[quake2] help running quake2

[arny at taiga.com]

Hello,

> I complied from the latest CVS and copied base2 to the
> releasei386 directory... What is my next step?
> 
> Ron_W
> 
> 
> CD Audio Initialized
> ------- Loading gamei386.so -------
> ********************
> ERROR: failed to load game DLL
> ********************
> Xlib:  extension "XFree86-DGA" missing on display
> ":0.0".
> Failed to detect XF86DGA Mouse

DGA is some graphics extension, probably needed to support the
hardware rendering (i.e. your video card does the shading of
3d objects automatically without requiring effort from your
PC's processor).

You have 2 options, either get hardware rendering working or
tell quake2 to use a software rendering driver such as software
X windows, or software svgalib.

Firstly, do everything as the root user.

For software rendering to work, you must make sure quake2 was
compiled with BUILD_QMAX=NO in the Makefile, otherwise it may
just crash with a floating point or memory or segmentation fault.

To use svgalib you first need
to make sure svgalib is configured to use your video card (assuming
svgalib is installed on your system).  Quit out of X windows and
try running /usr/lib/svgalib/vgatest as root (use 'locate vgatest'
or 'find / -name vgatest -print' to find vgatest if its not in
/usr/lib/svgalib).  Once svgalib is working you need to edit the
quake2 Makefile to make sure it has BUILD_SVGA=YES in it, do a
'make clean' and then a 'make' to recompile if it hasnt (and then
copy the new binaries accross as described in the readme).

To use software X windows you simply need to start quake2 in X windows
with '+set vid_ref softx' as command line options.

Getting hardware rendering working may be more tricky.  I've got a
voodoo 4 3dfx card and it took me ages to get it working purely
because of the lack of instructions and difficulty in finding important
files.  I can only assume a lot of linux gamers have hardware rendering
working purely because it was set up right for their particular video
card in their initial linux distribution.  I'll attach the notes that I
made when I got hardware rendering working to the end of this email.

Erm, my own notes seem to tell me that DGA isn't generally needed for
hardware rendering, however I think all of what I've said is still
valid.  The basic old software X windows quake2 driver probably wont
need DGA, and obviously the svgalib driver definately wont (doesnt need
x windows at all).  All you probably need to know is its some kinda
graphics extension needed for some fancy modern applications (I've a
feeling my TV card software needs it to allow the PCI card to access
the memory on my graphics card _directly_, for example).

The only problem in not getting hardware rendering working is that
probably most the developers working on this quake2 project mainly
test out quake2 using hardware rendering, so if they accidentally
break the software rendering drivers, it may not get noticed for a
while.  Having said that I tested the latest release candidate a
couple of weeks ago and everything worked fine (bar the mouse which
is a problem they're working on, and the sound which I think was just
my crappy on board sound hardware).

If you can't get hardware rendering working for quake 2, take a step
backwards are try to get it working for the simplest game that user
hardware rendering you can find, such as tuxkart maybe.

Sorry its so complicated.  I'm not a gamer, or anyone thats particularly
interested in graphics, I'm just trying to support this project as its
admirable ID software made quake2 source available for linux and I think
its an important part of linux / open source advocacy to be able to get
a decent showcase game working.

Good luck,

Robin

	------------------------------------------

Heres what I found trying to get hardware rendering working on a
3dfx voodoo 3 3000 card on slackware 8.1 using Linux 2.4.18.  I
don't really know much about any of this stuff so don't take my
word as gospel.

Firstly I configured and compiled a kernel with everything that I
might need, i.e. agpart and anything that mentions 3dfx.

Then its a case of getting the following working:


openGL	- graphics lib api invented by SGI, see www.opengl.org if you
	  wish to read about it.

mesa	- implementation of openGL, incorporated into xfree86, i.e.
	  if you have a recent version of xfree86, you should
	  already have this (I think), see www.mesa3d.org

GLX	- glue between openGL and lower level stuff, probably part of
	  xfree86 (like mesa), needs the line:      Load       "glx"
	  in XF86Config.

DRI	- hardwarey thing, as above incorporated into xfree86, needs
	  the line:     Load        "dri"
	  in XF86Config.  See http://dri.sourceforge.net/
	  Note /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/README.tdfx reckons you need
          glide for 3dfx cards to work.

glide	- f' knows what this does, its code orignally by the defunct
          company 3dfx, but you cant seem to get it from anywhere except
          linux distributions themselves, you just get directed to a hell
          of a lot of broken links.  fortunately its available in extras
	  or contrib of slackware 8.1, which is what I'm using.

sidenote: an alternative to some of the stuff above (DRI at least) is
http://utah-glx.sourceforge.net/   I haven't tried using it though.

Finally keep the resolution of the X server down below 1280x1024, make
sure its using 16 bit colour (not 8 or 24) and run everything as root.
glxinfo will give you information, as will /var/log/XFree86.0.log,
glxgears is a simple demo that should run at about 400 fps if hardware
acceleration is working.

	-----------------------------------------------------

Extra stuff:

GLUT	- I think its some library that provides a front end to openGL,
	  available in some 'mesa demos' package or read about it at
	  www.opengl.org  Not all apps need glut though.
	  Seems to be two versions, some old glut thing opengl.org has
	  a link to, and a glut in the mesademos package, although you
	  need the configure and stuff in mesa to be able to compile it,
	  both mesa and mesademos seem to be at
          http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mesa3d/
	  In addition there is also freeglut which is supposed to be 100%
	  compatible and I think compiles easy, but the libraries are the
	  wrong name, e.g. libfreeglut* Vs libglut* etc.
	  The mesademos version is the one I had luck with.

<tiocsti> arny, might wanna note in glx that its only part of xfree86 if you
+use 4.x, there is a 3rd party glx you can use with 3.x
<tiocsti> same with dri i believe


DGA	- probably nothing to do with rendering, and flight gear seems to
	  work fine with it disabled, but if you ever find something that
	  needs it you should be able to enable it by commenting out:
	        Option    "omit xfree86-dga"
	  in XF86Config.  Note that the dga(1) test program just seemed to
	  lock things up with a black screen (control alt backspace worked
	  only if it was the first thing I pressed) however applications
	  such as xawtv seemed to be able to use it fine, although mplayer
	  had bugs with it (not to mention wrong colours).