Skip to content

Testing New Engine Releases in BAR

Beherith edited this page May 3, 2022 · 20 revisions

Locate your BAR install folder from the launcher by clicking Open install Directory:

image

Download the latest testing engine release from: https://github.com/beyond-all-reason/spring/releases

Unzip this engine to BAR/data/engine/[engineversion]/ folder, so it looks like this:

image

Then, make a config-dev.json file in BAR/data/config-dev.json, and replace the "engines" with the value of the engine field with [engineversion]

{
    "title" : "Beyond All Reason",
    "setups" : [
        {
            "package": {
                "id": "dev-lobby",
                "display": "Dev Lobby"
            },
            "downloads": {
                "engines" : [ "spring_bar_.BAR105.105.1.1-931-g91ee57e_windows-64-minimal-portable" ]
            },
            "no_start_script" : true,
            "no_downloads" : true,
            "auto_start": true,
            "launch": {
                "start_args" : ["--menu", "rapid://byar-chobby:test"]
            }
        }
    ]

}

Also, create and empty devmode.txt file in BAR/data/

Then, make a shortcut to Beyond-all-reason.exe:

image

Then, change where the shortcut points to to:

C:\Users*\AppData\Local\Programs\Beyond-All-Reason\Beyond-All-Reason.exe -c C:/Users/*/AppData/Local/Programs/Beyond-All-Reason/data/config-dev.json

image

You can then launch the shortcut, which should open up the lobby. Test the features of the new engine by going through the engine testing checklist:

  • Test starting skirmish
    
  • Test saving skirmish
    
  • Test loading skirmish
    
  • Sync test online in engine testing autohost (usually engine testing 14)
    
  • Test that barbarians actually do things
    
  • Look for any visual bugs or artefacts
    
  • Scour infolog for unusual warnings
    

Also, you can only play online on the ENGINE TESTING autohost. If you do not see it, its probably because you need to enable "show wrong engines" in the Developer tab of the Lobby settings (should now be visible with devmode.txt in place)