HPUX xpilot[6]
XPILOT(6) XPILOT(6)
Requires UDP/IP and The X Window System
NAME
xpilot - XPilot/UX Multiplayer gravity war game client
SYNOPSIS
xpilot [-help] [-version] [-name nickname] [-team team-number] [-join]
[-list] [-shutdown [message]] [-display string] [-port port-number]
[configuration-options] [server-host ...]
OVERVIEW
XPilot is a multiplayer game which looks a bit like Thrust for the
Commodore 64. Thrust has some similarities with Atari's coin-up games
Gravitar and Asteriods (not a misspelling) - they were the originals.
Several clones have appeared for various computers, among others
Gravity Force for the Commodore Amiga.
The main objective of the game varies as you can choose different game
modes, although the only modes supported as of today are combat
(optionally with teams and/or limited lives) and race. The former
mode focuses more strongly on shooting each other down, while the
latter is more a piloting test than anything else.
To start playing, you need to connect to a server by using a client
program called xpilot. If there are no servers running, you will have
to start one of your own (see man-page xpilots(6)).
Options
-help Prints some help, including commandline options.
-version Prints the current version.
-name player-name
Lets you use an alternative name during the play (may
be handy :). If this option isn't specified, and you
haven't set the X resource name, you will be known by
your login name.
-team team-number
Joins team number team-number. See below for notes
about team play. When the server is not configured for
team mode, this option has no effect.
-help Prints a small usage message.
-version Prints version information.
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-join Automatically joins the first server you get response
from.
-list Queries status information from all servers found.
-shutdown [message]
Sends a shutdown to the server, the message part is
optional.
-name nick Specifies your nick name.
-team number Specifies your wanted team number.
-display display-string
Specifies which X server to contact.
-port number Specifies the port number to use when contacting a
server.
configuration-options
All the X resource values can be configured seperately
from the command line. For example to change the ecm
key to just `z' use; -keyEcm z
server-host Tries to connect to server at host server-host. The
default is to send a broadcast query on your attached
network.
PROMPT COMMANDS
When you startup xpilot without the -join option, you will get a
prompt asking you for directions. You may type h or ? to list the
available commands. These are quite obvious and deal with
communication to the current server only. You may enter the game by
pressing CR (Return/Enter).
If you are the owner of the server you will have a few extra options.
See xpilots(6).
THE GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE
When you enter a game you will hopefully be presented a window. This
window is divided into three major areas:
Radar (Top left) This area shows the map the server you are
playing on is using as well as the position of your
fellow players (if they aren't cloaked). In race
mode the radar also outputs the position of the
control posts. Players are shown as small rectangles
The player you are currently locked onto is shown as
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a flashing rectangle.
The server can optionally display missiles, mines
and/or bombs (moving mines) on this radar, and will
display them using different symbols; missiles are
quick flashing small dots, mines and bombs slow
flashing small dots. If nuclear mines or missiles
are launched the radar can detect the high energy
radation emiited and will show these types of weapons
on the radar as alternating small and large
rectangles. The radar always has a limited range for
these objects, due to their small size. The maximum
range depends on how much fuel you are carrying.
Rating list (Bottom left) This area shows the list of players
(sorted with respect to their rating, or `score')
currently logged on the server. The player with the
highest <rating>/<num of times died> ratio - that is,
the most `deadly' player - is underlined with a
stipled line.
First on each line, you might find a letter which
gives you some information about the status of the
player: R means the player is a robot, T means the
player is not a player but a detached tank, D means
player is dead (only possible in limited lives mode),
P means the player is paused and W means the player
is waiting to join the game after login (in limited
lives mode).
Depending on the current game mode, you will also
find information about which teams each player belong
to and how many lives each player has left.
Game area (Right) This is where the action is. Most notably
you will see your fighter in the middle of the
screen, hopefully you won't see any shots or
explosions yet!
You may also see some strange blue drawings
surrounding your fighter - this is the HUD (Head Up
Display) which greatly simplifies and compresses the
information you need to know. Currently, the HUD
displays the following information:
Bonus items You may notice some symbols and numbers on the
left side of the HUD, these indicate which, and
what quantity, of extra equipment you have.
This list can be turned off using the `o' key,
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then only items which you gain or loose will be
briefly shown on the HUD. Pressing `o' again
will constantly show owned items.
Fuel A fuel meter will appear on the right side of
the HUD when you are getting low on fuel, it
will start flashing when your fuel level gets
dangerously low. The fuel is numerically
displayed on the bottom right corner of the HUD.
Lock The name of the player you have currently locked
on is shown on the top of the HUD. The distance
and bearing to that same player is visualized by
a dot where placement of the dot gives the
direction, and the size of the dot gives the
distance. The dot will be filled if the player
is not on the same team as you. The distance to
the player also numerically displayed on the top
right corner of the HUD, it is measured in
`blocks'.
Velocity (Optional) The position of the HUD changes with
the current velocity. The distance from the
center of your screen is proportional to your
velocity. Moving to the top moves the HUD to
the bottom.
In addition to the moving HUD, you can display a
line from the center of the HUD to the center of
your ship.
Both indicators can be combined or used
exclusivly (see discussion about Xresources
below).
Score messages
Relevant score information is shown below the
HUD, as well as on the game field.
Time left The amount of time the game will last if the the
server was started with a time limit. This is
displayed in the upper left corner of your HUD.
Between the radar and the Rating list there are three push
buttons:
Quit Exits the game and the program.
About Pressing the About button will popup a three
page help window. It explains in short the
functionality of all the items you may encounter
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together with a graphical depiction of them.
Menu The Menu button pops up a pull down menu with
the following buttons:
Keys Will popup the Keys window, which contains
a list of all the X keysyms that have one
or more xpilot actions bound to them.
Config Changes the Rating list into a window with
a list of most of the options. The options
can be changed interactively. Pushing the
Save configuration button will save the
options and the key bindings to the
.xpilotrc file in your home directory.
Score Displays the players and their scores in
the Rating list window.
Player Lists the players with their login name and
their host address in the Rating list
window.
GAME CONCEPTS
The game objective varies as the server (xpilots(6)) is very
configurable. However, below you will find short descriptions of some
of the main concepts of the game.
Gravity
All objects in the game are affected by gravity - that is, they will
accelerate in the direction the gravity is strongest. The strength
and direction of the gravity is user configurable (see xpilots(6)),
and can even be set to 0.
Some objects affect the gravity in a limited area, these are called
gravs and they exist in miscellaneous types (attractive, repulsive,
clockwise, anti-clockwise). Gravs are shown as red circles with some
symbol inside which is different for each type of grav. (For more
information on how the affect the gravity, see xpilots(6).)
Wormholes
Wormholes are shown as red rotating circles. They will `teleport' you
to another place in the world. Generally, when you go through a
wormhole, you'll come out at the nearest wormhole in the direction you
were travelling. Some wormholes are enter-only and some are exit-
only. The exit-only ones are invisible. Passing through a wormhole
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will make you visible for a while if you were cloaked.
Fuel
You will also have to worry about your fuel level as most equipment
use fuel/energy and some even work better the more fuel you have.
You may gain fuel by picking up special `fuel cans' (see bonus items
section) or refueling at a refuel station. Refuel stations may be
found in blocks in the world, they differ from standard background
blocks in that they have a red/black F in them, and they are partly or
completely filled with red. The amount of red determines how much
fuel the station has at available for you. To refuel, you must hit
the keyRefuel key (see controls section).
Fuel takes up mass and will also determine how big the explosion will
be when (sorry, `if' :) you meet your destiny.
Combat
There are two different and mutually exclusive modes which have
greatly different objectives: combat mode and race mode. The most
extensive is the combat mode, which also happens to be the default.
Here your main objective is to get as high a rating as possible by
`blasting away' on enemy fighters (human or robot controlled) and
cannons. All will naturally fire back at you, so you will also need
some nifty piloting skills and/or some heavy equipment to really enjoy
living. Extra weapons are explained in the bonus items section.
Race
In race mode, your objective is to fly as fast as you can through a
specified route. This is done by passing checkpoints in a specified
order. The finish is reached after three laps.
The next checkpoint is always visible on the radar.
Team play
Team play is useful in combination with combat mode. It is different
from straight combat mode in that players on your own team are not
considered enemies. There are some additional objectives too.
You can gain points if the map you are using have targets or
treasures. The main difference is that you get points by blowing up
an enemy's target using shots or mines. A shot will only damage a
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target and if the target is completely damaged then the next shot will
blow it up. A mine will immediately destroy a target. Two missile
hits will also destroy a target.
Enemy treasures have to be stolen from the enemies and dropped on your
own treasure. You pick up a treasure by using keyConnector when
flying nearby the enemies treasure. This will attach the treasure to
your ship with a strong rubber band. Now you have to move your ship
away from the treasure while holding the keyConnector down. When you
reach a certain distance the rubber band will be drawn in a sollied
line. This means that the treasure is attached to your ship. It is
possible (in emergency situations :) to detach the enemy treasure by
pressing keyDropBall, but this will of course not gain you or your
team any points.
Certain maps may configure targets as passable by team members, in
which case they can act as wall shields for team bases.
Shields
You may or may not have shields at your disposal, depending on the
server options specified. If you have, they are activacted with the
keyShield key (see controls section). Generally collisions with other
objects (except for debris and sparks) are lethal, but when you are
hit by something with your shields up then it will only cost you some
fuel/energy. If you didn't have enough fuel then the collision will
be lethal again. Having your shields up costs fuel.
Bonus items
During the game you might encounter blue triangles with red symbols on
- these are special bonus items which will make your life easier. As
of today, these items include:
Fuel can More fuel/energy.
Cloaking device
Makes you invisible for other players, both on radar
and on the screen. However, when you are hit by a
shot or missile or bounce with another player then
you will be temporarily visible again.
Sensors Enables you to see cloakers to a limited extent.
Having more sensors improves this.
Rear cannon Extra rear cannon.
Front cannons
2 extra front cannons.
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Afterburner Your main engine becomes more powerful and uses your
fuel more efficiently.
Rockets Pack of rockets. These may be used as smart
missiles, heat seaking missiles, or just plain dumb
torpedos. Usually these explode on impact with a
small debris explosion. However, if enabled, nuclear
and/or cluster variants of each may be possible. See
the description of keyToggleNuclear, keyToggleCluster
and keyToggleModifier.
Mine Pack of mines. Can be dropped as either moving mine
(bombing) or stationary mine (mining). Usually these
will explode when someone else comes within a few
blocks, causing a large debris explosion. However,
if enabled, nuclear and/or cluster variants of each
may be possible. Mines have a little intelligence
and will not explode for the player (or team members)
who dropped them. However, the targetting of mines
can be effected by ECMs (unless the server option
ecmsReprogramMines is false). If you get close
enough to a mine, you will be able to sense who the
mine is currently programmed by. Mines dropped by
different players have a different external
appearance -- mines dropped by you or your team show
up hollow. Reprogramming does not change the
appearance of a mine, so be careful because a hollow
mine may not be safe. See the description of
keyToggleNuclear, keyToggleCluster, and
keyToggleModifier.
Tank Additional fuel tank (perhaps with some spare fuel).
As you pick up more tanks, your weight increases and
you'll have to compensate by picking up afterburners.
You can change which tank is the `active tank', that
is the one that fuel is drained from (if this tank is
empty, fuel is drained from all tanks). Refueling is
quicker with more tanks.
To ease filling several tanks in parallel, all the
tanks drain into their left neighbours (0<-1<-...<-
8); except your active tank, which is watertight (it
seems a bit complicated at first, but trust me,
you'll get it eventually :-). Tanks don't drain if
they reach a certain minimum level (unless of course,
you use it as the active tank).
When you detach a tank it is the active one that is
detached, unless the active tank happens to be your
main tank, in which the tank with the highest number
is used. The detached tank will have the shape of a
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ship and will carry your name, it will immediately
start thrusting (as long as fuel permits) and will
fool all heat-seekers to follow it.
ECM Electronic Counter Measures. ECM allows you to
confuse and re-target smart missiles within a certain
range of your ship. When missiles are zapped by ECM,
they will become confused for a while and then have a
high probability of going after the player who you
were locked onto when you used the ECM. The ECM will
also cause within a certain range to either explode
or be more likely be temporarily be blinded such that
they do not explode if you go near them. The closest
mine within ECM range may be reprogrammed to be safe
for you and your team members. If another ship is
within range of the ECM, all it's sensors will freeze
for a while and if the ship was cloaked, it will
become visible for a while. The ECM is activated by
pressing the keyECM key.
Transporter Enables you to steal equipment and energy/fuel from
the closest fighter, provided it is within the
transporters range. You activate the transporter by
pressing the keyTransporter key.
Laser Gives you a laser weapon with limited range. Having
more of these increases the range.
Emergency Thrust
Gives you a limited amount of super thrusters,
equivalent to a full complement of afterburners.
With a light ship this is equivalent to hitting
hyperspace or warp factor 9.99. Useful for stopping
quickly or running away fast from a deadly encounter.
The extra thrust capability is toggled on and off by
a seperate key and can thus be saved, the amount of
time remaining is shown by a status bar below the
HUD.
Autopilot Gives you a hover capability. When engaged an
`Autopilot' light will flash above the HUD. When
engaged the autopilot computer will bring the ship to
a hover by the quickest (perhaps not safest) method
possible. It will then leave you in a hover, unless
in a strong gravity field where your engines cannot
cope. Useful for hovering next to a refuel depot.
Tractor Beam
Not to be confused with a transporter, this enables
you to push or pull the ship you are currently locked
onto. The force is mutual, and thus if your ship is
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lighter than your target you will move more towards
him than him towards you. Best used with heavy ships
to pull then push annoying players into walls.
CONTROLS
The game understands quite some keys, but not all of them are equally
important. The following keys are more or less sorted by importance.
The name of the keys are also the Xresources you use to redefine them,
and the words inside the curly braces {} are their default bindings.
See Xresources section below.
Primary keys
The primary keys are:
keyTurnLeft {a}
Turn left (anti-clockwise).
keyTurnRight {s}
Turn right (clockwise).
keyThrust {right shift or left shift}
Thrust me.
keyFireShot {return or linefeed}
Fire normal shot.
keyShield {space or right meta}
Raise shield. Must be held down for continuous
use.
keyRefuel {f or ctrl or caps
Try to connect to nearest fuel station. Must be
held down during refueling.
Secondary keys
The following commands are not always available, some require
bonus items to have any functionality at all.
keySelfDestruct {q}
Self destruct. At last we managed to include a
timer, got rid of all those nasty I'd-rather-die-
by-my-own-hands-than-let-you-kill-me-and-get-all-
the-points pilots.
keyIdMode {i}
Toggle the ID mode. Instead of the score list it
will display the list of players with their real
names and computer addresses.
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keyCloak {BackSpace or Delete}
Enable/disable cloaking device if available. You
will be invisible on both radar and on screen, but
beware - the device is not foolproof, it is not
cheap on your fuel and the only thing becoming
invisible is your ship, i.e. the exhaust-flames
will still be visible.
keySwapSettings {Esc}
Toggle between two different settings. You'll
probably want more power and a larger turn rate in
combat than when you're doing some critical
maneuvering.
keyDropMine {Tab}
Drop a proximity mine. The mine will detonate
after a certain amount of time (quite large
actually) or when a foe comes too near.
keyDetachMine {]}
Drop a moving mine - that is, a bomb.
keyEcm {[} Fire an ECM pulse.
keyChangeHome {Home or h}
Change home base. You will need to be landed on
the base of your choice. (The Home key is located
just right of the Return key on most HP-keyboards.)
These keys are convenient for HP keyboards, also
somewhat adapted to SUN keyboards.
keyTankNext {w}
If you have additional tanks, the current tank will
be the next tank.
keyTankPrev {e}
If you have additional tanks, the current tank will
be the previous tank.
keyTankDetach {r}
Detach the current tank (or the last additional
tank). Heat-seeking missiles will hopefully follow
this tank.
keyPause {p}
Park or paused hover mode - you can only park while
you're landed on your own home base, and when you
park, you cannot rejoin the game until the P has
stopped blinking (to prevent users from using this
option to run away from a battle). If you are not
near your base and you are travelling very slowly
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the ship will be brought to a standstill on
autopilot and cannot be unpaused until the
`Autopilot' light stops blinking.
keyFireMissile {backslash}
Fire smart missile if available. The missile will
home onto the player that you have currently locked
on. You must have a clear lock on a player for
this to work. Requires lock.
keyFireHeat {;}
Fire a thrust controlled missile. Works like a
smart missle, but is faster and ECM isn't able to
confuse it. Needs the thrust for navigating.
keyFireTorpedo {'}
Fire a missile without flight control. It runs very
fast in shot direction.
keyFireLaser {/}
Fires a laser weapon in the direction you are
pointing. Lasers have limited range and use a lot
of fuel, but they are instantaneous and therefore
much more deadly than normal shots. The precise
electronics of lasers can be irretrivially damaged
by the high energy interference generated by enemy
ECMs.
keyToggleNuclear {n}
Pressing this key will toggle through the following
indicators on your HUD (bottom left), only if
nuclear weapons are allowed;
N All missiles or mines launched from now are
limited nuclear weapons.
FN All missiles or mines launched from now are
full (or fusion) nuclear weapons.
Pressing the key again clears the nuclear
weapons mode.
You must have eight or more missiles, or four or more
mines to launch a nuclear missile or mine, and perhaps
enough fuel as well. If you do not a message will be
displayed at the bottom of the game area explaining why
and the weapon will not be fired.
Firing a full (or fusion) nuclear weapon completely
depletes your stock of that weapon, limited nuclear
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weapons will deplete your stock by eight missiles or four
mines.
A nuclear missile or mine fired will have a mass and
explosive power equal and usually greater than the total
number that were used. Nuclear torpedos are very fast,
and all nuclear weapons explode violently (this may
freeze the server momentarily). After firing a one off
nuclear weapon, the `n' indicator is cleared.
keyToggleCluster {c}
Pressing this key will toggle through the following
indicators on your HUD (bottom left), only if cluster
weapons are allowed;
C All missiles or mines launched are cluster weapons.
Cluster weapons explode differently from normal weapons.
The explode with a slower moving shower of killing shots
and not debris, which may kill or deplete shields just
like a normal shot fired by your self. Thus, since
cluster debris is deadly to yourself, you should be
careful when firing such a weapon. After firing a one
off cluster weapon, the `c' indicator is cleared.
A cluster weapon will also use an almost equivalent
amount of fuel as if you had fired the shots using your
cannon, and thus large cluster explosions will use large
amounts of fuel. If you do not have enough fuel a
message saying so will be displayed at the bottom of the
game area and the weapon will not be launched.
keyToggleVelocity {v}
Pressing this key will toggle through V1 through V3 and
to no modifier in turn. It affects the speed of nuclear
and/or cluster explosions, higher modifier numbers
produce lower explosion velocities, and thus for the most
effective nuclear cluster explosion a V2 or V3 modifier
should be used.
keyToggleMini {x}
Pressing this key will toggle through X2 through X4 and
then no modifier in turn. The number shows how many
miniture mines, missiles or lasers ill be fired for every
key press. The sum total damage and cost of using
miniture weapon is equivalent to a normal weapon of that
type.
keyToggleSpread {z}
Pressing this key will toggle through Z1 through Z3 and
then no modifier. The higher the number the closer the
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spread of fire for minature weapons, it also affects the
spread of wide and rear shots, successively narrowing the
stream of bullets such that V3 is a single beam of shots.
keyTogglePower {b}
Pressing this key will toggle through B1 through B3 and
then no modifier. The higher the number the less
powerful a laser or tractor beam is used, mainly for
conserving energy or fine adjustment in pulling somebody
around. The power setting also affects the engine to
warhead ratio in missiles, a higher setting will cause
each missile to have more powerful engines, and thus be
much quicker and more maneaverable, but at the cost of a
drastically reduced damage capability. However when
coupled with other modifiers this can cause severe
psychological advantages, consider the effect of trying
to outrun four minuture full cluster powered up nuclear
smart missiles.
keyClearModifiers {k}
Clears all current modifiers in effect.
keyLoadModifiers1 {1}
Loads the modifiers stored in bank 1, as set by the
modifierBank1 resource.
keyLoadModifiers2 {2}
Loads the modifiers stored in bank 2, as set by
the modifierBank2 resource.
keyLoadModifiers3 {3}
Loads the modifiers stored in bank 3, as
set by the modifierBank3 resource.
keyLoadModifiers4 {4}
Loads the modifiers stored in bank 4, as set by
the modifierBank4 resource.
keyToggleAutoPilot {h Meta Alt}
This toggles the autopilot feature. You need atleast
one Autopilot item before this will work.
keyToggleEmergencyThrust {j Meta Alt}
This toggles the emergency thrust item. You need
atleast one Emergency thrust item, on first turning
this on the item is used up and ten seconds or so of
emergency thrust is placed at your disposal. The
time is only used up as you thrust, and hitting this
key will return you back to normal thrust while
conserving the remaining boosted thrust. If you
posses both Autopilot and Emergency Thrust items,
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pressing the Meta or Alt keys will give the
equivalent of emergency brakes.
keyToggleShields {g}
This toggles shields on, another press will turn them
off. Useful for when you wish to always have shields
up while performing other duties.
keyTractorBeam {Control_L comma}
This will engage any tractor beam items on the player
who you hold a lock on, it causes a mutual attractive
force between you and them, causing both players to
move towards each other.
keyPressorBeam {Control_R .}
This will engage any tractor beam items on the player
who you hold a lock on, it causes a mutual repulsive
force between you and them, causing both players to
move away from each other.
keyTalk {m} Pressing this key will toggle between the talk window
being shown below the HUD. If your mouse pointer is
outside the window you will still have full control
of your ship and pressing the talk key will disappear
(the current message will not be lost). If you
position your mouse pointer within the window you can
type a message using the keyboard, however you ship
will no longer respond to key presses. The following
special keys are available;
Return Linefeed
This finishes and sends the message. The talk
window is also removed from the screen and the
message text cleared.
Backspace Del
These keys delete the last character.
Ctrl-W
This deletes the last word.
Ctrl-U
This deletes the entire line of text.
Esc This removes the talk window without clearing the
text. This is useful if you are typing a message
and something important in the game happens that
requires you to control your ship.
Messages will usually be sent to every player logged
in, including yourself. Messages received will
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always appear in the bottom of the Game area, and
will look like;
<<Viper shouts>> Hello world.
However you can send messages to individual players
or teams by starting the message with the player's
name (or enough character from the beginning of their
name to make it unique) or team number followed by a
colon, and then the message. Just placing a colon at
the start of the message will send it to everyone.
For example;
vip: Hello
will send a message to only one player who's name
begins the letters vip (the case does not matter).
keyToggleCompass {l}
Turns of the HUD compass display.
keyLockClose {Select Down}
Will lock onto the closest player if he/she is within
range.
keyLockNextClose {up}
Will lock onto the next closest player after the
currently locked player.
keyLockNext {Next Right}
Will, if possible, lock onto the next player in
the game.
keyLockPrev {Prior Left}
Will, if possible, lock onto the previous player
in the game.
keyConnector {Control_L}
Use connector (for the moment, all this is used
for is picking up treasures/balls).
keyDropBall {d}
Drop the ball if you are carrying it.
keyIdMode {i}
Toggle ship ID mode between nick name and real
name.
These keys let you adjust the control sensitivity:
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XPILOT(6) XPILOT(6)
Requires UDP/IP and The X Window System
keyIncreasePower {KP_Multiply}
Increase engine power.
keyDecreasePower {KP_Divide}
Decrease engine power.
keyIncreaseTurnspeed {KP_Add}
Increase turn speed.
keyDecreaseTurnspeed {KP_Subtract}
Decrease turn speed.
keyToggleOwnedItmes {o}
Causes all owned bonus items to be shown either
constantly or for a brief period after they
change in amount on the HUD.
keyToggleMessages {0}
Causes messages to be shown or not shown.
X RESOURCES
At startup xpilot will look for X resources in several places. First
it looks in the LIBDIR (as defined during compilation, mostly as
something like /usr/local/games/xpilot/lib/) for the file named
XPilot. After that it looks for more resources in
/usr/lib/X11/$LANG/app-defaults/XPilot, $XUSERFILESEARCHPATH/XPilot,
$XAPPLRESDIR/$LANG/XPilot, $HOME/app-defaults/$LANG/XPilot, resources
set using xrdb or else $HOME/.Xdefaults, host specific resources in
the file pointed to by $XENVIRONMENT or else in $HOME/.Xdefaults-
hostname and finally in $HOME/.xpilotrc. If the LANG environment
variable is undefined or if that file doesn't exist then it will look
for the file as if LANG had been undefined. Resources defined in
files listed later will override resources in files listed earlier.
All of these resources can be overridden by their corresponding
command line arguments.
gameFont The font used on the HUD and for nearly all text part
of the game field.
messageFont The font used for messages displayed in the bottom
left corner of the game field.
scoreListFont
The font used on the score list. Must be non-
proportional.
buttonFont The font used on all buttons.
textFont The font used in the help and about windows.
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XPILOT(6) XPILOT(6)
Requires UDP/IP and The X Window System
name Nick name of your player.
team Preferred team number.
power Primary power setting of your engine. Primary in
this context means that it is part of the default
setting, secondary means the other setting (two
different settings are available, pressing Esc will
switch between them). You may change "sensitivity"
of your ship by adjusting these parameters. Often
you would like one setting to be more "rough" than
the other - one setting for fine maneuvering and one
for racing. (Default 45.0)
turnSpeed Primary turnspeed setting of your ship. (Default
30.0)
turnResistance
Primary turnresistance setting of your ship. This
value determines how fast your ship will stop
rotating, i.e. the rotating speed of your ship is set
equal to itself multiplied by this value. Obviously
the value has to lie between 0.0 (exclusive) and 1.0
(inclusive). (Default 0.12)
altPower Secondary power setting of your engine. (Default
35.0)
altTurnSpeed
Secondary turnspeed setting of your ship. (Default
25.0)
altTurnResistance
Secondary turnresistance setting of your ship.
(Default 0.12)
fuelNotify The limit when the HUD fuel bar will become visible.
(Default 500.0)
fuelWarning The limit when the HUD fuel bar will start flashing.
(Default 200.0)
fuelCritical
The limit when the HUD fuel bar will flash faster.
(Default 100.0)
showHUD Should the HUD be on or off. (Default true)
verticalHUDLine
Should the vertical lines in the HUD be drawn.
(Default false)
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Requires UDP/IP and The X Window System
horizontalHUDLine
Should the horizontal lines in the HUD be drawn.
(Default true)
speedFactHUD
Should the HUD me moved, to indicate the current
velocity. Negativ values will inverse the moving of
the HUD. (Default 0.0)
speedFactPTR
Uses a red line to indicate the current velocity. On
edge of the line is the center of the ship. The other
end is moved in the same way, as the HUD, if
speedFactPTR is set.
charsPerSecond
This determines the speed in which messages are
written, in characters per second.
markingLights
Should the fighters have marking lights, just like
airplanes?
clock Display a small digital clock.
toggleShield
Have the shield status be changed only by a key press
and ignore the key release.
fuelMeter Determines if the fuel meter should be visible. This
meter visualizes your fuel level in a different way
than fuelGauge does.
fuelGauge Determines if the fuel gauge should be visible. See
fuelMeter.
turnSpeedMeter
Should the turnspeed meter be visible at all times.
(Default false)
powerMeter Should the power meter be visible at all times.
(Default false)
backgroundPointDist
Specifies the block distance between points drawn in
the background, used in empty map regions. 8 is
default, 0 means no points.
backgroundPointSize
Specifies the size of the background points. The
default is 2, 0 means no points.
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slidingRadar
If the game is in edgewrap mode (see xpilots(6)) then
the radar will keep your position on the radar in the
center and draw the rest of the radar around it.
This requires very good X performance and a pretty
fast workstation. Default is off.
outlineWorld
Draws only the outline of all the blue map
constructs.
packetSizeMeter
Turns on a meter displaying the maximum packet size
of the last few seconds.
packetLostMeter
Turns on a meter displaying the percentage of packets
lost in the last second due to network failure
(overload).
packetDropMeter
Turns on a meter displaying the percentage of packets
dropped due to your display not being able to keep up
with the rate at which the server is generating frame
updates. If possible lower the frame update rate of
the server with the -fps option.
receiveWindowSize
Specifies how big the receive window should be. See
NOTES below.
sounds Specifies the sound file. (Only if sound is
enabled.)
maxVolume Specifies the volume to play sounds with, where 0
turns off sound. (Only if sound is enabled.)
audioServer Specifies the audio server to use. (Only if sound is
enabled.)
geometry Specifies the geometry to use like: -geometry
1280x1024+0+0.
visual Specifies which visual to use. You can see which
visuals your display supports by running: xpilot
-visual list.
mono Turns on mono display type.
colorSwitch <true/false>
Tells xpilot to use a color switching display
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Requires UDP/IP and The X Window System
technique or not. Default is true if your display
hardware has enough colors available.
maxColors Tells xpilot how many colors you want it to use.
Default is 8, with a maximum of 16. If your display
seems slow then try: xpilot -maxColors 4.
gameFont The font used on the HUD and for nearly all text part
of the game field.
messageFont The font used for messages displayed in the bottom
left corner of the game field.
scoreListFont
The font used on the score list. Must be non-
proportional.
buttonFont The font used on all buttons.
textFont The font used in the help and about windows.
black Specifies the color to use for black. Default is
#000000 which is equivalent to specifying Black.
white Specifies the color to use for white. Default is
#FFFFFF which is equivalent to specifying White.
blue Specifies the color to use for blue.
red Specifies the color to use for red. color0 Specifies
the color to use for color 0. You can specify colors
up to color15 this way. Black, white, blue and red
are equivalent to color0, color1, color2 and color3
respectively.
INVOCATION EXAMPLES
The simplest invocation of the hand-shake program is to just type:
xpilot
This will force the program to search after a server on all the
machines on your attached network.
Say you know where the server is, and you don't want to be prompted
(handy in scripts etc.), you may type for example:
xpilot -join lglab08
where lglab08 is the name of the host running the server.
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Requires UDP/IP and The X Window System
In the examples above your name would be your login name. Let's say
you want to be really cool and your login name is gudmari, well -
you're in loads of trouble if you don't know about the -name option;
xpilot -name FireEater
will fix the problem for you.
NOTES
For credit list, see the provided CREDITS file.
If the client crashes, you will be without autorepeat on your
keyboard. To re-enable autorepeat, issue this command:
xset r
Please also note that xpilot can be addictive, and strenous for both
you and your keyboard. We take no responsibility. :)
There is a meta server running on xpilot.cs.uit.no, port 4400, into
which all servers registers. This way you can easily check if there
are any servers running nearby. To use it, try:
telnet xpilot.cs.uit.no 4400 help list
Or:
telnet xpilot.cs.uit.no 4401
If you experience any problems with `jerkiness', you should try to
adjust the receiveWindowSize Xresource. The problem may be that your
X server can't display as fast as the XPilot server is generating new
frame updates. So another option is setting the number of frames for
the server to a lower number or get a faster X display system :)
The receiveWindowSize resource allows you to tune the buffering of
frame updates a little. When set to one then there is no buffering
and xpilot will just read the next frame and display it. When the
display is slower than the XPilot server this may give all sorts of
problems like lagging behind and lack of keyboard control.
When you set receiveWindowSize to two then xpilot will always try to
read a second frame from the network and if this succeeds it will
discard the oldest frame. A better number for receiveWindowSize is
three which will discard the oldest frame out of three and therefore
be less subject to small changes in network delivery times. If your
display is fast enough and can keep up with rate at which the server
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Requires UDP/IP and The X Window System
is generating frames then specifying a value bigger than one will not
result in dropping frames, but rather will it be a buffer for small
changes in network performance and computer load. The maximum value
of receiveWindowSize is four.
AUTHORS
XPilot was developed by Bjoern Stabell (bjoerns@staff.cs.uit.no) and
Ken Ronny Schouten (kenrsc@stud.cs.uit.no) from the University of
Tromsoe, and Bert Gijsbers (bert@mc.bio.uva.nl) from the University of
Amsterdam.
BUG REPORTS
The product is seemingly stable, so bug reports are highly
appreciated. Send email to xpilot@cs.uit.no and we will see what we
can do. We merely ask that you remember to include the following
information:
o The platforms the bug occurs on
o What kind of display you have (depth, color, type)
o Which resources you're using.
o The full version of XPilot (e.g. 3.0.9)
o What the bug looks like (symptoms)
o When the bug usually occurs
We would also like to receive changes you do to make the code compile
on your machine (we would NOT like to receive the whole program
translated to K&R C, keep it ANSI :) If you don't have an ANSI
compiler, there are several utilities which may help you de-ANSI-fy
the code (unproto, unprotoize etc), but a better solution will be to
install the GNU C compiler on your system.
COPYRIGHT & DISCLAIMER
XPilot is copyright (C) 1991-94 by the authors mentioned above.
XPilot comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details see the provided
LICENSE file.
FILES
/usr/local/games/lib/xpilot/motd Message of the day.
/usr/local/games/lib/xpilot/sounds File containing the sound to
sound-file mapping.
/usr/local/games/lib/xpilot/maps/ Directory containing maps.
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Requires UDP/IP and The X Window System
SEE ALSO
xpilots(6)
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