Oolite Bulletins

Hi all,

I've posted an installer based on svn rev 439 in the usual place.

The changes I know about:

Includes support for script.oos files in OXP/Config directory. Your script.plist files will continue to work if you don't have a script.oos file.

Some new script actions: setSpecificPlanetInfo, addMissionDestination, removeMissionDestination (documented on the wiki)

Script local variables.

More consistent replacement of variable content in action parameters.

The bleeding edge scene and sound code Giles has been working on.

I've removed a lot of the GNUstep infrastructure that used to be installed but ended up being unnecessary.


I've added info to the readme about the changing resolution/fullscreen/windowed mode problem, but I have no fixes for it yet.

Waddya know? It now runs under Windows 98 SE in VirtualPC. :-) This is not to say it works, though; it says it can’t find cobra3_redux.dat.
The file is present at “C:\Program Files\Oolite\oolite.app\Contents\Resources\Models\cobra3_redux.dat”. Weird.

NSHomeDirectoryForUser... failed is a clue.

Did you run it using the batch file generated by the installer? If so, please post the contents of the batch file. If not, try that, and if it still doesn't work, please post the contents of the batch file ;)

Ahruman wrote:

Waddya know? It now runs under Windows 98 SE in VirtualPC.

It's quite possible that jetissoning AppKit made that work (it never used to work under the DOS extender versions of Windows). Maybe the Wiki can be updated to remove that restriction

dajt wrote:

NSHomeDirectoryForUser... failed is a clue.

Did you run it using the batch file generated by the installer? If so, please post the contents of the batch file. If not, try that, and if it still doesn't work, please post the contents of the batch file ;)

I did. The file is: Hmm. When I run the batch file, it prints “Out of environment space”. Then it opens the blank SDL_app window, and after a second or two it quits.

The NSHomeDirectory thing is probably simply down to NSHomeDirectory not working under Windows 98. However, I doubt this is the root of the problem, since the actual location of the file is in the search path.

winston wrote:

It's quite possible that jetissoning AppKit made that work

That was the problem before, and the reason I tried it again.

winston wrote:

Maybe the Wiki can be updated to remove that restriction :-)

Possibly… if someone can get it to actually work.

On the out of environment space problem, there's probably quite a few GNUstep environment variables that no longer need to be set now that AppKit's gone (and by extension, the fussy GNUstep Back doesn't need to be initialized).

@Ahruman: What happens if you increate the environment space?
i.e. as suggested in: http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... US;q261825

-Nic

Well, the NSHomeDirectoryForUser error goes away, but it still can’t find cobra3_redux.dat.

Ahruman wrote:

Code: Select all

@echo off
set GNUSTEP_PATH_HANDLING=windows
set GNUSTEP_LOCAL_ROOT=C:\Program Files\Oolite\oolite.app
set GNUSTEP_NETWORK_ROOT=C:\Program Files\Oolite\oolite.app
set GNUSTEP_SYSTEM_ROOT=C:\Program Files\Oolite\oolite.app
set HOMEPATH=C:\Program Files\Oolite\oolite.app
oolite.app\oolite.exe

Hmm. When I run the batch file, it prints “Out of environment space”. Then it opens the blank SDL_app window, and after a second or two it quits.

The NSHomeDirectory thing is probably simply down to NSHomeDirectory not working under Windows 98. However, I doubt this is the root of the problem, since the actual location of the file is in the search path.

NSHomeDirectory failed because the HOMEPATH env var didn't get set due to the env space error.

If the env space is sorted out, I'd need to add extra logging to the image loading code to see what path it was looking for. Could be something to do with the space in "Program Files" being handled differently on the older OS.

Try installing in something like c:\oolite and see if it works.

Problem persists. My guess is that it’s failing to resolve the relative path “oolite.app/Contents/Resources”. It’d be useful in this case if the error message printed absolute paths.

What do I need to do to set up a build environment in Windows?

The wiki contains full instrutions: http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Runnin ... rom_source

When it says accept all the defaults, it means including the default installation folder. The stuff in Local.zip assumes it is installed in c:\GNUstep\Local and won't work otherwise.

Hah. The GNUStep installer requires NT.

Ahh, well. I guess it’s back to finding a linux distro that’ll work with VPC.

Ahruman wrote:

Hah. The GNUStep installer requires NT.

Ahh, well. I guess it’s back to finding a linux distro that’ll work with VPC.

If VPC emulates a PC, then any distro will (or should!) work. I would be surprised if VPC chose to use obscure pieces of emulated hardware for standard things like video, sound and networking.

Ubuntu is probably the smallest download, because the basic install is a single CD, but personally I perfer Fedora Core for development (and you'll have to download at least the first two CDs for FC5 - the basic install spans both - but you don't need the rest, any extra software you can just install over the network using yum or the GUI software install tool). One thing you'll have to do if you chose Fedora Core 5 is turn SElinux to 'Permissive' mode - FC5's default SElinux policy is a bit draconian. (You can set it to 'permissive' in the installer, or alternately, System -> Adminstration -> Security Settings IIRC).

If you use Fedora Core, the first thing you want to do is add the Livna software repository. Go to http://rpm.livna.org to find out how - it's a single command to add the repo. No Fedora Core user should be without Livna.

If you're a new user, I suggest you then just use the GUI tool (rather than 'yum' on the command line) to network install the stuff you'll need for development. Note that it should be incredibly rare that you have to use a raw RPM package. It's much better to use 'yum' with a repository (or the GUI tool) because this automatically resolves package dependencies. Same goes for Ubuntu - use apt-get or the GUI tool, again they both resolve dependencies.

If you choose Ubuntu, one good thing about that distro is that it has pre-packaged GNUstep.

There is at least one comprehensive listing of Linux distros with VPC compatibility information. I chose one of the smaller ones that was supposed to work, but networking didn’t work. :-/

I’ll look into one of the “mainstream” distros next time. Hard disk space is the main problem.

One bug I noticed. Now, in the intro screens, as the ships zoom in and rotate, they sometimes zoom right past the screen instead of stopping to rotate "in front" of it. Happens pretty randomly as the same ship may stop to the correct location one time, but zoom right past the next...