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132 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
[This is Riley's original README file]
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acm Flight Simulator version 2.0
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What is acm?
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------------
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Acm is a LAN-oriented, multiplayer aerial combat simulation. My main design
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objective was to provide source code that could be easily compiled and
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executed on a wide variety of platforms. To that end, acm is written entirely
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in C, exploiting the programming features of Unix, X11, and the BSD socket
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interface.
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Players engage in air to air combat against one another using heat seeking
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missiles and cannons.
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Acm exists as two programs. The first, named "acm", is a small program
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that, when invoked, starts a flight session on a given workstation. The
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second component, named "acms", is a server process that manages the
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multiplayer environment. It also manages the flight simulation and
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display management that is required. Most players will prefer to run the
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acms process on a back-end server system on their local area network. Players
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at client workstations can then invoke the acm program to begin play.
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I play acm using a server that is a Mips RC3240 (rated at roughly 18.5
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SPECmarks). I get very adequate display performance using a Mips RS2030
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color workstation (10.0 SPECmarks) or an NCD monochrome X terminal. My
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choice of servers is probably overkill. I suspect that an 10+ SPECmark
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system could handle a typical mutiplayer load.
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This is the second release of acm. The original version has been ported
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to a variety of Unix derivatives and system architectures.
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Riley Rainey
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riley@mips.com
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January 26, 1991
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What's different with revision 2.0:
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-----------------------------------
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The flight simulation model has been substantially revamped.
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Rudder controls have been added.
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Monochrome support has been added with the generous help of Glen Dudek
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(dudek@ksr.com).
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Filenames have been shortened, where required, to get along with System V
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conventions.
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Substantial corrections and enhancements to the portability of this code
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were provided by Johnathan Kamens (jik@Athena.MIT.EDU). imake can now
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be used to build the entire product tree.
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Sun-specific changes were provided by Dave Safford (auvsaff@auvsun.tamu.edu).
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A bug that prevented acm from operating with certain window managers
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has been corrected.
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Lead Computing Optical Sight (LCOS) support has been added to the
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cannon weapon display. A reticle (sight) is displayed on the HUD, showing
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a good aiming sight for the cannon.
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Cannons will now inflict damage on other aircraft.
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Aircraft can now be damaged, but remain airworthy.
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GENERAL NOTES
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-------------
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This software is divided into two major parts: the 3-D graphics routines
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and the flight simulator itself. The 3-D stuff is contained in the V
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directory. V/lib holds the library itself. V/test contains a program
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that can be used to test your port of the V library.
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Fsim contains the remainder of the flight simulator. imake and make files
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have been provided. The code has a Berkeley tilt to it in many
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places, so people with hybrid OS's will probably want to lean that
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direction when selecting compiling and linking options.
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Acm binaries can be installed in your standard games directory. In addition
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to running "make install" to install the executables, you must run the
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"install-objects" script.
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The acm server, acms, must currently be started manually. It's intended
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that it will eventually be managed automatically by inetd, but that's
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not in the code yet. I have access to a network that includes a 16+ SPECMark
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server and 12 to 18 SPECMark workstations (i.e. a MIPS 3240 along with
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MIPS 2030 and Magnum workstations) (translate SPECMarks into millions of
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instructions per second by whatever formula you like ..). I generally
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rlogin to the 3240 and start the acms process on it and leave that xterm
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window hanging around; then, from another xterm window, I'll fire off
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the acm command that starts my flying session. Other players enter the
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game by simply firing off an "acm servername" command.
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I'm not saying that acm is a particularly accurate flight simulator. I'm
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not an aero engineer, but I did spend a fair amount of time studying
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several college-level texts on the subject while I was designing this
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software. This probably doesn't resemble real-time flight simulators
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too much but, again, that's not my line of work. Comments and
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suggestions to improve this software are welcome.
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Several "features" in this revision of the software:
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* landing gear is ignored. Raise it, lower it; it's
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not handled by the software.
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* flaps can be lowered at rediculously high speeds.
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* you can fly through mountains.
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* engines do not flame-out. Fly really high (and fast enough)
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and you can just about get into orbit. Non-afterburning
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engine performance does degrade as altitude increases, but
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afterburner performance gives the extra kick needed to fly
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much higher than you should be able to.
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CREDITS
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In the original release, I overlooked several important credits. The
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input routine at the heart of the acm server is based on code from xtrek
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that was written by Dan A. Dickey, he has provided some valuable help in
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improving the robustness of this code. The 3-D routines were written by
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me, but are based closely on two valuable articles from the March and
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April 1981 issues of Byte Magazine titled "Three-Dimensional Computer
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Graphics" by Franklin C. Crow.
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