~vcs-imports/ember/trunk : contents of README at revision 2283

~vcs-imports/ember/trunk : (revision 2283)

Ember

 Introduction

This is the Ember client for the Worldforge project.

Ember is a fully functional 3d client for both Cyphesis 
and Indri servers. It's goal is to be used with all 
worlds created withing the Worldforge project.

 Quickstart

In the upper part of the window is the console. It has 
two modes, full or small. In small mode, which is the 
default, only the input strip is shown. I full mode the 
console occupies half of the screen. Use F12 to switch 
console modes. The console is used for both talking in 
the world and executing commands. If you've used IRC 
before you'll find it quite similiar. All commands are 
prefixed by "/". Use the command "/list_commands" to get a 
list of all available commands. If you just enter text 
normally in the console, your character will say what 
you've entered in the world.

Use the server browser to connect to a server. Once 
connected, you'll have to create a new account. Enter 
an account name and a password and press "create". After 
you're logged in with an account, you'll have to create 
an avatar in the world. An account can have many 
avatars. Choose a name, a type, a sex and optionally a 
description.

 Moving around in the world

Once in the world you'll be presented to a third person 
view of your avatar. The default mode is GUI mode. In 
GUI mode you can interact with the different GUI 
widgets and moving your mouse will move the cursor. 
Press the right mouse button to switch to movement 
mode. When in movement mode, the mouse is used to pan 
around the world. The avatar will change direction to 
face the camera. Use the keys w,a,s,d to move around 
the world. Pressing shift will make the avatar run.

When in gui mode, the gui behaves pretty much like a 
standard gui. Double click on window headers to make 
them roll up and down. 

Click on an entity in the world (a tree, a NPC) to show 
the mouse picker menu. Most options here are pretty 
self explanatory. If you have something wielded, like 
an axe or a shovel, you also get an option to use the 
wielded object with the picked entity.

 Talking to people

Use the console to talk to people in the world, just 
enter some text and press enter. (Note that all console 
commands are prefixed by "/", such as "/quit".) When 
someone else in the world says something, it will be 
shown through the use of a "talk bubble" to the left of 
the person. Some NPC have a series of suggested 
responses. These will be shown to the left of the NPC. 
You can let your avatar say one of these by clicking on them.

 Developing

The main design philosophy behind Ember is to as much 
as possible use 3d party libraries. We strive to remove 
as much uneccessary code from Ember as possible, if 
there's equivalent functionality to be found in an 
existing library. This prevents us from a 
Not-Invented-Here mindset and makes it easier to kill 
our darlings.

* It uses Ogre (http://www.ogre3d.org) to present the 
  world in full 3d. Ogre is very much hardwired into 
  the core of Ember. 

* SDL is used for input handling. This is not that hard 
  wired as Ogre, but since the goal of SDL is to 
  provide a platform agnostic library there's perhaps 
  no big reason to provide support for a different 
  input library. We will hade to do some research into 
  DirectInput though. 

* SigC++ is used for signals and events. This is also 
  very much hardwired into Ember.

Other notable libraries used: 

* CEGUI (http://www.cegui.org.uk) is used for the gui. 
  This can be removed from Ember, and another library 
  can be used. Note however that all current widgets 
  are made for CEGUI only, ie. we don't try to provide 
  a generic widget abstraction. It seems unlikely that 
  such a construct would work. For reference, see any 
  discussion on Java's AWT, Swing and SWT. 

* OpenAL (http://www.openal.org/) is used for the 
  sound. This should be loosely decoupled from Ember, 
  but much like SDL OpenAL is geared towards providing 
  platform agnostic sound support. Then again, FMOD 
  might be interesting. 

See the doc directory and 
http://www.worldforge.org/dev/eng/clients/ember/ for 
more information.

819 by erik 2005-01-22 Erik Hjortsberg <erik@katastrof.nu>	1	Ember
	2
	3	Introduction
	4
	5	This is the Ember client for the Worldforge project.
	6
	7	Ember is a fully functional 3d client for both Cyphesis
	8	and Indri servers. It's goal is to be used with all
	9	worlds created withing the Worldforge project.
	10
	11	Quickstart
	12
	13	In the upper part of the window is the console. It has
	14	two modes, full or small. In small mode, which is the
	15	default, only the input strip is shown. I full mode the
	16	console occupies half of the screen. Use F12 to switch
1244 by erik 2005-09-26 Erik Hjortsberg <erik@katastrof.nu>	17	console modes. The console is used for both talking in
	18	the world and executing commands. If you've used IRC
	19	before you'll find it quite similiar. All commands are
	20	prefixed by "/". Use the command "/list_commands" to get a
	21	list of all available commands. If you just enter text
	22	normally in the console, your character will say what
	23	you've entered in the world.
	24
	25	Use the server browser to connect to a server. Once
	26	connected, you'll have to create a new account. Enter
	27	an account name and a password and press "create". After
	28	you're logged in with an account, you'll have to create
	29	an avatar in the world. An account can have many
	30	avatars. Choose a name, a type, a sex and optionally a
	31	description.
819 by erik 2005-01-22 Erik Hjortsberg <erik@katastrof.nu>	32
	33	Moving around in the world
	34
	35	Once in the world you'll be presented to a third person
1244 by erik 2005-09-26 Erik Hjortsberg <erik@katastrof.nu>	36	view of your avatar. The default mode is GUI mode. In
	37	GUI mode you can interact with the different GUI
	38	widgets and moving your mouse will move the cursor.
819 by erik 2005-01-22 Erik Hjortsberg <erik@katastrof.nu>	39	Press the right mouse button to switch to movement
	40	mode. When in movement mode, the mouse is used to pan
	41	around the world. The avatar will change direction to
	42	face the camera. Use the keys w,a,s,d to move around
	43	the world. Pressing shift will make the avatar run.
	44
	45	When in gui mode, the gui behaves pretty much like a
	46	standard gui. Double click on window headers to make
1244 by erik 2005-09-26 Erik Hjortsberg <erik@katastrof.nu>	47	them roll up and down.
819 by erik 2005-01-22 Erik Hjortsberg <erik@katastrof.nu>	48
	49	Click on an entity in the world (a tree, a NPC) to show
	50	the mouse picker menu. Most options here are pretty
1244 by erik 2005-09-26 Erik Hjortsberg <erik@katastrof.nu>	51	self explanatory. If you have something wielded, like
	52	an axe or a shovel, you also get an option to use the
	53	wielded object with the picked entity.
819 by erik 2005-01-22 Erik Hjortsberg <erik@katastrof.nu>	54
	55	Talking to people
	56
	57	Use the console to talk to people in the world, just
	58	enter some text and press enter. (Note that all console
	59	commands are prefixed by "/", such as "/quit".) When
	60	someone else in the world says something, it will be
	61	shown through the use of a "talk bubble" to the left of
	62	the person. Some NPC have a series of suggested
	63	responses. These will be shown to the left of the NPC.
	64	You can let your avatar say one of these by clicking on them.
	65
	66	Developing
	67
	68	The main design philosophy behind Ember is to as much
	69	as possible use 3d party libraries. We strive to remove
	70	as much uneccessary code from Ember as possible, if
	71	there's equivalent functionality to be found in an
	72	existing library. This prevents us from a
	73	Not-Invented-Here mindset and makes it easier to kill
	74	our darlings.
	75
	76	* It uses Ogre (http://www.ogre3d.org) to present the
	77	world in full 3d. Ogre is very much hardwired into
	78	the core of Ember.
	79
	80	* SDL is used for input handling. This is not that hard
	81	wired as Ogre, but since the goal of SDL is to
	82	provide a platform agnostic library there's perhaps
	83	no big reason to provide support for a different
	84	input library. We will hade to do some research into
	85	DirectInput though.
	86
	87	* SigC++ is used for signals and events. This is also
	88	very much hardwired into Ember.
	89
	90	Other notable libraries used:
	91
	92	* CEGUI (http://www.cegui.org.uk) is used for the gui.
	93	This can be removed from Ember, and another library
	94	can be used. Note however that all current widgets
	95	are made for CEGUI only, ie. we don't try to provide
	96	a generic widget abstraction. It seems unlikely that
	97	such a construct would work. For reference, see any
	98	discussion on Java's AWT, Swing and SWT.
	99
	100	* OpenAL (http://www.openal.org/) is used for the
	101	sound. This should be loosely decoupled from Ember,
	102	but much like SDL OpenAL is geared towards providing
	103	platform agnostic sound support. Then again, FMOD
	104	might be interesting.
	105
	106	See the doc directory and
	107	http://www.worldforge.org/dev/eng/clients/ember/ for
	108	more information.