The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

sorry to admit defeat so early, but I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, mod-wise.

I am playing on a .dmg that I downloaded for mac osX, works great
however, I'm trying to install a mod that moves the kor-ah cleansing several years back.

I have a .dff file with the mod,  but I have absolutely no idea what to do with it, where it goes, ect.
There are not many guides out there for how to do this on a Mac.


Please be advised that I'm rather tech illiterate, I don't really know what "compile" means, so if possible, keep your explainations simple.

You need to use the diff file on the source code, and compile.

so I suppose that's my question.

I suspect I can figure out how to add the .dff to the source code. What I don't understand is what "compile" Means. I downloaded a .dmg file of the the ur quan masters that has no equivalent file i can swap out for the source code I downloaded. I'm not sure what to do with the source code that's been .dff-ed

Well, C (which is what UQM is written in) is a compiled programming language. Compiling is simply translating the C source code into platform-specific machine code, e.g. a Windows .exe file or a GNU/Linux executable binary.

I don't know much about Mac OS X, so I can't help you with the specifics, but I suppose there might be some docs about how to do it with the source code. Failing that, I do know that Mac OS X is a Unix system, so maybe it's similar to the procedure in GNU/Linux. In any case, you need the source code of UQM, not the Mac OS X binary.

I have the source code, I also have a game called "the ur quan masters" which, when opened, contains several folders, none of which contain anything like the source code.

So this is my problem: I could play the game before I downloaded this source code, and changing the source code (which I later downloaded), would not actually affect the game. What do I do to make the changed source code affect the game?

Barring that, does anyone know where saved games are located in the OSX version? it might be easier to just boot up the windows side of my machine, install the windows version of UQM, mod that, and then use the saved game from the mac side.



...or just start over...increasingly, that seems to be the way this is heading.

You don't. Any changes you've made to the source code have no effect on the already compiled UQM binary you are using.

You need to compile the source code which has been changed to the mod, optionally install it, and run it instead of the normal UQM.


I'm pretty sure the year the Death March happens is determined by the source code combined with certain variables, not by a save file. If it is determined by a save file, then that would mean you would have to start over, or simply don't need the de-cleansing mod.

If you want to edit the save file, though, I think you can just set the "current" year back a bit.

I was thinking of doing that, I've been meaning to experiment with hex anyway....but I can't find the dang save file.

The parts of the save file which contain the current date are compressed. So it's not a matter of just changing a byte.
You could however use an in-memory editor to set back the clock, but there would be side-effects, as other scheduled events will not happen any more until the clock catches up. Things such as a certain star appearing and disappearing.
This (http://forum.uqm.stack.nl/index.php?topic=1699.msg21457#msg21457) would be the way to do it. (Caution: spoilers)

yeah, I saw that when I got here


This is what I keep saying.  I am completely capable of doing that, I suspect. My problem is that those instructions lie buried in "src/sc2code/load.c," which is this magical fairyland that does not exist in the mac version. I cannot find that section of code using my mac, and I've looked everywhere. Does that mean changing the source code?


Also, what does "compile" Mean in this context, and where do I put the source code once I've changed it.


Basically, I need a guide for modding this game on OSX lion, and nothing like that seems to exist.

Again, that's the source code. Not the Mac OS X binary. The source code. The source code is a separate download, in a gzipped tar file if I'm not mistaken. You will not find it with your Mac OS X installation.

Working with source code (activities like "patching" and "compiling") are quite technical tasks, related to programming, so it's understandable that you're having trouble. I happen to be very familiar with this kind of thing -- I am a programmer and use Mac OS X, so hopefully I can help you out.

The working game you have now is a runnable "application". Your particular copy of the game has the standard rules for Kor-Ah victory. What you *want* is a different runnable application -- a game with alternative rules.

The trick is that that the rules live in source code, and someone has to modify the rules in the source code and build ("compile") an application based on that modified source code.

Humans edit source code (text).
Special programs compile source code into machine code (binary).
Computers run the machine code.


Let me try to explain by analogy.

You have a meal -- let's say, chicken and sweetcorn soup -- and you like it, but it's a bit too salty for your tastes. You can't easily take the salt out the soup, but you could ask a cook to make another soup for you -- this time, with a slight variation to the recipe. If you have the recipe and the skills to cook it, you could even make your new soup by yourself.

Software developers and other technical users (cooks) take source code (a recipe) and compile (cook) it  into machine code (a meal).

Just like cooking, compiling software needs some special tools and a bit of knowledge. In the case of UQM on Mac OS X, the tools you'll need are:
 * Apple's developer tools (in the Mac app store as "Xcode")
 * The command-line build tools (available through the Xcode extras menu)
 * The SDL framework and the SDL_image framework (instructions are in the source code, in a file called INSTALL.macosx)

I happen to have all these things, so if you *really* want soup with less salt then I could probably cook you up something. :-)


(alternatively, restarting the game isn't as bad as it sounds -- you'll get through much faster on your second time around)

Also to add to this, I am going to be going through the process of getting Mac binary compiled when I get home. Hopefully compiling the binary in Mountain Lion will be just as easy as its predacessors. I will make a thread announcing its release when I get all the mods completed.

On a side note, why are you playing on a .dmg? You should copy the game off the .dmg into the Applications folder (or anywhere else you feel like putting it).