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Standard Project Structure Layout

Steve Jones · 2014-10-28T06:19:24

Hi All First post here, and I want to make it meaningful. Bit of a background I have been programming in scripting languages for about 10+ years professionally and although I am new to C++ and game programming as a whole I have had some experiences in the past, but I am stuck on one of the fundamentals of the initial project structure layout. I have purchased several books, of which talk about different practices (some of which I am already familiar) however there doesn't seem to be a clear indication of what structure layout to use. (I'm using Visual studio's 2013 professional, which creates virtual folders, but means files can't have the same name) - is this good or bad? So far I have worked out a sort of abstraction: /Core/ /Engine/ Main ========== This broken down into ========== /Core/ this includes the main Game.hpp Game.cpp It also has class's like timer etc. /Engine/ This folder has all the components in. (bit like the Entity component model) /Engine/Entity/ /Engine/Entity/Player /Engine/Entity/NPC As well as other things like: /Engine/Scene/ /Engine/Render/ Now some books recommend having this as a separate project, and saving it as a DLL file. I also have virtual folders like /Engine/Graphics/ Inside that we have /Engine/Graphics/Drivers and inside drivers, we have Direct3D.cpp Direct3D.hpp and OpenGL.cpp* OpenGL.hpp* * even though I am not using these for a while. Then in the root of the application i have: Main.hpp Main.cpp Now my question is rather, what is a good structured layout? im planning on creating a really basic game, with a world, that is drawn up into zones and each zone consisting of many chunks. starting off making it a 2D top down game, then in a few years turning it into a 3D game. So assuming this I would have a /Engine/World/ and inside that files like zone.cpp zone.hpp chunk.hpp chunk.cpp Now really the question is after hours of searching on the net, I can't seem to find anywhere pointing in the right direction. Some of this feels dirty, even how things are abstracted - where things go, should i be decoupling the engine as a DLL file. How and where do things like the GUI module go, inside the engine? with a GUIManager and having virtual folders with things like InputBox and a button class? This leads me to think about a whole host of other things, ie Input does this go in the /engine/ as /Engine/Input/ and a class for keyboard.cpp etc.? Anyone shed some light on this for me please, I will be eternally grateful. On a side note, I have been looking to pay for tutoring as well, I have been working with someone previously integrating things like CEGUI and OGRE3D however I think I need to go back to the basics and start small. Any help is appreciated! Slyvampy.

General and Gameplay Programming Programming

Started by Slyvampy October 27, 2014 03:10 PM

10 comments, last by ryan20fun 9 years, 5 months ago

deftware

1,778

October 28, 2014 03:10 AM

I struggled for years with structuring my 'engine'. The first few years I was coding I just went at it with reckless abandon, with little regard for organization. It was only later that I recognized the value of more thought-out organization, but I quickly became neurotic. I have many folders in my projects folder full of half-started projects where I was mentally masturbating all the potential organizations and configurations - all while avoiding writing code.

Nowadays I just follow my instincts, and some basic ideasl.. Sometimes it takes some work trying to add something new and making it fit a project's established organization and structure, but it's never too hard, or impossible. Sometimes it just takes a break to figure a simple solution that is elegant and concise.

The important thing that I learned in all my days trying to make the perfect structure is that poorly structure code is better than a solid structure that has no code.

ryan20fun

2,635

October 28, 2014 06:19 AM

I started off using the defualt VS behavior: Every file for a project goins into the projects folder.

Then after some time I started looking around at what others are using( like you are ).

Then I came up with this:


Project settings(Configuration Properties\General):
	Output directory		: "..\..\..\Build Output\$(Configuration)\$(PlatformShortName)\"
	Intermediate directory	: "..\..\..\Build Output\Intermediate\$(Configuration)\$(PlatformShortName)\$(ProjectName)\"
________________________________

Solution directory structure template:

<Solution Folder>
|
+---Solution : The main solution and project folder.
|	|	<Solution Name> Solution File
|	|
|	+---Engine : The folder that "Engine" projects go in.
|	|	|
|	|	+---<Project Name> Project File
|	|
|	+---Tools : The folder that "Tool" projects go in.
|	|	|
|	|	+---<Project Name> Project File
|	|
|	+---Prototypes
|	|	|
|	|	+---<Project Name> Project File
|	|
|	+---Games
|		|
|		+---<Project Name> Project File
|
+---Include : The main header folder.
|	|
|	+---Engine : The main "Engine" header folder.
|	|	|
|	|	+---<$(ProjectName)>
|	|		|
|	|		+---Any required sub folders
|	|
|	+---Tools
|	|	|
|	|	+---<$(ProjectName)>
|	|		|
|	|		+---Any required sub folders
|	|
|	+---Prototypes
|		|
|		+---<$(ProjectName)>
|			|
|			+---Any required sub folders
|
+---Source : The main source file(s) folder.
|	|
|	+---Engine : The main "Engine" source folder.
|	|	|
|	|	+---<$(ProjectName)>
|	|		|
|	|		+---Any required sub folders
|	|
|	+---Tools
|	|	|
|	|	+---<$(ProjectName)>
|	|		|
|	|		+---Any required sub folders
|	|
|	+---Prototypes
|		|
|		+---<$(ProjectName)>
|			|
|			+---Any required sub folders
|
+---Game Code : The main game code file(s) folder.
|	|
|	+---Any required sub folders
|
+---Project data : The main project assets( images, meshes, audio ) folder.
|	|
|	+----<Project data> data required for a project( like a games data file )
|
+---Documents : The main document(s) folder.
|	|
|	+---Any required sub folders
|
+---Build Output : The main project build files folder.
|	|
|	+---<$(Configuration)>
|	|	|
|	|	+---<$(PlatformShortName)> Output file(s)( exe's, DLL's etc )
|	|
|	+---Intermediate : The folder where intermediate build files go.
|		|
|		+---<$(Configuration)>
|			|
|			+---<$(PlatformShortName)> Output file(s)( exe's, DLL's etc )
|				|
|				+---<$(ProjectName)>
________________________________

That is my general file structure.

I do have sub-folders for specifiec files:

Particle system
Interfaces

HTH

-Ryan.

Never say Never, Because Never comes too soon. - ryan20fun

Disclaimer: Each post of mine is intended as an attempt of helping and/or bringing some meaningfull insight to the topic at hand. Due to my nature, my good intentions will not always be plainly visible. I apologise in advance and assure you I mean no harm and do not intend to insult anyone.

Standard Project Structure Layout

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