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### FAQ - Creating

- The server crashes when I do /newent light, /newent shells, etc.
  That command is only valid in Sauerbraten, but not in Syntensity. It will be disabled in the next release, to prevent this error.
  The correct way to create entities is with F8. See here for more.

- I can't enter edit mode...?
  You can only enter edit mode for maps whose assets you are an owner of. You can make a clone of an existing asset, which is a copy that you then own.
  To do that, make a clone of a map asset, then make an activity for it and run it - similar to the process described here, but starting with cloning an asset *other* than emptymap. You should then be able to enter edit mode and edit.

- I requisition a server to run my map, and get a 'succeeded' message, but can't see the server afterwards, what happened?
  If the server crashes when running your map, it will shut down. A crash log is uploaded to the master server, which should help figure out the issue, but at this time you will need to ask a site admin to see it - we still haven't implemented the interface for conveniently viewing those logs. Should be soon.
  Meanwhile, you can run a local server, whose output you can easily view (on the console, or in the file out_server on Windows).
- What are there both assets and activities?
  When creating a new game, you must create both an asset and an activity, which seems a little odd, but you can think of the asset as the 'content' of the activity. More specifically:
  - Assets are actual content, like scripts or textures. Assets have dependency relationships, such as a script requiring a particular texture pack (because it is referenced in the script, which might display those textures).
  - An activity is a single 'game' or 'event' that can be played. Every activity has a 'map asset', the asset containing the map file and script, and various metadata (like how many times it has been played), but otherwise no actual 'content'.
  - Through the dependencies of the map asset, an activity can effectively require multiple assets - the map asset itself, and whatever other assets are needed for the map asset.

- I uploaded a new map, but a bug in it crashes the server instance on load! What can I do?
  This is a consequence of running scripts on the server - you may upload a script that looks fine, but it might crash the server instance. Consequently, you won't be able to connect to a server instance in order to fix the map, as server instances can't start.
  First, you should fix the script file. The server instance should have uploaded the error log to the master server (syntensity.com), so go to the 'instances' tab in your account and retrieve the error log, which will hopefully help you figure out what to fix.
  Then, you need to upload the fixed version There are several ways to do this:
  - The simplest way is to run the client, login to the master, but DO NOT enter a server instance. Instead, select "repeat last upload". This will package the script file that you fixed and upload the map to the central storage. Note that this will only work if the map you want to upload is indeed the last map you uploaded.
  - Edit the script file, manually create the map asset, and upload it to the asset server. Manually creating the map asset is basically creating a .tar.gz file with the contents of the map directory (look in your ~/.intensityengine/packages/MAP_NAME directory, and look in the directory above it for the last .tar.gz of that map). You can then do 'update asset' in your account on the master server, and in that way replace the map asset.
  - Alternatively, if you have a very recent version of the map as a separate asset, and that version works, you can fork that one and continue work from there.
  After doing any of these, you will need to restart the server (after a crash it places itself in 'standby mode', so it doesn't try to run a non-working map). Select 'repurpose' from the Instances page on the master server website. You can repurpose the original server instance or another one if it is available.
- I have a problem with my entities.json file, but when I manually edit it, then upload the map, it gets overwritten!
  Yes, when running the map and doing an upload, entities are saved from the currently running entities in memory. So if there is a problem with them - like the player start position is in lava - you can't fix it that way.
  One solution is to edit the entities.json file, then do 'repeat last upload...' from the client. This assumes the last upload was of this map. Such an upload just packages existing files, it doesn't create the entities file.
  Also relevant for such problems, but probably less useful in this case, is to change the code in the map.js that actually uses the entities (the code that does loadEntities(...) and that prepares the input to that function), then upload the map. If, for example, you save your fixed entities.json file as entities2.json, and tell the map.js to use that, then that will work, as only entities.json will be overwritten, not entities2.json. You can also comment out the call to loadEntities, which will lead to having no entites loaded at all. But note that in the future entities will be written to entities.json, so when you do want that to use those entities, you will need to change the map.js back so it does that.
- What is the licensing status of things I create in Syntensity?
  As stated in the terms of service, whatever you create in Syntensity is owned by you: You retain the copyrights, entirely to yourself. That means you can do whatever you want with it, like license it under a creative commons license, or on the other hand sell it. The only requirement that Syntensity makes on content you create in it is that you grant other people a license to use that content, in Syntensity. So other people can play with your content, modify it, etc., inside Syntensity, but not outside of it (unless you explicitly give people such permission).
  The reasoning behind this license is that it is the absolute minimum for us to ask for: You keep your copyrights, you aren't asked to offer a general license of any sort (like a creative commons one), and all we ask is that things you put on Syntensity, you let people use on Syntensity. Without that, it wouldn't make sense for people to put content on Syntensity, if other people couldn't do anything with it. This is similar to how, say, sites like ICanHasCheezburger work.
  We considered requiring that content be under a general license, like CC-BY-SA, Apache 2.0, GPL, etc. This would have made us sort of similar to open source hosting sites like SourceForge, Launchpad, etc. However, after talking to users, it was clear no single license would work - some people just won't use certain licenses. And allowing multiple licenses with various incompatibilities would make things too complex. So, we decided on the minimalistic licensing approach described previously.
  Importantly, note that you have other options here: Our engine - all of our code - is open source, and you can use it separately from Syntensity. That is, you can create and run games using the engine, and there are no licensing requirements whatsoever upon you, as stated in the engine licensing notes. So if even the minimalistic licensing approach Syntensity uses isn't acceptable to you, you can still use all of our technology.

Updated on Oct 25, 2009 by Alon Zakai (Version 12)