Rename hint.txt and hint.text to README.md

2005/vik/README.md

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+# Most circuitous walk
+
+Daniel Vik
+926 Genter Street
+La Jolla Ca 92037
+USA
+daniel@vik.cc
+
+## Judges' comments
+
+An amazing use of the X libraries with twisty code passages,
+all different.  One risks running in code path circles as main is
+called again and again.  be sure to pay attention to commas!  :-)
+
+### To build
+
+        cc -O3 -ansi vik.c -L/usr/X11R6/lib -lX11 -lm -o vik
+
+### To run
+
+        vik
+        vik maze.map
+
+## Author's comments
+
+This entry is a Wolfenstein style graphics engine where a user can navigate in
+a 3D world. The maze has walls with bitmap textures. The application contains
+a default world with textures, but the power of the engine is exposed through
+user configured maps. User defined worlds support up to 26 different wall
+textures that can even be animated. One example of a user defined world is
+submitted with the entry.
+
+### Features
+
+This program is a complete 3D engine with
+
+  * Easy configurable maze maps
+  * Up to 26 differnt bitmap textures in a maze
+  * Support for animated bitmap textures
+  * Uses default bitmaps in case the configured bitmaps can't be found
+  * A default map in case no one is specified
+  * Configurable window size
+  * Navigation using cursor keys (rotate left and right, move forward and
+backward)
+
+### Build and Run
+
+Compile the source code and link x libraries if nessecary. The program takes
+three options which have to be typed in a specific order as described below.
+
+        Usage: prog [-w <width>] [mapfile]
+        width   - Specifies the width of the window
+        mapfile - Filename containing a map
+
+Here are a few examples:
+
+> | Command line:            | Description:           |
+> | ------------------------ | ---------------------- |
+> | $ ./prog                 | Starts the engine using a built in labyrinth and texture bitmaps |
+> | $ ./prog maze.map        | Starts the engine and loads the labyrinth defined in the file maze.map |
+> | $ ./prog -w 400 maze.map | Starts the engine using maze.map in a window that is 400 pixels wide |
+
+Note that the mapfile has to be the last argument and the -w option if present
+has to be the first. The map definition files and the bitmap files should be
+located in the current directory.
+
+Use the cursor keys to navigate through the labyrinth.
+
+### Creating mazes
+
+A maze consist of a map file and texture bitmap files. The map file is an
+ascii text file where lower case letters represent walls. The letter tells the
+engine what bitmap texture file to use. The '*' character lets the engine know
+where to position the user. The example below shows how a map file can look:
+
+       aaaaaaaaaaaaa
+       a           a
+       a      *    a
+       a    bbbb   cccccccc
+       c                  c
+       cccccccccccccccccccc
+
+The engine loads the map, and creates walls. When a character 'a'-'z' is found,
+the engine will load the corresponding texture bitmap. The bitmap file must be
+named `*.bmp` where `*` is substituted with the letter of the wall in the map.
+
+So to load the map above, the files `a.bmp`, `b.bmp`, and `c.bmp` should be
+located in the same directory as the engine executable (or rather in the
+current directory).
+
+### Obfuscation
+
+The program is obfuscated in several ways, bad use of variables, use of the ?
+operator, recursive calls to main, bad use of for variables and the comma
+operator. To make the final obfuscated touch I ran indent which really made
+the program unreadable (I guess that is not really the intent with indent ;)
+
+### Compiler warnings
+
+There are no compiler warnings when compiling with -ansi but there are quite
+many warnings from lclint. Mainly because the program is very optimized for
+code size.
+
+### Limitations
+
+The program only compiles and runs on X based systems.
+
+The program does not run that smooth under cygwin. It seems to be a priority
+issue with cygwin and it can easily be solved by increasing the priority of
+the application a little bit.