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| - | ====== User FAQs ====== | + | ====== User FAQ ====== |
| ===== Why does my Personal Firewall report Cafu.exe? ===== | ===== Why does my Personal Firewall report Cafu.exe? ===== | ||
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| This is done even for pure single-player games, and thus your Windows or Personal Firewall reports that ''Cafu.exe'' is establishing a network connection. | This is done even for pure single-player games, and thus your Windows or Personal Firewall reports that ''Cafu.exe'' is establishing a network connection. | ||
| - | Therefore, please set your Firewall to not block Cafu from network access. | + | Therefore, please set your firewall to not block Cafu from network access. |
| If you do not plan to host a Cafu game server or join a Cafu internet game, there is of course no harm in blocking access from and to the internet for ''Cafu.exe'', but for single-player games, basic access to the local network is required. | If you do not plan to host a Cafu game server or join a Cafu internet game, there is of course no harm in blocking access from and to the internet for ''Cafu.exe'', but for single-player games, basic access to the local network is required. | ||
| - | ===== Where can I learn more about 3D programming or game engines? ===== | + | ===== Cafu reports an "Initialization Error", what can I do? ===== |
| - | There are many available resources regarding 3D-engines and related their subjects, both online and offline in the form of traditional books and papers. The following is a list of literature that I find interesting. I have also included a few comments. The list is not meant to be complete. The comments are simply my personal opinions and experience. | + | {{ :cafu_init_error.png?240|Cafu Initialization Error}} |
| + | If you see an initialization error similar to the one in the image to the right, the most frequent cause is that the drivers for your sound or graphics hardware are outdated or incomplete (e.g. missing an OpenGL implementation). Please install or update the drivers for your hardware first, then try again. | ||
| - | * [[http://nehe.gamedev.net|NeHe OpenGL Tutorials]] \\ Excellent OpenGL tutorials for beginners to the advanced. \\ \\ | + | If that doesn't help, run ''Cafu.exe'' from the [[wp>Command_Prompt|command prompt]] with the ''-log console.txt'' option. For example: |
| - | * http://www.opengl.org \\ The official OpenGL website, and the first place to search for information about OpenGL. \\ \\ | + | <code bash> |
| - | * [[http://graphics.lcs.mit.edu/~seth/pubs/pubs.html|"Visibility Computations in Densely Occluded Polyhedral Environments" (1992)]] \\ Seth Teller's dissertation about Potentially Visibility Sets (PVS): a common data structure in modern 3D engines that speeds up rendering. \\ \\ | + | > Cafu.exe -log console.txt |
| - | * [[http://www.faqs.org/faqs/graphics/bsptree-faq|BSP-FAQs]] \\ Introductory information about BSP trees. \\ \\ | + | </code> |
| - | * "Computer Graphics, Principles and Practice" by Foley, vanDam, Feiner & Hughes. \\ Some say this is the bible of computer graphics - and it's true. It covers nearly everything there is to know. An excellent reference, but have a look into the table of contents before buying it. \\ \\ | + | The contents of the newly generated file ''console.txt'' might give you a clue about why the initialization error occurred. If it doesn't, please post both the error message and the contents of the ''console.txt'' file at our [[http://forum.cafu.de|forum]] or [[http://www.cafu.de/support/mailing-lists|mailing-lists]]. |
| - | * "Radiosity and Realistic Image Synthesis", Michael F. Cohen and John R. Wallace. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, California. \\ \\ | + | |
| - | * "Radiosity. A programmers perspective.", Ian Ashdown. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, N.Y. \\ \\ | + | |
| - | * "Zen of Graphics Programming, 2nd edition" by Michael Abrash. \\ Much easier to read than "Computer Graphics". Most of this book is about low level DOS graphics programming (outdated now, but good nonetheless). The final chapters are a collection of Abrash's articles that appeared in the "Dr. Dobbs SourceBooks" series. They contain information about BSP trees, span sorting, etc. | + | |
| - | + | Note that you can run | |
| - | ===== Can I see the source code? Is Cafu open source? ===== | + | <code bash> |
| - | + | > Cafu.exe --help | |
| - | The source code of the //Cafu DeathMatch MOD// is included with the latest SDK (Software Development Kit), which in turn is available at the http://www.cafu.de/downloads website. | + | </code> |
| - | Feel free to use it, contribute to it, or take it as a start or reference for your own completely new 3D game. | + | to see a list of all available command line options. They might be useful to work around the problem, and if you post at the forums, we might ask you to try some of them to further narrow the problem down. |
| - | The source code of the Cafu engine core is only available under license. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | + | ||
| - | ===== For what platforms is Cafu available? ===== | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | Currently, there exist releases for **Windows** (all recent versions) and **Linux** (also all recent and common versions). | + | |
| - | The Cafu Demo for both platforms is available at the Cafu Download site at http://www.cafu.de/downloads | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | Principally, Cafu can also easily be ported to additional platforms. For example, all that currently stops me from porting it to the Mac is that I neither have the hardware nor software that would be required for a port. | + | |
| ===== Why do you use OpenGL? I think that DirectX is better. ===== | ===== Why do you use OpenGL? I think that DirectX is better. ===== | ||
| - | Here are some features of OpenGL that made me choose it as the main rendering API: | + | Here are some features of OpenGL that made us choose it as the main rendering API: |
| * very well documented, | * very well documented, | ||
| * portable and available on many platforms, | * portable and available on many platforms, | ||
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| * independent industry standard, | * independent industry standard, | ||
| * powerful extension mechanism that makes it possible to support the latest features of new 3D graphics boards immediately. | * powerful extension mechanism that makes it possible to support the latest features of new 3D graphics boards immediately. | ||
| - | + | You may also find [[http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/01/Why-you-should-use-OpenGL-and-not-DirectX|this blog message]] interesting. ;-) | |
| - | + | ||
| - | /* Inappropriate now. :-) | + | |
| - | ===== What does the 'Ca' in all the names starting with Ca.. mean? ===== | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | My first name is Carsten, hence the project name //**Carsten's 3D Engine**//. | + | |
| - | Both //**Ca3D-Engine**// and //**Ca3DE**// are abbreviations of the project's name and are, therefore, used synonymously. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | //Ca3DE// also refers to the file name of the main engine executable that comes with each demo. And lastly, the names of my development tools are prefixed with "Ca..." as well, e.g. //CaBSP//, //CaPVS// and //CaLight//. | + | |
| - | */ | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | + | ||
| - | ===== How can I run my favourite map from game ***** with Cafu? ===== | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | That's not possible at all. | + | |
| - | Please do also refer to [[faqs_users#how_is_cafu_releated_to_quake_half-life_doom|this FAQ]] for more information. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | Cafu is //**not**// a simple map viewer for maps from other games! It is a fully self-contained 3D engine. Although it is possible to convert the "source code" of maps from other games under certain assumptions to Cafu, and the Cafu World Editor "CaWE" even has some import capabilities for such cases, Cafu maps are compiled by my own compile tools, and therefore the resulting maps are //incompatible// with Quake or HL maps. | + | |
| - | Cafu is //entirely unrelated// to Quake or Half-Life. Recent versions are technically much more sophisticated, too. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | + | ||
| - | ===== How is Cafu releated to Quake, Half-Life, Doom, ...? ===== | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | **Short answer:** Not at all. Have a look at the latest demo, and see for yourself. Note that Cafu employs the latest state-of-the-art dynamic lighting effects since its October 2003 release, //even before Half-Life2 or Doom3 were out!// | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | **Long answer** (mostly refering to previous releases of Cafu): Some people believe that Cafu is somehow derived from Quake or Half-Life, but that's not true. Of course, I'm a fan of both Quake and Half-Life, got inspired by those games, and partially use the same technical nomenclature. | + | |
| - | //However, I've written Cafu entirely myself - every single line, and from scratch. Note that this also includes the renderer, the network code, all map compile tools, and the utilities!// | + | |
| - | The real problem is probably the artwork. I'm a bad artist, and so I usually ask famous artists of the game community if I may use their maps, models, textures, and so on. If they agree, I convert and use their work with Cafu. As an unfortunate consequence, Cafu looks awkwardly similar to the games for which the artwork was originally made, even though the underlying technology is entirely different. Thus, it is really very frustating to experience people who believe that Cafu is a Q1 or HL clone. This is also the reason why I'm constantly looking for artists to help me out. Note that since the October 2003 release, the situation is becoming better: More than 95 percent of the textures in that release have been created exclusively for Cafu! | + | |
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| However, if the image quality is lower than you expected or not as good as shown in the [[http://www.cafu.de/gallery|reference screenshots at the Cafu website]], these are the common causes for reduced image quality: | However, if the image quality is lower than you expected or not as good as shown in the [[http://www.cafu.de/gallery|reference screenshots at the Cafu website]], these are the common causes for reduced image quality: | ||
| * If your graphics board is of an older make and model, it might not have a programmable GPU. Programmable GPUs however are required for rendering the sophisticated image effects of the Cafu engine. As a consequence, if Cafu has detected that no programmable GPU is present on your system, it automatically falls back into the best compatible mode that still works on your system. Normally you should also see an info message about this situation, but it is easy to miss the message. \\ Unfortunately, the fall-back mode cannot provide the image quality that programmable GPUs can provide, as then the lighting and shadows have to be computed per-vertex rather than per-pixel, or their effects even have to be disabled entirely. In this case, you will see no dynamic lighting and no shadows at all. \\ If this situation applies to your system, nothing can be done about it but getting a more recent graphics card. | * If your graphics board is of an older make and model, it might not have a programmable GPU. Programmable GPUs however are required for rendering the sophisticated image effects of the Cafu engine. As a consequence, if Cafu has detected that no programmable GPU is present on your system, it automatically falls back into the best compatible mode that still works on your system. Normally you should also see an info message about this situation, but it is easy to miss the message. \\ Unfortunately, the fall-back mode cannot provide the image quality that programmable GPUs can provide, as then the lighting and shadows have to be computed per-vertex rather than per-pixel, or their effects even have to be disabled entirely. In this case, you will see no dynamic lighting and no shadows at all. \\ If this situation applies to your system, nothing can be done about it but getting a more recent graphics card. | ||
| - | * The texture detail in the initial options dialog is only set to "medium" quality by default. I have chosen that setting in order to not disappoint the FPS freaks among you, because higher quality normally also reduces the FPS. You can set the texture detail to the "high" setting in order to get higher texture resolution and thus higher image quality. Please note that the "high" quality setting can sometimes considerably lower the frame-rate, depending on the details of your graphics board. You may also want to read the other FAQ about low FPS in this regard. | + | * The texture detail in the initial options dialog is only set to "medium" quality by default. We have chosen that setting in order to not disappoint the FPS freaks among you, because higher quality normally also reduces the FPS. You can set the texture detail to the "high" setting in order to get higher texture resolution and thus higher image quality. Please note that the "high" quality setting can sometimes considerably lower the frame-rate, depending on the details of your graphics board. You may also want to read the other FAQ about low FPS in this regard. |
| - | * The default display resolution of Cafu is 1024*768. That setting has been proven a good compromise between image quality and frame-rate, but you might increase it within the console in order to increase the image quality. 2048*1536 looks really cool, but then the FPS is also extremely low. ;) | + | * The default display resolution of Cafu is 1024*768. That setting has been proven a good compromise between image quality and frame-rate, but you might increase it within the console in order to increase the image quality. 2048*1536 looks really cool, but then the FPS is also lower. ;-) |
| * Some graphics boards with early generations of programmable GPUs are inherently limited in the image quality that they can provide (at a reasonable performance). For example, GPUs that are based on the NV2X series of NVidia GPUs do show specular highlights that look "blocky". Nothing can be done about that (except getting a more recent 3D board with at least NV3X or ATI Radeon 9600 or higher support). | * Some graphics boards with early generations of programmable GPUs are inherently limited in the image quality that they can provide (at a reasonable performance). For example, GPUs that are based on the NV2X series of NVidia GPUs do show specular highlights that look "blocky". Nothing can be done about that (except getting a more recent 3D board with at least NV3X or ATI Radeon 9600 or higher support). | ||
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| ===== Why is the frame-rate (FPS) low? How can I improve it? ===== | ===== Why is the frame-rate (FPS) low? How can I improve it? ===== | ||
| - | During the past few years, many people have become used to use 3D engines that employ relatively old rendering technologies on relatively new graphics acceleator boards. This combination, observed in games like Counter-Strike, Quake3 and similar, achieved impressive frame-rates (often a hundred FPS and more) and fluid display updates. | + | During the past few years, many people have become used to use 3D engines that employ relatively old rendering technologies on relatively new graphics accelerator boards. This combination, observed in games like Counter-Strike, Quake3 and similar, achieved impressive frame-rates (often a hundred FPS and more) and fluid display updates. |
| The difference with Cafu is that Cafu employs dynamic, per-pixel lighting and shadows. The underlying rendering techniques are much more sophisticated than previous rendering methods, and relatively new. Despite a thoroughly optimized implementation, these techniques inherently cause lower frame-rates than older the techniques. In fact, if you compare Cafu to comparable 3D engines that are in the same category (only very few are, like Doom3), Cafu beats surprisingly well. ;) | The difference with Cafu is that Cafu employs dynamic, per-pixel lighting and shadows. The underlying rendering techniques are much more sophisticated than previous rendering methods, and relatively new. Despite a thoroughly optimized implementation, these techniques inherently cause lower frame-rates than older the techniques. In fact, if you compare Cafu to comparable 3D engines that are in the same category (only very few are, like Doom3), Cafu beats surprisingly well. ;) | ||
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| * **Pixel fill-rate.** A common reason for low FPS is that dynamic lighting and shadows consume a //very high pixel fill-rate//. Besides reducing the display resolution as mentioned above, an effective way to improve FPS in this case is to turn dynamic lighting and shadow effects entirely off. \\ One way to achieve this is to set the ''cl_maxLights'' console variable to ''0''. This can be done in the game console or by putting the statement<code lua>cl_maxLights=0;</code> into your ''config.lua'' file. \\ When Cafu is run from the command-line, it is also possible to specify a renderer DLL that makes use of less graphics features. For example, you might try the OpenGL 1.2 renderer in order to increase the FPS:<code>C:\Cafu-9.06> Cafu.exe -clRenderer ..\Libs\build\win32\vc8\release\MaterialSystem\RendererOpenGL12.dll</code> | * **Pixel fill-rate.** A common reason for low FPS is that dynamic lighting and shadows consume a //very high pixel fill-rate//. Besides reducing the display resolution as mentioned above, an effective way to improve FPS in this case is to turn dynamic lighting and shadow effects entirely off. \\ One way to achieve this is to set the ''cl_maxLights'' console variable to ''0''. This can be done in the game console or by putting the statement<code lua>cl_maxLights=0;</code> into your ''config.lua'' file. \\ When Cafu is run from the command-line, it is also possible to specify a renderer DLL that makes use of less graphics features. For example, you might try the OpenGL 1.2 renderer in order to increase the FPS:<code>C:\Cafu-9.06> Cafu.exe -clRenderer ..\Libs\build\win32\vc8\release\MaterialSystem\RendererOpenGL12.dll</code> | ||
| - | |||
| - | ===== What is the registration code for the forum? ===== | ||
| - | |||
| - | The registration code is **8226**. | ||
| - | |||
| - | If you wonder why it is so hard to register at the Cafu forums, the answer is: //spammers//! | ||
| - | Both humans and robots register themselves aggressively, just in order to place their advertisements, improve their Google rankings, etc. | ||
| - | Both the registration code and the visual confirmation are unforunately required to make sure that only interested and motivated humans can register themselves to the Cafu forums. I'm very sorry about this inconvenience, but it is required to make the forums a nicer place for everyone. :-) | ||
| - | |||
| - | You may also read my post at [[http://www.cafu.de/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2084#2084|Information for new forum members]] for more details. | ||
| - | |||
| - | All that being said, I'd be happy to welcome you at the Cafu forums! :-D | ||
general/faqs_users.1246785119.txt.gz · Last modified: 2013-01-07 12:07 (external edit)