Testing

Testing Changes to the Game Files

This document is intended for use by modders who want to contribute to XGM or use XGM as a base for their own mod. It describes basic procedures for testing changes made to the game files.

Full Testing

If you want to thoroughly test your version of XGM, the most reliable method is to compile it, install it, and then play it. A full battery of tests would include:

• Installing several times with various install options
• Installing with all three versions of the RTW exe
• Starting every campaign, including all of the provincial campaigns
• Starting every historical battle
• Starting custom battles to test every unit in your version
• Running through campaigns with the -ai command line switch
• Specifically testing all recent changes

All of this can take a long time, so in most case you will only want to do a thorough battery of tests like this just prior to a public release.

Quick Testing

What I will describe here is a method for making a small number of changes, and testing them quickly, without having to compile XGM.

1. Start by installing a basic RTW exe version of XGM, or the most recently compiled version of your branch, with no install options selected. If you have BI installed this will require renaming the BI exe temporarily while you run the installer.
   note: You want to use the RTW exe version because that version will still work even if you just drop your source files into the the [Rome]/xgm/ folder.
2. Make some changes to the working copy of your branch.
3. Copy Main/xgm/data from your working copy over [Rome]/xgm/data.
   note: If you have only changed a few files you can probably get away with just copying those into [Rome]/xgm/data.
4. Start up XGM and test your changes.
5. Assuming the tests went OK, commit your changes.

If the changes you made turn out to have screwed up your working copy to the point where you can't figure out how to fix it, you can just revert back to the last working version in the repository. Just copying changes into [Rome]/xgm/data like this will work most of the time, for most changes. But it is still a good idea to compile your version regularly and test a full install. That's the only way to be sure that your current version really works.