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Onboarding

Table of contents

Front matter

This covers two aspects of development, contributing to the source code using Git and building/hosting the mission locally.

Contributing with Git

This is a (kind of) beginner's guide for contributing to the repository. Due to forks being disabled, members with read-only access will not be able to contribute through their own repository forks.

If you are logged into GitHub and want to make minor contributions (such as documentation or translation improvements) without downloading anything, you can simply use the web editor built into GitHub and skip to step 3 below.

  1. Install a desktop application for Git or the Git command-line tool

    Git will be used for cloning the repository onto your local system and making commits. For beginners, the official GitHub Desktop application is a good tool for handling initial setup of Git (such as setting your credentials) and providing an abstraction over the underlying commands.

  1. Clone the repository to your system

    The URL to clone from is https://github.com/Warriors-Haven-Gaming/Apex-Framework.

  2. Make new branches for features / bugfixes

    These branches will later be merged using pull requests, allowing the owner and other contributors to individually review new changes. Each feature or bugfix should be in its own branch to allow merging them individually.

  3. Make new commits to your branch

    Commits should be standalone changes that are as small as possible so contributors can more easily analyze the history and understand what each commit is meant to do.

  4. Make a pull request for your branch on GitHub

    Set the "base" branch to main and "compare" branch to whatever feature you intend to merge. Write a good title and a comprehensive description describing what problems your feature solves, any issues that will be closed by your PR, and possible concerns about the implementation.

  5. Wait for approval from the owner or another contributor

    Allow for someone else to review, approve, and merge your branch.

For more information, check out the "GitHub flow" which describes similar practices for contributing.

Building the mission

To build the mission, you will need to download the Arma 3 Tools from Steam. Once downloaded, use it to launch the Addon Builder. In the screen, set the "Addon source directory" to the Apex_framework.terrain folder inside the repository. Also set the destination directory to somewhere convenient like build. Your screen should look like this:

Screenshot of Addon Builder with configured directories

Go into the options and make sure all mission files are included by using an asterisk (*) in the "List of files to copy directly". All other options can be left the same.

Addon Builder Options

Click OK to save your options, then PACK to start building the mission file. Once complete, the result will be inside your build directory under the name Apex_framework.terrain.pbo. Change "terrain" to the name of the map you want to use (as shown in Apex_framework.terrain/SQM, case-insensitive). An example filename would be Apex_framework_135_SH.Altis.pbo.

Hosting the mission locally

To host the mission, you will need to run a Dedicated Server for it. If you plan to run the server and game client on the same computer, this will require decent hardware, particularly at least 16GB of RAM.

  1. Follow the community guide to download SteamCMD and use it to install the Arma 3 Server.

  2. For easier configuration, install TADST into the Arma 3 Server directory. This provides a graphical interface for configuring and launching the server.

  3. Follow the original repository's readme for copying the I&A files and setting the correct options for your server configuration.

    This includes copying the @Apex and @Apex_cfg directories, then editing them to your desire. For changes to server.cfg and *.Arma3Profile, this can be done either through TADST or manually by ticking the "Launch as is" option in TADST to disable automatic generation of config files.

  4. Save your settings into a profile and launch the server!

Tips:

  • Server log files are located in the TADST profiles directory. Check this file to catch any errors that occur due to configuration mistakes or within the mission.

  • To avoid occasional issues with the Arma 3 client failing to download the same mission more than once, restart your game alongside the server.

  • If the server is already running, Steam will be unable to launch your Arma 3 client. As a workaround, you can run the Arma 3 Launcher executable directly.

    On Windows, the path to that executable will usually be:

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Arma 3\arma3launcher.exe