- Open a shell.
- Change to the top level directory. ("cd ~/freecraft")
- You own the original:
- Search the files maindat.war, sfxdat.sud,strdat.war and rezdat.war
from the original game.
This version supports the original or expansion CD!
If you have only the original CD, it should also work, ignore the
warnings.
- Edit tools/build.sh, and change ARCHIVE to the correct path.
(You could use an installed version or the CD-ROM)
Extract from "/cdrom" is the default. Just mount your cd to /cdrom.
- With the media from the FreeCraft Media Project:
- FcGP (graphic) and FcSP (sound) are now combined in the FcMP
(media) archive.
- Take the archive with the same version as the FreeCraft source.
- FIXME: for final version add the direct download link.
- Download FcMP from
FreeCraft - Download
- Extract it into the freecraft source directory. It overwrites the
content of data which is only needed with the original CD.
- Read "readme" file that is in the archive for further
instructions on how to setup the graphics and sounds packs.
Note: The current version didn't contain it.
- Now you could enter "./freecraft" to play.
- That's all, I hope you have enjoyed the game.
- If you find any bug, look in todo.html
if it is already known, if not please submit it to
The FreeCraft Project.
- If you get killed everytime by the computer, let the ai sleep with
the command line option "-s n" (sleep n frames) or set the build
costs and build times of the computer with -f 110 and -t 110 higher.
Win32
Win32 source
Please follow the following instructions to get a working program.
Note: If you have not used mingw32 before, remember that in the
shell that comes with it, you must type '/' instead of '\' in path names.
- If you do not have a gnu compiler (eg. mingw32) then download the
freecraft-compiler-'date'.zip archive from
this page.
Unzip it into to the C:\ directory.
- Download freecraft-'date'.zip and unzip it into any directory.
- Install all required libraries. (If you downloaded mingw32 from the link
above you should not need to do this)
- Open a shell. (run mingw32.bat)
- Change to the top level freecraft directory. (cd /freecraft)
- You own the original:
- Edit tools\build.bat to meet your requirements.
If your original cdrom is in drive D:\, you didn't need to edit.
- Run tools\build.bat from the FreeCraft toplevel directory.
This extracts the graphics and sound from the original data files.
- With the media from the FreeCraft Media Project:
- FcGP (graphic) and FcSP (sound) are now combined in the FcMP
(media) archive.
- Take the archive with the same version as the FreeCraft source.
- FIXME: for final version add the direct download link.
- Download FcMP from
FreeCraft - Download
- Extract it into the freecraft source directory. It overwrites the
content of data which is only needed with the original CD.
- Read "readme" file that is in the archive for further
instructions on how to setup the graphics and sounds packs.
Note: The current version didn't contain it.
- Copy Rules.make.orig to Rules.make and edit it or run the setup
script.
- Type "./setup" to configure the graphics, sound, and compression
options.
- "./setup --help" shows a list of available setup options
- You have the option of running "make" from the script,
bypassing the next step.
- Enter "freecraft" to play.
- If you have problems look into stdout.txt
or stderr.txt for more information.
- That's all, I hope you have enjoyed the game.
- If you find any bug, look in todo.html
if it is already known, if not please submit it to
The FreeCraft Project.
- ADVANCED: Type "make help" for more compile options.
- If you get killed everytime by the computer, let the ai sleep with
the command line option "-s n" (sleep n frames) or set the build
costs and build times of the computer with -f 110 and -t 110 higher.
Win32 binary
Please follow the following instructions to get a working program.
- Download the binary version from the web page.
- Unzip it into a directory of your choice (C:\games\FreeCraft).
- Open a DOS shell.
- Enter "cd c:\games\FreeCr~1"
- You own the original:
- Edit tools\build.bat to meet your requirements.
If your original cdrom is in drive D:\, you didn't need to edit.
- Run tools\build.bat from the FreeCraft toplevel directory.
This extracts the graphics and sound from the original data files.
- With the media from the FreeCraft Media Project:
- FcGP (graphic) and FcSP (sound) are now combined in the FcMP
(media) archive.
- Take the archive with the same version as the FreeCraft source.
- FIXME: for final version add the direct download link.
- Download FcMP from
FreeCraft - Download
- Extract it into the freecraft source directory. It overwrites the
content of data which is only needed with the original CD.
- Read "readme" file that is in the archive for further
instructions on how to setup the graphics and sounds packs.
Note: The current version didn't contain it.
- Enter "freecraft" to play.
- If you have problems look into stdout.txt
or stderr.txt for more information.
- That's all, I hope you have enjoyed the game.
- If you find any bug, look in todo.html
if it is already known, if not please submit it to
The FreeCraft Project.
- If you get killed everytime by the computer, let the ai sleep with
the command line option "-s n" (sleep n frames) or set the build
costs and build times of the computer with -f 110 and -t 110 higher.
SVGALib support = console
Make sure that you have installed the SVGALib development kit. The setup
script should take care of the rest.
You can find more information and the source on the
SVGALIB home
SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) support
Make sure that you have installed the SDLlib development kit. The setup
script should take care of the rest.
You can find more information and the source on the
Simple DirectMedia Layer Home
Prepare multiplayer play
You can play FreeCraft via network or internet or may run 2 or more clients on
the same computer. Install it on all computers with the above instructions.
You can now start it on each computer with:
First you need one server:
- Start the server:
freecraft
- Choose:
"Multi Player Game"
- Enter your name: ...
- Press OK to continue
- Choose:
"Create Game"
- Choose a multi player level with:
"Select Scenario"
- Wait for clients to connect, you will see their names in the menu.
After all slots are filled the gray "Start Game" becomes colored.
- Press "Start Game" to play.
- The level is now loaded and the clients are started.
Press ALT-'q' to quit the game. If you have won or lost the game exits.
Then you need the clients:
After the server is running!
- Every client does:
freecraft or freecraft -n [server]
[server] may be the hostname (e.g. www.freecraft.org) or the IP address
(e.g. 192.168.0.1.) of the game server. If you want test on a single
computer use "localhost" or "127.0.0.1".
- Choose:
"Multi Player Game"
- Enter your name: ...
- Press OK to continue
- Choose:
"Join Game"
- Enter the server name or IP address, above is the default.
Possible inputs are www.freecraft.org or 127.0.0.1.
- Press OK to continue
- You new see a menu with the possible game options.
- Press "Ready" to show that you are ready.
- Wait now until all are ready and the server player presses "Start Game".
Press ALT-'q' to quit the game. If you have won or lost the game exits.
Hints
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners.
The FreeCraft Project