Overgrowth Alpha FAQ

This is the Overgrowth Alpha FAQ.

• This FAQ is intended for useful tips for new users as well as answer common bug-related questions.
• If you wish to report a bug, email it to [email protected].

Please feel free to contribute to this FAQ, and the wiki as a whole!

I just pre-ordered the game, what's next?

By pre-ordering Overgrowth, you can do two things:

• Access the Secret Preorder Forums (referred to as SPF)
• Check out the latest alphas

First of all, you need an account on the forum. If you don't have one already, register there. Then follow the link given in your pre-order email, and type your nickname to get access to the SPF.

In the SPF, you'll find a sticky named "Unofficial alpha XX, weekly build". You can check that post out to get the link to download the latest Overgrowth alpha.

The SPF is also a place where all the preorderers discuss about the alpha, speculate about Overgrowth and ask questions to the Wolfire team. Participate and join us in the discussions!

What is an alpha exactly, and what can I do with it?

The Overgrowth alphas are very early stage "leaks" of the development progress. You are free to play around with them, but they should be not be held to the standards of a completed game.

How do I create content for Overgrowth?

Overgrowth Alphas come with a level-editor. For more info about modding, check out the rest of this wiki, and go to the Secret Preorder Forum. For installing community-created content, you can check out SUMLauncher.

What do I do if I encounter a Bug?

If you wish to report a bug, email it to [email protected]. Please follow the instructions How To Report a Bug in Overgrowth, it increases the chances that we will be able to find and fix it.

Your email should contain the following:

• The Alpha Version in which the problem was encountered
• Your system setup (Hardware, OS, etc.)
• A Brief explanation of the problem
• Actions performed, step by step, which led up to encountering the problem
• Expected and Actual Results
• Attachments (screenshots, crash reports, etc.)

Refer to this webpage for tips on how to write a quality bug report.

Here are additional steps you can take:

• Check the Secret Preorder Forum and look for posts that describe similar problems.
• Ask on Wolfire's IRC channel. Many users are long time Alpha testers and will be happy to help you.

What can I do if Overgrowth is running slow on my computer?

The Overgrowth alpha is currently set to use the maximum graphics settings, even if this is grossly inappropriate for your computer. There is not currently any UI available to change this, so you will need to edit the config.txt file. On Windows, this is located in %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Wolfire\Overgrowth\Data where %USERPROFILE% is often C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME and YOUR_USERNAME is your Windows account name. On Mac, you will need to right click the Overgrowth application and choose show package contents. It is then located in the Data folder found in the Contents/Mac OS folder.

Change the following values to these new ones:

screenwidth:	800
screenheight:	600
multisample:	4
anisotropy:	4
texture_reduce:	1

If it's still running slow, try this:

screenwidth:	640
screenheight:	480
multisample:	0
anisotropy:	0
texture_reduce:	2

I can't access all of the GUI. The window crops important parts of the screen. What do I do?

This turned up, when the default resolution was lowered from 1024x768 to 800x600. You can resolve this issue by changing the settings, either to a higher resolution or to full screen mode. Changing display settings is done in the 'config.txt'-file. You can find it on computer with Windows system at: C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents\Wolfire\Overgrowth\Data\config.txt or a computer with Mac system at: /Users/Username/Library/Application Support/Lugaru 2/Data/config.txt

The first lines of the default config file should look like this:

screenwidth:	800
screenheight:	600
fullscreen:	false

You can change the resolution by changing the values for screenwidth/screenheight and go to fullscreen mode by changing the 'false' to 'true'.

How do I load a model into the game?

You need to make sure that you're not loading the model file, but the object file.

• A Model file is a 3d mesh saved as a *.obj file. this file contains no textures or shader data and so cannot be loaded by itself.
• An Object file is an XML that stores the filepaths for all the relevant data of an object, including the Model file as well as the textures and shader.

For example if you are trying to load a file located in Data/Models/example.obj you should really be opening Data/Objects/example.xml

How do I load my custom level in the main menu?

1. Make sure that you typed the name correctly, including the *.xml ending
2. Make sure that it exists in Data/Levels/

• Recently (as at alpha 65) there have been some issues with loading custom maps from the main menu. to make sure this isn't the case:

1. Back up the map 'DesertFort_IGF.xml' (for example add "backup" to the name)
2. Rename your map as 'DesertFort_IGF.xml'
3. Attempt to load it by clicking the Desert map in the main menu.

How do i clear my game cache?

http://wiki.wolfire.com/index.php/How_to_clear_the_game%27s_cache

Common Platform-Specific Problems

Windows

I get the following error on startup on Windows

The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event
log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detail.

Please install the Visual Studio 2005 C++ runtime. You can get it from this URL: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=200b2fd9-ae1a-4a14-984d-389c36f85647&displaylang=en

Error: cannot create the C:\program files\Overgrowth\Data\config.txt file. ...

This error applies to both Lugaru and Overgrowth.

Symptom: When attempting to edit the config.txt file the following error message is displayed:

cannot create the C:\program files\Overgrowth\Data\config.txt file. Make sure the path and file name are correct.

Explanation: Windows Vista & 7 like to save the config file in a different location to the actual directory. As discussed in a thread on the forums[1], The file is actually stored in: C:\Users\USERNAME\Application Data\Local Virtual Store\Program Files/Overgrowth/config.txt

Mac

Where is the Data folder?

With the Mac version of Overgrowth, the Data folder is located within the application package. You can access it by right clicking the "Overgrowth" application and choosing 'Show Contents", and then browsing to Contents/MacOS/Data

• Note - For some users, "Show Package Contents" may not appear in the right-click menu. A workaround should be posted as soon as a more Mac-savvy user edits this entry.

To make future access easier right click 'Data' and choose 'Make Alias'. Now drag this alias out of the application, somewhere easy to find, on your Desktop for example.

Then, next time you need to open a file from within the Overgrowth package, simply navigate to the alias and you should have access to the Contents of the Data folder.

It says on the forums/blog that you can right click with command+click, but it won't work!

Unfortunately in recent alphas this functionality has been broken. Right clicking is possible with an external mouse, or on a trackpad with enabled two-finger right click.

Since alpha 67 you can set a keyboard button equivalent to right click. To do so find the "config.txt" file in the Data folder, and add a line for "key[rclick]" if it doesn't exist already. then set that equal to whatever button you want to act as right click.

I want to see live console output, but the console doesn't show it until after the program closes

If you want to see the console output live you will need to run Overgrowth from the Terminal.

To do so right click the Overgrowth alpha, choose 'Show Package Contents', then navigate to /Contents/MacOS/ and double click 'lugaru2'. This will open Overgrowth along with a new terminal window that displays all the data written to the console but in real time.

To make accessing this file easier in the future right click the 'lugaru 2' file, choose 'Make Alias' and drag the resulting file to a more convenient location.

Linux

Running Overgrowth on Linux

Overgrowth's Linux port was introduced in Alpha Build 180. For installation instructions, see the Linux page.

Accessing internal_testing on Steam

The development of Overgrowth is quite transparent, as such we allow our players to access the latest nightly build of our games, containing the latest changes. This build is often unstable and breaks all the time, but can be useful in sneak peaking at new content and features or for verifying if a patch fixed your problem.

This build is available via Steam.

Sometimes you'll be directed by [email protected] to "Test internal_testing".

To access the build, do the following.

1. Locate Overgrowth in your games list 2. Right click on Overgrowth and select properties 3. Go into tab reading "BETA" or similar (locale variations apply) 4. Click the drop-down list and select internal_testing 5. Press Ok to close the properties window

After making this change, steam should immediately update the game. To switch back to the latest released version, just go back into the same menu and switch back to default.