Other Issues
-
PCGen freezes in MacOS X. Why?
According to Apple's web site the current version of Java for OS X is based on
the J2SE 1.3.1 JDK. Full Java2 1.4.0 support won't be available until Jaguar comes out in
August. Also, there seems to be a bug in Apple's Java function.
You could give up on using a Mac entirely ;p, but I sense that you won't.
In order to make PCGen run smoother, you have to edit the "options.ini" file.
Look for a line that reads pcgen.options.showToolBar=true
and
change that to pcgen.options.showToolBar=false
. At least, that
helped me a lot.
-
PCGen is so slow! How can I make it run quicker?
Well we decided that people needed to take time and chill out over their PC making, so
we've deliberately put a delay in for each action you perform.
If you want to make PCGen run faster, you should only load the modules you really-really need.
e.g. Don't load Star Wars modules if you are making a D&D-character. Also, try increasing the
amount of RAM (there ya go, here is your excuse to beef up that box!) in your machine, or
the memory you allow PCGen to use.
-
Book X has been out for awhile, how come you don't support it yet?
There are several good reasons, but which it is, is not always apparent. First of all, it could
simply be that none of the developers have that particular book. Secondly, we might have been told
by the publishers of Book X, that we're not allowed to support it due to copyright issues. Thirdly,
it must be remembered that PCGen is Open Source and free. None of the developers receive any profits
from doing this. Therefore, sometimes, the paid job must come first. And maybe that particular book
is "in progress", but other books are more important to the individual developers. There's a folder
at the yahoo site called "New Campaign Material" where you can see who is working on adding what books
to PCGen's ever expanding list of supported material. Check this to see if Book X might be in the
works. If not, request it or offer to help to do it ;p
- Upgrading leads to errors. Why?
Are you running Mac OS X? If so, that might be the problem. The problem is
due to the fact that when you un-zip a file (or drag items from a disk image)
to a location where a folder with the same name already exist, Mac OS X overwrites
the entire folder, not the individual files. This has been addressed above in the FAQ.
More usually (but still uncommon) is that occasionally one of the code monkeys thinks of a
_brilliant_ way of solving a problem (will get rid of 35 FREQs, solve world hunger etc) but it
invalidates characters that were created in version X. We always make sure that we let the
community know when this is about to happen (and it happens very rarely), sometimes you'll just
have to re-enter your character to be able to use that new feature.
- How do I downloading the Latest Alpha Builds?
Alpha
builds of the software are created by an automated and very buggy system
hosted at
http://rpg.plambert.net/pcgen/ These builds are updated every
two hours with the latest changes, but are made without any human
involvement or testing. It is entirely possible that a build may occur while
changes are in progress or while a serious bug exists, and therefore these
builds are not promised to actually work. Their primary use is for testing
of new features and bug fixes, and most users should avoid them unless
specifically asked to use an automated build by a developer. Every feature
and aspect of the site is subject to change without notice; read the primary
PCGen mailing list to be made aware of late-breaking announcements and news.
- How Often will PCGen release a Production Release?
That is still under
discussion at this time and there is not even a rough estimate at this time.
Stay tuned to the PCGen Yahoo groups for information on this!