Readme
From OpenCity
README for OpenCity 0.0.5stable
Last modified: $Id: README,v 1.26 2006/01/26 10:53:18 neoneurone Exp $
Audience: # End-users: You can find a lot of useful information in this file. So read it ! # Packagers: This file contains useful information about command line options. For compilation and installation notes please refer to the INSTALL file.
Description: This is just another city simulation. The idea is simple: you have to build a city with 3 types of "zones" Residential, Commercial and Industrial. They depend on each other during their development. Try to give them what they need and watch your city growing up.
Hardware requirements:
Processor: never mind
Speed: whatever
Graphic card: 3D accelerated card required.
Sound card: anything that can work with SDL_mixer
Network: experimental support
Software requirements:
Operating System: Linux (recommended) or Mac OS or later or Microsoft Windows XP/2000 or later or Wine
Graphic User Interface: X Windows with DRI activated (recommended) or Darwin or Microsotf Windows or Wine
Libraries: GL (OpenGL) GLU SDL SDL_image SDL_net SDL_mixer (optional)
Linux autopackage release's notes:
Have you just downloaded the "opencity-x.y.zsomething.package" stuff ? Give it the run permission by issuing the correct "chmod" command (refer to your Linux distribution for more information about the "chmod" command)
Now run it from the console or in a file browser like Konqueror. OpenCity will be installed on your computer, and an icon will be created inside the "Game" group.
After installation, you can launch OpenCity by clicking on its icon or typing "opencity" in your favorite console.
Microsoft Windows binary release's notes:
In order to play the game, you must install it first. Once it's done, click on the OpenCity's icon in the start menu to begin.
Keys' description
Hotkey:
n: "Blank" tool r: Zone Residential tool c: Zone Commercial tool i: Zone Industrial tool p: Lay Paths tool l: Lay electric Lines tool x: Destroy tool q: Query tool e: Build a coal power plant ctrl: cancel the zoning tool action
u / d: raise / lower cells tool
Navigation:
up / down / left / right: move the map pageup / pagedown: rotate the map insert / delete: zoom in/out alt: multiply the effects of the buttons above by 10
h: as Home escape: toggle the main menu
Option:
b: Toggle building display on/off g: Toggle grid display on/off k: Toggle the main status bar display on/off f: Toggle wire frame mode display on/off o: Toggle perspective/orthogonal projection t: Toggle terrain display on/off w: Toggle water display on/off
Sound & music:
< / >: play previous / next music m: music on / off s: sound on / off
Experimental:
F2: Save F6: Load
Undocumented features, try it at your own risks:
a: various test codes menu v: MAS test menu z: connect to the local ZeN server
Sound & music
OpenCity uses SDL_mixer for playing sound & music. Thus, it supports all file types that SDL_mixer supports.
If you don't hear any sound, try to modify "sound.m3u" and set the path accordingly to the "opencity" executable file. Please note that OpenCity automatically appends a prefix to all the sound filenames. The prefix is where the installation procedure has put all OpenCity's data files.
However, you can put a file called "music.m3u" in the "music" directory and OpenCity will load and play your favorite musics. If you don't find any "music" directory just create it then put your list "music.m3u" in it.
I'd like to warn you that SDL_mixer is not that stable. It can hang OpenCity while playing few kinds of ".mp3" song. Blame the SDL_mixer's guys not me ;) If you experience such a problem, just turn the music off (key 'm').
Mouse action
In OpenCity, whenever you click the RMB (Right Mouse Button), you will open the toolcircle. Click RMB again to hide the toolcircle. I try to make everything simple and handy. But sometimes you still need your keyboard.
OpenCity also understands the mouse's wheel ! Push the wheel forward does a zoom in (as 'Insert' key) and roll the wheel backward does a zoom out (as 'Delete' key).
When you hold 'Shift' and play with your mouse's wheel you'll notice that it translates the map in some direction. Whereas the 'Ctrl' button translates the map along another axis.
Main config file "opencity.xml"
See the in-line comments for more details.
Command-line options
In OpenCity, you can overwrite the config file's options with the command-line options. Few options are available in both short and long format.
-fs | --fullscreen Enable fullscreen mode
-glv | --gl-version Show the informations of the current available OpenGL implementation on your machine then quit
-dd | --datadir newDataPath Specify to new path to OpenCity's data. For example: Under linux: --datadir /home/foo/bar/share/opencity/ Under win32: --datadir "C:/Program Files/OpenCity/share"
-cd | --confdir newConfigPath Specify to new path to OpenCity's config. For example: Under linux: --confdir /home/foo/bar/etc/opencity/ Under win32: --confdir "C:/Program Files/OpenCity/etc"
-na | --no-audio: Disable the audio system
--generator-seed seed The seed is the random integer seed used by the map generator
--generator-map MAP-TYPE MAP-TYPE : 0=plain (default), 1=hill, 2=mountain
--generator-water WATER-TYPE WATER-TYPE : 0=dry, 1=lake (default), 2=coast
--generator-map-shape MAP-SHAPE-TYPE MAP-SHAPE-TYPE : 0=none (default), 1=island, 2=volcano, 3=crater
--generator-tree-density TREE-DENSITY-TYPE TREE-DENSITY-TYPE: 0=sparse (default), 1=normal, 2=dense
--generator-height-map heightMapPicture Load a gray-level picture as height map (PNG). The water level is gray level 128, each map level is one gray level. That's why the whole picture seems to be in a medium gray, because there's only a minor difference between the pixels. You can draw yourself the height-map or generate from any map sources. The interesting data for this work are the DEM satellite data. The map generator in OpenCity will crop the picture if it's too big.
Save/Load issues
The following directory is used for save/load
* GNU/Linux: $HOME/.OpenCity/
* Windows: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\OpenCity\ If you are running a localized version of Windows, the above path may be different
* Windows Vista: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\OpenCity\
Troubleshootings
1) I have a ATI Radeon 9000 M video card on my machine. When I tested the game with "EnablePageFlip" ( see man radeon ) the game works weirdly. If you encounter the same problem, try to disable this feature of the XFree server ( see man XF86Config )
2) With ATI Radeon 9000M video card, the SmoothVision(tm) must be deactivated in order to run OpenCity correctly.
3) Here is the version of my X server
- XFree86 Version 4.3.0 - Release Date: 9 May 2003 - X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 6.6 - Build Operating System: Linux 2.4.18-23mdksmp i686 [ELF] - Build Date: 10 September 2003
It seems that the driver for my ATI Radeon 9000 M is very buggy. If you experience any trouble, try to type this in the shell (bash) before launching OpenCity.
"export R200_NO_VTXFMT="
Or you should try a newer XFree.
