Source Code Reference

CVS client (TortoiseCVS)

Although there are some CVS client tools, one of the most user-friendly is TortoiseCVS (it is by far better than WinCVS). Here you have some noob instructions to download the CVS code of the Freespace2 Open Project:

• Go to the TortoiseCVS homepage and download the latest version.
• Install it. You'll have to restart your PC afterwards. TortoiseCVS integrates itself with Explorer. You access and mark a folder as a code container with mouse right button contextual menu.
• Make a new folder on your HD where you'd like to install the code. You'll need a fair bit of space for the code and the intermediate files when building it. Right click over it and choose CVS Checkout... from the list.
• A new window will open up. Cut and paste this text into the 'CVSROOT:' textbox
  :pserver:[email protected]:/home/fs2source/cvsroot
• This instruction will fill the editable drop lists below 'CVSROOT:' textbox. (You could also have filled every one of them instead of the 'CVSROOT:' textbox):
  • Protocol: Password server (:pserver:)
  • Protocol parameters: <empty>
  • Server: warpcore.org
  • Port: <empty>
  • Repository folder: /home/fs2source/cvsroot
  • User name: anonymous
• Press 'Fetch list...' button. It'll connect with CVS server to get all the names of active modules.
  • As this is the very first time you connect to the server you'll be asked a password. The password for anonymous user is also anonymous (in low case).
  • From the drop list now you can select the module you want to download.
    • fs2_open is the repository for FS2 source code. (You could also have typed it in the 'Module:' textbox).
• If you press OK button, source code download will begin in the folder you've selected. A fs2_open subfolder will be created inside it.
• By default, the HEAD branch, which contains the developement (and maybe pretty unstable) code, will be downloaded. If you want to checkout the current stable branch rather than this development branch (since you don't have write access you probably should go with the stable build so that that more of the bugs you encounter are your own fault), you should change the Branch or Tag options:
  • Before pressing OK button switch to 'Revision' tab (the second one). (You should be in the first one, 'Module' tab).
  • Click on the 'Choose Branch or Tag' option. Press the Update List button. TortoiseCVS will then connect to the server and get a list of revisions.
  • In the "Branch or Tag Name" dropdown you can now see a list of branches that CVS contains. fs2_open_3_6_9 is probably the one you want.
  • Press OK now.
• Of course, you can set up different checkouts in different folders. Just repeat these steps.
• If you want to update any of the previously downloaded code, go to the container folder, right click over fs2_open folder (or any other one) and select CVS Update option.

CVS Directory Structure

The fs2_open CVS consists of several major components, each of which is kept in a separate directory:

• Freespace2 Code base (code)

Plus the following libraries:

• LUA Scripting language (lua)
• Jpeg library (libjpeg)
• Ogg Vorbis sound library (oggvorbis)
• DirectX 8 SDK (dx8sdk)
• DirectX 9 SDK (dx9sdk)

Libraries

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

Freespace2 Code Base

The main code consists in several components, scattered among different subdirectories. The components are listed below.

Alphabetical view

• ai (Computer AI)
• anim (Displaying .ani animated bitmaps)
• asteroid (Handle asteroids - movement, collisions, creating smaller asteriods 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 (???)
• cfile (File/directory management routines including .VP file handling that are OS independent eg. 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 eg. radar, ammo, escort list, sqaud etc)
• iff_defs (Handles traitor ships???)
• 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 (???)
• 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 eg. 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 eg. reading files, collission detection etc)
• nebula (Displays and handles nebulae)
• network (All multi-player code, eg. UI, network traffic)
• object (High-level code to handle all objects eg. ships, weapons, debris, asteroids, waypoints, fireballs, shockwaves)
• observer (???)
• osapi (Wraps low-level Operating System calls, for different OS, eg. multi-threads, windows event loops, main app window)
• 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, eg. when the player dies)
• radar (Displays & handles the radar)
• render (Low-level 3d rendering code for some primitives)
• ship (Displays & handles all ship code, eg. shields, afterburner)
• sound (Low-level sound, speach & 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 eg. 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/
    • tgautils/
    • jpgutils/
    • pcxutils/
    • 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.