Hardware and Software requirements

The ShiVa Editor comes for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems. You have to run the 64bit versions of these systems, 32bit is no longer supported as host system starting with ShiVa 2.0.

Your machine should contain these components or better:
- x86_64 multicore processor with 2+ GHz
- 4+ GB RAM
- a recent Nvidia or AMD video card - Notebooks and integrated graphics chipsets may work but are not officially supported
- 3 GB HDD space for the ShiVa Installation
- 1080p or higher resolution display
- 3-button mouse and keyboard with a numeric keypad
- a stable broadband internet connection

Windows

ShiVa will run on Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1 64 bit systems. Please make sure you have:
- updated your graphics drivers to the current version
- both the current DirectX version as well as the DirectX 9.0c legacy SDK installed if Windows - the latest Windows SDK if you are running Windows 8 and later systems

Optional packages include
- Visual Studio C++ Express 2010, 2012 (recommended) or later
- SDKs/NDKs for Android, Blackberry, Xbox, ... depending on which platforms you want to export for

Mac OS X

ShiVa will run on Mac OS X 10.6 and later, but it was meant to be used with 10.9 and later. Please note that versions of Xcode and OS X are often coupled, so it is a good idea to run the latest stable versions of both for maximum compatibility. You will need:
- the latest Xcode version to compile your games
- the latest Mac and possibly iOS SDKs, most probably already included in your Xcode download

Optional packages include
- Apache ANT for Android exports. Don't forget to set the path in the Editor Settings.
- SDKs/NDKs for Android, Blackberry, Flash, ... depending on which platforms you want to export for

Linux

ShiVa will run on any current 64bit linux distribution. We do not favor one distribution over another, but we expect most of our users to use either Ubuntu, Fedora, Suse or Debian, so compatibility is optimized for those. Then again, our distribution-agnostic .run package installer should leave your system with a fully functional ShiVa installation, as long as your distribution follows a few rules:
- please install the closed source graphics drivers from Nvidia and AMD respectively. Their open-source counterparts are currently too slow and lack a lot of features
- openAL needs to be retrofitted to most distributions. Either search your packet manager for "libopenal", or go to the ShiVa installation's Licenses folder and get the files from there.

Optional packages include:
- if you intend to develop 32bit applications on your 64bit system, you will also need a compatibility package with all 32bit libraries. In Debian and Ubuntu, this package is called "ia32libs", while such a package does not exist in e.g. Fedora.
- SDKs and NDKs for Android, Flash, ... depending on which platforms you want to export for

Your Games on Device X

The requirements for your games are dependent on many factors, including draw call numbers, polygon counts, active functions per frame and alpha overdraw, just to name a few. Predicting the hardware requirements your games will have is close to impossible. On the software side, it is much easier: besides updated graphics drivers on all desktop systems and openAL on Linux, your games should not require any additional software to run.

ShiVa Editor Installation

The ShiVa Editor comes for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems. You have to run the 64bit versions of these systems, 32bit is no longer supported as host system starting with ShiVa 2.0.

Windows

Double-click on the installer EXE. You will be asked to run the program in admin mode. Ask your administrator to install it for you if you do not have sufficient user rights.

We recommend installing ShiVa and all its related files in a separate, Windows-unregulated directory, like C:\ShiVa. Avoid write-protected system-owned folders like "Program Files".

Mac OS X

Double-click on the DMG image and wait for the integrity check to complete. Once it has been completed successfully, drag the ShiVa Editor.app into your Applications folder.

Linux

Open a terminal and CD to an empty/temporary directory. Either authenticate yourself as Root user or use the sudo command to make the .run file executable and then run the installer:

$: cd Downloads
$: sudo chmod +x /path/to/your/downloaded/installer.run
$: sudo /path/to/your/downloaded/installer.run

or

$: cd Downloads
$: su
$: chmod +x /path/to/your/downloaded/installer.run
$: /path/to/your/downloaded/installer.run

We recommend installing ShiVa into a directory that is independent from your distribution, so that an update might not damage it. You could try a completely separate folder line /ShivaTech/ShiVa, something in your /home, or on a separate partition/drive, mounted anywhere into your file system.