Source Code Reference

External Libraries

FreeSpace 2 relies on the following libraries which are included in the source tree:

• lua: LUA Scripting language
• libjpeg: JPEG library
• libpng: PNG library
• zlib: ZIP compression library; necessary for libpng
• oggvorbis: Ogg Vorbis sound library
• dx8sdk: DirectX 8 SDK (deprecated)
• dx9sdk: DirectX 9 SDK (deprecated)

See msdn.microsoft.com for discussion of the DirectX libraries. For the other libraries, look in the README files for more information.

FreeSpace 2 Source Code

The root also contains the actual FreeSpace 2 code, in the code/ directory. The FreeSpace 2 source code consists of several components, each of which is kept in a separate subdirectory. These components are listed below from different views.

Alphabetical View

• ai (Computer AI)
• anim (Displaying .ani animated bitmaps)
• asteroid (Handle asteroids - movement, collisions, creating smaller asteroids when larger ones are blown up etc.)
• autopilot (Handles autopilot control - where if there are no enemies, travelling a long distance etc. control is temporarily switched to the computer)
• bmpman (Manage 2d graphics files, such as .bmp, .tga, .jpg etc.)
• camera (used for ingame cutscenes ???)
• cfile (File/directory management routines including .VP file handling that are OS independent e.g. handles differences between Linux & Windows)
• cmdline (Handles command line switches, such as -mipmap etc.)
• cmeasure (Handles countermeasures - flares that the player & AI can drop to disrupt missiles)
• controlconfig (Configures keyboard/mouse/joystick controls)
• cutscene (Handles cutscene viewing)
• ddsutils (Handles compressed textures for 3d graphics cards that support it)
• debris (Creates & handles flying debris from exploding ships)
• debugconsole (Handles debugging console and file)
• decals (Adds support for painting decals - small 2d textures - onto ships etc.)
• demo (Allows you to save & playback games to show as demos)
• directx (Specific includes for the Microsoft DirectX library - Windows only)
• exceptionhandler (Deals with crashes, saving stack trace, system info etc.)
• fireball (Displays & handles fireballs and warping effects)
• freespace2 (Main code - handles engine initialisation, loading resources, plus windows resources like icons & dialog boxes)
• fs2open_pxo (Network code)
• gamehelp (Displays context sensitive help text)
• gamesequence (Handles progression of events during a campaign, such as entering a mission, showing credits etc.)
• gamesnd (Handles sounds & music)
• globalincs (Basic global constants & definitions, eg. version, colours)
• graphics (Low-level wrapper for all 2d & 3d graphics that handles different display engines (DirectX, OpenGL etc)
• hud (Handles the HUD - all the 2d cockpit graphics that the player can see e.g. radar, ammo, escort list, squad etc)
• iff_defs (Handles the iffs in iff_defs.tbl, controlling what color they show up as and what iffs they attack)
• io (Handles IO devices, such as keyboard, mouse & joystick)
• irc (Adds support for an IRC chat client)
• jpgutils (Opens, reads JPG files)
• jumpnode (Displays & handles jump nodes)
• lab (Responsible for WMCoolmon's F3 lab screen)
• lighting (Handles light sources, and their effect on ships)
• localization (Handles a global string table for translating all written text into foreign languages)
• math (Library of math routines for handling vectors, splines etc)
• menuui (Handles all the misc user interface, such as the main menu, tech room, campaign list etc)
• mission (Handles general mission actions e.g. briefing, goals, training info, in-mission messages etc)
• missionui (Handles UI for general mission actions)
• mm (Headers for older MS Multimedia library)
• model (Displays and handles ship models e.g. reading files, collision detection etc)
• nebula (Displays and handles nebulae)
• network (All multi-player code, e.g. UI, network traffic)
• object (High-level code to handle all objects eg. ships, weapons, debris, asteroids, waypoints, fireballs, shockwaves)
• observer (Responsible for the multiplayer observer mode)
• osapi (Wraps low-level Operating System calls, for different OS, eg. multi-threads, windows event loops, main app window)
• padlock (Handles cockpit views with a simulated head tracking of targets relative to the ship)
• palman (Handles bitmap palettes - different colour maps for the same 2d bitmap)
• parse (Handles scripting files, eg. python, LUA etc)
• particle (Displays and handles particles, such as smoke, fire)
• pcxutils (Handles 2d .pcx graphics files)
• physics (Handles realistic physical behaviour of objects, such as ship acceleration/deceleration, rotation etc.)
• playerman (Handles pilot files & player ship movement)
• popup (Displays & handles 2d pop-up windows, e.g. when the player dies)
• radar (Displays & handles the radar)
• render (Low-level 3d rendering code for some primitives)
• ship (Displays & handles all ship code, e.g. shields, afterburner)
• sound (Low-level sound, speech & music routines)
• species_defs (Reads species_defs.tbl to handle different behaviour for different species)
• starfield (Displays & handles background images such as starfields, nebulae etc)
• stats (Displays & handles player statistics, medals etc)
• tgautils (Handles .tga 2d graphics files)
• ui (Low-level user inteface routines e.g. buttons, scrollbars)
• vcodec (Handles player voice streaming for multiplayer ???)
• weapon (Displays & handles everything to do with weapons)
• windows_stub (Low-level windows functions that are needed for Unix)

There are also some directories that are only used for generating tools (not part of the main fs2 executable):

• cfilearchiver (Creates .VP file archives)
• cfileextractor (Extracts .VP file archives)
• cryptstring (Creates encrypted strings)
• fred2 (The FReespace EDitor)
• inetfile (FTP & HTTP network handlers)
• scramble (Utility to scramble file tables for the Demo version)
• variables (???)
• wxfred2 (Cross-platform version of FRED2)

Layer View

• Infrastructure
  • System
    • cfile/
    • exceptionhandler/
    • irc/
    • localization/
    • osapi/
  • Math
    • math/
  • Sound
    • sound/
    • vcodec/
  • Windows
    • ui/
    • windows_stub/
  • 2D graphics
    • anim
    • bmpman
    • ddsutils
    • jpgutils
    • pcxutils
    • tgautils
    • palman/
  • 3D graphics
    • decals/
    • mm/
    • directx/
    • graphics
    • camera/
    • render
  • User Input
    • controlconfig/
    • io/
• Freespace2
  • Common
    • globalincs/
    • cutscene/
    • cmdline/
    • debugconsole/
  • In Space
    • ai
    • asteroid/
    • autopilot/
    • cmeasure/
    • debris/
    • demo/
    • fireball/
    • gamehelp/
    • gamesequence/
    • gamesnd/
    • hud/
    • iff_defs/
    • jumpnode/
    • lighting/
    • nebula/
    • object/
    • observer/
    • model/
    • network/
    • particle/
    • parse/
    • popup/
    • physics/
    • radar/
    • ship/
    • species_defs/
    • starfield/
    • weapon/
  • In Base
    • stats/
    • menuui/
    • mission/
    • missionui/
  • Engine
    • fs2open_pxo/
    • freespace2/
    • playerman/
• FRED
  • fred2/
  • wxfred2/
• Tools
  • cfilearchiver/
  • cfileextractor/
  • cryptstring/
  • lab/
  • scramble/
  • inetfile/
  • variables/

Category Browser

The subdirectories above are also categorised by function. See the Category:Source Code to browse this way.