MG/FAQ

On Linux, how do I run the installer?
Answer: Open a terminal window, then use the pwd command to determine the directory you are currently in, and the cd command to change into the directory you have stored the MegaGlest installer in. To verify that you are in the correct directory, you can use the ls command.

For example: tux@computer:~$ pwd /home/tux tux@computer:~$ cd Downloads tux@computer:~/Downloads$ pwd /home/tux/Downloads tux@computer:~/Downloads$ ls debian-504-i386-netinst.iso MegaGlest-Installer-3.3.7.2_i386_64_linux ubuntu-10.10-desktop-i386.iso tux@computer:~/Downloads$ The installer package is called MegaGlest-Installer-3.3.7.2_i386_64_linux in this example (it may be called differently in your case), and it is located in the Downloads directory (it may be in another location, such as in ~/Desktop in your case).

Now make the installer executable, then run it: tux@computer:~/Downloads$ chmod +x MegaGlest-Installer-3.3.7.2_i386_64_linux tux@computer:~/Downloads$ ./MegaGlest-Installer-3.3.7.2_i386_64_linux Once you execute this command, you should get to see the graphical installer, displaying the MegaGlest license. You can now follow the graphical installer to install the game into your home directory or a location of your choice (within the boundaries of where your Linux user may write to, so probably anywhere below your home directory only).

On Linux, I get "permission denied" while installing
If, after spawning the installer as described above, you do not get to see the installer window but get an error about "permission denied", this is either because you had a typo in the chmod command (review the Linux installation instructions) or because you may not execute commands in the current directory, i.e. the entire file system you are currently working on has the 'no execute bit' set. You can work around this until the next reboot using the following command:

tux@computer:~/Downloads$ sudo mount -o remount,exec /home/

...assuming that /home is the mount point of the file system you are currently working in.

On Linux, I get "wrong executable/binary/ELF format" while installing
After spawning the installer as described above, you may not get to see the installer window but get an error about 'wrong executable/binary/ELF format'. If you run into this then you seem to have downloaded an installer package which does not match your system architecture, i.e. you have probably downloaded a 64 bit installer but have a 32 bit system. You can use the arch and uname -m commands to check which operating system architecture you are using.

On Linux, how do I install into my home directory or bypassing the installer?
Answer: The Linux installer always installs into your home directory, not system-wide. But if you don't like to rely on the installer to set things up for you then you're welcome to do your own installation instead. Here's how:

You'll want to ensure you have 7-zip installed so that you can unpack the data package. On Debian and its derivates (Ubuntu etc.) you can use: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install p7zip-full

Then create a new directory the game will be placed in (for MegaGlest version 3.3.7.2 in this example): cd mkdir megaglest-3.3.7.2 cd megaglest-3.3.7.2

Now you need to download the "Linux XX bit x86 binaries" and the "full data package". What XX is depends on the architecture your Liux distribution is optimized for. On Debian and its derivates (Ubuntu etc.) you can use the arch command to determine what you have. If the arch command doesn't work for you, try uname -m instead. If it says x86_64 then you want the 64 bit version of the game, otherwise use the 32 bit version.

For example, to download the 64 bit Linux version:

wget 'http://sourceforge.net/projects/megaglest/files/current_release/megaglest3.3.7.2_i386_64_linux_bin.tar.bz2/download' wget 'http://sourceforge.net/projects/megaglest/files/current_release/megaglest-data-3.3.7.2.7z/download'

Now extract the archives (I'm using the 64 bit file names again in this example) in the directory you are in: 7z x megaglest-data-3.3.7.2.7z tar xjvf megaglest3.3.7.2_i386_64_linux_bin.tar.bz2

...and play!

./glest

Next time you want to play, you just need to:

cd ~/megaglest-3.3.7.2 ./glest

You can, of course, also create a shortcut on your favourite window manager so that you just need to point and click to start the game in the future (and need not play around in a terminal window anymore).

I get an error stating MegaGlest needs an OpenGL version of at least 1.3 to work - what does this mean?
Answer: You likely need either updated video drivers or your video card. It could also be that your hardware is just too old or you bought hardware which is badly supported on your operating system by its manufacturer (hint: buy something else next time!). But don't give up just yet, read the Where can I get newer video drivers? section below.

Where can I get newer video drivers?
This depends much on your operating system.

Linux
You should first check whether their distribution provides 'backported' drivers for their graphics card and if so, try them. For example, if you run Ubuntu, take a look at the 'drivers-only' section of the xorg-edgers PPA (or even the complete X Updates PPA - but this is for people who really know what they are doing and don't mind sitting there with broken drivers and no X GUI). Be aware, none of these are fully supported - do read the instructions on these pages. Another option is to install a vendors binary driver. Those are often available through your Linux distributions' package repositories, too, and are often in better shape than those you could download from your vendors website. In case of Ubuntu, have a look at their BinaryDriverHowto.

Windows
Try to get the latest drivers available from your video card manufacturer. If you have a laptop, get them from your laptop manufacturer instead. If you have legacy hardware the drivers your hardware manufacturer provides have not had recent updates, you can try patched drivers. These are current vendor drivers which have been modified to work with older hardware as well as with laptops where the laptop manufacturer fails to provide driver updates (but the original video card drivers refuse to be installed) and to introduce additional features. For example, patched ATI drivers for [|current hardware] and for [|legacy hardware] are available. Note that these are not official drivers, and that nobody will guarantee you anything when using them (but then, many people use them and it usually works fine for them).

My Frames Per Second (FPS) are horrible, what can i do?
Answer: If you are a Linux user TURN OFF Compiz, as It can drop FPS for 3D games from 500FPS to 70FPS! Also disable synch to vblank:

Otherwise try the following settings by adding or editing them in glestuser.ini AutoMaxFullScreen=false CheckGlCaps=true ColorBits=16 DepthBits=16 Filter=Bilinear FilterMaxAnisotropy=1 MaxLights=1 PhotoMode=false RefreshFrequency=75 ScreenHeight=768 ScreenWidth=1024 ShadowTextureSize=256 Shadows=Disabled StencilBits=0 Textures3D=false UnitParticles=false

You may (on Linux) also try running these commands from your mega-glest root folder (then retry running MegaGlest): mkdir lib_bkp mv lib/* lib_bkp/ cp lib_bkp/libcurl* lib/ cp lib_bkp/libgnu* lib/ cp lib_bkp/libicu* lib/ cp lib_bkp/liblua* lib/ cp lib_bkp/libxerces* lib/

My mouse seems to move sluggish, too slow or too fast
Answer: This could be for many reasons. (see references to DGAMOUSE on libsdl.org). Alternately, you may press / in the game to switch the mouse-pointer. For a permantent change edit glestuser.ini and add this entry (or change it if it already exists but is currently set to 'false' or '0'): No2DMouseRendering=true

How can I host a MegaGlest game?
Answer: Most domestic Internet connections are setup (for security reasons) to require port forwarding to make a service, such as MegaGlest, available on the Internet. Port forwarding is usually configured on your Internet router/modem/access device. How to do this is explained on a separate web page.

What network ports must be open for network play? How do I configure my firewall?
The network game interface window displays the actual port number used by MegaGlest. The default port number is specified in glest.ini: ServerPort=61357 If you need to change it, do it by adding the same setting to glestuser.ini but customize the port number as needed. If a user who will be hosting a game changes this port number, then all users wanting to join this server must also change their port numbers. TCP is used for all game communication. In a LAN setup the server will use UDP to broadcast to clients on the same network that it is waiting for clients to connect.

Since v3.3.5 it is possible to seperate the 'External' port from the 'Internal' port. The 'External' port is the port exposed to the outside world (Internet) and is usually the entry point into your network via a router. This 'External' port is the port that other users will see, and require to connect into your network. When you create a network game by selecting a 'Network' slot in the custom game menu you will see the 'External Port #' option at the top of the screen. By default we use TCP port 61357 but users may pick from a list of various port numbers (the one you pick must be setup on your router / firewall to 'Port Forward' incoming connections from the Internet to your computer). This list of External Port numbers is configurable as a property in glestuser.ini, e.g.: MasterServerExternalPortList=61357,80,143,587,21,110,25,443,993,995 The 'Internal' Port is the port that Mega-Glest itself will listen on for connections. This Internal Port # is set via a property in glestuser.ini (overwriting the default value contained in glest.ini): ServerPort=61357 For LAN Games clients will look for servers using this port #. For Internet Games, Clients will ask the Master Server for the 'External Port' sent to it by a Mega-Glest User who will be hosting a Game.

Users should therefore configure their router / firewall to 'Port Forward' The External Port they will use in the Custom Game Menu (default is 61357) to their Internal Port (configured in glest.ini or glestusers.ini, default is 61357).

How much network bandwidth does MegaGlest require?
Each players' connection to the game server consumes up to 20 kilobit per second (Kbps), with an average more around 10 Kbps. So as a client, you should never need more than 20 Kbps. To host games, you will need 20 Kbps x ( number of players - 1 ), so if you play a game with eight players (or observers, this should not change things much), this will amount to a maximum of ~140 Kbps. However, keep in mind that if you use an internet access method where upload and download bandwidth are split up asymmetrically (such as ADSL) then keep in mind that if you need to transfer data into both in- and outbound directions simultaniously - as is the case for MegaGlest-, this effectively decreases the bandwidth you can get through the line in the direction which provides the smaller bandwidth. Realisticaly, this means that to play a 8 player game on an ADSL line, you may need a line which is marketed as providing 250 Kbps upstream.

Do I need good ping? Do I need to stop my downloads to play?
You may have heard that some computer games, especially real time games, require "good ping", or, in technical terms, require you to have a low latency network link. While this is usually affects first person shooters mostly, it also affects MegaGlest.

In most cases all wired Internet access methods will be fine to play MegaGlest. However, cable Internet can be problematic during times when many people in your neighbourhood are using their internet access simultaniously. This can also, though more rarely, be the case for ADSL lines.

Internet connections which are partially using aired connections, such as Wireless LAN (WLAN), WiFi, Wimax, HSCSD (HSDPA/HSUPA),UMTS, EDGE, GPRS and satellite links can be problematic because they often come with high latecies or even packet loss. While people who are limited to using such connections have successfully played MegaGlest matches, bearing latencies of up to 250 ms (milli seconds, so 0.25 seconds), such links are not really very stable and reliable, and we therefore recommend against using them - if you have a choice. WLANs can be super comfortable, but for applications or games like MegaGlest which require low latency connections plugging in an ethernet wire to your router is really a good idea.

Depending on the type of your Internet link, and especially if you use a DSL connection or a connection which already bears hgh latency with little data flow, you should also consider stopping or at least limiting your downloads while you play, since this will not only eat bandwith but, especially on DSL lines, also increase your latency remarkably.

Why is the list of game servers mostly empty?
Answer: There's several reasons to this:
 * To date, MegaGlest games are only displayed on this list as long as players can join it. This means that currently running games are not listed, nor are servers listed which have all their network slots filled already. We are considering to change this behaviour to also list games which have already started, so that you can join this game as an observer.
 * MegaGlest is pretty new (Glest is much older but didn't have this feature), so not so many people know this game, yet. You can change this! Tell your friends about it and host a game for them and for others.
 * There is not currently a dedicated/headless game server version of MegaGlest, yet. As such, it's not currently possible to just install MegaGlest on an Internet server and have it host random or pre-programmed games automatically. This may change some day, too, but it involves quite a bit of engineering, so it can take a while to happen.

Using Windows 7, I cannot connect to a server that is hosting a game on my LAN, help!
Answer: This may be caused by the Windows Firewall be turned on for Private Networks. Disable the Windows firewall for private networks and you should be able to click Find games to find a hosted server on your LAN.

Can I play MegaGlest with friends who run a different operating system?
Answer: Yes, you can. To date, you can play cross-architecture on Linux (tested: Debian 5.0, Ubuntu 10.04, Fedora Core 13, OpenSuSE 11.3, Mandriva 2010) and Windows (tested: XP/7, both 32 and 64 bit), and there is experimental support for Mac OS X and FreeBSD.

Can games be saved and resumed later?
Answer: MegaGlest does not currently support this feature. Please take a look at GAE which does support this (but lacks some other features MegaGlest has).

Which hotkeys are there and how do I redefine them?
Answer: Look at glestkeys.ini (you may override these defaults by making override changes to glestuserkeys.ini).

What optional command line options exist?
Answer: There are several command line options to date and more will likely be added in the future.

An example for a command line option is: --version

This command gives you the version of MegaGlest you have installed. To be able to execute this command you will need to open a command line windows/terminal window first. To do this on Windows, click 'Start'->'Run'/'Search'-> cmd.exe, then use the 'cd' command to change to the directory MegaGlest is installed in. You can then run the game with command line options: C:\Code\megaglest\branches\release-3.3.5.1\data\glest_game>glest_game --version v3.3.5.1-alpha3 built: Jul 19 2010 10:52:07 Compiled with VC++: 1500, STREFLOP enabled. --opengl-info

Another example: --opengl-info

gives you information on your video card driver: C:\Code\megaglest\branches\release-3.3.5.1\data\glest_game>glest_game --opengl-info OpenGL Info: OpenGL Version: 2.1 Chromium 1.9 OpenGL Renderer: 2.1 Chromium 1.9 OpenGL Vendor: Humper OpenGL Max Lights: 8 OpenGL Max Texture Size: 8192 OpenGL Max Texture Units: 4 OpenGL Modelview Stack: 32 OpenGL Projection Stack: 4

Starting with 3.3.5.1 beta1 we will allow you to run with a special command line parameter to test your techtrees for known misconfigurations. Example (this time run on Linux) shown below:

./glest.bin --validate-techtrees ... Errors were detected: ===================== The Unit [archer] in Faction [norsemen] has the command [hold_position] which has upgrade requirement [training_field] but there are no units able to perform the upgrade! ... Many more command line options exist. You can always use --help to list them all.

How can I install my own master server?
Answer: First of all, please think about whether it actually makes sense to do so. The MegaGlest project provides a freely usable, well-connected default masterserver setup for the community to use for network games played over the Internet. As such, we can think of very few, if any, good reasons why anyone would want to setup their own masterserver. MegaGlest is still a young project and there are not that many players, yet. Setting up a new MegaGlest masterserver will just divide an already small community, so we think this is neither fun for you nor for anybody else.

Nevertheless, in the virtue of free software, we want to make the master server source code available, too. Please understand, however, that we will not support your use of it beyond this FAQ entry unless you can provide convincing reasons why we should.

The PHP / MySQL masterserver source code can be found in the subversion repository in the source/masterserver directory. The masterserver currently only facilitates clients and servers so that they may find one another, it does not create a dedicated server for network games. This means that users who 'host' a network game may choose to 'publish' their game to the masterserver where other users may 'join' published network games (thus connecting directly to the hosted server player).

If for some reason a person wanted to setup their own masterserver you require:


 * a webserver that handles PHP (like Apache or IIS)

To set things up, edit config.php and edit the database values to match your server. Masterserver=http://master.yourserver.org/masterserver/
 * a MySQL database.
 * 1) FTP all the files in the masterserver folder in SVN to your webserver
 * 2) Create a MySQL database and import the createDB.sql scheme to create the appropriate database tables (you can use phpmyadmin or something similar to do so).
 * 3) Ensure all clients that will use your masterserver have the correct root URL to point to your server. Have them modify this setting in glestuser.ini so that it points to your master server:

What configurable game settings are there?
Answer: There are two categories of game settings, a) 'visible' settings which can also be changed by options in the game itself and b) 'invisible' settings which are typcially intended to be changed by more knowledgable users who understand the consequences of changing them and can only be changed by editing the glestuser.ini configuration file in the main MegaGlest directory.

a) Visible settings:

b) Invisible settings:

How can I provide a new/updated translation?
Some of the existing translation are not very well maintained and, so far, only a couple languages are supported. So it's great that you're interested in working on this.

Here's how it works: There are several language files. These language files contain several lines which always take the same pattern: keyword=translation string vivid

These key words are referenced in the source code of the game. Depending on the language the user has chosen, when these keywords are met during execution of the game, the translation string which matches this keyword is taken from the language file and printed on screen.

Sometimes the core developers need to add or remove new translation strings to the language files. Whenever this happens, they update the english.lng file to make this work for english language. When they do, they either remove lines which are no longer referenced in the game (and thus no longer needed) or add new lines (for newly introduced texts) to english.lng. Sometimes, but not usually, they also add any newly added lines to the other translation files (but using the english language translation). So the reference file, the file all translations should check to make sure they contain the right keywords, is english.lng.

The latest version of english.lng is usually the one in trunk. There could theoretically be newer ones in (other) branches of the subversion source code repository but that's rather unlikely and if this should happen the core developers should be telling you (feel free to check, though).

Now to update an existing translation, you need get the latest copy of the existing translation file, which is usually the one in trunk, too.

To update for example galego.lng, based on english.lng, you need to:
 * Make sure you use a text editor which supports Unix style line endings (such as every editor on Linux does, and also Notepad++ on Windows (but not the original Ms Windows Notepad!)) and the ISO-8859-1 character encoding (we do not support UTF-8, yet :-/ )
 * Remove any lines from galego.lng which contain keywords which are not contained in english.lng.
 * Add any lines to galego.lng which contain keywords which are contained in english.lng (but have not been contained in galego.lng so far).
 * Replace the english translation strings by a galician translation. Try to use one which is not or just a little bit longer than the english string because the text will need to fit into a given place on screen.
 * Save the file using ISO-8859-1 character encoding.
 * Run the game with your new translation and see whether your new translations really make sense where they are used. It can easily happen that you add a translation which does not make sense in the given context. Also make sure that your translation really fits well on screen with the default font size. You may add "\n" to your translation strings to wrap the text across multiple lines (but make sure what this doesn't break the looks either).
 * Make a final check to verify it's all ok.
 * Paste your new/updated translation on http://megaglest.pastebin.com/ and paste the resulting internet address on the MegaGlest forums as a new bug. Alternatively, send the translation file to one of the core developers (by email). Please provide information on how you would like to be credited in the next release.