Template directories

How a template is laid out in the repository, and what rusteal new does with it. How an engine template becomes one is in Porting an engine template, and features in Features.

A template is a directory under rusteal-cli/templates/, one directory per variant inside it, base being the template without --variant; they are embedded in the binary when it is built, and nothing else registers them. A variant directory mirrors the root of the project it creates:

• template.toml names the engine template the project starts from (engine_template), the paths of it to leave out (exclude: the C++ gameplay the template replaces, the other variants), the level to open when it is not the engine template’s own (default_map), a one-line description and the next_step printed at the end;
• every other file is written into the project over the engine template’s: *.tera files are rendered with Tera and lose the extension, the rest (Blueprints, meshes) is copied as is;
• {{ variable }} works in folder and file names too: Rust/{{crate_name}}/src/lib.rs.tera.

The context is the same for every template: project, crate_name, version, glam_version and, with --runtime-path, runtime_path.

Each variant is complete on its own. A new one starts as a copy of the closest existing one (a variant from its template’s base) and is changed from there, never layered on top of it. Its Blueprints come from a project where they were made and played, saved with the engine version Rusteal targets. A variant with something to see has a screenshot in assets/templates/, shown on the template’s page in the game developer’s handbook.

A plugin template is a directory under rusteal-cli/plugin_templates/, written into Plugins/<Name>/ by rusteal plugin new --template <name>: its template.toml has the description and the next_step, and its files are rendered the same way, with plugin, crate_name, version, glam_version and runtime_path as context. The plugin’s module, its Build.cs and <Name>Module.cpp, come with the template: copy them from blank (a runtime module) or editor (an editor module).

A plugin template with a [feature] table in its template.toml is a feature: plugin is the plugin’s name in the project (its assets live under /<plugin>/, so a feature with Content/ keeps that name), and shared_packs lists the engine template packs it needs (High/Characters is Templates/TemplateResources/High/Characters), copied into the project’s Content/ without replacing what is there. A template’s template.toml bundles features with features = [...].