ESC Pause and resume / Exit
SHIFT Fast camera rotation
- F1 Default Camera
+ F1 Chase Camera (default)
F2 Lazy Camera
- F3 Static Camera
+ F3 Manual Camera
F6 Hide HUD
F8 Toggle nice mode
TAB Cycle through scores in high-score table
+* LEVEL PROGRESSION
+
+Neverball levels are grouped in level sets. All sets are immediately
+accessible to the player, and track of progress is kept separately for
+each set. The player starts out at the first level and must complete
+each level in turn to unlock subsequent levels until all levels in the
+set are completed. A level is "unlocked" by completing the previous
+level in the progression or if it is the first level of the set. A
+level is "completed" by collecing the required amount of coins to
+activate the goal in the level and reaching said goal.
+
+There are two game modes or ways of progressing through levels in
+Neverball. Each mode is essentially a subset of the single way of
+playing present in Neverball 1.4.0.
+
+In 1.4.0, the game keeps track of "lives" or balls, preventing a level
+from being retried once the balls run out, however, unlocked/completed
+levels remain accessible in the menu at all times. As a special case,
+1.4.0 also records a set high-score (see below for information on
+high-scores) when all levels of a set are played through in one
+attempt, with the condition that no successfully-completed level be
+restarted during the run.
+
+To address some of the problems with this mode of playing, in
+Neverball 1.5.0 it was split into two separate modes: the "normal"
+mode and the challenge mode.
+
+In the normal mode, no track of balls is kept. Each
+unlocked/completed level is immediately accessible and can be retried
+and restarted mid-game as often as desired.
+
+In the challenge mode, the player is given a limited number of balls
+and starts out at the first level of the set with all other levels
+locked. The game ends once the balls run out or all levels in the set
+are completed. A set score is recorded for a successful run. Levels
+cannot be restarted, but can be retried.
+
+In addition to regular 1.4.0-style levels, Neverball 1.5.0 introduces
+bonus levels: extra levels awarded for playing challenge mode. Bonus
+levels can only be unlocked by completing all the levels before them
+in challenge mode, however, bonus levels themselves are skipped in
+challenge mode; after they have been unlocked, they can be played in
+the normal mode as any regular level.
+
+
* USER DATA FILES
Neverball creates a directory in which it stores user data files.
-These files include high scores, replays, and configurations. Under
-Unix, Linux, and OSX this directory is called ".neverball" and it is
-created in your home directory (specifically, the directory set in the
-HOME environment variable). Under Windows it is called "Neverball" and
-it is created in the user's application data directory or, if the game
-is unable to determine the location of this directory, it is assumed
-that the user has permission to write to the game data directory, and
-the user data directory is created within.
+These files include high scores, replays, and configurations.
+Under Unix, Linux, and OSX this directory is called ".neverball" and
+is created in the user's home directory, specifically, the directory
+set in the HOME environment variable.
+
+Under Windows it is called "Neverball" and is created in the user's
+application data directory, the location of which is obtained by
+inspecting the APPDATA environment variable. An easy way to access
+this directory is by typing %APPDATA% in the Windows Explorer address
+bar. If the location could not be determined, it is assumed that the
+user has permission to write to the game directory, and the user data
+directory is created within.
* HIGH SCORES
-The top three fastest times through each level, and the top three coin
-scores for each level are stored in files named neverballhs-* in the
-user data directory.
+The top three fastest times through each level, the top three coin
+scores and the top three fastest unlock scores for each level are
+stored in the Scores directory within user data directory.
The top three fastest times and most coins scores for each set of
levels are also stored. To achieve a set score, the player must play
-through all 25 levels of a set in one attempt.
+through all levels of a set in challenge mode.
The total set time will include time spent during both successful and
unsuccesful level plays, thus time-outs and fall-outs count against
being collected on levels with more than 100 coins.
-
* REPLAYS
Neverball includes a mechanism for recording and replaying levels.
By default, the most recent unsaved level will be saved to the replay
file named "Last.nbr".
-Replay files are stored in the user data directory. They may be
-copied freely. To view a replay you have downloaded, simply move it
-to the user data directory and it will appear in the Replay menu
-in-game.
-
-
-
-* NEVERPUTT
-
-Neverputt is Neverball's mini-game. What you do is that you put your
-ball over a course and you are to get it in the hole as few strokes as
-possible, if you can get less strokes than par, you are a good player.
-If you can get the ball in one stroke, that is even better.
-
-The scores add up to make the total score for the course. Try to avoid
-going over par if you can help it.
-
+Replay files are stored in the Replays directory within the user data
+directory. They may be copied freely. To view a replay you have
+downloaded, simply move it to the Replays directory and it will appear
+in the Replay menu in-game.
* CONFIGURATION
in-game options screen. Other meaningful keys and their default
values follow.
+ width 800
+ height 600
+
+ These keys determine the effective display resolution. If for
+ any reason the resolution you're looking for isn't available
+ in the in-game settings, you can modify these values instead.
+
mouse_sense 300
This key controls mouse sensitivity. The value gives the
This key inverts the vertical mouse axis if set to 1.
- key_camera_1 f1
- key_camera_2 f2
- key_camera_3 f3
- key_camera_l left
- key_camera_r right
+ key_camera_1 f1
+ key_camera_2 f2
+ key_camera_3 f3
+ key_camera_l d
+ key_camera_r s
+ key_camera_toggle e
These keys define keyboard mappings for camera selection and
- rotation. Key names are specified using SDL's canonical key
- naming convention. The three camera behaviors are as follows:
+ rotation. Key names are specified using SDL's canonical
+ key naming convention (for a mostly-complete list of
+ non-single-letter key names, see share/keynames.c in the
+ source archive). The three camera behaviors are as follows:
- 1 - Strict camera stays behind the ball by cueing off of the
+ 1 - Chase camera stays behind the ball by cueing off of the
velocity of the ball. It is very responsive, but sometimes
confusing.
It is seldom surprising, but at times it is not sufficiently
responsive.
- 3 - Locked camera does not rotate except by player command.
+ 3 - Manual camera does not rotate except by player command.
+
+ key_camera_toggle toggles camera behaviour between 1 and 3.
+
+ mouse_camera_1 none
+ mouse_camera_2 none
+ mouse_camera_3 none
+ mouse_camera_l left
+ mouse_camera_r right
+ mouse_camera_toggle none
+
+ These keys match the respective key_camera_* options.
+ Accepted values are: "none" (for no mapping), "left", "right",
+ "wheelup", "middle", "wheeldown" or a numeric mouse button
+ index.
+
+ key_forward up
+ key_backward down
+ key_left left
+ key_right right
+
+ These keys define keyboard mappings for tilt control.
+
+ key_pause escape
+
+ This key defines a keyboard mapping for pause activation.
+ Before version 1.5.0, this mapping was hard-coded to the space
+ bar and Escape key was used to immediately exit the game. To
+ restore this behaviour, set key_pause to "space" (without
+ quotes).
+
+ key_restart r
+
+ This key defines a keyboard mapping for a mid-game restart of
+ the current level. Handy when trying to record a new
+ high-score, this function isn't available in challenge mode.
+
+ key_score_next tab
+
+ This key defines a keyboard mapping for cycling through Most
+ Coins / Best Times / Fast Unlock score tabs in the high-score
+ board.
view_fov 50
view_dp 75
view_dc 0
view_dz 600
- rotate_fast 200
- rotate_slow 100
+ rotate_fast 300
+ rotate_slow 150
These keys control the rate of camera rotation. Roughly, they
give the rate of lateral camera motion in centimeters per
This key enables an on-screen frames-per-second counter. Press
F9 to toggle this flag in-game.
- nice 1
+ nice 0
This key enables a delay function after each frame is
rendered, forcing a context switch and ensuring that the game
Press F8 to toggle this flag in-game.
- coin png/coin.png
- ball png/ball.png
+ ball_file ball/basic-ball/basic-ball
+
+ This key determines the model used for the ball.
+
+ replay_name %s-%l
+
+ This key specifies the format of the default replay name
+ generated when saving replays.
+
+ The value of replay_name can include regular characters and
+ special character sequences which act as place-holders for
+ certain "dynamic" text. These sequences are recognised:
- These keys determine the texture image applied to the coin and
- ball. If you prefer collecting euros to collecting dollars,
- set:
+ %s current set identifier (such as "easy" or "mym")
+ %l current level identifier (such as "03" or "IV")
+ %% single percentage sign
- coin png/euro_coin.png
+ Any other sequence starting with % will be reported as an
+ error and skipped.
+
+ The resulting replay name is also suffixed by an underscore
+ and a unique 2-digit number to avoid name collisions with
+ existing replays.
+
+ stats 0
+
+ This key enables print-out (to standard output) of running
+ statistics of the current frame time and frames-per-second,
+ averaged over 250 milliseconds. Most people won't need this.
+
+ uniform 0
+
+ This key controls the frequency of graphical updates with
+ respect to physics updates.
+
+ When uniform is N, then there will be exactly N physical
+ updates per graphics update, regardless of the passage of real
+ time. So for example, if uniform is 1 then you will see every
+ physics update rendered exactly once. The default is 0 and
+ the option is disabled.
+
+ A further functionality is built atop the uniform option: if
+ the uniform value is negative then the game will take a
+ screenshot at each frame. This may be used to record
+ high-quality movies of replays. Set uniform to -3 and start a
+ replay using the --replay command line option, and you will
+ find a 30FPS movie written as a series of PNGs.
+
+ On an unfortunate note: audio is handled in a separate thread,
+ and there is no support for outputting audio synchronized with
+ a movie created in this fashion.
+
+ screenshot 0
+
+ This key holds the current screen-shot index. The number is
+ incremented every time a new screen-shot is taken (by pressing
+ F10 or in uniform mode) and it is appended to the image file
+ name.
stereo 0
This key enables quad-buffered stereo viewing for those with
- the hardware to support it. It gives an angle in degrees that
- determines the interocular distance. 0 is normal non-stereo
- viewing. 2 gives a good stereo effect. If the eyes are
- swapped, give a negative value, like -2.
+ the hardware to support it. 1 is on, 0 is off.
+
+ vsync 1
+
+ This key controls vertical blanking synchronization. 1 is on
+ (and is the default), 0 is off.
+
+ multisample 0
+
+ This key enables multisample full-screen antialiasing. Values
+ can be 2, 4, 8, etc., and can be overspecified; in such case
+ the game will search for the highest level of multisampling
+ supported by your hardware. (The best value eventually gets
+ written to the config file.)
+
+ mipmap 0
+ aniso 0
+
+ These keys control mipmapping and anisotropic filtering,
+ respectively.
+
+ With mipmapping, smaller versions of each texture are kept in
+ video memory, and are referenced when a texture is viewed
+ from a distance. This improves video cache coherence and
+ eliminates texture "swimming" on detailed textures when seen
+ from afar. To enable mipmapping, set mipmap to 1.
- joystick 0
+ Related to mipmapping is anisotropic filtering. "Anisotropic"
+ basically means "not the same from all directions". It refers
+ to cases where a texture might need to be compressed more
+ vertically than horizontally. For example, if a texture is
+ applied to a flat surface and seen from far away then it
+ appears much wider than high. Anisotropic filtering takes
+ care of this. To enable it, set aniso to a small power of
+ two. If you have weak hardware, this feature won't do
+ anything.
+
+ joystick 1
This key enables joystick control. 0 is off, 1 is on. The
game may still be controlled with the mouse even while gamepad
Joystick vertical axis number
+ joystick_axis_u 2
+
+ Joystick axis number for view rotation control
+
joystick_button_a 0
Joystick menu select button
Joystick exit button
+ wiimote_addr
+
+ This key specifies the address of your Nintendo Wii Remote.
+ For more information, see the section on using Wiimote with
+ Neverball.
+
+
+* WIIMOTE SUPPORT
+
+For information on how to build the game with Wiimote support under
+Linux, see instructions in the file INSTALL in the source archive.
+
+To use it, first make sure you've set up all the Bluetooth mumbo-jumbo
+in your kernel and what-not. Once this is done, you'll need to find
+out your Wiimote's address like this:
+
+ $ hcitool scan
+ Scanning ...
+ 00:1B:7A:3E:45:7F Nintendo RVL-CNT-01
+
+This hexadecimal string must go in the neverballrc file as
+"wiimote_addr 00:1B:7A:3E:45:7F" so that the game knows that there's a
+Wiimote to be used.
+
+Now, when you start the game everything will proceed normally but a
+background thread will place your Bluetooth device into discoverable
+mode. You've got about 15 seconds to press 1 and 2 on your wiimote.
+The Wiimote's LEDs will flash, and once the game makes friends with it
+the Player 1 LED will be lit. If you don't activate your Wiimote then
+the game will behave normally and the Bluetooth discovery will
+eventually time out.
+
+From there, the Wiimote digital pad works like a joystick for
+navigating menus. A and B buttons are the A and B buttons. Home is
+Pause. Plus and Minus are camera rotation controls. Also, the tilt
+sensor controls the floor.
+
+The Wiimote tilt sensor is a surprisingly noisy device, so heavy
+filtering is applied to the input. For this reason, the controls may
+feel sluggish. This might improve with an IR sensor bar, but has not
+been tested.
+
+
+* HILLCREST LABS LOOP SUPPORT
+
+For information on how to build the game with Hillcrest Labs Loop
+support on all platforms, see instructions in the file INSTALL in the
+source archive.
+
+To use a loop to control the game, it must be plugged in at startup.
+If the loop is plugged in, it will be chosen as the default
+controller. Hold the loop upright, and tilt it left/right and
+forward/backwards to control the game. Occasionally the sensors will
+get miscalibrated; to fix this, simply set the loop on a table or
+stable surface for about 5 seconds, and the controls should be back to
+normal.
+When not in game mode, the loop will act like a mouse to control
+menus. When the game is playing, the left and right buttons control
+the camera and the middle button will bring up a pause menu.
-Contact: <robert.kooima@gmail.com>
+Web: <http://neverball.org/>
projects / neverball / blobdiff