FAQ Update Patch
The Doctor What
list.pyddr-devel at docwhat.gerf.org
Sun May 11 21:28:19 EDT 2003
Piman, et al:
I gutted the FAQ, to a large degree. :-)
Here is the patch against the .inc file.
I can just send the whole version, if y'all prefer.
Ciao!
--
Organized crime in America takes in over forty billion dollars a year and
spends very little on office supplies.
-- Woody Allen
The Doctor What: "What, Doctor What" http://docwhat.gerf.org/
docwhat *at* gerf *dot* org KF6VNC
-------------- next part --------------
--- faq.inc.orig 2003-05-10 12:02:34.000000000 -0500
+++ faq.inc.version1 2003-05-11 20:24:56.000000000 -0500
@@ -1,81 +1,208 @@
<dl class="faq">
-<dt>What adapter should I buy?</dt>
-<dd><p>The recommended adapter for pyDDR is the <a
- href="http://levelsix.com/products/pc/EMSUSB2.shtml">EMSUSB2</a>
- from Level Six. pyDDR easily supports two player with it, and it
- works on all operating systems. Also known to work is the parallel
-port adapter that comes with <a href="http://www.buynshop.com">BNS
- pads</a>. Any other 6 axis, 12 button or 4 axis, 16 button
- joysticks that behave like those two adapters will also work.</p>
-<p>Unless you have a very good reason not to, buy <a href="http://levelsix.com/products/pc/EMSUSB2.shtml">the EMSUSB2</a>.</p></dd>
- <dt>My MP3 fails to load.</dt>
- <dd><p>pyDDR's MP3 support comes via SMPEG, which is
- suboptimal, but integrates with SDL's mixer library
- easily. You have three options. The first is to try stripping
- ID3 tags from your MP3 files; you can do this in UNIX with <a
- href="http://www.dakotacom.net/~donut/programs/id3ed.html">id3ed</a>
- for regular ID3 tags, or <a
- href="http://www.geocities.com/matsp888/unix/">v2strip</a> for
- ID3v2 tags, On Mac OS X, you can use <a
- href="http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/16665">Taggerwocky</a>.
- Secondly, you can convert them to the <a
- href="http://www.vorbis.com">Ogg Vorbis</a> format. <a
- href="http://faceprint.com/code/">mp32ogg</a> can do this
- nicely. The third possibility is to merge <a
- href="http://spacepants.org/src/pymad/">pymad</a> support into
- pyDDR, and send us the patches.</p></dd>
- <dt>pyDDR keeps crashing with an "OverflowError". How do I fix it?</dt>
-<dd><p>Your copy of glibc has been compiled with optimizations that are
+<dt>Do I need a dance mat?</dt>
+<dd>
+<p> Nope! </p>
+<p> pyDDR works great without a dance mat, or any kind of controller, other
+than your keyboard. Mind you, it isn't as fun as with a mat nor is it as
+good for excecise, but it works.
+</p>
+<p>
+The keys are:
+</p>
+<table>
+<tr><td> </td><td> i </td><td> </td></tr>
+<tr><td> j </td><td> k </td><td> l </td></tr>
+</table>
+</dd>
+
+<a name="converter"></a>
+<dt> I want to use my dance mat (or buy one); What do I do?</dt>
+<dd>
+<p>
+You can use any commercial dance mat for the PSX and PS2 consoles, if
+you buy the right adapter. This FAQ will include instructions for
+Linux (on the i386 PC) and Windows.
+</p>
+<p>
+With either system, you'll need an adapter to connect your PSX or PS2
+dance mat to your PC. The pyDDR recommended adapter is the
+<a href="http://levelsix.com/products/pc/EMSUSB2.shtml">EMSUSB2</a>,
+available from <a href="http://levelsix.com/">Level Six</a>. It supports
+two controlers and works with all operating systems that support USB.
+In most operating systems, it's just plug and go!
+</p>
+<p>
+Another option is the parallel port adapter that comes with
+<a href="http://www.buynshop.com">BNS pads</a>. These require more
+effort to setup, but also work.
+</p>
+<p>
+Finally, any other 6 axis, 12 button or 4 axis, 16 button
+joystick that behaves like those the above two adapters should
+also work.
+</p>
+<p>
+But really, the EMSUSB2 is so much easier to use, if you haven't already
+purchased something (or even if you have and you're having trouble), the
+just get one. They are easy to set up and work pretty much out of the
+box.
+</p>
+<p>
+Whatever you do, don't by the Radio Shack USB console thingy.
+(See the <a href="#radioshack">FAQ below about Radio Shack</a>).
+</p>
+</dd>
+
+<a name="radioshack"></a>
+<dt>I bought this adapter from Radio Shack, and...</dt>
+<dd>
+<p>Take it back, <em>now</em>. </p>
+<p>
+The Radio Shack adapter works by mapping the up/down/left/right
+button to the X and Y joystick axes. This means that it can only
+read one of up/down or left/right at the same time
+(that is, jumps are impossible, and leaving your foot on
+ an opposite arrow is also impossible).
+</p>
+<p>
+This is probably true of any adapter that maps the joystick to
+keystrokes instead of USB joystick events. We recommend the
+EMSUSB2. (See the <a href="#converter">FAQ about using a mat</a>)
+</p>
+</dd>
+
+
+<dt>My soft mat sucks. Can I improve it?</dt>
+<dd>
+<p>Yes, you can 'convert' a soft mat into a hard mat in a
+ number of ways. One popular, simple, and fast way is to buy some
+ plywood and staple-gun some vinyl hardwood-floor covering to the
+ board over your DDR mat. Another thing you can do is take your
+ soft mat apart and reenforce it with extra foam, wood, and
+ sheet metal. One of the pyDDR developers has written a <a
+ href="http://clickass.org/~tgz/pyddr/hardmat/">guide on doing
+ this</a>.
+</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>What do I have to do to get USB under Linux working with the EMSUSB2?
+(and like USB adapters)</dt>
+<dd>
+<p>
+You need certain options compiled into your kernel. Most newer distributions
+have this set up for you already. If you compile your own kernel, or
+want to make sure, then read on.
+</p>
+<p>
+These options had different names earlier in the 2.4.x series. So, if
+they don't seem quite right that could be why. These instructions are
+current as of 2.4.19 and should probably work with some of the earlier
+kernels too.
+</p>
+<p>
+There are several options you need. The first (in this order) is
+under the category <code>USB Support</code>:
+<code>USB Human Interface Device (full HID) support</code>. Make sure
+that the sub-option <code>HID input layer support</code> is enabled too.
+The next option is under <code>Input core support</code> and is
+called <code>Joystick suport</code>.
+</p>
+<p>
+These may be compiled into the kernel or as a module. Either way they should
+work. If you compiled it as a module, you'll want to make sure you have
+hotplug or something similar to automatically insmod the modules for you.
+Otherwise you'll have to do a modprobe of <code>hid</code> and
+<code>joydev</code> yourself.
+</p>
+<p>
+That's it!
+</p>
+
+<dt>My MP3 fails to load.</dt>
+<dd>
+<p>pyDDR's MP3 support comes via SMPEG, which is
+suboptimal, but integrates with SDL's mixer library
+easily. You have three options.
+</p>
+<p>
+ The first is to try stripping
+ID3 tags from your MP3 files; you can do this in UNIX with <a
+href="http://www.dakotacom.net/~donut/programs/id3ed.html">id3ed</a>
+for regular ID3 tags, or <a
+href="http://www.geocities.com/matsp888/unix/">v2strip</a> for
+ID3v2 tags, On Mac OS X, you can use <a
+href="http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/16665">Taggerwocky</a>.
+</p>
+<p>
+Secondly, you can convert them to the <a
+href="http://www.vorbis.com">Ogg Vorbis</a> format. <a
+href="http://faceprint.com/code/">mp32ogg</a> can do this
+nicely.
+</p>
+<p>
+The third possibility is to merge <a
+href="http://spacepants.org/src/pymad/">pymad</a> support into
+pyDDR, and send us the patches. We'd prefer the latter, but
+you'd need to know how to write python first. :-)
+</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>pyDDR keeps crashing with an "OverflowError". How do I fix it?</dt>
+<dd>
+<p>
+Your copy of glibc has been compiled with optimizations that are
too aggressive, and have triggered bugs somewhere in it and/or your
compiler. Recompile glibc with lower optimization levels, and stop
-aggressively optimizing unless you know exactly what you're doing.</p></dd>
- <dt>pyDDR keeps crashing with a "KeyError". How do I fix it?</dt>
- <dd><p>The format of some options in pyddr.cfg changes
- periodically. This should no longer be a problem after 0.6.2
- because the file is kept to a minimum, and the changes are made
- in the source itself. However, if you are upgrading from an
- older version to 0.6.2, you may need to delete your
- configuration file and have pyDDR recreate it.</p></dd>
- <dt>My soft mat sucks. Can I improve it?</dt>
- <dd><p>Yes, you can 'convert' a soft mat into a hard mat in a
- number of ways. One popular, simple, and fast way is to buy some
- plywood and staple-gun some vinyl hardwood-floor covering to the
- board over your DDR mat. Another thing you can do is take your
- soft mat apart and reenforce it with extra foam, wood, and
- sheet metal. One of the pyDDR developers has written a <a
- href="http://clickass.org/~tgz/pyddr/hardmat/">guide on doing
- this</a>.</p></dd>
- <dt>I bought this adapter from Radio Shack, and...</dt>
- <dd><p>Take it back, now. The Radio Shack adapter works by
- mapping the up/down/left/right button to the X and Y joystick
- axes. This means that it can only read one of up/down or
- left/right at the same time (that is, jumps are impossible, and
- leaving your foot on an opposite arrow is also
- impossible). Besides the recommended <a
- href="http://levelsix.com/products/pc/EMSUSB2.shtml">EMSUSB2</a>
- adapter, pyDDR
- should work on anything that maps the directional arrows to
- buttons. Make sure your adapter does that.</p></dd>
- <dt>Why do I get weird colors or graphic artifacts?</dt>
- <dd><p>You may be running 8 or 24 bit color. pyDDR shouldn't
- actually run at 8 bit color at all, and it's not supported. The
- issues with 24 bit color should be fixed; contact the developers
- with a bug report if they're not.</p></dd>
- <dt>Why doesn't pyDDR use DWI files?</dt>
- <dd><p>Because it's not called Dance With Intensity. :) More
- realistically, it's because it was easier to write a new file
- format than support DWI's (whose documentation is lacking)
- initially. Also, since pyDDR has no step editor yet, it was
- necessary to have a format that was human readable.</p>
- <p>Right now, you can use <tt>dwi2step</tt> to convert DWIs to
- pyDDR's .step format. In a future version, pyDDR will be able to
- read from DWI files without conversion.</p></dd>
- <dt>While I was building SMPEG, I got undefined symbol problems.</dt>
- <dd><p>If you're using gcc 3.2, you may need to add
- <kbd>-lgcc_s</kbd> and <kbd>-lsupc++</kbd> to the compilation
- options.</p></dd>
- <dt>pyDDR is way, way too slow.</dt>
- <dd><p>There's no "answer" to this - the program needs
+aggressively optimizing unless you know exactly what you're doing.
+</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>pyDDR keeps crashing with a "KeyError". How do I fix it?</dt>
+<dd>
+<p>The format of some options in pyddr.cfg changes
+ periodically. This should no longer be a problem after 0.6.2
+ because the file is kept to a minimum, and the changes are made
+ in the source itself. However, if you are upgrading from an
+ older version to 0.6.2, you may need to delete your
+ configuration file and have pyDDR recreate it.</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>Why do I get weird colors or graphic artifacts?</dt>
+<dd>
+<p>You may be running 8 or 24 bit color.</p>
+<p> pyDDR shouldn't actually run at 8 bit color at all as 8 bit color
+ isn't supported.
+</p>
+<p> The issues with 24 bit color should now be fixed; contact the
+ developers with a bug report if they're not.
+<!-- Put a version number or date in here -->
+</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>Why doesn't pyDDR use DWI files?</dt>
+<dd>
+<p>Because it's not called Dance With Intensity. :)
+</p>
+<p>
+It is because it was easier to write a new file format
+than support DWI's (whose documentation is lacking) initially.
+Also, since pyDDR has no step editor yet, it was
+necessary to have a format that was human readable.</p>
+
+<p>Right now, you can use <tt>dwi2step</tt> to convert DWIs to
+ pyDDR's .step format. In a future version, pyDDR will be able to
+ read from DWI files without conversion.
+</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>While I was building SMPEG, I got undefined symbol problems.</dt>
+<dd>
+<p>If you're using gcc 3.2, you may need to add
+ <kbd>-lgcc_s</kbd> and <kbd>-lsupc++</kbd> to the compilation
+ options.</p></dd>
+
+<dt>pyDDR is way, way too slow.</dt>
+<dd><p>There's no "answer" to this - the program needs
work. However, there are a couple of things you can try.</p>
<ul><li>Turn off backgrounds, and arrow explosions. These
often make the biggest difference performance-wise.</li>
@@ -86,11 +213,23 @@
<li>Upgrade your video card. pyDDR is very video-intensive;
a high-powered processor with a bad video card will perform
terribly.</li>
- </ul></dd>
- <dt>What about adding <insert feature here>?</dt>
- <dd><p>If that feature is one of the following, you have
- incurred our wrath: OpenGL support, internet play. Otherwise, we
- almost certainly have it planned already. If you have some
- "great new idea" for pyDDR that already exists in regular DDR,
- you can also enjoy our wrath.</p></dd>
- </dl>
+ </ul>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>What about adding <insert feature here>?</dt>
+<dd>
+<p> <strong>Don't ask us to impliment the following:</strong>
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li> OpenGL support - Not going to do it.</li>
+<li> Internet Play - Someday, but not now. </li>
+<li> Any feature from the official DDR product lines - We're on it already.
+</li>
+<p>
+Otherwise, we have a long list of features that are already
+planned for future releases. If you think you have something really
+unique, join the mailing list below and tell us.
+</p>
+</dd>
+
+</dl>
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