With that I'd like to ask where one starts modifying the UFO AI source code and can begin understanding how to contribute to the project, from a Linux point of view.
Well, what do you want to do? Honestly our
technical documentation is lacking and often outdated, and no exactly easy to find, so don't hesitate to ask if you don't find what you are looking for.
For instance, how can I model, texture, and import a new character designs into the game? Can you use Blender to modeling? How can I add new character animations to the game? How do you guys pace yourself with polygon counts and bit-map sizes?
Did you have a look at our
modelling section? It will of course not tell how to actually model, texture or animate — there are plenty of tutorials, web sites and books dedicated to just that topic out there, but the section contains guidelines and useful information, like supported formats, dimensions, etc. Yes you can use
Blender so you shouldn't have problems finding learning material
I'm going to try fiddling with the Radiant engine you suggest for building maps, though is their a good tutorial for Linux users about how to install and get it running? How do you interface Radiant with the game to import new maps?
We have our own radiant UFOradiant, for Linux I think you are best compiling it yourself, how did you get the game's source? If you are using git it might be as easy as running
./configure and
make uforadiant, running uforadiant and setting the base directory. Also have a look at our
mapping section.
Also specifically, is all the operating source code for UFO AI in its extracted directory or does it download extra files to /bin, /usr and/or /lib? In other words could I just manipulate files in its extracted directory to reprogram the game, or do I have to go somewhere else in my directory tree to do this? Does something else somewhere have to be updated to do this?
Depends if you are compiling from git everything should be where you downloaded the game's source, unless you have run
make install also if you are running a packaged version from your distribution either will indeed copy some things to different locations... or are you running the windows installer on wine?
