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-.hy
.TH YOINK 6 "July 24, 2009"
.SH NAME
Yoink \- An alien-smashing action game.
.SH SYNOPSIS
-.B yoink [-h|--help] [-v|--version] [OPTION=VALUE]...
-.br
+.B yoink [-h|--help] [-i|--info] [OPTION=VALUE]...
.SH DESCRIPTION
-.PP
Leap tall buildings! Crush stupid robots beneath your feet! Wield your
extra-terrestrial powers in the defence of humanity, and send those alien
-invaders back from whence they came! Do all these things (apart from the last
-one at the moment) in Yoink! You play the part of a flying alien heroine who
-must defend her home on Earth from other airborne alien invaders. The game
-draws inspiration from classic arcade games like Joust, Bombjack, Rampage, and
-Defender--simple, fast-moving action.
-.PP
+invaders back from whence they came!
+
+You play the part of a flying alien heroine who must defend her home on
+Earth from other airborne alien invaders. The game draws inspiration from
+classic arcade games like Joust, Bombjack, Rampage, and Defender--simple,
+fast-moving action. Basic arguments include:
.TP
.B -h, --help
-display this help and exit
+Display basic usage information, and exit immediately.
.TP
-.B -v, --version
-output version information and exit
-.PP
+.B -i, --info
+Display build and environment details, and exit immediately.
+.SH TIPS
To attack, you must dive on the enemy at high speed. If you're going too
slowly, you'll just drift harmlessly by. Diving from above gives different
-results from swooping in and hitting them from the side. If you're too close to
-attack, try to build up speed by running away and bouncing off a nearby
-building!
-.PP
-By charging your special alien powers, you can throw fireballs. The orange bar
-at the top of the screen represents your power level--at maximum, you can
-destroy almost anything. Aiming can be tricky, but with a little practice it's
-quite easy to launch them in the right direction. Try doing a little swoop or
-circle in the air to line yourself up before releasing your fireball.
-.PP
+results from swooping in and hitting them from the side. If you're too
+close to attack, try to build up speed by running away and bouncing off a
+nearby building!
+
+By charging your special alien powers, you can throw fireballs. The orange
+bar at the top of the screen represents your power level--at maximum, you
+can destroy almost anything. Aiming can be tricky, but with a little
+practice it's quite easy to launch them in the right direction. Try doing
+a little swoop or circle in the air to line yourself up before releasing
+your fireball.
+
The heroine has limited energy, measured by the blue bar at the top of the
screen. When it runs out, it's game over! She can regain lost energy by
picking up bonuses dropped by enemies.
-.PP
-To complete the current attack wave, you must destroy all the enemies. Hunt
-around, especially in the sky, if you can't find the last few.
-.br
+
+To complete the current attack wave, you must destroy all the enemies.
+Hunt around, especially in the sky, if you can't find the last few.
.SH OPTIONS
-.PP
-There are a plethora of options available for tweaking various aspects of the
-game. All options can be set either from a configuration file or by passing
-them as arguments. Some of the more common options can be set from within the
-game.
-.PP
-A
-.B yoink
-configuration file ("yoinkrc") consists of key-value pairs organized in a
-logical hierarchy. The format of the file is human-readable, so you can get in
-there with your favorite text editor if you like to work under the hood.
-.B yoink
-looks for configuration files and loads them in this order, with the options in
-prior configuration files taking precedence over the same options if they exist
-in multiple configuration files:
-.TP
-1. $YOINK_CONFIGFILE
-This is an optional environment variable.
-.TP
-2. $HOME/.yoinkrc
-This is a specific user's configuration file.
-.TP
-3. /etc/yoinkrc
-This is a system-wide configuration file.
-.TP
-4. @DATADIR@/yoinkrc
-This is the base configuration file which should be considered read-only. Look
-to this file as an example of the format used for configuration files.
-.PP
-Options that are passed as arguments take precedence over options loaded from
-the configuration file(s). This mechanism is good for running the game with a
-temporary setting which you do not intend to retain. Keep in mind that if you
-edit and save options in-game, any options you have passed as arguments during
-the invocation of the game will be saved to the $HOME/.yoinkrc configuration
-file. You may have to go into that file and remove any options you didn't
-intend to set. When passing options as arguments, you must use the fully
-qualified name of the option if it exists in a subgroup. For example:
-.PP
-.TP
-yoink video.fullscreen=true
-Set the option video.fullscreen to true. This will run the game in full-screen
-mode.
-.TP
-yoink video.maxfps=60
-Set the option video.maxfps to 60. This will cap the display rate at 60Hz.
-.PP
-You can also set options with array values. Arrays can be passed on the
-command line by surrounding all the parts with square brackets and separating
-each part by a comma. For example:
-.TP
-yoink video.mode=[1024,768]
-Set the option video.mode to an array with numbers 1024 and 768. The video size
-will be 1024x768.
-.PP
-Here is a list of some of the options available:
-.TP
-.B engine.timestep
-The amount of time in seconds between each update of the physics state. A value
-of 0.01 or lower is ideal for accurate physics approximations. Values that are
-much lower may introduce errors in the game.
-.TP
-.B input.grab
-Takes a boolean (true or false). If true, the cursor pointer will be "stuck"
-within the area of the window, and many key combinations which would otherwise
-be handled by the window manager will instead be dropped. This is a low-level
-option of limited usefulness.
-.TP
-.B video.colorbuffers
-This takes an array of four number values which represent the number of bits to
-use for red, green, blue, and the alpha channel. This is a low-level option of
-limited usefulness. The default value is almost always preferable.
-.TP
-.B video.cursor
-This option effects the visibility of the cursor while it is "hovering" over the
-window. If the value is true, the cursor will be visible. Otherwise, the
-cursor will be hidden.
-.TP
-.B video.doublebuffer
-If true, double-buffering will be used to render animations with minimal
-distortions. Otherwise, a single buffer will be used. The recommended value is
-true.
-.TP
-.B video.fullscreen
-If true, the window will capture the display and render the game in full screen
-splendor. A value of false means the game will run in a window.
-.TP
-.B video.maxfps
-The maximum number of frames to be drawn per second. A value of 50 is pretty
-good. If your computer is pretty old, can get away with decreasing this value
-and still have reasonably smooth animation. You can set this to a very high
-number to effectively render as many frames as is possible, but the actual rate
-could be limited by vertical display synchronization, depending on the X11
-driver and settings used. You should not set this option higher than the point
-where the vertical synchronization effectively limits the draw rate or else the
-game may not be able to update the physics on schedule which could actually
-significantly lower the quality of the animation.
-.TP
-.B video.mode
-The resolution or size of the window. The value is an array with three number
-elements representing the width, height, and bits per pixel that make up the
-video mode.. A typical value is [800,600,32] for a size of 800x600 pixels with
-millions of colors.
-.TP
-.B video.multisamplebuffers
-The number of multisample buffers used.
-.TP
-.B video.multisamplesamples
-The number of multisample samples used.
-.TP
-.B video.printfps
-If true, the current number of frames being draw per second will be printed to
-the console. This is usually off by default, but you can set this to true if
-you're interested in the draw rate you're actually getting.
-.TP
-.B video.resizable
-If true, the window will be resizable by the window manager. This option is
-meaningless if the game is drawing to the full screen.
-.TP
-.B video.swapcontrol
-If true, drawing will take place at a time which will minimize distortion caused
-by the vertical refreshing of displays. The recommended value is true.
-.br
+You have a certain level of control over the operation of \fByoink\fP
+through options passed as program arguments or given in config files.
+\fByoink\fP looks for config files in several locations and in this order:
+.TP
+1. \fI@DATADIR@/yoinkrc\fP
+This is the base config file which should be considered read-only. Look to
+this file as an example of the format used for config files.
+.TP
+2. \fI/etc/yoinkrc\fP
+This is the system-wide config file.
+.TP
+3. \fI$HOME/.yoinkrc\fP
+This is your own personal config file.
+.TP
+4. \fI$YOINKRC\fP
+This is an optional environment variable you can set to the path of a
+config file at a non-standard location. See the \fBENVIRONMENT\fP section
+below for more information.
+.PP
+As usual, options that are passed as arguments take precedence over options
+loaded from any config file. Here is a list of some of the options
+available at your disposal:
+.TP
+.B detail
+The level of detail. Possible values are 1, 2, or 3 where 1 means the
+least amount of detail and 3 means the most. This effects the number of
+objects drawn to the screen. A high level of detail will draw everything
+but could cause poor frame rates if the graphics driver can't keep up with
+the load. Lower levels will omit certain details which aren't crucial for
+playing the game with the possible benefit of higher frame rates. See the
+Notes for more ways to increase the game's performance. The default value
+is 3.
+.TP
+.B doublebuffer
+If true, double-buffering will be used to help minimize distortion and
+artifacts caused by the animation of the game. Otherwise, a single buffer
+will be used. The default value is true.
+.TP
+.B framerate
+The target number of frames to be drawn per second. If your computer is
+really old, you can get away with decreasing this value and still have
+reasonably smooth animation. You can set this to a very high number to
+effectively render as many frames as is possible, but the actual rate could
+be limited by vertical display synchronization, depending on the X11 driver
+and settings used. The default value is 50.
+.TP
+.B fullscreen
+If true, the window will capture the display and render the game in full
+screen splendor. A value of false means the game will run in a window.
+The default value is false.
+.TP
+.B resizable
+If true, the window will be resizable by the window manager. This option
+is meaningless if the game is drawing to the full screen. The default
+option is true.
+.TP
+.B showfps
+If true, the current number of frames being drawn per second will be
+printed to the console every second. The default value is false.
+.TP
+.B timestep
+The number of times per second the simulation state will be updated. A
+value of 100 or higher is ideal for a better physical simulation. Values
+that are much lower cause the CPU to do less work, but accuracy will
+suffer. Errors could be introduced in the game with extremely low values.
+The default value is 80.
+.TP
+.B videomode
+The resolution or size of the window. The value is an array with three
+number elements representing the width, height, and bits per pixel that
+make up the video mode. The third number is optional. The default value
+is {800,600}. If passing on the command-line, you may need to escape the
+curly braces so the shell doesn't parse them.
+.PP
+This is only a list of the more useful options. You'll have to use the
+source to find out about the more esoteric options, but you probably won't
+need to.
+.SH EXAMPLES
+Here are some examples of typical usage:
+.TP
+$ yoink detail=2
+Set the level of detail to 2 so that less stuff is drawn to the screen.
+.TP
+$ yoink fullscreen=true videomode=\\{1024,768\\}
+Run \fByoink\fP at full screen with a resolution of 1024x768. Notice the
+escapes for the curly braces so the shell doesn't parse them.
.SH ENVIRONMENT
-.PP
-.B yoink
-responds to some variables in the environment:
-.TP
-HOME
-If set to a path of a valid directory (presumably a user's home directory),
-.B yoink
-will load options from the configuration file at $HOME/.yoinkrc, if it exists.
-Saving options within the game will cause this file to be over-written with the
-new options.
-.TP
-USER
-.B yoink
-uses this variable to guess the user's nickname, for a high score entry or
-whatever.
-.TP
-YOINK_CONFIGFILE
-If set to a path of a valid configuration file,
-.B yoink
-will load the options from that file, and those options will take precedence
-over options loaded from other configuration files. Any in-game saving will
-cause this file to be over-written by the new options rather than the file at
-$HOME/.yoinkrc.
-.TP
-YOINK_DATADIR
-If set to a path of a valid directory,
-.B yoink
-will look in this directory first when it is loading game assets. Set this
-variable if you move the game's assets to another directory or want to load your
-own assets.
-.br
+\fByoink\fP responds to some variables in the environment:
+.TP
+.I HOME
+If set to a path of a valid directory (presumably your home directory),
+\fByoink\fP will look for a file at \fI$HOME/.yoinkrc\fP and load it as a
+config file.
+.TP
+.I USER
+\fByoink\fP uses this variable to guess the user's nickname, for a high
+score entry or whatever.
+.TP
+.I YOINK_DATADIR
+If set to a path of a valid directory, \fByoink\fP will look in this
+directory first when it is loading game assets. Set this variable if you
+move the game's assets to another directory or perhaps want to load your
+own custom assets rather than the defaults.
+.TP
+.I YOINKRC
+If set to a path of a valid config file, \fByoink\fP will load the options
+from that file, and those options will take precedence over options loaded
+from other config files.
+.SH NOTES
+\fByoink\fP may or may not be playable with acceptable frame rates without
+a hardware accelerated GL driver installed and working, depending on how
+fast your CPU is. \fByoink\fP is really not all that heavy on graphics,
+but it doesn't take much to overload a software implementation. You should
+first check the documentation provided by your OS provider to see how to
+enable direct rendering. If you're really stuck without hardware
+acceleration, there are some things you can do to get marginally better
+frame rates:
+.TP
+1. Decrease the resolution.
+Use the \fBvideomode\fP option or just resize the window if the
+\fBfullscreen\fP option is false and the \fBresizable\fP option is true.
+This can speed up a software renderer considerably.
+.TP
+2. Decrease the level of rendering detail.
+Use the \fBdetail\fP option. The game world may look sparse or incomplete,
+but that's probably better than choppy animation if you can avoid it.
+.TP
+3. Decrease the framerate and/or timestep.
+If your machine can't meet the target framerate, your actual framerate will
+probably vary. You will have a better visual experience if you can reduce
+the \fBframerate\fP to a point such that the actual framerate is basically
+constant. A constant 20fps or 30fps will look better than a sporadic
+40-60fps. You can also decrease the \fBtimestep\fP at the expense of
+decreased simulation accuracy. You'll have to experiment with this value
+to find out acceptable levels.
+.PP
+If you are having audio problems, you may need to upgrade OpenAL. Some
+systems still provide an old, busted version of OpenAL which may result in
+stuttering, lag, and other oddities. See about installing a recent version
+of openal-soft, a high-quality software implementation that is still being
+maintained.
.SH BUGS
-.PP
-The pixelated graphics are actually intentional. It adds to the charm of the
-game, don't you think?
-.PP
-Send bug reports and patches to:
-.br
-Charles McGarvey <onefriedrice@brokenzipper.com>
+.IP \(bu 3
+The robots are currently lacking in intelligence.
+.IP \(bu
+Although the pixelated graphics are intentional, there are some unintended
+artifacts which are more obvious with certain video drivers.
+.PP
+Send bug reports, patches, and love notes to:
+.IP
+Charles McGarvey <@PACKAGE_BUGREPORT@>
.SH AUTHOR
.PP
Neil Carter was the original creator of Yoink, his winning entry in the
-uDevGames 2003 Mac game development contest. Charles McGarvey rewrote the game
-with SDL and is the current maintainer.
+uDevGames 2003 Mac game development contest. Charles McGarvey restored the
+game and is the current maintainer.
projects / chaz / yoink / blobdiff