Compatibility

Inter-module compatibility

Unvanquished has many software components: engine binaries, based on the Daemon repository (client and server); gamelogic binaries, based on the Unvanquished repository (cgame and sgame); and various other files shipped in DPKs, which may be used by any of the binaries. Currently, all components are on a single release cycle. A given user normally has only one version of the client installed, but different servers may distribute differing versions of the other components via the auto-download mechanism. This means many different combinations of versions of the components are possible. It can be difficult to reason about which combinations will work correctly, and even which combinations ought to be allowed.

In the rest of this article, "Unvanquished" refers to the eponymous Git repository, not the game.

Desired use cases

Use cases we want to support

• Develop on next-release branch (e.g. 0.52.0/sync) of all repos (Daemon, Unvanquished, unvanquished_src.dpkdir)
• Develop on master branch of all repos
• Build client from latest master and connect to latest-release servers
  We should be able to play with everyone on a client with the latest bug fixes.
• Build server from latest master and host with latest-release DPKs
  Likewise with a server.
• Develop Unvanquished on master, using latest-release DPKs
  Development for simple cases should be accessible, not requiring -pakpath flags etc. Compatibility with the latest-release unvanquished DPK doesn't need to be perfect; it's OK if there are a few warnings or slightly messed up things in the UI. But it should be usable for basic experimentation.

Use cases we don't really care about

• Using unvanquished_src.dpkdir from master with latest-release gamelogic
• Using cgame and sgame built from different commits.

Per-repository guidance

Daemon

Adding or removing an IPC call must be done on the next-release branch.

When developing Daemon master, you need to keep in mind compatibility with both the latest release and the current master of the gamelogic.

Unvanquished

Try to keep the submodule pointers to Daemon and unvanquished_src.dpkdir at commits which are compatible with the Unvanquished commit containing them. We want to get a harmonious set of components when we do a recursive checkout of some Unvanquished commit.

Changing the playerState_t netcode is acceptable because the netcode table is stored in the gamelogic and we recommend always building cgame and sgame together.

It's OK to put gameplay changes on master. As of May 2022, we have a nightly build server, so it would be nice to be able to test them there.

unvanquished_src.dpkdir

When developing on master, you just need to keep it working with the master of Unvanquished. The expectation is that server owners who are shipping a cutting-edge version of this repo should also rebuild the gamelogic.

Other *.dkpdir repos

There isn't a lot of precedent here. Probably it's best to do anything except bug fixes on a next-release branch. If possible, we want to avoid any situation where developers are required to use any unreleased stuff from these to get a working setup.