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* INSTALL, INSTALL.lyx, NEWS, README, README.lyx: updated documentation * Makefile.am: install docs etc. in share/doc/ember-$VERSION
108 lines
4.1 KiB
Text
108 lines
4.1 KiB
Text
Ember
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Introduction
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This is the Ember client for the Worldforge project.
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Ember is a fully functional 3d client for both Cyphesis
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and Indri servers. It's goal is to be used with all
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worlds created withing the Worldforge project.
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Quickstart
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In the upper part of the window is the console. It has
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two modes, full or small. In small mode, which is the
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default, only the input strip is shown. I full mode the
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console occupies half of the screen. Use F12 to switch
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console modes. The console is used for both talking in
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the world and executing commands. If you've used IRC
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before you'll find it quite similiar. All commands are
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prefixed by "/". Use the command "/list_commands" to get a
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list of all available commands. If you just enter text
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normally in the console, your character will say what
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you've entered in the world.
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Use the server browser to connect to a server. Once
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connected, you'll have to create a new account. Enter
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an account name and a password and press "create". After
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you're logged in with an account, you'll have to create
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an avatar in the world. An account can have many
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avatars. Choose a name, a type, a sex and optionally a
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description.
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Moving around in the world
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Once in the world you'll be presented to a third person
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view of your avatar. The default mode is GUI mode. In
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GUI mode you can interact with the different GUI
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widgets and moving your mouse will move the cursor.
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Press the right mouse button to switch to movement
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mode. When in movement mode, the mouse is used to pan
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around the world. The avatar will change direction to
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face the camera. Use the keys w,a,s,d to move around
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the world. Pressing shift will make the avatar run.
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When in gui mode, the gui behaves pretty much like a
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standard gui. Double click on window headers to make
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them roll up and down.
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Click on an entity in the world (a tree, a NPC) to show
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the mouse picker menu. Most options here are pretty
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self explanatory. If you have something wielded, like
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an axe or a shovel, you also get an option to use the
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wielded object with the picked entity.
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Talking to people
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Use the console to talk to people in the world, just
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enter some text and press enter. (Note that all console
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commands are prefixed by "/", such as "/quit".) When
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someone else in the world says something, it will be
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shown through the use of a "talk bubble" to the left of
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the person. Some NPC have a series of suggested
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responses. These will be shown to the left of the NPC.
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You can let your avatar say one of these by clicking on them.
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Developing
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The main design philosophy behind Ember is to as much
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as possible use 3d party libraries. We strive to remove
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as much uneccessary code from Ember as possible, if
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there's equivalent functionality to be found in an
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existing library. This prevents us from a
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Not-Invented-Here mindset and makes it easier to kill
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our darlings.
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* It uses Ogre (http://www.ogre3d.org) to present the
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world in full 3d. Ogre is very much hardwired into
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the core of Ember.
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* SDL is used for input handling. This is not that hard
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wired as Ogre, but since the goal of SDL is to
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provide a platform agnostic library there's perhaps
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no big reason to provide support for a different
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input library. We will hade to do some research into
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DirectInput though.
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* SigC++ is used for signals and events. This is also
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very much hardwired into Ember.
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Other notable libraries used:
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* CEGUI (http://www.cegui.org.uk) is used for the gui.
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This can be removed from Ember, and another library
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can be used. Note however that all current widgets
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are made for CEGUI only, ie. we don't try to provide
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a generic widget abstraction. It seems unlikely that
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such a construct would work. For reference, see any
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discussion on Java's AWT, Swing and SWT.
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* OpenAL (http://www.openal.org/) is used for the
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sound. This should be loosely decoupled from Ember,
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but much like SDL OpenAL is geared towards providing
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platform agnostic sound support. Then again, FMOD
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might be interesting.
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See the doc directory and
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http://www.worldforge.org/dev/eng/clients/ember/ for
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more information.
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