Paracraft SDK Walk Through

Fast walk through video for users and partners. Download and then watch offline for HD version.

• 1.0 Paracraft SDK Introduction
• 2.0 Paracraft NPL Introduction
• 3.0 Paracraft MCML Introduction
• 4.0 Paracraft Mod introduction
• 5.0 Paracraft FAQ1
• 6.0 NPL Code Wiki Introduction

What is ParacraftSDK?

Free and open source SDK behind

• http://www.paracraft.cn 3D personal movie creator
• http://haqi.61.com 3D MMORPG

What can you do with it?

• kids learn programming with most popular IDE(Visual studio)
• create plugins (mods) for Paracraft
• create and publish apps that runs on windows/android/iOS

About Us

Project begins in 2005. Code is solid and installed on millions of end user computers during the past 6 years.

How to Install

Contact the author (LiXizhi) to get full source code, or download public version at https://github.com/LiXizhi/ParaCraftSDK

What is inside ParacraftSDK?

• ParaEngine: C++ 3D game engine: cross platform, separate DirectX/openGL graphics engine, GUI, networking, physics, audio and many more.
• NPL scripting language: 1 million lines of fully documented code in NPL.
• MCML: user interface markup language written in NPL.
• IDE extension for visual studio: NPL code editing, debugging, etc.
• Paracraft app, Haqi 3DMMORPG app and many other sample or editor projects written by ParacraftSDK. Open sourced for your reference.
• Other tools: such as 3dsmax model exporters, etc.
• PEDN: ParaEngine Developer Network. The Twiki site for documentation.

How to learn ParacraftSDK?

• Play Paracraft in depth for 20 hours.
• Create a movie with Paracraft
• Learn C++/lua
• Watch and follow all tutorial videos on http://www.paracraft.cn
• Loop until you learnt it
  • Read source code in ParacraftSDK
  • Write you own app with ParacraftSDK

Quick guide to ParacraftSDK

• Directory structure
• Install from redist
• HelloWorld App
• Understand HelloWorld App

Quick guide to NPL

• where and how to browse source code in ParacraftSDK
• three important facts of lua: (Fast to learn, slow to master)
  • static(lexical) scoped: variables can be bound at compile time without regards to calling code.
  • invariant string
  • with JIT
• the activate function of NPL file.
• Object oriented programming in NPL.
• Tools: NPL language service, NPL debugger for visual studio, buildin debug app (F12)
• rich library covering networking, UI, 3D rendering.

Quick guide to MCML

Similar to web programming: MCML = HTML NPL = Javascript

• HelloWorld MCML
• Quick refresh and debug cycle with buildin web browser (Ctrl + F3)
• Code behind pattern
• Programmatically load MCML page
• Source code location to find documentation about MCML
• Creating your own MCML tag.
• Quick overview of advanced mcml tags: pe:gridview, pe:if, pe:script, etc.

Quick guide to 3dsmax exporter

• ParaX exporter
• FBX exporter

Quick guide to plugins development

• supporting plugins written in mixed NPL / Mono C# / C++.
• architecture of ParaEngine plugins
• PETools for visual studio
• Paracraft Mod development sample
  • how to add/replace main UI (more mod integration points of the user interface should be added)
  • how to add command
  • how to add entity, items, blocks
  • how to add shader

Quick guide to environment setup

Recommended tools for programming environment setup.

• git: decentralized. GUI tool is SourceTree.
• svn: good for corporate centralized network.
• alienbrain / perforce: centralized and good for large assets. we have 500GB of versioned assets in the past 8 years.
• cmake: good for c/c++ project
• script: win32 batch file, bash (linux or CYGWin), python, etc.
• hudson CI: deployment / build / test

Introduction to NPL code wiki

• How to start NPL code wiki? From menu or command.
  • Server is your paracraft client, readonly world can not host for security reasons.
• What is NPL code wiki? A website of code samples for learning NPL.
• Quick walkthrough: console, object_browser, world
• A hello world page from your world directory.