avp/README

Aliens vs Predator Linux  http://icculus.org/avp/
------------------------

This is an unofficial Linux port of the Fox Interactive / Rebellion
Developments game, Aliens Versus Predator.

The port is currently under development; it is not yet "suitable for
end users."  Hopefully this status will change in the not-so-distant future.









Obviously this README is totally incomplete, and will probably remain so for
quite a while, so I'll just try to list a few important notes.


The original copyright statement for the source code:
"The source code to Aliens Vs Predator is copyright (c) 1999-2000 Rebellion
 and is provided as is with no warranty for its suitability for use. You may
 not use this source code in full or in part for commercial purposes. Any use
 must include a clearly visible credit to Rebellion as the creators and 
 owners, and reiteration of this license."
Take that as you will.
You can find the original source code and other related tools at: 
http://www.avpnews.com/mods/tools/


Yes, the code does something.  No, it's not ready for a release. No, it is not
vaporware.  I hope to at least complete the single portion of the game before
making an official release.  Check out the TODO to see what's needed to be
done.


If you are really itching to try this out, either install the Gold Ed. in
windows/vmware (read below to find out why), or download the AvP Alien demo.
If you are wanting to run the Alien demo (the installer is an .exe but you
can just use unzip to extract the files from the .exe), add -DALIEN_DEMO to
CFLAGS (the one that's uncommented). Rename all game files lowercase. 
Be sure to install nasm (0.98) and the latest OpenAL (http://www.openal.org)
CVS.

If you have the regular edition, add -DREGULAR_EDITION to CFLAGS.


relnev:~/avp/AvP Demo 3 - Alien$ ls
aenglish.txt  alienavp_huds/  alienfastfile/  avp_rifs/
relnev:~/avp/Gold Edition$ ls
avp_huds/  avp_rifs/  cd tracks.txt  default.cfg  fastfile/  language.txt

Support for the demo is not quite complete (some sounds are missing and some
text is incorrect/missing).


The source code that was released only works with Aliens vs Predator Gold. 
In the future I'd like this port to support Gold, Regular and the Alien
demo.  (The Marine and Predator demos are a bit older and might not work.)



At least with the Gold edition, a number of files are encoded on the CD. So
you would need to install the game in Windows (VMware works also) in order
to get this to work.  WINE will not work because the CD Check fails.


Currently, all AvP files and directories need to be lowercase, and the
program ran from the directory with all the game data (language.txt,
avp_huds, avp_rifs, fastfile).  zakk recommends
http://blemished.net/chcase.html for renaming the files.


If you think the default game controls are terrible and insist on changing
them, take a look at avp/win95/usr_io.c.


Apparantly AvP Gold is no longer available at most places.  I had ordered my
copy May 2001 from http://www.dragon.ca, but they no longer list it. 
Someone did mention in an avpnews forum post (see below) that 
http://www.qvc.com does have AvP Gold, so you may want to try there.  Try
searching the bargin bin at your local computer store.

What are the differences between AvP and AvP Gold?
http://www.aliensvpredator.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/001635.html
http://www.aliensvpredator.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/001680.html


The full motion sequences cannot be played because they are encoded with
proprietary codecs (Bink and Smacker).  But I do not think they will be
greatly missed.


More information about the game and the series can be found at
http://www.avpnews.com.


Last, but surely not least:
Thanks go out to Chuck Mason for testing and the OpenAL code, Dan Olson for
trying the code out with the Regular version, Zachary 'zakk' Slater for
providing feedback, and Ryan C. Gordon for hosting this project.

---
Steven Fuller <relnev@icculus.org>