AssaultCube: Get started

Get started

System requirements

If you've played Cube and Cube can run fine, then AssaultCube should too.

Minimum specifications Plus, any capable operating system. Capable systems include:

Vista Microsoft Windows Vista, XP or 2000
Plus any derivatives of these systems.
Windows 98/ME Microsoft Windows 98 or ME
You may find that you need to rename the file DbgHelp_RemoveThisPartIfOnWin98.DLL in your bin_win32 folder to DbgHelp.DLL for AssaultCube to work on these platforms.
Note: The AssaultCube installer should automatically do this for you.
Linux Linux
You'll need to make sure the appropriate OpenGL drivers are installed, plus these libraries:
* libSDL 1.2
* libSDL_image
* OpenAL
(Note: To use the client provided with the Linux package, you will need OpenAL-Soft instead of OpenAL, otherwise you will need to compile your own client if you would rather use normal OpenAL).
Apple Mac OS X 10.4
Version 10.4 or higher.
Other OSes Other operating systems
If you can run the neccesary libraries/drivers and are able to compile the source by yourself, you may be able to port AssaultCube onto other platforms. Please note: they may not be officially supported.

Low end machines

Please note that the hardware specifications shown above are the bare minimums, so you may need a lot of adjustment to get AssaultCube to run. We recommend that you run AssaultCube on better hardware than this. If you have troubles with AssaultCube, make sure that the drivers for your graphics card are up-to-date.

Recommended GFX settings for low/medium end machines:

Installing AssaultCube

Vista Windows
Download the executable from Sourceforge. Execute it and follow the instructions.
Linux Linux
Download the tarball from Sourceforge. Extract it somewhere where you have permissions to read/write. If you want to start the game from your desktop application menu, you have to run client_desktop_install.sh once.
Apple Mac OS X
Download the diskimage from Sourceforge. Drag the contents to your Applications folder.
Other OSes Other operating systems
You will need to gather the libraries and drivers needed for AssaultCube by yourself. You will then need to compile AssaultCube from source. For this, you'll need to download the tarball from Sourceforge.

More help for installing AssaultCube on different Operating Systems can be found on the wiki here.

Running AssaultCube

Vista Windows
Use the shortcut provided. Or execute the assaultcube.bat file in your AssaultCube folder.
Linux Linux
In a console, change your location (cd) to the main AssaultCube directory and then execute assaultcube.sh. You can also pick AssaultCube from the 'Games' section of your desktop application menu.
Apple Mac OS X
Open the applications folder. Click on AssaultCube. Select the options you want to use to run AssaultCube and then press play.

Special notes

Users of Windows Vista:
Note: Files that AssaultCube writes during the game (such as screenshots, configs and maps) get saved in a seperate folder inside your "My Documents".

Users of Linux:
Note: Files that AssaultCube writes during the game (such as screenshots, configs and maps) get saved in the hidden .assaultcube_v1.1 folder in your users home directory.

Sound problems:
Read the sounds page on the wiki.

Display settings

When you first start AssaultCube, you will be prompted to change some fundamental settings from their defaults to how you would like them. Some display settings can be changed here. To change more display settings, press ESCAPE and then navigate to: Settings → Video Settings.

If you are having technical problems and need to change settings in a way that doesn't start the game to do it, you can modify the batch/shell script by adding parameters into it. How to edit the batch/shell and the different parameters can be found in command-line arguments. You can also add commands to config/autoexec.cfg so they automatically execute on startup.

A lot of information about graphics can be found in the graphics guide.