Phantasmal/DGD Bundle FAQ Written by Cratylus @ Dead Souls, April 2007 ********************************************** What is the first thing I should know? --------------- The Phantasmal/DGD Bundle is NOT DEAD SOULS. It is a bundling of the DGD driver and the Phantasmal mudlib. I have *nothing* whatever to do with either project, except for having put their chocolate and peanut butter together for you in one tasty handful. If you hate it or love it, whether it helps you attain nirvana or if actually physically kills you, that's not my business and not on me. Who is this for? --------------- The Phantasmal/DGD bundle is absolutely not for newbie admins. This is not intended to be a "get started on your own mud the easy way!" sort of deal. I am making it available as a courtesy and favor to mudlib hobbyists who have an interest in tinkering with this lib. But if what you're looking for is a quick-start kit for your own mud, I strongly recommend you stop reading now and look elsewhere, because even though the Phantasmal/DGD Bundle makes installation easiER, it does not necessarily make it eaSY. What is DGD? --------------- You're best off reading the official definition on the Wikipedia entry for the driver itself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DGD What is Phantasmal? ------------------- It's a mudlib for DGD. See the page: http://phantasmal.sourceforge.net/WhatIsPhantasmal.html Aren't you the Dead Souls maintainer? What's your angle here? --------------- I am indeed the maintainer of a different mudlib called Dead Souls (which I am not ashamed to plug here by pointing you to its Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Souls_MUDlib ) However, I have a general affection for the LP mud codebase family. I fell into this bizarre hobby of refurbishing old libs and bundling them with their driver, with permission from the authors as required. You can see some of these bundles here: http://lpmuds.net/downloads.html Because I was most familiar with MudOS, and because I originally misunderstood DGD licensing, I stayed away from bundling DGD with libs. But now, with the blessing of both Felix Croes (aka Dworkin, DGD author) and Noah Gibbs (Phantasmal author), I've made this my first non-MudOS-derivative bundle. I'm not afraid that people will use Phantasmal instead of Dead Souls. For one thing, I think that "more LPmuds", regardless of the codebase, is a net plus for DS. And anyway, what kind of lib author would I be, if I was afraid to let people compare my work side by side with that of others? Let the chips fall where they may. What did you change? --------------- Amazingly, almost nothing. It's a testament to the skill of Felix and Noah that their code here is intact, and did not need my crude fumblings to get them to work. Only config files, doc file names, and some file locations were shoved around, and this only for organizational purposes, not "fixing" anything. Note that the DGD version is 1.2.110, the version that Phantasmal 0.018 is rated for. You wasted your time. It doesn't work. --------------- There is such a vast and bewildering array of operating system and development software and system hardware architecture combinations out there that there is simply no way for me to guarantee that the bundle will work for everyone... or indeed for most. This bundle isn't guaranteed to work for everyone out of the box. Chances are that many people will have compile issues, config issues, whatever. However, you can rest assured that it can most probably work on your system, given enough monkeying around. I even got it to compile and run on Solaris 10 for x86 (though I did have to get creative, I admit). Ok, where can I get support? --------------- If you are having driver compile problems, try the DGD mailing list at http://www.dworkin.nl/mailman/listinfo/dgd I'm not aware of a support channel for Phantasmal, but you can try posting on the LPmuds.net forum: http://lpmuds.net/forum/ Don't expect quick turnaround on your questions. Phantasmal lib experts are few and far between, so you may have to wait a little for a helpful response.