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The Newbie's Guide to Sauerbraten

by Passa on 03/22/2006 13:10, 29 messages, last message: 07/10/2006 23:33, 23113 views, last view: 05/18/2024 22:02

The Newbie’s Guide to Sauerbraten

Hey all, this tutorial is for all you people who are not sure how to get Sauerbraten up, running and configured for your system. Yes you could read the docs, but these can be a bit daunting for newbies. So here is your step by step guide on how to configure Sauerbraten.

Download Sauerbraten (this is pretty obvious, head over to http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=102911 to get the latest release.)

Installation on Windows will normally be via a setup exe. On Linux you just extract the tar.gz file onto your hard disk, but remember this tutorial is designed for Windows.

Once it is installed, go to Start > All Programs/Program Files (this name is dependent on your operating system) > Sauerbraten, then right click the Sauerbraten file you see there. Go to properties. You should see a window like this:

http://suprfile.com/get.php?id=95jg7t

Hit the ‘Find Target…’ button. This will bring you to a window like this:

http://suprfile.com/get.php?id=95kjwg

Right click the file named ‘sauerbraten’ and go to edit. Notepad will open and you will see something like this:

bin\sauerbraten.exe -w1024 –h768 %1 %2 %3 %4 %5

Now you need to know your screen resolution. If you know it, substitute the –wXXX value for the width and –hXXX value for the height. If not, minimise all the windows onscreen, right click desktop and go to properties. Go to the ‘Settings’ tab. You should see the resolution in the area circled in the picture here:

http://suprfile.com/get.php?id=95lc8z

The first number is your width, the other is your height. Enter this into the window. For example, from mine I would write:

bin\sauerbraten.exe -w1280 –h1024 %1 %2 %3 %4 %5

If you know you have a low performance computer, add –f after the height, like this:

bin\sauerbraten.exe -w1280 –h1024 –f %1 %2 %3 %4 %5

If you still get low speeds at that width and height then try lower it, but do not go higher. For example, if in display properties it says 1024 x 768 but Sauerbraten runs slowly, then try this:

bin\sauerbraten.exe –w800 –h600 –f %1 %2 %3 %4 %5

The lower the numbers, the less amount of pixels your computer has to render.

Once that is sorted, you need to set up your router to forward ports 27865 and 27866 to play online, that is of course if you have a router in the first place. If you do not have a router, no worries! If you do, then you can either enable UPnP on your router or forward the ports. If you do not know how to do this then consult the manual for your router. In the meantime try to play online anyway, sometimes it does work without the need to configure anything.

Load up Sauerbraten through the menu. After about 10 seconds or so you should see a screen like this:

http://suprfile.com/get.php?id=95ngzc

Now press the ~ key on your keyboard. It should make this:
> /_
appear in the bottom left of the screen.

Now type:
name “your player name”
And press enter. You can do this to change your player name. Remember, it is limited to 15 characters.

Now type:
team “your team name”
And press enter. This is your team name. Best to put this as red or blue unless you are in a clan. Remember, it is limited to 4 characters.

Congratulations! You have configured Sauerbraten!

Now to get used to the controls:
W – moves you forward
A – makes you strafe left
S – moves you back
D – makes you strafe right

Mouse looks around
Left mouse – fires current weapon
Right mouse/spacebar – jumps
Scrollwheel – scrolls through weapons

Muck around for a bit to get used to it.

Using the menu is the next step. Press ESC. You will now see a menu. Go to multiplayer by using the arrow keys to navigate the menu. Press enter. Now go to ‘update server list from master server’ and press enter. Wait a few seconds. If you did not configure your router properly, or you have no internet access, Sauerbraten will hang and freeze. However, if all goes well you will see something like this:

http://suprfile.com/get.php?id=95p4w3

In my one, ‘different protocol’ means the servers are running a different version of Sauerbraten to me. You can connect to any of the other servers. The second column of numbers is how many players there are. Unfortunately in my screenshot there are none. But I will join a server anyway by pressing enter.

http://suprfile.com/get.php?id=95q1xn

Now Sauerbraten has joined the server. It has loaded the current server map. Press TAB to see the scoreboard.

http://suprfile.com/get.php?id=95s3jf

That is the scoreboard. (A) is how many frags you have scored by killing other players. (B) is the ping, the delay in communication between you and the server. This is largely affected by location. If the server is in Germany and you are in Australia, you are not going to get a very good ping. <100 Ping is great. 100 – 200 is average, pretty good, 200 – 300 is still ok, 300 – 400 you will start having problems. (C) is your team name, mostly useful for team games, and (D) is your player name.

Now to learn how to vote on gamemodes. Press ESC, go to ‘multiplayer’, then ‘vote on gamemode/map’. In there select the gamemode you would like to vote on then press enter. Then select the map to play that gamemode on. There must be at least 50% of votes from other players agreeing with you before your vote is passed.

Congratulations! You have mastered all the aspects of playing Sauerbraten! Have fun playing and see you on the servers!

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#1: minimum system requirements

by Passa on 03/22/2006 20:53

dammit I forgot to put system requirements in.. maybe I should do a new version..
btw is there official sauer requirements?