Time for action - packing a Panda3D game

We'll be using one of the very convenient features of Notepad++, Find and Replace, to fix some of the file paths in our files.

  1. Create a new folder on the C: drive and name it SuicideJockeys.
  2. Copy the most up-to-date versions of all of our Python files into the new folder.
  3. Remove the underscores and numbers from the ends of the files that have them.
  4. Close any and all open files in Notepad++. Then open, all of the files in the SuicideJockeys folder in Notepad++.
  5. Press Ctrl+F on the keyboard to open the Find window. Select the Replace tab. In the box labeled Find what: type ../Models, and in the box labeled Replace with: type Models. Then, click the Replace All in All Opened Documents button. This will change all of the paths for loading models in all of the files.
    Time for action - packing a Panda3D game
  6. Repeat step 5 to change all the paths to the Fonts, Images, and Sound folders.
  7. Go through the open files one-by-one and remove all underscores and numbers from the import lines, because we removed them from our files.
  8. In WorldClass.py remove the line that imports DirectStart.
  9. Save and close all of the open files.
  10. Notepad++ should open a new blank document once all the files are closed. If not, create a new blank document.
  11. Type this code into the new document, which will serve as the launcher for our game:
    import direct.directbase.DirectStart
from WorldClass import *
w = World()
run()
  12. Save the new file in the SuicideJockeys folder with the name main.py.
  13. Copy the Images, Fonts, Models, and Sound folders from the BGP3D folder to the SuicideJockeys folder.
  14. From the BGP3D/Extras folder copy installer.bmp and icon.ico to the SuicideJockeys folder.
  15. Navigate to the folder C:\Panda3D-1.6.2\etc and open the file config.prc. Look for a line with the word fullscreen, and change that line to look like this. That will cause the game to load in fullscreen mode by default.
    fullscreen 1
  16. Open a Windows command prompt and navigate to the folder C:\Panda3D-1.6.2\bin. Type this line into the command prompt and hit enter.

Note

Note that the hyphens in front of dir and name are double hyphens.

Packpanda.exe --dir C:\SuicideJockeys --name "Suicide Jockeys"

Time for action - packing a Panda3D game

The packpanda utility will take a bit of time to create the installer for the game. When it's finished, it can be found in the same folder as the packpanda utility itself, C:\Panda3D-1.6.2\bin. Go ahead and install the game to see the fruits of our labor.

The --dir flag we supplied to packpanda.exe told the utility where to find our game. The files main.py, installer.bmp, icon.ico, and license.txt must be located in the folder that we specify with --dir, not in any subfolders, or packpanda.exe won't be able to find them. The --name flag allows us to tell packpanda.exe what the name of the game is. If we don't specify it, the name of the folder is used. The installer window will use the name of the game, and the name of the game will also be used as the default installation directory. There are other flags that can be used with packpanda.exe to automate certain tasks related to packing the game, but typically it's a better idea to handle those things manually so we can be sure they're done properly and double check the results.

To improve the loading times in the game, it would be a good idea to ship with .pyc and .bam files instead of .py and .egg files. To create .pyc files, simply run the game in the folder that will be packed up with packpanda.exe and Python will automatically create them for you. Then, just remove the .py files. We talked about creating .bam files using the writeBamFile method earlier, so use that to create .bam files to replace all of the .egg files. Use Notepad++'s Find and Replace window to change all of the model files in our code to use the .bam files. There is one .egg that shouldn't be changed, however. Markers.egg is loaded as raw egg data, so it should be left in the .egg format. Once all that is done, repack the game into a new installer.

It's time now for our last Pop Quiz. Answer these questions to make sure we have a handle on how to use packpanda.exe:

  1. What file absolutely must be present for packpanda.exe to run, and where must it be found?
  2. What optional files can we place alongside the file from question 1, and what are the restrictions on those files?