Hints/suggestions for openxcom linux users/modders

[niculinux]

Hello, just posting this inspired by Mods tested on OpenXcom 1.0 on Linux (compiled xubuntu 12.04 build) thread: since linux is case sensitive, to avoid difficulties running mods i'd strongly advice to use some bulk renaming tool such as Métamorphose, GPrename and PyRenamer (the very first one is even avaiable for windows!) to simplify things and not going'mad enjoyng the wonderfull openxcom.

Other tips would be useful. Eventually, may this topicmbe pinned up? THANK YOU!!

Edit: sry for typos!

[niculinux]

I'd also kindly advice modders when making new mods using lowercases only, or at least indicate what mod would be compatible with linux and what not, since no one seems to do it :, ( Linux gaming community will be grateful for a lifetime!

[Shoes]

When you say new mods should use lower case only, do you mean to name files, or inside the files everything should be lower case too? It would also be difficult for modders to know if their mod is linux compatible if they don't use linux themselves.

[niculinux]

When you say new mods should use lower case only, do you mean to name files, or inside the files everything should be lower case too? It would also be difficult for modders to know if their mod is linux compatible if they don't use linux themselves.

Right, sorry, both of these, since also the text inside .rul files need to be lowercased, as i  personal experience, it'a  hell of a work changing them!!! See this thread

[hellrazor]

I'd also kindly advice modders when making new mods using lowercases only, or at least indicate what mod would be compatible with linux and what not, since no one seems to do it :, ( Linux gaming community will be grateful for a lifetime!

It doesn't really matter if you write in UPPERCASE or lowercase or CamelCase or whatever.
Important is that:
- Filenames and the respective Lines in the Ruleset are identical (including fileending).
- That the Modder sticks with the Convention he chooses throughout his entire Mod or all his Mods.
This also means renaming files from other Mods.

I have a very simple way of getting files into the ruleset, since VIM allows my to call them in by the filenames, via tab autocomplete
So i always have identical names on the file and in the ruleset.

[niculinux]

Thank you hellrazor, since vim is quite somewhat more easy to use than vi, but still pretty hard for newbies. Someone has tried some other text editor such as atom? Seems to be very promising

[hellrazor]

Thank you hellrazor, since vim is quite somewhat more easy to use than vi, but still pretty hard for newbies. Someone has tried some other text editor such as atom? Seems to be very promising

Vim isn't that hard to learn. goolge for a vim cheat sheet and you shall be in vim wonderland in no time :>

[niculinux]

Please, for the sake of linux users, may this thread be pinned up? 

[niculinux]

In the menatime, it's important to remeber hell'razor's thoughs:

[...]

The OpenXcom ruleset files, are in essence nothing more YAML files, and follow the syntax of this simple markup language. The files can be edited with any known texteditor.
Essential information about the Ruleset files and there possible commands can be found here and here.

You can also look at the vanilla ruleset to see how things are done. Usually the easiest way to start is with something very small. I myself for example started with something
very very simple, adding a autofire Option twoards the normal standard Tank here.

For linux their is a big variety of texteditors i myself use Vim - Vi Improved. Not a editor i would suggest for a beginner, but since i also use it for programming it is optimal for me.
[...]

from this thread

Actually the most most bigger handicap for openxcom linux modders is the absolute absence of dedicated tools, such as PCKview and Mapview, not to mention graphical editors, among the the ones listed in the this forum thread "image editors / graphics programs" just a few ara avaiable on linux, but even so nearly all of them require to be compiled from source!!

[Yankes]

(...) just a few ara avaiable on linux, but even so nearly all of them require to be compiled from source!!

If you complain that you need compiling from source, you doing it wrong. Whole point of linux is that everything is available as source code not as binaries.
Another thing is that compiling under linux is lot of time easier than in windows because all required tools are already installed or available after one simple command. Of course this is harder than simply installing exe like in windows, but if you already want stick to linux you should embrace all of it capabilities.

[niculinux]

If you complain that you need compiling from source, you doing it wrong. Whole point of linux is that everything is available as source code not as binaries.
Another thing is that compiling under linux is lot of time easier than in windows because all required tools are already installed or available after one simple command. Of course this is harder than simply installing exe like in windows, but if you already want stick to linux you should embrace all of it capabilities.

Yep, that's the issue but i think it's strange that until know nobody has writtten such tool and packaged it. An intermetiate programmer may also be able to do, after all a tool with basic functions should not be too hard.

Edit: please also consider what Arthanor wrote here, about handobs:

Are the handobs defined as a a bunch of individual files? Linux has issues with that. It is handled better if the handobs come as one image with 8 frames in it instead.

uh..i did not know that

[hellrazor]

Just to mention is volutars MCDedit editor for terrainfiles, works flawlessly when used with wine API.