OpenRA - A deep dive into its source-code

[Ronald]

Good-morning OpenRA Developers and Coders
I want to take a closer look inside the heart of the OpenRA game-engine.( not moding any existing OpenRA MOD)
I do not have the budget to purchase any professional software-development-tools, so 'm looking for free tools and ways to do this.

I am busy making a shopping-list of all the things I need to:
- find / download / install on my (Windows 7 professional 64 bits) computer in order to load the entire project into an IDE.
- do in order to get going with my deep-dive endeavour.

So far i've started at the OpenRA Github Wiki and found this page:
- https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/blob/bleed/INSTALL.md
On this page I see mentions of the following Microsoft related software:
1 - Windows PowerShell >= 4.0 (included by default in recent Windows 10 versions)
2 - .NET Framework 4.6.1 (Developer Pack) (or via Visual Studio 2017)
3 - .NET Core 2.2 SDK (or via Visual Studio 2017)

This page tells me something about what I need to have to compile the source_code:
- https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/wiki/Compiling
Here i read mentions of the following Microsoft related software:
4 - Visual Studio 2013/2012 (Community/Express).

This page on Coding Standards tells me something about a tool called
- https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/wiki/Coding-Standard
5 - StyleCop - https://github.com/StyleCop/StyleCop

Along the way I've also found this non-Microsoft free C# IDE called
6 - SharpDevelop - http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/Default.aspx

As possible software development environment and IDE I have found - (inside the wiki)
7a "Microsoft Visual Studio" (without exact version number "VS2013" was the lowest version I could find)
- https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/

7b "MonoDevelop" (whitout exact version numbers)
- https://www.monodevelop.com/

Outside the OpenRA Wiki i stumbled upon this opensource free C# IDE:
7c "SharpDevelop"
-http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/Default.aspx


This is the information I've found so far (02-Ocotber-2019) and might be updated in the future

UPDATE-1:
I found 2 websites where one can still download ISO images of previous Visual Studio versions :-)
- https://www.ryadel.com/en/visual-studio ... installer/
- https://offlinesoftwares.com/?s=visual+studio

[Ronald]

Question to complete my shopping-list:
A - Inside the Microsoft Visual Studio context
A1 - What is the minimal Visual Studio version which one must install to get going ?
A2 - Can it be done with light "free / express / community versions" ? or
A3 - Must I install the full (professional / enterprise) version ?
A4 - Where can I download reliable official older version of Visual Studio
(since Microsoft is mostly only showing their latest version of their products)


B - Inside a MonoDeveloper context
B1 - What is the minimal version one must install to get going?
B2 - Can one get started when using a "30-day trail" MonoDeveloper version only?
B3 - Where can I download older version of this software?


C - Inside the SharpDevelop (or any other free C# IDE) contexts:
C1 - Are there any other C# which can be used to edit / compile the OpenRA sourcecode (on the Windows operating system)?

Thank you for all your hints, tips and tricks to get me started and to complete this shoppinglist.

[abcdefg30]

To A2/A3: VS 2019 Community is free, you just need to log in with a Microsoft or Skype account after the thirty day trial period.
For C1: You could try using Visual Studio Code with C# extensions.

[penev]

As for VisualStudio - the Community versions work perfectly for you. Minimal is probably 2017 by now, but you should just get 2019 anyway. Both VS 2017 Community and VS 2019 Community are easily available on Microsoft's website. You can also find older versions, but not as easily.

You don't need MonoDevelop if you're on Windows, since you already have VisualStudio. (Feel free to try it and see which is better though).
Same for SharpDevelop (I believe abcdefg30 is using that?)

[dragunoff]

VisualStudio Community 2019 is the easiest way to get started on Windows. The setup wizard gives a lot of options to install various tools and extensions but all you need (if I am not mistaken) is ".NET desktop development" (see attached screenshot).

OpenRA has launch configurations for VisualStudio so compiling/launching/debugging can be done with a click of a button. This of course can also be done from the command line (using the make command and launch scripts included with the engine).

You may need to update PowerShell as I'm not sure what version comes with Windows 7 (see here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powers ... wershell-6 )

[Ronald]

Update on this thread:
I've just downloaded and installed VS2015 Community edition and am now ready to take a deep dive into the OpenRa source_code :-)

VS2015_community_edition_50.jpg (235.62 KiB) Viewed 3800 times

.
Thanks everyone for your help to get me to this point

[Graion Dilach]

VS2015 only supports .NET Core 1.X. You'll need to bump it in the foreseeable future to atleast 2017 though.

[Ronald]

VS2015 only supports .NET Core 1.X. You'll need to bump it in the foreseeable future to at least 2017 though.

Thanks Graion for the tip.

[Matt]

https://code.visualstudio.com/ is also a nice lightweight and Open Source way to explore the source code. https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/csharp has a tutorial on how to get it going.

[Ronald]

Thank you Matt for your suggestion on how to get started the OpenRa Source_code exploration process.

Today(17-aug-2020) I've also created a (sticky) "Developer resources thread" over here.
This is the place where i share my free found stuff with the rest of the OpenRA (development / modding) community:
- viewtopic.php?f=83&t=21245

[Adrian]

I like OpenRa mod of Dune2000.
And I would like to explore some parts of source code of that.

I even start to read source code in C#.

So question:
Wouldn't it be impudence to ask at forum about some unclear (for me) parts of source code?

I am newbie in C#.
So it can be questions about C# in general and about OpenRa.
Is it normal here?
Or authors do not like this?

[Ronald]

I even start to read source code in C#...I am newbie in C#.

Take a look over here. You will find a lot of free downloadable resources to get you started with this goal
- viewtopic.php?f=83&t=21245

So it can be questions about C# in general and about OpenRa.

Why could you not? As you can read on the forum, there are enough other community-members who are willing to assist you.

Option 2 - Ask your question inside the OpenRA Discord server:
- https://discord.com/invite/FTySxfm

screenshot.18.jpg (24.5 KiB) Viewed 1304 times

These are the "developer / related" chatrooms

[SirCake]

Hey Adrian,

it would certaily be a good idea to get c# basics going before asking the devs, and in my opinion the only way is to write some code yourself. Looking at it won't help much.

If you are new to programming in general, there are excellent tutorials all around the web, with example programs you can go for.

If you are experienced with other languages, I had the feeling that OpenRA code is quite advanced (I'm not an expert though), so take your time. Fortunately the setup and build process is quite simple, so you can experiment really quickly (change some code an see what happens).

Cheers

[DoDoCat]

Hey Adrian,

it would certaily be a good idea to get c# basics going before asking the devs, and in my opinion the only way is to write some code yourself. Looking at it won't help much.

If you are new to programming in general, there are excellent tutorials all around the web, with example programs you can go for.

If you are experienced with other languages, I had the feeling that OpenRA code is quite advanced (I'm not an expert though), so take your time. Fortunately the setup and build process is quite simple, so you can experiment really quickly (change some code an see what happens).

Cheers

That is right, write codes and debug the engine, see what is going inside engine since all the source code is there