Some basic information on how to Debug TGEA. I am not going to go into detail on how to use debugging (read a book or do some searching for that), but I want to list the steps for debugging using the python path since it isn't exactly self evident on how to do it.

These instructions are for debugging a non python compiled version (what you get straight out of a kit download, not a packaged exe installed version). In order to debug the C++ code you will need to run it via python.

Testing offline

1. Right click on Torque Game Engine Advanced in the Solution Explorer and click on Properties

2. Set Configuration to Debug and click on Configuration->Properties->Debugging.

3. Set the command to c:\python25\python.exe

4. Set Command Arguments to Client.pyw gameconfig=testgame.cfg (replace the config with whatever config you are currently using, testgame is the default).

5. Set Working Directory to the location of tmmokit with the python files (ex: c:\tmmokit\)

6. It will complain that there are no symbols for python. Choose to ignore it and continue.

7. It should start a python file and the game should run much like you are doing testing in the IDE. If you are this far it is working properly. You can set breakpoints in the code or catch it when it crashes to identify the problem in the C++ code.

Testing on an active server

This is a little trickier, but it can be done. Make sure Visual Studio is installed on the server and you have it setup to compile a debug pytgea file.

1. Run the server normally using startup.bat. We need some output from one of the log files. Make sure a zone loads up and then you can stop all of the processes

2. In the tmmokit directory there will be a log called log_ZoneCluster0.txt. Open it and check near the top for the following line.

start "C:\tgeatest\tmmokit_port_work" C:\Python25\python.exe C:\tgeatest\tmmokit_port_work\zoneserver.py -dedicated -serverport 29000 -zone base -world Premium_MMORPG -worldport 2006 gameconfig=testgame.cfg -cluster=0

This is the manual bit of information you will need for debugging. This example is using the base zone included with the kit for debugging. Replace any variables that are different in that line with your own.

3. Open up the following file mud/world/theworld.py. Look for the following code in startZoneProcess.

        if sys.platform[:6] != "darwin":
            # Just don't provide cluster number via gameconfig until
            #  MoM uses gameconfig as well.
            args += r' -cluster=%i'%self.clusterNum
            s = 'start "%s" %s %s'%(os.getcwd(),cmd,args)
            s = os.path.normpath(s)
            print s
            os.system(s)

Comment out the last line of this code. This will prevent the zones from being spawned and you will do it manually. Make sure to uncomment it when you are done testing since no zones will be loaded..

4. Once this is done run startup.bat again. You should notice the Zone Cluster will load, but no zones will load with it. This is working properly, now on to Visual Studio.

5. Follow the steps above for debugging, but we are going to make the following changes..

6. In command put the following: C:\Python25\python.exe.

7. In Command Arguments I have the following:

C:\tgeatest\tmmokit_port_work\zoneserver.py -dedicated -serverport 29000 -zone base -world Premium_MMORPG -worldport 2006 gameconfig=testgame.cfg -cluster=0

8. In Working Directory I have my working directory: C:\tgeatest\tmmokit_port_work

9. Start debugging. It should load a python window that looks like a zone window. If everything is well you are now debugging a running zone!