
Frequently Asked Questions about the LiNUX version:   by A'rpi/Astral
===================================================

Q: Does it work without sound?
A: Not. The music syncing will fail, and the demo loops the first part.
   We will fix it soon.

Q: It says "Can't load library libc.so.5". What did I wrong?
A: You have to install libc5-compatibility package to your linux.
   Newer linux distributions (SuSE 6.x, Debian 2.x) uses glibc2.x
   which is not compatible with libc5.

Q: It says "Can't load library libGL.so". What did I wrong?
A: Maybe you don't have OpenGL driver installed. 
   Don't forget to make symlinks if you use MESA:
     cd /usr/X11/lib
     ln -s libMesaGL.so libGL.so
     ldconfig

Q: Where can I find OpenGL driver for linux?
A: It depends on your hardware. A good startpoint is the MESA homepage at 
     http://www.mesa3d.org,  there are links to other drivers too.
   MESA is mainly a software driver, but it supports 3dfx cards as well.
   You can find nVidia Riva 128/TNT/TNT2 driver at
     ftp://ftp1.detonator.nvidia.com/pub/drivers/english/
   You may check the GLX project's page at
     http://glx.on.openprojects.net/
   they're currently working on Matrox G200/G400 driver.  

Q: Why is linux version much slower than windows version on Riva TNT?
A: Unfortunately nVidia did a big shit instead of a linux driver. :-(
   They hacked Riva 128's driver to work with TNT, so it doesn't
   support 32bpp, DMA texture uploads, multitexturing, stencil planes.
   It was released at Jun 14, and the only change for now that support
   email address is removed from its docs. I will soon drop my TNT...

Q: The linux version runs about 1-2 fps on Riva TNT! Why???
A: Don't forget to change color depth to 16bpp, otherwise you will
   get very slow software rendering!!!
   
Q: Why is the final version faster than party version?
A: Because we developed, optimized it after the party.
   
Q: Why is the linux version much bigger than the windows version?
A: It is not really bigger. ;-)  Because
   - Windows version is compressed with an exe-packer
   - Linux version contains MP3 player built-in, winver uses DLLs.
  
Q: How can I change screen resolution?
A: You have to change Xserver's resolution before running the demo.
   The compo limit resolution is 640x480 16bpp, but it works in 1280x1024 too.

Q: I have secondary soundcard at /dev/dsp1. Can I use it?
A: Not yet :(
   If you really want, you could temporary rename /dev/dsp to /dev/dsp.tmp
   and rename/symlink /dev/dsp1 to /dev/dsp:
     mv /dev/dsp /dev/dsp.tmp
     mv /dev/dsp1 /dev/dsp
     ./demo
     mv /dev/dsp /dev/dsp1
     mv /dev/dsp.tmp /dev/dsp

Q: Do you plan writting it to other platforms?
A: Yes. The source is near platform-independent now. I'm working on the
   SGI/IRIX version, and we want to port engine to all platforms which
   supports OpenGL hardware. If you have access such machines, please
   contact me.

Q: Do you continue developing the engine?
A: Yes, we want. We have many plans, for example shadows, volumetric
   lighting, layered fog, support other modellers as 3DS MAX, Detailer,
   Lightwave. If you want help developing MAX or LW loader, contact us!

Q: We (xyz team) want to make demo(s) using Astral's demo system.
A: It's possible. Contact us to get developing tools, including
   file packer, script system docs etc. You MUST give credits for us.
   If you get money for it, we want some in ratio of work.

Q: I'm a talented scener. Can I join your team?
A: Maybe. Contact us, and send some samples of your work.
   We need 3D modellers, keyframers and 2D graphicians, but some
   good coder or musician also can help a lot.

Q: We want to buy the whole demo system.
A: Contact us. It's for sale for a good price.


Send your questions to astral@astral.scene.hu, with Subject: FAQ

