Readme
****** * High adventure in a * world of magic and cold steel *
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Version 1.0.0 * **
April, 2007 ******
The Sangband Readme
sang@runegold.org
This file describes how to use Sangband on graphical systems. It does not
cover actual gameplay; for that, consult the Manual.
Table of Contents
1. The Basics
1.1 System requirements
1.2 Playing
1.3 Support
1.4 Upgrading
1.5 Where to find files
1.6 Troubleshooting
2. Customizing
2.1 Graphical interface options
2.2 Window options
2.3 Screenshots
2.4 Fine-tuning the display
2.5 Making your own fonts
2.6 Adding sounds and music
3. Development
3.1 Emails, Websites, and Newsgroups
3.2 Ways to help
3.3 Credits
4. Appendices
Appendix A: Copyright
Appendix B: Exclusion of warranty
The Basics
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A machine running at 233 MHz or better, using a 32-bit (or greater)
graphical operating system, with ~6 MB free memory (~2 MB if sounds and graphics
are removed) and a monitor capable of displaying 16 colors (256 colors minimum
for graphics) at 640x480 resolution.
Port-specific suggestions:
The SDL port requires a bit more horsepower: 600 MHz or better and 256
colors are recommended.
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Double-click the executable, choose to start a new character, roll him
up, and begin play. The game will display useful help text if you type '?'
on most screens.
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The Sangband Official website is at:
http://www.runegold.org/sangband
The dedicated Sangband support thread is at:
http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=24
You can also use the email at the top of this file.
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When you see a new version announced, or one appears on the web site, you
may usually transfer your existing character to the new game.
You make a backup copy of your savefile (located either in
"lib/save/yourname", or in your user directory, sangband section), then copy it
over to the new version. If you want to, you can do the same thing with
your user preference files ("lib/user/yourname.prf" and/or "lib/user/user.prf")
You can also copy your old score file ("lib/apex/scores.raw").
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On a single-user installation, all files will be in the game directory. On
a multi-user installation, your personal files (save games, high scores,
preferences and config, screenshots, etc.) live in your user directory, usually
in the folder "sangband". It is also possible to set up Sangband in other ways.
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Most players just fire up the game and start having fun. But you might
get unlucky. This section lists problems that players have reported:
Q. "I'm having trouble in the very early game."
A. Be sure to spend your startup experience (type '$') on skills like throwing
or magic or melee - something that directly defeats your enemies - before
entering the dungeon.
Q. "I can't run - I have to walk everywhere."
A. Turn off Num Lock, then use Shift-direction to run.
Q. "The game runs very slowly."
A. Arrest the usual suspects. Try 1) turning off graphics and/or music,
2) quitting any active programs that you don't need, and/or 3) going into
options (type '='), and lowering the delay.
Q. "Turning on music causes problems."
A. Sangband uses several different music formats, .it and .mid being two. Not
all sound cards can handle both. See "/lib/xtra/music/jukebox.cfg" for some
ways to work around this.
Q. "I'm using extended fonts (with shaded walls) and the map is messed up."
A. There appears to be a rare problem with showing the non-ASCII part of the
extended fonts on some machines. Reason unknown; until fixed, use pure ASCII
(or graphics).
Q. "The game crashes on me, displays glitches, or has other problems."
Sangband in general, and the graphical interface in specific, is in active
development. Lacking a full-bore Quality Assurance Department, the developers
rely on you, the player, to report problems.
If the display is messed up, try deleting (or renaming) your config.txt
file, which is located either in the game directory or in your user directory.
This resets the interface.
Try isolating the problem. Does turning off sound/music, graphics, or
mouse support help? Does the problem happen consistantly when the game
does something specific?
Report it. Please include all information you think will help someone 1)
get the game to exhibit the problem, and 2) find and fix it. If you are a coder
yourself, replacement code and/or diffs are always welcome.
Customizing
There aren't very many games that are more customizeable than Sangband.
This section covers stuff specific to graphical ports; customizing the game
itself is dealt with in the Manual.
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You change game appearance by going into options (type '=') and choosing
"Display options" (type '!'). If the mouse is active, the right mouse button
serves as a hotkey. Each option is documented; type '?' to get help.
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On monitors 800x600 or larger, the game automatically displays several sub-
windows in addition to the main window. Each sub-window can display information
of your choosing; the game ships with several sub-windows already set. Go into
options (type '=') and choose "Window Options". There are three sections; type
'>' and '<' to navigate between them. To get help for the section you are in,
type '?'.
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There are no fewer than four different ways to take screenshots from
within the game.
Pure ASCII screenshots (monochrome):
Type ')' and choose text. Suitable for newsgroup and other pure-text
environments.
Forum screenshots (colorized, no graphics):
Type ')' and choose forum. Suitable for posts to the Angband Forum.
HTML screenshots (colorized, no graphics):
Type ')' and choose html. Suitable for websites and browsing.
Graphical screenshots:
Type the Print Screen key. On some ports, a bitmap file will automatically
appear in either the game or your user directory; in others, it is saved into
memory and you can paste it into a graphics program of your choosing.
Graphical screenshots can be taken in the heat of battle or when any
interface is active, so they are wonderful for storytelling. You can minimize
file size by reducing color depth to 256 and then saving as a .gif. If you
don't get good results (and not all graphics editors can do this), save in .png
format. .jpg and .bmp files are less suitable.
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Most players can make the game look the way they want by using the
graphical interface options. However, you can get more control by editing the
config.txt file directly. It lives in either the game directory or your user
directory, sangband section.
The game code works hard to handle most illegal instructions robustly, but
it won't catch them all - be warned! If you get in trouble, delete (or rename)
the config file and have the game produce a new one.
Global settings:
The config file is divided into sections. The "Sangband" section controls
all global settings, and has two parts; the upper can be configured in the
display options, the lower (screen positions) you edit yourself.
The most likely reason why you'd want to edit screen positions is that you
want the application to be in windowed mode, and also to see the desktop and/or
other apps while playing the game. To do this, set Display mode to "2" (or 3 if
you want more sub-windows and a smaller map) and tweak the screen size and
position until satisfied.
When the game starts up again in windowed mode (doesn't apply to full-
screen modes), it will look at your requested size. If legal, the game will use
it. If not, it will revert to using the full monitor space. The game will
then:
1) Load the correct set of default windows. There are defaults for 640x480,
800x600, 1024x768, 1200x1024, and 1600x1200.
2) Load any windows for your requested resolution already in config.txt,
overwriting the defaults. See below on how to make sure this works.
3) Maximize the windows to take up the full space you request. If, say, you ask
for an 800x800 screen, the game will load the 800x640 defaults and then enlarge
the map to take advantage of the extra space.
In some ports, but not all, you can also control application window
position. In some ports, the game will also remember window position settings
whenever you move the window.
Window settings:
All other sections describe a Term window. For each game resolution you
have tried, and for each display mode, you will see 11 of these, one for each of
10 possible Terms, plus an 11th for the special display. If you want to edit
these, be sure to edit those for the resoluton and display mode you request in
the "Sangband" section - otherwise, you'll see no effect.
Note: Not everything in a window section is actually editable. "TileWid"
and "TileHgt" are provided merely for easy reference; the game always auto-
calculates them. The game also auto-calculates most things about the map window
(#1), except for "Visible" and "Font".
If you edit windows, there are various rules you need to follow for your
requested windows to be used without error (and in some cases for the game even
to load):
1. The main term (#0) must be visible and show at least 80 rows and 24 columns.
2. You must specify legal fonts; use files only from /lib/xtra/font. The game
will always set the size of window tiles to either that requested by the
graphics set (in the map view only), or that given by the font name (all other
windows).
3. Windows should not overlap (this is one of the things the game doesn't
check, so be careful).
4. You can request really small sub-windows, but must show 10 columns and 1
row at a minimum. You should also not try to stuff a sub-window display into a
space too small for it to handle; for example, the character screen display
really needs at least 79x24.
5. Window sizes include any inner borders. It is recommended that you use
inner borders to separate windows from each other and the outside edge. Also,
in windowed mode you must allow space for system borders (approximately 30
pixels for the caption bar and 4 for other borders).
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Sangband includes a collection of customized bitmap fonts, a collection
which began as a contribution to the Xchar Project, a patch to provide extended
characters (such as accents) for Angband. If you want to make your own fonts,
the xchar web page includes links to various font-making resources and how-tos.
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If you want to use different sounds and tunes, it's as easy as adding
them to various lists. For more details, consult /lib/xtra/sound/sound.cfg and
/lib/xtra/music/jukebox.cfg.
Development
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Suggestions, bugreports, and all other communication may be sent to the
email shown at the top of this Readme. If it should bounce, then navigate to
the websites listed below and use their contact info.
The Sangband webpage is at http://www.runegold.org/sangband/..
The Sourceforge repository is at http://sourceforge.net/projects/sangband/.
There are also several unofficial websites. Let me know if you want yours
listed in this readme.
Sangband uses the Angband Forum, located at http://angband.oook.cz/forum/.
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Sangband is a well-established code project that offers firm support for
any number of Neat New Features. Development is opening up; you don't have to
be a C coder to play a major role. If you have ideas, and the skills to help
make them a reality, drop me a line. What gets done right, right now - and what
keeps getting delayed - depends on your assistance.
An example: Future Roguelike game interfaces should exploit the capacities
of modern graphical machines. But how to do this best? Further improve the
current 2D graphics? Create a true graphical user interface? Explore the
possibilities of extended ASCII artwork? Go with an isometric view? Add
sprites? The answer will depend on the artists; my (LM's) role will be that of
making sure the game presents their work in the most effective possible way.
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There is a reason why Sangband is as well-established as it is; a lot of
people have helped it prosper and grow.
Code and Text Sources:
Moria, UMoria, Angband (various versions), Angband--, Angband/64, Antiband
Cthangband, sCthangband, Eric Bock's Angband, Rangband, Zceband, EyAngband,
FAngband, Hengband, Kangband, Kamband, Oangband, NPPAngband, PernAngband and
ToME, PsiAngband, UnAngband, Zangband. For more details, see "/src/credits.txt
and "src/changes.txt" in the source release.
Developers:
Joshua Middendorf, Christer Nyfält, Scott Yost
Contributors:
Werner Baer, Charlie Ball, Eric Bock, Clefs, DarkGod, Andrew Doull, Steven
Fuerst, Diego Gonzalez, Jeff Greene, Eddie Grove, Adam Horowitz, Ben Harrison,
Aram Harrow, Improv, Mikolaj Konarski, Matthias Kurzke, Julian Lighton, Joshua
Middendorf, Takeshi Mogami, Ross Morgan-Linial, Matthew Neumann, Christer
Nyfält, Bahman Rabii, Robert Ruehlmann, Andrew Schoonmaker, Paul Sexton, Ethan
Sicotte, William Tanksley, Topi Ylinen, Scott Yost, Eytan Zwieg, and many others
Artists and Writers:
Adam Bolt, David Gervais, Reenen Laurie, Cosmic Gerbil. Sounds and music
also from Angband and Falcon's Eye.
Porters:
Christer Nyfält, John I'anson-Holton, Ken Dubuc, Dave
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This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Parts may also be available
under the terms of the Moria license. For more details, see "/docs/copying.txt"
in the source release.
Exception: Artistic works are sometime made available only under specific
terms; in such cases, the terms will either be detailed in the main directory in
which these works are located, or in the work itself.
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11. Because the program is licensed free of charge, there is no warranty
for the program, to the extent permitted by applicable law. Except when
otherwise stated in writing the copyright holders and/or other parties
provide the program "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed
or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of
merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as
to the quality and performance of the program is with you. Should the
program prove defective, you assume the cost of all necessary servicing,
repair or correction.