| Portable Space Engine | Builder's Guide |
 Scope |
This document contains information related to integrating the Portable Space Engine with a Multi-User Interactive Server. The programming interfaces required, and used by the Portable Space Engine are also defined in this document.
| Introduction |
The Portable Space Engine is an enhancement to a number of freely available Multi-User Interactive Servers. It provides a simulated three-dimensional space, where objects in that space can interact with each other and with objects controlled by the Multi-User Server.
The Multi-User Servers are accessed using a text-based interface, and do not require any special software for a user to connect, and begin to interact with other people who are connected. All the processing and interaction handling is performed at the server, and because this eases the hardware requirements for the user, these servers remain popular in the graphics and web-based climate which prevails on the internet today.
The design philosophy for these servers is a set of rooms, exits, things and players. The basic layout of the environment is provided by linking rooms with exits, and labeling with appropriate descriptions. An in-built programming language allows objects to be manipulated, and for messages to be passed around. Very complex environments have been generated, limited only by the medium and the programming language.
The basic servers do not provide an absolute frame of reference, or location for an object. It's position in the wider world is deduced by the room it is in, and the links from that location. The Portable Space Engine adds this frame of reference to a server by providing a new set of functions for the inbuilt programming languages, and a new abstraction layer consisting of objects controlled by the Portable Space Engine rather than the server.
To maintain the same level of access, the Portable Space Engine was designed to fit into the text-based interface, and to provide a three-dimensional space, to which groups of existing linked rooms could be associated easily.
Existing work on a space-based game by Jason M. Skiles, and Donald J. Bindner was rewritten by Cameron K. Smith in December 1996. Mark P. Cooke joined the development effort in September 1997, shortly after the initial beta release.
| Layout |
This document is split into a number of sections, each dealing with a major aspect of the Portable Space Engine.
- Installation
- Configuration Attributes
- Spacecall Interface
- Events
- Coordinate Scheme
- Debugging Hints
- Examples - coming soon
| Other Resources |
In addition to this document, a number of other resources are available to support the Portable Space Engine.
- Development : 0.9.x Patches and Release Information.
- Realm/9091 : Offical PSE Information Page maintained by Cameron Smith.
- Realm/3221 : PSE Examples Page maintained by Mark Cooke.
- PSE Pages : Personal PSE Page maintained by Mark Cooke.
- db-0.9.4.tar.gz : Cameron's scripted database containing a working space simulation.
- UK PSE Archive : Archive of current and past releases of the Portable Space Engine, documentation and examples.
There are also two mailing lists for the Portable Space Engine. To subscribe you should send an empty e-mail to:
- pse-announce-subscribe@pc24.sr.bham.ac.uk : PSE Announcement Subscribe Address
- pse-discuss-subscribe@pc24.sr.bham.ac.uk : PSE Discussions Subscribe Address
To send a message to the discussion list you need to send your message to:
- pse-discuss@pc24.sr.bham.ac.uk : PSE Discussions Mailing List Address