User Tools

Site Tools


This is an old revision of the document!


Running Cafu

In order to start Cafu, simply double-click on the Cafu.exe executable file. This file is in the Cafu-x.y folder that was created during installation.

The Main Menu

mainmenu.jpg

After starting, the Main Menu appears as shown in the figure. From here you can configure Cafu's graphic, audio and control options, start new games, join multiplayer games and even host your own multiplayer server. To start playing immediately just click New Game, select a map to play and click Go! to play this map on your local machine. For hosting multiplayer games or joining them please read the following sections.

New Game

newgame.jpg

This dialog allows you to quickly start a new game. You can choose a map from the list on the left side of the screen. If available a preview screenshot of the map is shown on the right side. To start the game you just have to click on Go! and the the engine will automatically host a local game server with the chosen map and connect you as a client to it.

Join Online Game

joingame.jpg

This dialog lets you join a multiplayer game using the given parameters:

  • Player name Your player name. Other players see this name when you talk to them.
  • Model Your appearance in the game world. Clicking on this control cycles through all available player models (the currently chosen model is shown in the preview windows to the right)
  • Remote Host Name The name or the IP of the server that you wish to connect to.
  • Remote Port The port number at which the server is listening on the remote host.

Clicking Connect will attempt to connect you to the chosen server and the game will start if connecting was successful.

Host Game Server

hostgame.jpg This dialog lets you start and configure a multiplayer server.

  • Map Name The map hosted on the server. Clicking on this box cycles through all available maps (a preview of the currently chosen map is shown on the right).
  • Local Server Port The port number at which your server will listening for incoming connections.
  • Play on this machine This box lets you choose whether you want to play on the server yourself or just start a stand alone server.

The following two options are only relevant if you have chosen Yes in Play on this machine.

  • Player Name Your player name. Other players see this name when you talk to them.
  • Model Your appearance in the game world. Clicking on this control cycles through all available player models (the currently chosen model is shown in the preview windows to the right).

Clicking Go! will start the game server and optionally connect you to it.

Keyboard Layout

In order to control the player and operate the game, you can use the keys as shown in the table below. The demonstrated layout reflects both keyboard-only player control layout and the popular mouse+keyboard player control layout. The keyboard layout will be made user configurable in future releases.

Action Key Alternative
Move forward (Arrow up) W
Move back (Arrow down) S
Turn left ← (Arrow left) (Mouse left)
Turn right → (Arrow right) (Mouse right)
Strafe left A ,
Strafe right D .
Jump SPACE
Walk R_SHIFT L_SHIFT
Run (even faster) R_CTRL
Look up PAGE UP (Mouse up)
Look down PAGE DOWN (Mouse down)
Look banked CW HOME
Look banked CCW INSERT
Look straight ahead END
Talk / Chat T
Toggle Console F1
Screen-shot F5
Quit program ESC

Keyboard layout for player control and game operations.

The Command Console

In order to activate or deactivate the in-game console, press the F1 key.

The large upper area of the window shows the console output of any component or subsystem of Cafu. The “Close” button in the lower right corner closes the console window again, bringing you back to the game. Other options to close the console window include pressing the F1 or ESC key. The “Clear” button clears the contents of the console output window. The text input field in the lower left is used for entering console commands. Note that the TAB key command-completion feature is available to facilitate text entry.

Technically, the console interpreter is actually an instance of a Lua program in interactive mode. The Cafu engine binds its console variables and functions to that program so that they can be accessed like any other native Lua value. You may want to refer to the Lua documentation to learn more about the language Lua and its possibilities. The fact that you can write entire Lua programs at the Cafu in-game console provides great customizability and flexibility for both game developers and users.

Nonetheless, the Cafu console can also be used without any prior Lua knowledge, or any programming knowledge at all. Here are some getting-started examples that demonstrate the basic usage:

Entering the command

    help()

prints out a short help text with instructions on how to obtain more help and the list of all available commands. Note that help() is actually a function call and therefore the brackets are mandatory.

    list()

lists all available Cafu console functions, console variables, and global Lua values. As such, the list() function is useful to look-up the available commands. Note that the TAB key for command-completion serves a similar purpose, but the list() function provides more information about the values and the output is formatted.

    help("quit")
    list("cl")

The help(“quit”) function call provides help specific for the quit console variable, including a description of its purpose. This works analogously with any other console command, too. The list(“cl”) call works like the normal list(), but restricts the output to values that begin with the string “cl”.

    screenSuffix="png"

sets the value of the console variable screenSuffix to png. Use this when you want to save your screenshots in png image file format instead of the default jpg. Enter help(“screenSuffix”) for more information about the screenSuffix console variable.

    rcon("changeLevel('filename')")

rcon is the abbreviation for “remote console”. It means that the rest of the line is not processed by the local client, but rather sent to the remote server console. Therefore, this line instructs the server to initiate a level (world) change.

Pressing the F1 key deactivates the console and brings you back to the game.

The config.lua File

When Cafu.exe starts up, it automatically processes the config.lua file. The config.lua file is located in the Cafu base directory. It is run in the context of the in-game console and can therefore contain any statement that you could also enter interactively as described above. Because the config.lua file is processed early during engine initialization, it is the ideal place to set default values and to keep any console statements that you find yourself entering over and over again. You can also define new functions or convenient abbreviations, and in fact, a complete, full-featured Lua program can be written into this file, either by the user, the game developer, or both. Just have a look into the config.lua file in the Cafu base directory to see some examples.

usermanual/running.1246786902.txt.gz · Last modified: 2013-01-07 12:07 (external edit)