Official FAQ

Level: 150

This is a work in progress - ask us any questions, and we will answer them here.

Do I need the original RA/C&C game installed?
No. OpenRA is completely standalone. When you install the game (or the first time you run it, on osx) it will download a minimal copy of the game files that it needs to run. In the future you will also be able to install from the original game disks, which will give you extra functionality like ingame music and singleplayer missions.

Is that legal?
Maybe. EA have released both C&C and RA as freeware. The files are already available for free; we are saving EA bandwidth by hosting only the ~15MB of files that we need to run the game, instead of making everyone download the 700MB game iso.
If EA have a problem with us doing this, we will remove the files and supply an installer that extracts these files from the iso on your computer.

When will you release the next version?
Every Saturday, unless we screwed up really badly, in which case we might release a midweek version too. If you are having problems, try downloading a new version and see if this fixes your problem. For more information about the release process, see http://github.com/chrisforbes/OpenRA/wiki/Branches-and-Releases

Nobody can join my online game!
For others to join your game, you must forward a port in your router for them to connect to. By default, OpenRA uses tcp port 1234. This can be be configured in the Create Server dialog.

My game just crashed!
We're sorry to hear that

Telling us "my game crashed, you suck" is not helpful. Please follow the steps below to collect the basic information we need to help you.
Game Version: You can see this on the main menu
Crash Log: Depending on your operating system, this will be in a different location
    Windows: My Documents\OpenRA\Logs\exception.log
    Mac OSX: ~/Library/Application Support/OpenRA/Logs/exception.log
    Linux: ~/.openra/Logs/exception.log

Before you post this information on the forum or irc, please READ THE FIRST LINE OF THE EXCEPTION LOG and CHECK THE COMMON ISSUES BELOW. If you have a problem that is not mentioned here, please let us know on the forum or in IRC.

If the exception mentions a `desync', please also post sync.log, which you will find in the same directory, and get everyone else who was playing the game to post it too. the sync log is only useful if we have multiple players submit their log.

"No Valid Techniques"
This error occurs if the game cannot start OpenGL.
This could occur for a number of reasons, depending on your operating system and graphics card

You need the most up to date graphics drivers, EXCEPT if you have an ati card (see this thread). In particular, the intel drivers that are bundled with windows do not include *any* OpenGL support. See your graphics card vendor website to download the latest drivers.
You have an old graphics card that doesn't support OpenRA. Although OpenRA may look like an old game, we make use of modern hardware capabilities. We require Shader Model 2.0, which means that nothing before about 2004, and some more recent cards WILL NOT WORK.
Compiz causes issues with OpenGL applications on Linux. This is a bug in Compiz itself, which they appear to have no interest in fixing. You will need to disable Compiz before running OpenRA.

If you are sure that none of the above issues apply, create a forum thread or see us on IRC.

Unable to find an entry point named 'glGenBuffers' in DLL 'opengl32.dll'.
This error occurs can occur if you have outdated graphics drivers under Windows. See the point above on updating them.

My perfomance sucks

OpenRA is a work in progress, and we are doing our best to improve performance.
To help us fix this, we will need some information from you.

Enable the perfomance graph (from the main menu -> Settings -> Debug -> Show Perfomance Information) and note your average Tick and Render times in a game.
Your perf.log from the logs directory above
Your computer specs (CPU and Graphics card are most important).

Please make a forum post or a bug report with the above information.

Where do bugs go?
I eat them. I prefer them crunchy on the outside, juicy on the inside, and with the following crucial details: --Chris

What you were doing when something broke
What you expected to happen
What actually happened
If it's a crash, the contents of exception.log.

Report yours to http://bugs.open-ra.org.

Level: 49

Can the server and clients be running different versions?
No. While there are currently no checks in place for this, it is advised that you only run identical versions of the game when playing multiplayer games. While the network protocol may not change, differences in unit behaviour between versions can cause desynchronisation between clients.

Level: 47

How can I help?
Get involved. There are a few ways you can do this.

Fork the repository and start hacking. Fix that issue that's been annoying you.

Report bugs and crashes at the bug tracker

Join the community. These forums are a great place for future mod discussions and gameplay ideas.

Level: 47

Just an FYI in linux the ".OpenRA" directory appears to be ".openra"

Level: 46

Level: 52

Playing across platforms works fine. We've had windows, mac and linux users in the same game with no issues.

Level: 46

Do you want to update the FAQ to include a link to http://bugs.open-ra.org so that people add them there?

Level: 43

Say, how do you change it where left click behaves the way it used to. I've always disliked right click being the action button on modern RTS's. Basically, I want to left click to tell my little dudes where to go.

P.S. I just downloaded this and it's AWESOME!!

Level: 45

Level: 41

Level: 40

Level: 150

Classic mouse controls are on the list of things to do for the next release (but this doesn't guarantee that it will make it in).

When cheats are enabled, you have access to a menu with buttons and toggles to do various things ingame.

Level: 45

You should link this more prominently. Maybe even move it to the Wiki so it can be updated. Using Graphics.Renderer=Cg when rendering problems occur should be added.

Edit: Moved it to https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/wiki/FAQ and updated it by the way.