New Codebase Architecture

As TerraModulus will construct a brand-new architecture to replace the old codebase structure from Minicraft+, all the characteristics should be renewed to meet the modern standards. Notably, the new codebase will be using Kotlin as its base language along with several subprojects and even side projects for enhanced structural plans of this project.

For the most cases, it is good to keep updated with the latest long-time-support (LTS) versions. If the major language level change is too frequent, it may cause certain maintenance drawbacks. Keeping updated with the latest could make sure the codebase is still meeting with the modern standards while solving stale issues. Since this project is for end product, there is no real need to keep the project language version as old as possible.

At the moment, Kotlin has fewer breaking changes than Java Development Kits (JDK), so it would be enough to keep up with Kotlin's latest version, while ensuring latest stable language features are available for project usages. However, for distributions, it is still necessary to release as the latest Java Virtual Machine (JVM) version for security updates and also JVM server features. This part could be aided by having the Launcher project for TerraModulus.

For Rust, the latest stable versions could be used without concerns, since new language features are still rolling out. This includes several experimental features that could aid development and quality assurance. However, new editions should be adapted only when they go stabled to ensure the minimal chances of language vulnerabilities.

As demonstrated in the above diagram, the TerraModulus project consists of several elements. It is worth noting that, the scale of this project may not be small; if possible, this project could greatly grow.

On the platform side, the website portal would allow client interactions and also resource management. As an abstract, several elements have to be drafted out to outline this architecture better, but in general, there would be the account system and the game itself, along with user-created content hosted on a marketplace. The Launcher would act as a simple entry layer of an account over the entire platform system, and allow launching the game client instances.

For the game instances, there would be the client instance and dedicated server instance, where the client instances also include basic local hosting functionalities. Basically, the dedicated server instance would not have a client user interface but with commands or terminal controls for extensive hosting functions. In the codebase, Kotlin handles the abstraction logic of the game application and Rust handles the low level game engine. The abstraction layer includes the user interface components, including but not limited to graphical and audio elements, as well as world objects; the game engine includes the rendering system, physics logics, networking and raw resource management, as well as other computational heavy tasks.

Other than those implementation entities, there is also the Execution Framework Proposal (EFP) system for standardization and general documentation under the TerraModulus community. The EFPs undergo their unique process alongside the implementation parts of the project. The management parts also include the community individuals, interacting with the entire community.

• Issue TerraModulus#47