***************************************************************************** README.stage  - Richard Vaughan - Stage-1.3       *                                                                          * $Id: README,v 1.4.4.1 2002/12/10 00:33:11 rtv Exp $    ****************************************************************************** Release notes **End user:+ New devices and terminology to match Player-1.3+ New model configurations (AmigoBot, Pioneer bumpers, etc).+ Capture JPEG and PPM stills and MPEG movies of the Stage window in real time+ More entity properties can be set in the worldfile (see manual for details)+ Worldfiles can specify multiple bitmaps that respect property settings such as pose+ Can start with clock stopped (-s flag) - start/stop the clock with SIGUSR1+ Many bugfixes (e.g. fast mode works properly)+ Many performance improvements, particularly with the new libRTK GUIDeveloper:+ Autotools build environment+ GUI hooks simplify writing new GUIs (GNOME2 skeleton included)+ Simplified entity registration/creation (see src/library.cc)+ Builds on Solaris (GUI not tested)** README ***This README provides a quick-start guide to building and runningStage.  Consult the Stage User Manual for full details.-- What is Stage? ---------------------------------------------------------Stage simulates mobile robots and sensors in a two-dimensionalbitmapped environment containing a variety of objects. Robots arecontrolled through Player. Player provides a powerful, flexibleinterface to a variety of robot hardware; Stage provides virtualdevices for Player. Various sensor models are provided, includingsonar, scanning laser rangefinder, color blob tracking from apan-tilt-zoom camera and odometry. Several controllers designed inStage have been demonstrated to work on real robots.Stage is developed at USC Robotics Research Lab and HRL Laboratoriesto support research into multi-agent intelligent autonomous systems.-- How to get Stage -----------------------------------------------------The primary source for Player and Stage is:http://playerstage.sourceforge.net-- Ownership ------------------------------------------------------------Stage is released under the GNU General Public License.Stage programs, images, examples, source code and documentation arecopyright (c) the authors.These fine people worked on Stage:Richard VaughanAndrew HowardBrian GerkeyKasper StoyBoyoon JungJakob FredslundStage's development is supported at the University of SouthernCalifornia and HRL Laboratories LLC by DARPA IPTO.-- Whats here? ------------------------------------------------------------stage    - the simulation engine.       Some example environments and setup files are provided, along with amanual and this bootstrap documentation-- Requirements ------------------------------------------------------------ Developed and tested under Linux kernel 2.4, glibc-2.  Written inreasonable ANSII/POSIX so should compile elsewhere. No promises, butpeople have found it to work on a variety of set-ups.Requires: Player [http://playerstage.sourceforge.net], X11R6, GTK.-- Compiling ---------------------------------------------------------------We use the standard GNU build system: download; extract; configure;make install. 0) Obtain and install Player (http://robotics.usc.edu/player)1) unpack the Stage tarball with$ tar xzvf Stage-<version>.tgz(the OS X version of tar doesn't support the '-z' option, so you haveto gunzip first, then 'tar xvf Stage-<version>.tar')2) configure stage:Stage needs to know the path to your Player installation or builddirectory, and to librtk and your X11 color database if you want touse the GUI. We use the GNU autoconf system to handle theseconfigurations, plus various optional components and cross-platformcompatibility issues. If you installed Player and librtk in theirdefault locations, and you want a normal installation,the defaults should work:$ cd stage-<version># configureTo see all the available configuration options do:$ configure --help3) compile stage:$ makewill build the binary src/stage.Optionally, as you can do: $ make installthis will install the executables in $HOME/stage-<version>/bin/(unless you otherwise set the installation target as an optionto `configure')-- Running ---------------------------------------------------------------To run stage, first make sure the Player executable can be found inyour path.To run stage itself do:$ stage [options] <filename.world>The .world file specifies what stage must simulate. The command-lineoptions are described in the manual, and can be listed by doing:$ stage --help(or equivalently)$ stage -?To try out Stage with an example world, change to the installationdirectory and do:$ bin/stage worlds/simple.world-- Configuration file ----------------------------------------------------The user defines a world to simulate in Stage's configuration(*.world) file. The world file format is documented in the manual, butyou can get the idea from looking at the examples.--------------------------------------------------------------------------Enjoy, and let us know what you do with Stage. - Richard Vaughan, Andrew Howard, Brian Gerkey