README

= Freedoom

Freedoom is a project to create a complete Doom II-compatible IWAD file
which is Free Software.

The IWAD file is the file used by Doom which contains all the game data
(graphics, sound effects, music, etc.). While the Doom source code is
Free, you currently still need one of the proprietary IWAD files from id
in order to play Doom. Freedoom aims to create a Free alternative.
Combined with the GPL-licensed Doom source code this will result in a
complete Free Doom-based game.

For more information, see http://freedoom.nongnu.org/.

== What ``Free Software'' means

When we speak of Free Software, we refer to the software movement in
which your freedoms to use, copy, modify, and study it are ensured.  For
example, you may freely use Freedoom for any purpose you see fit, you
may redistribute it to anyone without needing to ask for permission, you
may modify it (provided you keep the license intact, see `COPYING`), and
you may study it -- for example, to see how a Doom IWAD is built.  To
facilitate this, you can get the full source code (here, in the form of
a DeuTex tree) for Freedoom.

You may read more about Free Software at the http://www.gnu.org/[GNU]
and http://www.fsf.org/[Free Software Foundation] websites.

== Contributing to Freedoom

Contributions to Freedoom are always welcome, however there are a few
guidelines that should be followed:

=== Intellectual Property

We know people hate legalese, but this is important.  This applies to
*everything* which is submitted.

You must be incredibly careful when basing on existing graphics or
sounds.  Most Doom projects are incredibly lax on reusing intellectual
property -- there are plenty of WADs out there which contain modified
Doom sprites, for example.  However, due to the nature of this project,
we do not have the same liberty to rip as we please.

The general rules go as follows:

  * Everything you submit must be 100% your own work.  You must not base
    upon resources from Doom or any other game.  You may not even rip
    textures from WADs you have downloaded (if you find a WAD with
    textures in which look useful, let us know -- that way, we can
    contact the author).
  * Do not simply copy the original resources.  Where possible, try to
    make an effort to make the new versions look visibly different from
    the originals.
  * Be especially careful of ``free texture'' (or ``free sound'' or
    ``free graphic'') sites.  Although these would appear at first to
    be okay to use, many are free for ``non-commercial use only''.  One
    of the things we want to be able to do is put this on GNU/Linux CDs
    (which are sold -- ``a commercial use'').
  * The main exception is that you may of course reuse anything in the
    Freedoom source tree.  In fact, this is encouraged, as reusing
    material will give the WAD a more consistent feel.

=== Levels

Levels should be in Boom format; you may exceed the limits of Vanilla
Doom and use Boom features; however, do not use features that are not
supported by Boom 2.02 and compatible ports. Levels should be in Doom's
original format, not in ``Hexen'' format.

It is sensible to also heed the following guidelines:

  * Make sure that skill levels are implemented, and that all
    multiplayer start points are present.
  * Make levels appropriately difficult for their position within the
    progression of the game.  Also bear in mind that not all players may
    be as skilled a player as you.
  * Do not use tricks that exploit Doom's software renderer; some source
    ports, especially those that use hardware accelerated rendering, may
    not render it properly.  Examples of tricks to avoid include those used
    to simulate 3D bridges and ``deep water'' effects.
  * Boom removes almost all of the limits on rendering; however, do not
    make excessively complicated scenes.  It is desirable that Freedoom
    levels should be playable on old or low-powered hardware.
  * Always test in http://www.teamtnt.com/boompubl/boom2.htm[Boom]
    itself rather than a derivative such as PrBoom.  This ensures that
    your levels really are Boom-compatible rather than using any extra
    features.  As DOS is rather rare these days, you may not have a
    system which can run Boom natively, so you may use either
    http://www.dosbox.com/[DOSBox] or http://www.freedos.org/[FreeDOS].

=== Graphics

  * Graphics should be the same color and size as the originals to
    remain compatible with PWADs (otherwise, they may end up looking
    like a mess).  They cannot use the Doom font.
  * Textures should be the same dimensions as the originals.  They
    should be similar but not identical (to avoid IP infringement) --
    in fact, they should be as different as possible while keeping to
    the general theme of the texture.  As mentioned above, try to make
    a conscious effort to make the textures visibly different from the
    originals.  Critically, the textures should tile in the same way as
    the originals.
  * Some textures contain the letters UAC or references to UAC; this is
    an intellectual property of id Software (trademarked).  Instead, use
    the letters AGM in your textures.
  * Sprites should be roughly the same size and shape, but different to
    the originals.  Doom monsters are id's intellectual property (which
    means no imps, cyberdemons, etc).  The new monsters will behave the
    same way as the originals, but will be totally new.

=== Build process

The Freedoom build process is fairly complete and should not change
without good reason.  Write a decent explanation why your method is
better; just enough to get your point across is good enough.

=== Documentation

Freedoom always needs help with the documentation, so please send your
patches, but keep in mind:

  * We use http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/[AsciiDoc] for writing the
    documentation.  AsciiDoc is a simple plaintext-based format which is
    simple to read and write in its source form, and makes pretty HTML
    documents out of them (it also supports other formats like
    DocBook/PDF/manual pages...).
  * Headers are formated in a wiki-style format, this makes it easier
    for Vim (perhaps other editors, too) to automatically re-format
    text.
  * Text is kept at 72 characters wide.  In Vim, you can set the editor
    to automatically insert line breaks as you're typing by performing
    `set textwidth=72`.  Special exceptions to the width rule might be
    allowed when necessary (for example, inserting long URLs).

=== Submitting your work

TODO: Figure out the best method of doing this.  This mainly requires
time to see what works best.

If you use git, make sure your commit messages start with a single line,
under 72 characters, which provides an adequate summary of your changes.
You should prefix this line with the component you are committing (for
example, ``map17: fixed unbeatable map'').  This should be followed by a
blank line and a paragraph or more to explain your change in detail (for
example, explaining what part of the map was broken).  See commit
49dc6ca861d4b85ca16b219941ecb86d3e172ac1 for an example.  Sign your
comments with +git commit -s+, these leaves a trail of whose hands a
commit went through and could be useful for some purposes; git alone can
give an indication of up to two people, however the AUTHOR/COMMITTER
fields are not quite reliable or flexible enough for the same
information.

You should commit often; each important change should get its own
commit, but minor changes need not.  Take advantage of git's ability to
rewrite history, don't use `git revert` on your private copy of the
repository, just remove (`git reset`) or amend (`git commit --amend`)
the faulty commit as necessary.  Leave all the interesting and important
history bits, leave out stupid mistakes like spell check errors.