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- please ignore this for now

Project website - Bug tracker

Welcome to Project Hybrasyl! Our aim is to create a well-documented and exceptionally accurate DOOMVAS v1 emulator (example: Dark Ages). Look around, make an account, and join us sometime.

This document is intended for developers; if you're interested in using a released version of Hybrasyl server, please check the Github releases page of the project website. We do not currently provide installer packages, although that is in the works. Generally, if you use the Hybrasyl launcher, our staging server is almost always online - production will be online once we implement more features!

Hybrasyl is a work in progress. A lot of the functionality you would expect from a playable game is not yet implemented. You can see what's currently in the works on the bug tracker, or check out recent project news.

The instructions in this document will guide you in setting up and running the latest version of Hybrasyl and connecting a client for testing purposes. Note that this project does not provide game content (properly configured items, maps, warps between maps, etc); it comes with a set of examples that will allow you to log in but not enough to come close to playing a real game.

It is our hope to release a content editor at some point in the future to make the process of adding content to a server much easier.

Please note that Hybrasyl Server, along with most of its components, is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 (AGPLv3). This means that, if you use this software to run a server that other users can connect to, you are required by the license to release the corresponding source code, which means that any and all modifications you make to the server software are also licensed under the AGPLv3. Read more at gnu.org.

By using this license for Hybrasyl, our intent is to foster a vibrant community whose development and progress are open and available to all.

Please note: these restrictions do not apply to in-game Python scripts and/or world data you may create for your server. Whether or not you distribute that content is up to you.

You will need four things to compile and use Hybrasyl:

• Hybrasyl Launcher
• Redis
• Hybrasyl SDK
• Dark Ages Client

There are three processes that need to be properly configured in order to connect a Dark Ages client to your own Hybrasyl instance:

• The launcher (which modifies the Dark Ages client to get it to connect to the server)
• The game server (what you're looking at now)
• A running instance of Redis, which will be used for storing state data.

This tutorial assumes that the launcher (DA client) and Hybrasyl server will be running on the same machine. Redis can be located anywhere, as long as Hybrasyl can reach it (it could even be an Amazon Elasticache instance).

The game server maintains all game metadata and state, including registered character names, mobs, towns, spawn points, items, and a bunch of other game-related data. The Hybrasyl server retrieves state data such as players, player inventory, messageboards and mailboxes from its companion Redis server at runtime; XML is processed when the server starts up for actual world data (items, maps, mobs, etc).

1. Download and install the Windows installer for Redis 2.8 from the MSOpenTech releases page. There is no requirement for Redis to be local to the server; it can be hosted anywhere, though we recommend it is located on the same network segment for better security. Redis should work out of the box with Hybrasyl with its default settings. You will need to ensure that the Redis port, TCP/6379, can be accessed from the server running Hybrasyl; you may need to grant access or open ports.

2. Create some directories manually (we swear this will be automatically handled soon). You’ll need the Hybrasyl data directory, which, for convenience, is currently located at %MYDOCUMENTS%\Hybrasyl\world. You’ll need the following directories under world:

   Location	Use	Status
   mapfiles	Used to store *.map files. Map files have a unique ID, which will be referred to in map XML.	Fully implemented
   scripts/castable	Scripts (*.py) that can be called by castables (skills and spells) to trigger actions.	Work in progress
   scripts/item	Scripts that can be called by items (e.g. on item use).	Not implemented
   scripts/npc	Scripts that will be used by NPCs to interact with players (dialogs, etc.)	Fully implemented
   scripts/reactor	Scripts that will be used by reactors (map tiles that respond to events).	Not implemented
   scripts/startup	Scripts that will be run by Hybrasyl at startup.	Fully implemented
   xml/items	Items in the game.	Fully implemented.
   xml/castables	Castables (actions).	Work in progress. Basic support
   xml/itemvariants	Item variants (create modifiers on items, such as Really Cool Stick.	Fully implemented for known variants; custom variants will require coding work.
   xml/maps	Maps, including signpost / messageboard locations, NPCs, etc.	Fully implemented.
   xml/nations	Nations (citizenship), including spawnpoints.	Fully implemented.
   xml/worldmaps	World maps (travelling between areas).	Fully implemented.

3. Copy the example XML data (including subdirectories) from the examples directory into the world\xml directory. This will populate the world with enough to login as a user, wander around, and test functionality.

The process for compiling Hybrasyl is detailed below.

1. Install Microsoft Visual Studio. The Community Edition is free and capable of compiling all the needed projects (server, launcher and sdk).
2. Install IronPython. Hybrasyl currently uses Python for all of its scripting.
3. Clone the launcher, server, and sdk repositories to your local machine using a git client. Make sure you clone them into separate directories.
4. Open the Hybrasyl SDK solution (HybrasylIntegration.sln) from the SDK repository, and build the integration libraries (just click build).
5. Open the Hybrasyl Server solution (Hybrasyl.sln) in Visual Studio and update all NuGet packages (just building it will do this).
6. Build Hybrasyl. The default settings should be adequate for most system setups, assuming you've updated and installed all NuGet packages (which should occur automatically).
7. Copy lod136.map and lod500.map from your Dark Ages directory (or an online archive) into My Documents\Hybrasyl\mapfiles (the directory you created above).
8. Run Hybrasyl.exe either from within Visual Studio or as a standalone executable in the hybrasyl\bin\Debug folder of your git checkout. This should launch the server and run you through a first-launch configuration wizard. Here's you'll need to point the game server at Redis; make sure you provide the right hostname and that the ports are open. You can change any of Hybrasyl’s settings later by editing config.xml in My Documents\Hybrasyl.

Now that your setup is complete, you should be able to use the released version of the launcher to connect to it. In case you have trouble with the latest launcher, open Hy-brasyl Launcher.sln and build the project. Launch the executable and select localhost from the server selection dropdown. You should now be able to connect to your Hybrasyl server, create a new character, and log in!

If not, well, take a look at the section on getting help.

Log in to your new server by launching the Hy-brasyl Launcher application, either compiled as described above or downloaded from hybrasyl.com. Point it to a local Dark Ages client installation, select localhost from the server configuration dropdown, and launch. The launcher will ask you for a local Dark Ages client executable; you must have the latest client installed in order to continue. Once launched, you should see a Hybrasyl welcome screen in place of the standard Dark Ages welcome screen. Congratulations -- you're connected!

Create a character and log in the same way you would on a production server. You should find your Aisling in an inn and ready to explore the world.

• There are a number of admin flags that can be used for common tasks like creating items, teleporting, or changing level and class. Certain flags require that you be registered as a game master. You can update config.xml to add your character as a privileged user (GM) by adding the following stanza:

  <access>
    <privileged>MyUser</privileged>
  </access>

• Try typing /item Stick when you log in to add a stick to your inventory. You can add any item that is a valid Item XML file in xml/items in your world directory.

• Warps are links between locations on the map. You can add or remove warps in a map file (e.g. xml/maps/ExampleVillage.xml).

• You can add new items by creating new XML files. The example items should provide good models to follow; there are also XSD files for the XML structure in the SDK repository. We hope to make a world editor available eventually.

We're here to help!

The project maintains a public Discord server and it should be your first go-to for asking questions. Remember that Hybrasyl is a volunteer project, not a job; we'll try to get to your questions as soon as we see them.

We also maintain two Google Groups, one for developers and one for users.

We welcome contributions to the project! We encourage new developers to visit us on Discord or send some emails to the developer list and get to know us first, especially if you plan on tackling a substantial feature or change. Hybrasyl follows the standard Github fork model, so fork us today and submit a PR!

Please note that in order to contribute to the project, you must agree to the terms of our contributor agreement.