LBreakout2
a breakout-style arcade game for Linux
by Michael Speck
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I. Requirements
II. Installation
III. Network Server
IV. Documentation
V. Troubleshooting
VI. Resources
VII. Feedback
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I. Requirements
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LBreakout runs in X and uses SDL (any version though >= 1.1.4
is recommended) and SDL_mixer (optional for sound). Both libraries
can be found at http://libsdl.org. The graphical stuff requires PNG
which is usually included to a distro. If not check out
http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html.
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II. Installation
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Enter your favorite shell and type in the following stuff (in the
directory you extracted the LBreakout source)
> ./configure [--disable-audio] [--disable-install] [--enable-warp]
[--with-highscore-path=HPATH] [--with-doc-path=DPATH]
[--disable-network]
--disable-audio: no sound
--disable-install: no installation; play from source directory
--enable-warp: nescessary for non-Unices to use relative
mouse motion for inverting or modify mouse
speed
--with-highscore-path: write global highscore chart lbreakout.hscr
to the specified directory
DEFAULT: /var/lib/games
--with-doc-path: install documentation to $DPATH/lbreakout2
DEFAULT: /usr/doc
--disable-network: compile LBreakout2 without any network
support
> make
> su (become root)
> make install (if install wasn't disabled)
> exit (become user again)
> lbreakout2 (run client/non-network game)
!!! NOTE: Since 2.1.2 the config directory is ~/.lgames instead
of ~/.lbreakout2. If you created levelsets with a previous version
you'll have to copy these sets from ~/.lbreakout2/levels to
~/.lgames/lbreakout2-levels !!!
The directory ~/.lbreakout2 is obsolete and may be deleted.
Building on Win32
-----------------
To build on a Win32 platform I used MinGW and MSYS.
Network support is not available for the win32 version of lbreakout2.
1) Install the following win32 tools:
MinGW
MSYS
Inno Setup 2
2) Install the following win32 libaries:
SDL (you might need to edit sdl-config)
SDL_mixer
lipng
zlib
3) From the build root, create win32dll directory and copy the following
win32 dlls to it:
SDL.dll
SDL_mixer.dll
libpng.dll
zlib.dll
msvcrt.dll (freely available from Microsoft)
4) configure will need to find SDL.dll. You can either register SDL.dll
or simply copy it to the root build directory.
5) Setup environment. To get things to compile, I setup the following
environment variables:
SDL_CONFIG - fully qualified path to sdl-config
CFLAGS - tell build process where to find include files
LDFLAGS - tell build process where to find libraries
PATH - ensure that Inno Setup 2 iscc and zip are in the PATH
6) Do a full build by issueing the following commands:
configure --disable-install --disable-install
make
7) Create a win32 installer by issueing the following command:
make win32_installer
You'll find lbreakout2-<version>-win32.exe in the build director. This is
the is a standalone installer for lbreakout2.
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III. Network Server
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To run a server start lbreakout2server with any of the following
options:
-p <PORT> server port (default 2002)
-l <LIMIT> maximum number of users that may connect to the server
(default is 30)
-i <IDLETIME> a user will be kicked if he didn't communicate with the
server for this amount of seconds (default is 1200)
-n <MESSAGE> this message is displayed to welcome a user
-a <PASSWORD> a user that logs in with this name will become
administrator named admin (default is no admin)
After that you'll have to query your IP (e.g. with
/sbin/ifconfig) and pass it to your friends as there is no permanent
internet server yet. Note, that you shouldn't use localhost as you
won't be able to challenge others then.
Check the online documentation at http://lgames.sf.net
for information on how to play.
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IV. Documentation
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If you have any questions about options, game play or editor
please check the documentation and see if you
can find an answer there. I will not respond to any eMails concerning
questions easily answered by the manual (/usr/doc/lbreakout2).
However, if you have any other problems or suggestions or you found a
bug please contact me: kulkanie@gmx.net
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V. Troubleshooting
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The solution for relative mouse motion (nescessary when inverting or
slowing down mouse by motion modifier) works fine for Linux and
Win32 but fails for other non-Unices. Current solution is to warp the
mouse (by using configure option --enable-warp). Unfortunately, this
will handicap events when trying to fire weapon or release balls AND
move the paddle at the same time. This means it may happen that a weapon
is not fired or doesn't stop fire, balls keep being attached and so
on...
---
Disabling sound while playing seems to result in loosing various
sound channels when some sounds were actually mixed.
---
Someone reported that he had problems with PNG (configure script
didn't find it) if it was installed to /usr/local/lib.
Setting a link in /usr/lib fixes this.
---
If you have SDL_mixer installed but configure tells you that it can't
find it, remember that you have to install the development package
for compiling!
---
If you can't compile because LBreakout2' timestamps are slightly in
the future run 'touchall' (found in the configure directory).
---
If 'fullscreen' just adds a black frame around the game but does
not change the solution make sure that you have 640x480 available
as resolution in your Xconfig.
---
If the SDL sound seems to be out of sync first try
to modify the audio buffer size in ~/.lgames/lbreakout2.conf.
If this fails set SDL_AUDIODRIVER to dma (export SDL_AUDIODRIVER=dma).
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VI. Resources
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Some graphics and sounds has been taken and modified from other
non-copyrighted resources:
Backgrounds: http://www.grsites.com/textures
Sounds: "Web Clip Empire 50.000", NovaMedia Verlag, Germany
Thanks to all of these guys for there free stuff!
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VII. Feedback
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LGames URL: http://www.lgames.org
e-Mail: kulkanie@gmx.net
