FreeRCT aims to be a free and open source game which captures the look, feel and gameplay of the popular games RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 and 2.
Currently only Linux is officially supported, although Windows should work. Let us know if it's broken.
Almost everything is written in C++, which means you need g++ or clang++ to compile it. FreeRCT uses C++11 features, so g++ 4.8+ or clang 3.3+ is recommended. In addition, you need:
- lex/flex - Scanner generator for generating RCD input files. (optional)
- yacc/bison - Parser generator for generating RCD input files. (optional)
- libpng - Making the RCD data files that contain the graphics and other data read by the program.
- SDL2 & SDL2-ttf - Displaying graphics of the program. Note that SDL2 versions of both libraries are needed.
- CMake & make - Building the program.
The existence of these programs/libraries is checked by cmake.
Building is as simple as
$ git clone https://github.com/FreeRCT/FreeRCT.git $ cd FreeRCT # Go into the downloaded source directory. $ cmake . # Checks libraries are where they're supposed to be and replaces some strings $ make # Let make do the heavy work.
- src directory contains the source code of the FreeRCT program itself.
- src/rcdgen directory contains the source code of the rcdgen program, that builds RCD files from source (which are read by freerct).
- graphics/rcd directory contains the source files of the RCD data files, except the graphics.
- graphics/sprites directory contains all the graphics of the game.
- bin directory contains the actual freerct executable along with some other files required to actually run the program.
The cmake/make commands above will generate the rcdgen program, the rcd files and build the 'freerct' program in the src directory.
Finally, you need a 'freerct.cfg' INI format file next to the 'freerct' program in the bin directory, containing the path to the font file you want to use. It looks like
[font] medium-size = 12 medium-path = /usr/share/fonts/gnu-free/FreeSans.ttf
This means the medium sized font is 12 points high, and its source font definition file is at the indicated path. Make sure you use a path that actually exists.
The actual file is not that critical, as long as it contains the ASCII characters, in the font-size you mention in the file.
Now run the program
$ cd bin $ ./freerct
or
$ make run
which should open a window containing a piece of greenly coloured flat world, and a toolbar near the left top (see also the pictures in the blog).
Pressing 'q' quits the program.