Getting Started for Users

Downloading and Installing Sirikata

Start by downloading the binary packages from the download page. Then follow the instructions for your platform.

Windows

To run Sirikata, including the graphical client, you'll need to install two additional packages:

• DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)

With these installed, simply download the latest package. Unzip it anywhere on your computer. You should then have directories that look like this:

* sirikata_win32/
 * bin/
 * include/
 * lib/
 * share/

Go into sirikata_win32/bin/ and run space.exe, then cppoh.exe. space.exe starts a space locally. It is private and will only use the objects you start. cppoh.exe is the client. By default, it loads up a few objects as well as your avatar. If everything worked, you should see a window pop up and start displaying the world.

Mac OS X

Download the latest package. Unzip it anywhere on your computer. You should then have directories that look like this:

* sirikata_mac/
 * Frameworks/
 * bin/
 * include/
 * lib/
 * share/

Go into sirikata_mac/bin/ and run space, then cppoh.app. To run these, you likely need to set DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH, e.g.:

 cd sirikata_mac/bin
 ./space

space starts a space (world) locally. It is private and will only use the objects you start. cppoh.app is the client. By default, it loads up a few objects as well as your avatar. If everything worked, you should see a window pop up and start displaying the world.

To run cppoh.app from the command line and add parameters, run it as

 ./cppoh.app/Contents/MacOS/cppoh [--option=value]

Linux

Ubuntu

Follow the link on the download page and follow the instructions to install the packages from the PPA. The binaries (e.g. space, cppoh) will be installed in your PATH.

Other Distributions

Linux users on other distributions should check out and build the code themselves. This process is scripted, so it should be simple even though it takes awhile.

Configuration

See the Keybindings page for information about how to control your object.

When you first start the client, a window will pop up with the Ogre logo asking for some settings. Usually you only need to change two settings: from the top drop down, select 'OpenGL Renderer' and in the resulting option list chnage 'Fullscreen' to off. OpenGL is the more reliable default, but you may also try the Direct3D renderer (see 'Troubleshooting' below for more details).

Troubleshooting

• I'm getting the message 'This application has failed to start because d3dx9_42.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.'
  • You need to install the DirectX End-User Runtime. Make sure you've followed the instructions above.
• Nothing is showing up.
  • Give it a minute or two on the first run. The default scene isn't small and the meshes need to be downloaded. On future runs, the content will be loaded from your local disk if possible, making it start up much more quickly. If, after a few minutes, still nothing shows up, get in touch with the developers as described below.
• I'm getting a message that I don't have permissions to access a file when I try to run the space server.
  • Chances are you unzipped the sirikata package using Cygwin, which doesn't handle file permissions properly. Try unzipping using Windows' standard utilities.
• The settings I chose for Ogre don't work and it doesn't pop up the configuration screen anymore.
  • You need to clear out your ogre.cfg file. On Windows you can find this under, e.g., C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Sirikata. Under Linux and Mac it should be under ~/.sirikata. Delete the file ogre. and the next time you run the configuration will pop up again.
• I'm having another problem not covered here.
  • Get in touch with the developers on the developer mailing list or via IRC (#sirikata on irc.freenode.net).

Scripting Objects

Application developers create virtual objects and write scripts for them, making the world more than just a flat, lifeless scene. We call them application developers because they create "applications" within the world -- collections of interacting objects which together create interesting behaviors and interactive experiences for other users. For example, you might create a flock of birds, a virtual store, or game of assassins.

• The Application Developer's Guide gives a complete overview of developing applications in Sirikata. It includes:
  • Tutorials which get you started by giving step by step instructions to build a few simple scripts.
  • Terminology which is used throughout all the documentation, referring to the underlying system and Emerson's binding to it.
  • Emerson Language Reference gives full details on Emerson syntax and built-in types.