Ethertia Dev Doc

Welcome to Ethertia Development Documentation.

• Getting Started & Build

1. Project Files Structure
2. Program Structure
3. Rendering (OpenGL)
4. Audio (OpenAL)
5. Entity System
6. Voxel Terrain System
7. Item System
8. GUI

Project Files Structure

• lib/ libraries.
• run/ runtime working directory > - assets/ default assets
  • bin/ binaries. shared-library, executable. > - darwin-x64/
    • windows-x64/
    • windows-arm64/
  • logs/
  • mods/
  • saves/ worlds / saves
  • screenshots/
  • settings.json (client) settings
  • server.json dedicated server settings
• src/ c++ sources & headers.
• CMakeLists.txt
• README.md > ...

Basically there are 3 directories here: lib/, run/ and src/, which are external libraries, runtime working directory, and source code.

Program Structure

The entrance is in the ethertia/Ethertia.cpp's main(), as you can see, the top (highest) level flow is:

void Ethertia::run() 
{
    start();

    while (m_Running)
    {
        runMainLoop();
    }

    destroy();
}

The start() initializes the system, runMainLoop() keep updating every frame (rendering, physics, world), at the end destroy() is called for system clean up (when system shotdown).

1. Let's quick look the start()

   void Ethertia::start()
   {
       Settings::loadSettings();  // just load settings
   
       ModLoader::loadMods();  // load & pre-init mods.
   
       // System Initialize
       m_Window = new Window(...);   // main display/window
       m_GuiRoot = new GuiRoot();    // root GUI
       RenderEngine::init();
       AudioEngine::init();
   
       // Material & Items init. (texture, mesh)
       ...
       // Network System, Controls init.
       ...
       // Other Threads (ChunkGen, ChunkMeshGen)
       ...
   }

2. It's time to dive into the runMainLoop()
   there is the Core of the System.

   Ethertia::runMainLoop()
   {
       m_Timer.update();
       m_Scheduler.processTasks();
   
       while (m_Timer.polltick()) 
       {
           runTick();
       }
   
       Controls::handleInput();  // glfwPollEvents();
   
       RenderEngine::renderWorld(m_World);
   
       renderGUI();
   
       m_Window->SwapBuffer();
   }

3. A glimpse at destroy()