Links: [About] [FAQ] [Development] [SF Project]
You probably forgot to run the server. FreePop now has the server and client in two separate binaries, "freepop" and "freepopserver", but it isn't able to start the server from the GUI, yet. You need to run the server before starting the client. See the README for more info.
There are two reasons FreePop might be running slowly:
A) There is practically no optimisation of sprite drawing routines, so its naturally a bit inefficient. Writing a fast system to draw all those pretty sprites is hard, and I seem to have more fun working on the server. Feel free to fix it and send me a patch, though.
B) It might be that your system is using software OpenGL rendering. FreePop uses OpenGL, so a hardware renderer is advised.
Whoa, geez, settle down.
It uses OpenGL because that's what ClanLib uses to accelerate alpha-blended blits. All the FreePop graphics are 32 bit RGBA images, and it takes reasonably decent hardware to be able to handle them. OpenGL lets ClanLib (and, vicariously, FreePop) take advantage of that hardware so that you get to look at all those pretty pictures. Well, they aren't all that pretty yet, but they could be potentially.
To answer your second question, yes.
Yes, as the name might suggest, FreePop is free!
FreePop is licensed under the terms of the GPL. It is being released - with source - free of charge to anyone who wants to download it! It's a bargain clearence! Everything must go!
FreePop aims to be multi-platform. Support for Linux is the main priority, however. Though if you find something that prevents porting, it's a bug.
"Populous: The Beginning" is considerably different to the previous incarnations of Populous. A number of people would consider the new 3D play and other changes a great improvement. However many of the "new" features of Populous 3 make it more akin to a real time strategy war sim - less emphasis on causing distasters and more on controlling units - than the god-sim of old. For this reason FreePop will focus on becoming like (and eventually surpassing) the first two generations of Populous.
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Possibly, in one form or another, but not a priority. Since the client and server are seperate systems it would be theoretically possible to write a compatible 3D client. There are no plans to do this in the foreseeable future, however.
3D is not a panacea. A game is not necessarily better just because it's in 3D. I think FreePop works better as 2D isometric. So for now the focus is on 2D. You're more than welcome to write a new wizz-bang 3D interface if you have enough spare time on your hands.
Here's the list of those who've helped get FreePop this far.
Evidently, it's just me - help is welcome!
This site is up to date as of 2008/03/01.
Lawyer bait: All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. This page is part of the FreePop project, and as such it is also licensed under the terms of that project.