How to run specific collection?

[boruok]

Problem: run selected/specified collection as bootstrap without interfering to main.collection.

Found a bunch of topics, most recent was 2 years ago.

Fast testing 1 collection

Hello I’m back to ask something is possible to test my new collection without change the game project which the procedure is game.project > bootstrap > main collection. I only want to test new collection. Without change the main collection? Compare with godot or unity they have test 1 scene / node, without change the main scene. it’s possible to do that? or any tips for do that without lazy change the game project?

How to debug a specific collection/stage/game configuration?

Hello folks, If I was to try making a pretty big game with Defold how would I proceed to launch debug not at the beginning of the game ? For example, to launch a specific level/stage, to launch with a specific inventory, or to launch after some specific random results. Is it a better way than changing the main collection in project configuration ? Thanks

EDITOR: Load .collection via right-click (instead of bootstrapping)

Hey there. To be able to right-click a .collection and run it, instead of going to 1) game.project 2) bootstrap rider 3) select a collection, it would be easier if we can just right-click a collection and thus, temporarily, run it. Would make sense? Or not? Best, tL.

My current approach is using bob:

1. make build to apply changes.

bob --variant=debug

2. make binary executable

chmod +x build/x86_64-linux/dmengine

3. finally tell dmengine to override bootstap and run!

build/x86_64-linux/dmengine --config=bootstrap.main_collection=/collections/tests.collectionc

But here is 2 problems:

1. dmengine can’t run collection that doesn’t exists, so you must inlcude tests.collection into main.collection (for example as collection proxy)
2. you have to run 3 commands each time when you change something (which can be automated) and wait around 2 seconds each time (hello unity!)

Maybe someone have different approach?

[Wolfe2x7]

1. To include tests.collection (or anything else) in the bundle without referencing it somewhere, you can declare it as a custom resource in game.project, in the “Project” category.
2. Are you bundling the game every time you make a change to it, maybe because you want to test it without Defold’s profiler and all? Or do you want to test different collections without changing the value in the game.project file because you might forget to change it back?

My approach is to have two collection proxies in main.collection and use a script to determine which collection is played. It would look like this. It follows the “loader” pattern described in the Collection Proxy manual.

go.property('play_debug_collection', false)

function init(self)
	if sys.get_engine_info().is_debug and self.play_debug_collection then
		msg.post('#tests', 'load')
	else
		msg.post('#start game', 'load')
	end
end

function on_message(self, message_id, message, sender)
	if message_id == hash('proxy_loaded') then
		msg.post(sender, 'init')
		msg.post(sender, 'enable')
	end
end

Then the file path and toggle belong to main.collection instead of in game.project, and the debug collection won’t be accidentally loaded in a release build.