Testing environment for non-mod changes

[Thim]

I had talked about contributing code to FAF before, but now I'm at a point in my life where I'm ready to actually branch the github and get some real work done. The question I wanted to ask was this: When you are working on a change that involves editing core code (something you can't toggle as a stand-alone mod, how do you go about testing it? I used to just change the .lua files directly and work that way, but it's kind of hackish and doesn't seem to work at all with FAF. Secondly, is there a way to run the program with a console you can print out to? I see console.log statements in code, but the only way I have figured out to print out anything is to encode my messages as numbers, have the number be the damage value all attacks, and shoot something to see how much damage was dealt!
I would appreciate any other info you can pass. I realize I will have some learning to do, and I'm ready to pay my dues.

[speed2]

And what if you go to this page and scroll down a bit to readme https://github.com/FAForever/fa is that any helpful?

[nine2]

I used to just change the .lua files directly and work that way, but it's kind of hackish and doesn't seem to work at all with FAF.

In this case the correct thing to do is edit the core faf .lua files. It's not hackish, it's development. To test you need to launch FA in a special way (see the readme that speed2 refers to), otherwise your changes will be disregarded. You cannot edit the normal FAF game (otherwise you could cheat and desync) ... so you get it working on your own local version, then make a pull request, sheeo merges, then after 6 months it gets published and everyone gets your change.

Secondly, is there a way to run the program with a console you can print out to?

You write LOG("blah") statements and they appear in both the log text file and the log window, which you show with F9.

[Thim]

Thanks. Perhaps I should try scrolling down on a page before asking questions

[Thim]

Ok, so I have it all running from the cloned repo, but when I try skirmish or multiplayer modes, I can't load the map in the lobby (it's also supcom's origonal lobby, not FAF's). Cloneing the lobby repo into the same place didn't fix it, although I haven't finished trying to compile the python there, so if that fixes it I almost have it done. Any ideas?

[nine2]

You shouldn't be dealing with python. You clone the fafs version of FA lua code.

You launch the ingame lobby from a shorcut you create on your desktop.

It will be the skirmish ui, which looks slightly different from the custom network game ui (which is what you normally see when you play through official FAF).

Launch game

[quark036]

As an example, here is my dev shortcut:

C:\ProgramData\FAForever\bin\ForgedAlliance.exe /init "init_dev.lua" /EnableDiskWatch /showlog /nomovie /nosound /noverify /nomusic /windowed 800 800

Make sure you have created the init_dev.lua correctly as it tells you to in the readme on github.

[Thim]

Tried it again an hour later; it's working. Now my issue is that changes to my files cloned from the git repo don't seem to do anything. Interestingly, changing the path to them to a file I know doesn't exist doesn't cause any kind of issue. I'm sure I'll get it worked out though. Thanks for all the help!

[Korbah]

Tried it again an hour later; it's working. Now my issue is that changes to my files cloned from the git repo don't seem to do anything. Interestingly, changing the path to them to a file I know doesn't exist doesn't cause any kind of issue. I'm sure I'll get it worked out though. Thanks for all the help!

Did you get this working? My FA-develop dump doesn't seem to work any more. Not sure why!

[nine2]

Hi Korbah, I was afk when you messaged me. Post your full Korbah_mod_log.txt here and i will take a look