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FAQ:

Why do you make DotG?
Do you need Help?
Do you use OpenGL for the graphics now?
Why is OpenGL a sought after backend? - this isn't any proper 3d-game.
Which platforms is it availible on?
What should I think about when contributing graphics?
What are the requirements of this game?
What libraries are required to build DotG?
Game do not run, I get Runtime Error when running program
After using the mousewheel, the mouse moves staggering, jerking


Why do you make Dotg?

Because I am a big fan of Dungeon Master and played it a lot back in the days! If you havn't played it, check out the Dungeon Master Encyclopedia to get some info on what it is all about. Also, there seems to be no version of it that is released under an "open" license. Sure there are many versions availible, but even if they are open-source there are many things that need to be considered before making it "open" in a true sense. One of my goals with this project is to make all contents fully open, and redistributable according to FLOSS rules.

Do you need help?

Yes I do! First and foremost I am looking for graphics artists - to make graphics that I can release under an open license (GPL or similar). But coders are also welcome to contribute to the project. Still it is in early development, but the target is to make it majorly customizable, and scriptable using the LUA embedded language while still keeping it under open licenses.

Which platforms is it availible on?

DotG has been built on Linux using GCC, and Windows using both MinGW/MSYS and Visual C++.

Do you use OpenGL for the graphics now?

Yes. I have switched from Allegro to SDL, and this makes things much simpler. To be able to use GL with Allegro, I would have to either use Allegro and AllegroGL, or go to the 4.3.10+ or 5.0 version, and neither of these are packaged yet in any Linux distribution. SDL on the other hand is packaged, with GL easily availible.

Why is OpenGL a sought after backend? - this isn't any proper 3d-game.

OpenGL makes support for using bitmaps with alpha-channels much faster and simpler - also it supports lighting and effects in a much better way. Also, OpenGL is the only reasonable graphics-backend that is fully portable.

What should I think about when contributing graphics?

Since I have gone to SDL/OpenGL - please do contribute! I can now support alpha-channeled graphics with no trouble at all. I have been using PNG so far, but I can read most formats, and convert if necessary.

What are the requirements of this game?

Hardware-wise I will make some efforts to make it run on a somewhat lowspec computer. I have a machine running linux using a Geforce 4, and I will make an effort to make it run on that at least. This will make sure I don't use any occult OpenGL-technologies, that are only availible on newer graphicscards. I have ran it successfully on Nvidia Gefore 4Ti, Intel 910GV and a modern Nvidia-card.

What libraries are required to build DotG?

On my Debian Squeeze box the required libraries/tools to build are the following:
  • cmake
  • build-essential
  • liblua5.1-0-dev
  • libsdl1.2-dev
  • libsdl-image1.2-dev
  • libsdl-ttf2.0-dev
  • libglew-dev (This is called libglew1.5-dev on a Ubuntu Hardy box)
  • libboost1.42-dev
Install these packages, and all required libs will be pulled in. If you have any non-distro specific problems, contact me. In addition to this you will need properly installed video-drivers for you graphics card for OpenGL support. Regarding this, consult your distributions standard support-channels.

Game do not run, I get - Runtime Error: TTF_OpenFont:Couldnt open /usr/share/games/dotg/graphics/fonts/FreeSans.ttf

You must change your ~/.dotg_config.lua. - You must set it up to where you have your dotg graphics folder and your script folder - which norally is just unpacked from the .tar.gz to somewhere in the users home folder.

After using the mouse wheel, the mouse moves staggering, jerking.

This is a SDL/X problem, if giving SDL_VIDEO_X11_DGAMOUSE=0 as a environment variable to the program, this should be fixed. Dotg version 0.31.4 has got a workaround in the config system, give use_non_dga_mouse=true in the configuration will also remove this unwanted behaviour.



Gnu GLP v3

sdl powered

debian powered