The TDEPacman Handbook: Configuration
Description: Documentation for TDEPacman
Keywords: TDEPacman

| TDEPacman Version 0.3.2

Next Previous Table of Contents ### 3. Configuration At this juncture all of TDEPacman's parameters cannot be configured graphically. To change those parameters for an individual user you should edit the user's TDEPacman configuration file (this file should be located at `~/.trinity/share/config/tdepacmanrc`). Alternatively, you can affect the default configuration of all users by editing the global TDEPacman configuration file (this file should be located at `/opt/trinity/share/config/tdepacmanrc`). ### 3.1 Timings The parameters under the standardgroup heading `[TDE Setup]` listed in the table below control the timing of the game. Keys ending in "MS" (e.g., "DyingAnimationMS") have their values expressed in milliseconds, whereas Keys ending in "Ticks" have their values expressed in cycles. Some values below are expressed as a comma-separated list of numbers, each of which corresponds to a different level. Keys which have a default value of more than one number or of a number followed by a comma may be set for each level. The first number in a list is used for the demonstration level, and the following numbers are for the interactive game levels (the second value is used for level 1, the third for level 2 and so on). The maximum number of levels is defined by the value of the key "Levels".
Key | Description | Default Value
SpeedMS | Duration of a single cycle (a "Tick"), in milliseconds. All other timings in the game are multiples of the single cycle duration. Decreasing the value speeds up the game and increasing the value slows down the game. | 20,
PacmanTicks | Number of cycles until the next move of the pacman. Increasing the value makes the pacman move slower and decreasing the value makes the pacman move faster. | 3,
RemTicks | Number of cycles for a monster to return to prison after being eaten by the pacman (the R.E.M. -- rapid eye movement -- phase). Increasing the value increases the time until a eaten monster returns to prison and decreasing the value decreases the time until a monster returns to prison. | 1,
DangerousTicks | Number of cycles until the next move of the monsters when they are dangerous and will eat the pacman. Increasing the value makes the monsters move slower and decreasing the value makes the monsters move faster. | 3,
HarmlessTicks | Number of cycles until the next move of the monsters when they are harmless and can be eaten by the pacman. Increasing the value makes the monsters move slower and decreasing the value makes the monsters move faster. | 7,6,,5,,4,
HarmlessDurationTicks | Number of cycles during which the monsters remain harmless and can be eaten by the pacman after the pacman eats a switch. Increasing this value makes the monsters stay harmless longer and decreasing this value makes the monsters return to being dangerous sooner. | 375,,,300,,250,200,150,
HarmlessWarningTicks | Number of cycles in which the user is warned of the upcoming end of the harmless-phase by the monsters blinking. This value must be less at each level than the corresponding "HarmlessDurationTicks". Increasing this value increases the length of the warning and decreasing this value shortens the length of the warning. | 135,
ArrestTicks | Number of cycles until the next move of the monsters when they are in prision. | 6,
ArrestDurationTicks | Number of cycles in which monsters remain in prison after being eaten. This value will be multiplied by the id of the monster eaten ( 0 for first monster eaten after the pacman eats a switch, 1 for the second, and so on), so that the first monster will be freed immediatly and the other monsters have to wait longer (by way of exception the second monster is also freed immediatly during the initial stage of the game). Increasing this value increases the prison time of the monsters, and decreasing this value frees the monsters sooner. | 200,,,150,
FruitAppearsTicks | Number of cycles between the appearence of fruit. Increasing this value causes fruit to appear less frequently and decreasing this value causes fruit to appear more frequently. | 1000,,1500,2000,2500, 3000,3500,4000,
FruitDurationTicks | Number of cyles for which fruit remains. Increasing this value causes the fruit to be available for consumption longer and decreasing this value causes the fruit to disappear sooner. | 500,,,400,350,300,,250, 200,150,
FruitScoreDurationTicks | Number of cycles for which the score for eating a fruit is displayed after a fruit is eaten. | 150,
MonsterScoreDurationMS | Number of milliseconds for which the score for eating a monster is displayed after a monster is eaten. | 1000
PlayerDurationMS | Number of milliseconds for displaying "PLAYER ONE" at the start of the game. At the moment only one player is supported. | 3000
ReadyDurationMS | Number of milliseconds for displaying "READY!" at the start of the game. | 2000
GameOverDurationMS | Number of milliseconds for displaying "GAME OVER" at the end of the game. | 3000
AfterPauseMS | Number of milliseconds until play is resumed after cancelling a "Pause". | 1000
DyingPreAnimationMS | Number of milliseconds for which the monsters dance after catching the pacman. | 1000
DyingAnimationMS | Number of milliseconds in which the scenes (other than the first and last scenes) of the pacman's death are displayed after he is caught by a monster. | 100
DyingPostAnimationMS | Number of milliseconds in which the first and last scenes of the pacman's death are displayed after he is caught by a monster (this permits emphasis of these scenes). | 500
IntroAnimationMS | Number of milliseconds between the scenes of the introduction. | 800
IntroPostAnimationMS | Number of milliseconds between the introduction and the beginning of the demonstration. | 1000
LevelUpPreAnimationMS | Number of milliseconds between completing a level and the beginning of the animation for the next level. | 2000
LevelUpAnimationMS | Number of milliseconds for which the animation for changing levels is displayed. | 2000
MonsterIQ | The intelligence of the monster (currently not fully implemented). Increasing the value makes the monsters more clever and decreasing the value makes them dumber. | 0,170,180,170,180, 170,180,
Levels | Number of different levels (without the demonstration). If you increase this value be sure all the parameters for that level are defined above! | 13
HallOfFameMS | The hall of fame is displayed this amount of milliseconds. | 7000
CursorBlinkMS | Number of milliseconds the cursor, used for editing your name in the hall of fame, keeps his states (on or off). The repeating of keystrokes for scrolling (Key_Up and Key_Down) also depends of this value. | 250
If there are insufficient values in a list for the number of levels (including the demonstration level), or if there is an invalid or missing (e.g., ",,") in the list, then the previous (valid) value is used for that position. If no valid values are listed, the value will be 0. For example "HarmlessTicks=7,6,,5,,4" is equivalent to "HarmlessTicks=7,6,6,5,5,4,4,4 (if Levels=7)". That means 7 cycles for the demonstration, 6 cycles for level 1 and so on. ### 3.2 Points (Scoring) Scoring during the game is controlled by the following key/value-pairs in the standardgroup `[TDE Setup]` (see the section Timings for information on how to interpret comma-separated values):
Key | Description | Default
PointScore | Number of points awarded for eating a small point. | 10
SwitchScore | Number of points awarded for eating a switch (the large points that convert the monsters from hunters to the hunted!) | 50
FruitScore | Number of points awarded for eating a fruit. | 100,300,500,,700,, 1000,,2000,,3000,,5000,
MonsterScore | Number of points awarded for eating a monster, with each point value in the list being awarded for each successive monster eaten after eating a switch (the values are reset if a new switch is eaten even if the prior switch has not expired yet). Since there are four monsters you should include four values. Using the default values specified at right, 200 points are awarded for eating the first monster, 400 for the second monster, and so on. | 200,400,800,1600
ExtraLifeScore | Number of points needed to earn another pacman life. | 10000
### 3.3 Graphic schemes The graphics schemes are controlled by the following two key/value-pairs of the standardgroup `[TDE Setup]`:
Key | Description | Example
SchemeCount | Number of defined schemes. For every scheme a separate group with the name [Scheme n] exists. n stands for a number between 0 and SchemeCount-1. | 3
Scheme | Selected scheme. Possible values are between 0 and SchemeCount-1 (this value can also be set using the game's menu). | 0
Each graphic scheme is defined in a seperate scheme-group using the group designation `[Scheme N]`, where `N` is the number of the scheme being defined. Each scheme-group may have the following keys:
Key | Description | Example
Font | Filename of the xbm-font. Names without an absolute path (a leading "/" or "~") are relative to `$TDEDIR/share/apps/tdepacman/fonts`. The structure of the fontfile will be explained in one of the next releases, but you should be able to figure it out by opening one of the fontfiles included with TDEPacman using a bitmap-editor. | font.xbm
FontFirstChar | Defines the numeric value of the first character in the bitfont. | 14
FontLastChar | The last character in the bitfont, is giving here by its numeric code. If you extent the fonts by adding the lowercase characters, this value must be changed. | 95
PixmapDirectory | Directory in which the pixmap-files for the figures are located. Direcotry names without an absolute path (a leading "/" or "~") are relative to `$TDEDIR/share/apps/tdepacman/pics`. The names of the individual xpm-files are fixed in the code at the moment (this will be changed) and are ''down.xpm" for an arrow pointing down, "fruit.xpm" for the series of fruit for the various levels, "lifes.xpm" for the image to display at the bottom of the screen for each pacman life remaining, "point.xpm" for the small points which the pacman eats, "switch.xpm" for the switch points, "dying.xpm" for the sequence of images for a dying pacman, "left.xpm" for an arrow pointing left, "monster.xpm" for the various monsters, including their appearance during the "switch" and "warning" cycles, "prison.xpm" for a series of images put together to draw the prison walls, "up.xpm" for , "eyes.xpm" for the series of eyes for the monsters when they move up, down, right and left, respectively, "level.xpm" for the row of fruit at the bottom of the screen indicating the current level, "pacman.xpm" for the series of pacman images (gobbling and normal x moving up, down, left and right), "right.xpm for a right arrow, and "wall.xpm" for a series of images put together to draw the non-prison walls. | tiny
Description | The name of the scheme, which will be displayed in the menu "Select Graphic Scheme". Use the '&'-character in front of a character in the name to set the accelerator-key to that character (that means pressing that key when the Select Graphic Scheme menu is down will select that scheme). You may add a location tag to the key (e.g., Description[de] to indicate that the description is in German). | MIDWAY MFG.CO. (&tiny)
### 3.4 Miscellaneous
Key | Description | Example
LevelPosition | Defines the position of the levelsymbols (fruits) on the statusline. It is possible to show to different levels on the same position to save room. The first position (rightmost) has the value 0. | 0,1,2,3,,4,,5,,6,7,
HighscoreFilePath | Specifies the path (directory and filename) to the "highscore"-file. If only a directory (".../") is given, the default-filename ("highscore") will be used. | /tmp/tdepacman.highscore
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