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Main Install
This will create some directories and install some runtimes and thus must be run before you can use any of the newer versions below. See the installation instructions. The version bundled with this installer is 2.45.01, if you wish to use a newer version of Darwinbots, download one below.
Recent Releases
To update to the latest release, simply copy the file(s) included in a new release into your install location (by default in your User directory). Again, the new file(s) MUST be placed into your install location. Usually, new releases consist of only the DarwinBots executable. If other files are included in a release, you should say 'yes' to all overwrites. Then simply run the new executable instead of the executable that came with the main install.
2.45.02
Version 2.45.02 is the newest version of DarwinBots. A more stable version of 2.45.02 is available Here
2.45.01
Version 2.45.01 is a stable version of DarwinBots.
Versions post 2.45.00 require a current (1.2<) version of DarwinbotsIM to be placed in the same directory for the internet mode to work.
2.44.06
Version 2.44.06 if you have problems with 2.45.00 this version may work better for you.
Internet Mode Fix
If you would like to use Internet Mode view the Internet Mode Fix page for instructions.
Installing
Installing DarwinBots under Linux
DarwinBots can run under Linux using the wine Windows emulator, although the simulation speed may be slower and bugs and crashes may happen. Following these steps will usually make it work:
- Install the Wine package.
- Get the libraries MSVBVM60.dll, scrrun.dll and wininet.dll from reliable sources. If DB crashes when you try to run it, you'll problably need a few more dlls.
- Place those files at the folder /(username)/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32.
- Open a terminal window and go to the system32 folder.
- Write "wine regsvr32 scrrun.dll". This will register the dll in the Wine Windows registry. If this doesn't work, try "regedit scrrun.dll".
- Now, do "winecfg", select "wininet" at Libraries and specify it to be run first as native.
- Get the DB installer, place the setup.exe file somewhere in the drive_c folder.
- Go to that folder and type wine setup.exe. This will install the old DB version and some needed files. Then you can drop the newer executables and run them with wine. If you aren't comfortable using the terminal, you can load a wine file explorer running "winefile". You can also configure how wine emulates Windows for the DB executables with "winecfg", although the Windows 2000 default setting seems to work well.
If you are using linux, native text editors may render the file incompatable with the darwinbots program (unix vs windows line endings). If this happens to you, edit your bot files with wine's built-in notepad clone. You can run it by typing 'wine notepad' into a terminal.
Upgrading
The Darwinbots community is quite active, and major releases are made public generally every month. Each new version contains substantial improvements. Don't cheat your Darwinbots experience! Be sure to have the latest version installed.
Upgrading Darwinbots is quite easy, as all you need is the new sysvars file and executable. New patches are listed here in chronological order, so newer releases are generally listed last for a section.
Newer releases are, obviously, of higher numbers. Thus 2.36 comes after 2.35 but before 2.4.
After downloading the zip of the new version, unzip it to your Darwinbots folder. (typically C:\Program Files\DarwinBotsII) Yes, you must do this manually. The developers are far too busy with real programming to figure out how to implement an autopatcher.
When you unzip your new version of DarwinBots, "sysvars2.21.txt" will automatically overwrite the existing version if you have one. This is okay since the sysvars files are backward compatible.
Bots
Note: The robots that come with the main 2.1 install above will run in modern versions, but they are going to act a little stupid. They may have a hard time even surviving. Strongly consider downloading more modern bots from the bestiary. Animal Minimalis is a good start, and is used in the Robot Tutorials. Just copy the text into a plain old .txt file, and put the file into your robots directory.
Tutorials
The Darwinbots bot writing tutorial by PY is a little old but a very good primer to learning how the DNA works. You can also check out the Robot Tutorial
Regional settings
Darwinbots is pretty stupid and assumes that you're using the American decimal system, where numbers look like this: 123,456.789 (123 thousand...). If you don't live in America, and you're used to numbers looking like this: 123.456,789, Darwinbots will run, but there will be a few random errors in the user interface. To fix this, go to your Windows Control Panel->Regional and Language Options-> and make sure the number blank says "123,456,789.00". If it doesn't, change your region to one that does (such as English(United States)).
Final Note
New versions almost always have bugs. The first week or so after a new release is filled with the programmers releasing minor updates almost daily. These updates are noted by the suffix numbers of the version. Thus, 2.37.0 was the initial release of 2.37 2.37.4 is the 4th bug fix version released.
We know it's a pain to download a new patch almost every day. But it's only through community bug testing that the bugs can be isolated at all.
Anything with the same first 3 digits (that is, all versions of 2.XX) have the same features and differ only in minor bug fixing.
See Also
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