FOnline Engine Documentation

This directory contains maintained documentation for reusable engine behavior. It is the user-facing documentation hub for developers who embed or modify FOnline.

Start here

• GettingStarted.md — first route through the engine docs.
• EmbeddingProject.md — how a game repository should embed and own the engine.
• BuildWorkflow.md — build, presets, platform prerequisites, and validation strategy.
• DocumentationExpansionPlan.md — roadmap for researching the repository and expanding engine documentation.
• DocumentationBacklog.md — planned and verified documentation slices.
• DocumentationVerificationReport.md — source-check reports for recently verified slices.
• DocumentationResearchTemplate.md — checklist/template for source-grounded doc slices.
• DocumentationMaintenance.md — maintainer workflow for source-grounded docs, backlog/report updates, and validation.
• ../README.md — polished repository landing page.
• ../AGENTS.md — AI-maintainer entry point and working conventions.

Architecture and source navigation

• Architecture.md — engine layer map and runtime/build composition overview.
• SourceTree.md — source-directory guide for maintainers.
• Applications.md — executable/library entry points and CMake target ownership notes.
• Essentials.md — low-level platform, logging, memory, filesystem, serialization, sockets, and utility layer.

Build and generation

• BuildWorkflow.md — build, presets, platform prerequisites, and validation strategy.
• BuildToolsPipeline.md — staged CMake pipeline, hooks, helpers, and change routing.
• BakingPipeline.md — resource baking, baker classes, script compile adjacency, and validation.
• GeneratedApiAndMetadata.md — codegen, metadata registration, generated files, and property contracts.
• ConfigurationAndDataSources.md — config parsing, settings application, resource-pack data sources, file lookup, and caches.

Runtime model

• EntityModel.md — entity/property/prototype runtime model, holders, events, and serialization relationships.
• MapsMovementGeometry.md — map coordinates, geometry modes, path finding, line tracing, movement contexts, and map loading.
• Networking.md — network buffers, command packing, client/server transports, and ordered UDP.
• Persistence.md — server database facade, backend implementations, commit queue, and recovery logs.

Client, frontend, and platform runtime

• ClientRuntime.md — client lifecycle, server connection, view entities, resources, sprites, render-target bridge, and client tests.
• ServerRuntime.md — authoritative server lifecycle, managers, entity ownership, networking, persistence, movement, and updater backend.
• FrontendAndRendering.md — application abstraction, windows/input/audio, headless/stub modes, renderers, effects, and platform package boundaries.
• ClientUpdater.md — client host/runtime split, runtime ABI, updater protocol, and server-side updater backend.
• Debugging.md — native debugger support, stack traces, Visual Studio helpers, and client host/runtime validation.
• Scripting.md — script system lifecycle, AngelScript backend, native method exports, core scripts, and compile flow.
• ScriptMethodsMap.md — native ///@ ExportMethod file map by runtime side and receiver family.
• Nullability.md — T? / FO_NULLABLE script/native boundary contract and analyzers.
• Tools.md — engine tool map: baker, AS compiler, mapper, editor, asset explorer, particle editor, and asset processors.
• MapperTools.md — mapper lifecycle, automation, native mapper helpers, and known headless-render workflows.
• WebDebugging.md — WebAssembly target preparation, package layout, and debug workflow.
• AndroidDebugging.md — Android target preparation, package layout, ADB workflow, and remote-scene debugging.

Source and tooling references

• ../Source/README.md — source-tree overview.
• Testing.md — maintained full test-suite map, generated test targets, coverage routing, and validation ownership.
• ../Source/Tests/README.md — short source-tree entry point for engine unit-test suites.
• ../BuildTools/README.md — build tooling notes.
• ../PUBLIC_API.md — public native API notes.
• ../TUTORIAL.md — tutorial material.

Documentation ownership

Use engine docs for reusable engine mechanics: runtime behavior, tool contracts, platform build/debug flows, generated API mechanics, updater protocol, mapper tooling, and script/native conventions.

Use the embedding project’s docs for concrete game content, product rules, quests, balance, text, maps, release policy, and project-specific commands.

Engine docs must not depend on embedding-project files, scripts, tests, CI, or generated artifacts as the proof of engine behavior. If a reusable helper or regression test is cited from an engine doc, it belongs in the engine repository.

Some docs may mention ../../... paths only as explicitly labelled embedding-project examples, for example Last Frontier. The owning procedure, validation, and source-of-truth documentation stay in the repository that owns the files.