If you would like to use Sword of Moonlight without any hassle or inconvenience. Or if you would like to create professional quality games in accordance with modern day graphical standards. Or if you worry about the discomfort your games may inflict upon players. Then you will want to follow these instructions carefully. And brace yourself! Because this is a more wordier page than usual.

Dependencies

This used to be the last section. But for your experience to go smoothly, without interruption, please do this step first.

You need Direct3D 9 to be installed. This is normally installed by your display drivers and or is built into Windows. You also need D3DX9 libraries installed. Many games use these, but if you don’t have games on your computer, then you may need to install them. You should search for “DirectX End-User Runtime” until you end up on a Microsoft website. Or if that fails, you can download a version of the web installer from this site if you dare. Or if that fails you can download a redistributable set circa August 2011.

Foreword

Officially it is the policy of this website that all files be setup in an easy audit friendly way. That means no installer, and no Administrator elevation unless it is plain to see what is being done on the user’s behalf. This process will become more automated over time. However the underlying steps themselves will not change. Nevertheless, attending to the setup is the advised way to go. Especially for beginners.

Update: since version 1.1.2.4 most of this document requires a complete rewrite. In the meantime you’ll have to settle for a marked up version.

Download

You will need a Subversion client app in order to download the files you will require. Three basic options are: TortoiseSVN if you want something that integrates with Windows Explorer; RapidSVN if you want a stand-alone setup that must be manually run whenever you need it and uses its own windowed interface; plain-old SVN if you are comfortable working a command-line interface.

Note that there is an official README file in the site’s downloads repository.

Choose your client, set it up. Then decide where on your network file system you want to install Sword of Moonlight. Note that Unicode addresses are supported in theory, but have not been thoroughly tested. It is a lot of work to add Unicode file naming support to Sword of Moonlight. Update: since version 1.1.2.4 there are good odds this works. Let us know how it goes.

If you already have an install, don’t worry. You will have a new install, but you can easily keep using your own files. More details later. This will however be the home of your working install once you are finished. Remember that. Navigate to the folder however it is your Subversion client does that. Create a new folder just to be safe, and set your client to checkout from http://svn.swordofmoonlight.net/Sword-of-Moonlight into that folder.

Installation

Note, from here on things may become confusing if you are using Windows Explorer and file extensions (eg. .exe) are hidden from view. You should change to a view that displays extensions or change your “Folder Options” so to always do so now.

You should now have a file tree that looks pretty much like what you would have after installing Sword of Moonlight via the original CD-ROM. If you don’t like how everything ended up, you can just move the folder now anywhere you need, another drive or domain is fine, and copying it is fine too. Now when ready to make things the Sword of Moonlight install directory for your user account you need to run the Setup.bat script that is in the top-level folder – note that if for any reason you ever move your files, you need to run Setup.bat each time. Update: since version 1.1.2.4 the install directory can be manually specified in the command line including Shortcuts. The install directory in the registry remains the default.

You can now run Sword of Moonlight by double clicking on the SOM_EX.exe file. (This isn’t recommended.) Or you can manually make a shortcut to it, or run the Start.bat script to add a shortcut to your “Start” menu. (This is recommended. It will also begin the language setup and update process, and launch the main editor for the first time.) If you try to run other executive files, for instance SOM_MAIN.exe, you will be using Sword of Moonlight without Ex; the results will be unpredictable.

Configuration

Configuration works very differently since version 1.1.2.4. The old approach is not maintained here. The new approach utilizes a new and improved SOM file. The SOM file is documented in full here. Each project has one or more SOM files. Due to the change of workflow, you will need to revisit this section after consulting the Project section below.

For the time being you will likely want to map your project to an alternative DATA folder containing artwork (available elsewhere) that has been doctored since many of the computer files published by From Software contain glaring defects as is. Alternatively, if you intend to produce all of the artwork for your project yourself, you need to stake out your own private DATA folder so that your files are not overwritten when the public files are updated.

There is now a set of default configuration files that are included in newly created projects. If you need to migrate an old project the easiest way to do that is to make a new project with the SOM_MAIN program and then go to that folder and copy your project over the folder making note of any files that are replaced in the process.

Working with your project Ex INI file is important to achieve the results you desire for your project. You should familiarize yourself with the many extensions at your disposal as soon as you are able. The closest thing to per extension documentation so far is the unofficial documentation in the Swordofmoonlight.org wiki.

• © Holey Moley

Published on Thursday, March 4th, 2010. Reader responses and followups can be followed via the following RSS 2.0 feed. Both responses and pings are currently closed.