HOW TO BUILD COPTER COMMANDER

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Short form:

  cd copter-commander-VERSION
  emacs Makefile                # adjust "*** VARIABLES ***" section
  make                          # check for errors
  make install
  copter-commander              # should work

Then tell coco-devel@lists.sourceforge.net what you think.  We need
LOTS more feedback.  Also, we need an autoconf/automake guru to
autoconfiscate this puppy, and ports to the other OSes.  Also, an
artist!  Okay, end shameless plugs.

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Long form:

You REALLY want gnome on your system.  Development started against
gnome-libs-1.2.8-0_helix_1, and at time of writing runs against
gnome-libs-1.4.1.2.  If you have no gnome, you can make due with
glx-copter-commander, see "Making due with glx-copter-commander",
below.

If you go gnome, you also need the gtk-gl-area library installed.  See
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~jlof/gtkglarea, or in most distros just
install the package.  Its an easy configure/make/make-install.

Copter commander performance depends heavily on the performance of
three of its libraries.  The most important is OpenGL -- hardware
good, software bad.  See
http://www.speakeasy.org/~morse/copter-commander/opengl.html.  Second
is sound - try to get OpenAL going (www.openal.org), its pretty easy
to install and has better quality and speed than ESD.  Last, and least
important, is the input library, which defaults to X but can use GII,
which can theoretically be faster than X11 using the env. variable
GII_INPUT=input-linux-evdev.

If you have done the "make", and don't want to do the "make install"
before a test, run the program like this:

copter-commander server --level /absolute/path/to/copter-commander/levels/flashpoint.ccl &
copter-commander

then join the game on localhost:7500

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Making due with glx-copter-commander:

glx-copter-commander is missing all but the most basic UI for creating
and joining games, using the command line as a crutch.  It is not
recommened for serious play.  It is mainly there for people to decide
if they like the gameplay enough to hassle with the library
dependancies, before they actually have to go through the hassle.  It
is also easier to port -- It was the first version to run on alpha,
for example.

Instead of "make", do "make glx-copter-commander".

Most of your setup you do with the command line.  First start a server:

  glx-copter-commander server --level flashpoint

Then start one or more clients with

  glx-copter-commander --host <SERVER>

where SERVER is something like "ork.bomberlan.net" or "localhost".
The client and host may run on the same machine without appreciable
slowdown.

Once the client has come up, press return.  This will start the game,
or join an in-progress game.

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Troubleshooting:

Contact coco-devel@lists.sourceforge.net