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Intensity Engine

The Intensity Engine is the open source project powering Syntensity,

http://www.syntensity.com
http://www.syntensity.com/toplevel/intensityengine/

Running - Syntensity

To run the client and connect to Syntensity, run

(Windows) intensity_client.bat
(Linux)   ./intensity_client.sh

You need to sign up for a free user account on Syntensity,

http://www.syntensity.com

Notes:

• On Windows, Python25 appears in the batch file for the client (and also the server, etc.). This is because the binary libraries provided (boost, etc.) are linked against Python 2.5. So, you should install Python 2.5 (it can coexist alongside other versions), or edit the batch files. (Note that only 2.5 was tested extensively on Windows, so there may be issues with other versions, but, 2.6 is known to work fine on Linux.) Also, if you have Python 2.5 installed at a non-default location (i.e., not C:\Python25) then you should edit the batch files accordingly.

Compiling

See COMPILE.txt for how to compile the source code, if this isn't a binary distribution.

Running - Locally (i.e., without Syntensity)

See README-standalone.txt. It explains how to quickly run a map using the client, and also more complex things like running your own servers.

Settings

You can change some settings in the settings.cfg file. This file is in

~/.intensityengine_client/settings.cfg

or

~/.intensityengine_client/settings_server.cfg

on Linux, for the client and server, respectively - note that these are purposefully two separate files. On Windows, the files are in

C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\intensityengine_client\settings.cfg
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\intensityengine_client\settings_server.cfg

where USERNAME is your username. On Vista, the locations will be

C:\Users\USERNAME\intensityengine_client\settings.cfg
C:\Users\USERNAME\intensityengine_client\settings_server.cfg

Note that the files are auto-generated when the client exits, so if you modify it while the client or server is running, then exit, your changes will be overwritten.

You can also tell the client and server to use other home directories. They will then use the files present there, and in particular the settings.cfg file there, so this can be an easy way to switch between various setups (e.g., between connecting to Syntensity or to your own infrastructure). To specify a home directory, simply pass it as the first commandline argument to the client or server.

Problems

See the TROUBLESHOOTING.txt file if you are having trouble running or compiling the Intensity Engine. You can also ask for help on IRC,

#syntensity on FreeNode

See also

http://wiki.syntensity.com/troubleshooting

Documentation

See the included README-* files, the contents of docs/, and the Syntensity wiki (http://wiki.syntensity.com). Good places to start:

• README-standalone.txt: Mentioned above.
• docs/tutorial_making_a_game.markdown: How to work on games in an easy way in standalone mode.
• docs/scripting.markdown: Teaches in a step-by-step manner the scripting API.

Reporting Bugs

Please do so here:

http://github.com/kripken/intensityengine/issues

Notes on reporting crashing bugs:

• Set the logging level to DEBUG (or INFO, if feasible), and reproduce the crash. This will give more output than the default setting of WARNING. (This is set in the settings.cfg file in the home directory you are using.) On Windows, output should appear in out_client (or out_server); on other platforms, it goes to the console by default, so you should redirect it to a file (or copy it from the console.
• If you can, try to run the program in the debugger, to find the line number of the crash.
• In the bug report, please state if the crash is consistent (always happens in a particular case), and what exactly appears to trigger the crash - what you were doing just before, etc.

Packaging / Systemwide Install

The Intensity Engine will work fine if installed for all users. It only writes to the user's home directory, not anywhere else, so it can be installed in a read-only central (systemwide) location. The only thing you should do in such a case is change directory to where it is installed and run it from there.

Contributing

See docs/code.markdown.

Notes

1. The Intensity Engine is licensed under the MIT/X11 license. See COPYING.txt for details.

2. For more information, including links to the mailing list, bugs, wiki, etc., see the main website,

    http://www.syntensity.com/toplevel/intensityengine/
   

3. This distribution may contain sources or binaries of other open source projects (in /build, /src, or /windows/dll), supplied for convenience here instead of requiring you to get them yourself. The following is a list of licenses and where to get the source code for each one:

   • ENet (MIT) http://enet.bespin.org/
   • Simple DirectMedia Layer, or SDL (LGPL) http://www.libsdl.org/
   • Google V8 (BSD) http://code.google.com/p/v8/
   • The Python programming language (PSFL) http://python.org/
   • Boost (Boost Software License) http://www.boost.org/
   • MochiKit (MIT) http://mochikit.com/
   • zlib (zlib) http://www.zlib.net/

   The Intensity Engine uses all of these project as-is, no changes have been made.