4.3 KiB
accurate branch
Being a pure, plain decompilation of the original Doukusu.exe file (v1.0.0.6),
there should not be much to say about this branch's philosophies:
Goal
The end-goal is for the project to be able to produce an .exe file that is
identical to the original. This means that there should be no custom code,
decompiled code should ideally be made to produce the same assembly code as the
original, bugs should be left intact, etc.
Another goal of the project is to document Cave Story's inner-working, so code
should be reasonably-annotated. Likewise, bugs should be documented, and fixes
provided wrapped in #ifdef FIX_BUGS conditions.
Accuracy to the original source code
Personally, I do aim to make the decompiled code functionally-accurate to the original, down to generating the same assembly code, but I do not aim for visually-accurate code.
Despite this, I do try to preserve the original function/variable names, variable-declaration locations, and source file naming.
Part of the reason why I do not aim for visually-accurate source code is that we know from the Organya source code release what Pixel's code-style looked like, and I find it extremely hard to read.
Language
Cave Story's developer, Pixel, primarily speaks Japanese, but his code's variable/function names are mostly written in English (with a few rare instances of Romanised Japanese).
The Organya source code release indicates Pixel wrote his comments in Japanese, however, in this project, I prefer them to be written in English.
The English employed in this project is a mix of American English, Canadian English, and British English.
portable branch
This branch takes a different direction to the accurate branch, but they still
share some core philosophies:
Goal
The goal is still to accurately-reproduce Cave Story's original code, but modified to the extent that it is easy to port to other platforms. This branch is intended for purists that don't want to use Windows or its deprecated APIs.
Notably, this means bugs should still be left intact. However, bugs and other coding errors that affect portability should be fixed.
For comparison, I believe this branch shares some parallels with the Chocolate Doom project, except perhaps more strict. See the link below for their list of philosophies which may be applicable here:
https://github.com/chocolate-doom/chocolate-doom/blob/master/PHILOSOPHY.md
Custom code
Cave Story's original source code was written in C++, but stylised like C89 (with a number of exceptions). Custom code added to the project should follow suit, but the C-style doesn't have to be C89 - personally, I prefer to write in the subset of C99 that C++98 allows.
I prefer compiler-specific code to be avoided, since more-portable code benefits all compilers, and keeps the codebase free of clutter.
enhanced branch
This branch deviates the most from the accurate branch, focussing less on
authenticity, and more on improving the base engine.
Goal
This branch is intended to benefit modders, by providing a feature-rich base for mods (think 'GZDoom' rather than 'Chocolate Doom').
That said, I want to avoid the codebase becoming an over-engineered mess of seldom-used and niche features - only features with a strong reason to be included should be added.
Current sources for features include...
- The "Cave Story Mod Loader" (widescreen, support for Ogg Vorbis music)
- Common custom TSC commands ('<MIM', '<PHY')
- Other common "EXE hacks" developed by the modding community (custom weapons, money system)
Target audience
While this branch is meant as a base for mods, it is not intended for modders unfamiliar with programming. This means features that only exist to benefit non-programmers will not be accepted, as they will likely clutter the codebase, making it harder for programmers to make modifications.
Accuracy to the original source code
Despite this branch being less accuracy-focussed, I still want modifications to the vanilla code to be minimal - that means no rewriting code to "look nicer" or add micro-optimisations.
Keeping the vanilla code intact guarantees CSE2E will accurately-reproduce Cave Story's gameplay, avoiding an NXEngine-scenario where the game is riddled with inaccuracies, both small and large. This also has the benefit of making it easier to merge changes from the other branches.