wootguy / Glitch-Life

-------------------------- Quick Start Guide --------------------------

1) Place the files in your 'svencoop_addon' folder. That folder is located here:
   /Steam/steamapps/common/Sven Co-op/svencoop_addon/
   Do not place the files in 'svencoop_addon/maps' or any other subdirectory.
   
2) Open gsrand_config.txt and scroll all the way to the bottom. You will
   see "[maps]". This is where you specify which maps you want randomized.
  
3) Start gsrand.exe. You should see a console pop up with a text menu.
   Use the number keys to change various options. To get the most random
   output, press each of these keys once: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
   
4) Press 8 to begin the randomization process. The program will search
   for usable content (this may take a long time) and then ask you if
   you want to proceed with the randomization. Press 0 when that happens.

5) After the process is finished, you can launch Sven Co-op and start 
   playing the new maps! By default, each map is prefixed with "gsrand_"
   so the randomized version of "c1a0" would be named "gsrand_c1a0".
   
6) If you want to delete the new maps, Select the "Undo all changes" option
   in the program menu. You don't have to do this before running the randomizer
   again (unless you're not using a map prefix, which is dangerous).
   
   
-------------------------- Multiplayer Setup --------------------------   

Disable singleplayer in gsrand_config.txt (singleplayer = 0). This will
turn on RES file generation and enable a safety setting to prevent crashes. 
You might also want to take a look at the sentence_mode setting if you plan 
to distribute your files manually (not via the RES file).

It's a good idea to use the timestamp map prefix so that players won't get
a "Your map differs" error after you re-randomize your maps. Once you know
people have downloaded your maps, you should never use that map prefix again.

After the maps are generated, you are asked if you want to copy the
randomized maps to a folder. Select the 'copy' option so that you can easily
pack up the files to send to your buddies or your fast-dl server. If you have
7za.exe in the same folder as gsrand.exe then you will get additional options 
for compressing everything into a 7zip archive.

You can download 7za.exe here: http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
(Make sure you download the "7-Zip Command Line Version")

You might also want to limit non-default content so that players don't have
to spend a lot of time downloading on every level change. With my 10Mbps
upload speed, it took about 3-5 minutes for a single player to join my server. 
Each of my map RES files had about 200 to 300 items in it.

Another way to reduce download times is to use the max_file_size and
texture_compression settings in the config file. These can easily
halve the size of your maps.

-------------------------- Content Selection -------------------------- 

You have the power to control what content gets used in the randomizations.
Simply create a new folder and place the gsrand files inside. This new
folder has to follow the same structure as your svencoop folder:

   your_gsrand_folder
    |-- gsrand.exe
    |-- gsrand_config.txt
    |-- gsrand_models.txt
    |-- gfx
    |    |-- env
    |    |    |-- sky_up.tga
    |    |    |-- sky_dn.tga
    |    |    |-- sky_lf.tga
    |    |    |-- sky_rt.tga
    |    |    |-- sky_ft.tga
    |    |    |-- sky_bk.tga
    |-- maps
    |    |-- stadium3.bsp
    |    |-- uni2.bsp
    |    |-- horsecock7.bsp
    |-- models
    |    |-- zombie.mdl
    |    |-- p_crowbar.mdl
    |    |-- v_crowbar.mdl
    |    |-- w_crowbar.mdl
    |-- sound
    |    |-- thunder.wav
    |    |-- beepboop.wav
    |-- sprites
    |    |-- fire.spr
    |    |-- teleport.spr

The program will only use content that it finds in this new folder.
You only need to add content for the randomizations you want.
Note: Skyboxes are used only when Texture randomization is enabled.


-------------------------- Troubleshooting -------------------------- 

I keep crashing with "Bad Surface Extents". Why?
   This is caused by using the vertex "blend" corruption on a dedicated server.
   To fix this, disable "singleplayer" in the config or remove "blend" from the
   list of "corruptions" (also in the config). 

Some maps crash on start with "SZ_GetSpace: overflow without FSB_ALLOWOVERFLOW". Why?
   This has multiple causes, but most likely there are too many files being precached
   for the map. If the .res file has more than about 1000 items in it then that's 
   probably the issue. Set sentence_mode to 0 in the config file if it isn't already.

The game keeps crashing! What can I do?
   This is how unstable each randomization option is (on a scale from 1-10):
       Texture = 0
       Entity  = 3
       Corrupt = 1
       Model   = 47
       Sound   = 0
   Basically, by using model randomization, you are guaranteed to crash
   at some point. The other options are pretty safe to use but they still
   might cause a crash on occasion. If you really want to keep using model
   randomization, then set model_safety to "2" in gsrand_config.txt. 
   You will still crash, but it should happen less often. "Appearances only"
   is also much safer to use than "Super random" as an Entity mode.
   
Why don't I have any of the Blue Shift/Opposing Force maps?
   You need to run the installation scripts, which are located here:
       Sven Co-op/svencoop/Install_bshift_Support.bat
       Sven Co-op/svencoop/Install_OpFor_Support.bat
   
It's not working :<
   Sorry about that. Ask a question on the forum and I'll try to help:
   http://forums.svencoop.com/showthread.php/42021-Glitch-Life-program?p=505531#post505531