                 +----------------------+
                 | B A L A Z A R    III |
                 +----------------------+

*** What is Balazar 3 ???

Balazar 3 is a libre software 3D dungeon game with multiplayer
support.

Balazar 3 can be played either in 2D (with SDL + Pygame) or in 3D
(with OpenGL + Soya).

The 2D version supports only 640x480 and 800x480 resolutions. It has
been designed mainly for hand-held devices (Zaurus, Nokia N810,
Freerunner, and the like).

The 3D version is more difficult to install, but is more beautiful :-)

2D and 3D versions are network-compatible.



*** 3D version requirement

 * Python 2.5.x (the latest is the best; tested on 2.5.2)
   INCLUDING the files for compiling python modules in C,
   e.g. , on Linux Mandriva, you need to install the package :
   'libpython2.5-devel-2.5.2-2mdk' (version numbers may change)

 * PIL (Python Imaging Library, http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/)

 * OpenGL (tested with ATI Radeon drivers; hardware acceleration is
   heavily advised, though not strictly required)

 * SDL (http://libsdl.org/)

 * Glew (http://glew.sf.net)

 * OpenAL (www.openal.org), PyOgg and PyVorbis (www.xiph.org) for
   sound support.

 * Cal3D >= 0.10 (cal3d.sourceforge.net)

 * FreeType (http://freetype.org)

 * ODE (http://www.ode.org/)

 * Soya 3D (http://home.gna.org/oomadness/en/soya3d/index.html)

 * Cerealizer (http://home.gna.org/oomadness/en/cerealizer/index.html)



*** 2D version requirement

 * Python 2.5.x (the latest is the best; tested on 2.5.2)

 * SDL (http://libsdl.org/) including SDL sound / mixer.

 * Pygame (htpp://www.pygame.org/)

 * Cerealizer (http://home.gna.org/oomadness/en/cerealizer/index.html)



*** Server requirement

 * Python 2.5.x (the latest is the best; tested on 2.5.2)

 * Cerealizer (http://home.gna.org/oomadness/en/cerealizer/index.html)



*** Installation

tar -xvzf Balazar3-XXX.tar.gz
cd Balazar3-XXX

 * Do:

python ./setup.py build

 * Do AS ROOT:

su
python ./setup.py install

You may get the following warning:

  warning: install: modules installed to '/usr/share/',
  which is not in Python's module search path (sys.path)
  -- you'll have to change the search path yourself

You can safely ignore the warning !

If you want to play WITHOUT installing the game, simply rename the
Balazar3-XXX directory into "balazar3", and then run the balazar3
executable file.



*** How to launch Balazar 3 ?

Just type "balazar3" on a console !

There's also a command line interface, see "balazar3 --help"
for more information.


*** Common troubles

 * Sound problems : OpenAL may not support your sound card (e.g.
   sound quality is poor, and you get some error printed on the
   console, about "native_blitbuffer: Assertion `0' failed" or "fcntl:
   Invalid argument"). Some people has obtained good result by forcing
   the use of esd. For that, edit ~/.openalrc, and write in it :
   
     (define devices '(esd))

 * ImportError: libGL.so.1: cannot handle TLS data
   This problem occurs typically on Debian with NVidia cards.
   Just install the "nvidia-glx" Debian package.


   
*** Contacts and website

jibalamy@free.fr

Much more info are available on the web site:

http://home.gna.org/oomadness/en/balazar3/index.html
