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                              MDDCLONE-SDL - READ ME

                                                          Last update: 24-AUG-09
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MDDClone-SDL is an SDL port of MDDClone, an initiative bringing Mercenary series
to all platforms which are supported by SDL and nasm. The list of platforms 
supported by SDL can be found here: 
http://libsdl.org/faq.php?action=listentries&category=1#54
We can build MDDClone-SDL for Windows 98, 2000, XP, Vista and GNU/Linux. There 
may be other builds as well, depending on available resources, but we can't share 
the source code for you to compile it due to copyright issues. The algorithms 
contained in Mercenary may still be in use by the Novagen team (even if they are 
not called that now) for commercial reasons, and without their explicit 
permission we do not consider it appropriate to freely publish what should be 
considered their work.

Here's a great resource of Mercenary games, including gameplay instructions:
http://mercenarysite.free.fr/
or just google Mercenary Site.

MDDClone-SDL's homepage:
http://www.elwico.pl/~ender-sz/mercenary/mddclone-sdl/

Compared to original MDDClone, MDDClone-SDL offers these optional features: 
  - OpenGL rendering
  - anti-aliased lines (A key) 
  - camera shake (K key)
  - bigger window option (Z key)
  - motion fix - you'll always go in direction you're pointing at

Currently MDDClone-SDL is just a tech demo of Mercenary 1: Escape From Targ,
and Second City mission disk but we'll try to make Damocles and Dion Crisis 
available as well.

Initiative not associated with Psygnosis or Sony

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			LIBRARIES AND RELEASE TYPES
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MDDClone-SDL uses the following programming libraries: 
SDL, SDL_image, libpng, libjpeg, SDL_mixer, ogg, vorbis, and for software 
rendering - SDL_gfx, and for hardware rendering - OpenGL and freeglut

Windows:
The game archive contains all the libraries, so you just have to run the binary. 
In this case - launcher.exe

Unix:
The game archive contains all the libraries, just like the
Windows version although due to sound problems under Linux. You have to use a 
special script, supplied within the archive, which helps your OS in finding 
the supplied libraries. The script is called mddclone-sdl-run.sh
More on this in section - RUNNING THE GAME

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				RUNNING THE GAME
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Common:
MDDClone-SDL supports command line parameters affecting the game. They can be
obtained by running the binary with --help parameter, although to make your life 
easier, I've written a wxWidgets based program, called Launcher, which,
depending on the choices you make in it, sets the parameters list and executes
the appropriate binary with those parameters as a subprocess. There are two 
such binaries:
- mddclone-sdl-gfx - used for software rendering. Looks like the original with
some nice small features
- mddclone-sdl-ogl - used for hardware, OpenGL rendering. Attempts to move MDDC
to the 21st century, while keeping the original charm (this is NOT an excuse!)
Except for graphics, they both share exactly the same code.
Note that in case of OpenGL version, you can't set fullscreen in other way than
via commad line parameters, or Launcher.
The choices that you made in Launcher are stored in launcherCfg.txt file.

Unix binary release:
To let the game find the libraries, and run the game, you must run this script:
mddclone-sdl-run.sh
by either running it from X, or from console by cd'ing into the game dir, 
and executing the command:

./mddclone-sdl-run.sh

Normally, the script should execute the Launcher program, so that you don't 
need to fiddle with the command line parameters. If this fails, please edit the
script to make it run the desired binary with the command line parameters of
your choice. You'll find examples inside the script.
If the launcher refuses to work on your box, and you still want to use it, you
can try to compile it from source. See BUILDING LAUNCHER APP section for details


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			BUILDING LAUNCHER APP
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To build the launcher program, you must first prepare your system to do it.
Precisely, you must install the following packages:

make,
g++ (gcc-g++ on some distros),
wxWidgets - *development* version (wxGTK-devel or libwxwidgets-dev on some distros)

Once you've got everything installed, it's time to build the executable. Just cd
into the game's main directory, then launcher-src, and enter this command:

make

This will build the launcher executable, and put it in game's main directory
After this step, refer to the RUNNING THE GAME section.


FreeBSD notes:
To build the Launcher, after installing wxWidgets, you need to create a symbolic 
link to appropriate wx-config binary. It will be called somehow like:
/usr/X11R6/bin/wxgtk2*
depending on which wxWidgets version you've chosen to install. To create the
link, as root, do the following

ln -s /usr/X11R6/bin/wxgtk2[ADD_APPROPRIATE] /usr/bin/wx-config

You could also alter my Makefile in launcher-src directory to make it point to
your config program in /usr/X11R6/bin/ instead of wx-config

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				FEEDBACK
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Simon "Enjo" Ender (SDL port author)
ender-sz@go2.pl

MDDClone Author (MDDClone author :> )
mddclone@hotmail.com

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