BF2 Internals
The BF2 engine has been written in C++ and also make heavy use of STL.
Reference Counting
A lot of the internal components of the game use intrusive reference counting through inheritance. The base class would look something like this:
class RefCounted {
public:
RefCounted() : m_refCount(1) {}
virtual ~RefCounted() {}
virtual int addRef() {
return ++m_refCount;
}
virtual int getRefCount() const {
return m_refCount;
}
// Unsure if there actually is a base implementation of this method,
// this is almost always points to a unique function in the vtable but follows this pattern.
virtual int release() {
if (--m_refCount == 0) {
delete (RefCounted*)this;
}
return m_refCount;
}
private:
int m_refCount;
};
Do note that this class is not thread-safe, as in the actual implementation.
ClassManager
The program contains a single ClassManager instance which is used to dynamically access different subsystems within the game. These subsystems are registered via a string identifier(class name), an instance pointer, the class id and another unknown integer, they can then later be accessed using the class name. The following classes are registered in BF2.exe:
- GameServerSettings
- HudInformationLayer
- DistributedLightRenderer
- LocalProfileManager
- ProfileManager
- RankManager
- ClanManager
- NewsManager
- AutoPatch
- Persistence
- MenuTeamManager
- GlobalSettings
- VideoSettings
- AudioSettings
- ControlSettings
- GeneralSettings
- HapticSettings
- ServerBrowserManager
- SwiffHost
- DemoLibrary
- ServerLogoManager
- ModInfo
The rendering module(RendDX9.dll) also registers the following classes:
- SwiffRenderer
- Terrain
- LightManager
- GeometryTemplateManager
- StaticMeshRenderer
- SkinnedMeshRenderer
- ParticleSystemManager
- HemiMapManager
- DecalManager
- DecalShadowManager
- RoadCompiledRenderer
- RoadEditableRenderer
- NametagManager
- SkyDome
- UndergrowthSystem
- LightingManager
- WeatherManager
- RainManager
- RenderView
- EnvMapManager
Common
GameEvent
The game has multiple event systems, game events are events that occur in-game and are related to gameplay.
The (incomplete) class below is the base class used by all events, events often have additional data.
A GameEvent has a maximum size of 1024 bits as defined by const uint MaximumGameEventSize.
class GameEvent : public RefCounted {
public:
GameEvent() : field_8(-1) {}
// multiple virtual functions here
private:
int field_8;
};
List of Game events:
- ChallengeEvent
- ChallengeResponseEvent
- ConnectionTypeEvent
- DataBlockEvent
- CreatePlayerEvent
- CreateObjectEvent
- CreateKitEvent
- DestroyObjectEvent
- DestroyPlayerEvent
- EnterVehicleEvent
- ExitVehicleEvent
- PostRemoteEvent
- ChangePlayerNameEvent
- HandlePickupEvent
- HandleDropEvent
- StringBlockEvent
- JoinSquadEvent
- LeaveSquadEvent
- CommanderEvent
- RadioMessageEvent
- KilledByEvent
- ChangeSquadNameEvent
- SetPrivateSquadEvent
- IssueSquadOrderEvent
- InviteEvent
- RankEvent
- KickBanEvent
- SetAcceptOrderEvent
- SetSquadLeaderEvent
- SpottedEvent
- ArtilleryEvent
- StickyProjectileEvent
- AmbientEffectAreaEvent
- VoipOnOffEvent
- CommanderCamEvent
- SupplyDropEvent
- VoidPlayerMuteEvent
- VoteEvent
- TargetDirectionEvent
- BeginRoundEvent
- EndOfRoundEvent
- PythonCommandEvent
- RequestEvent
- VoipSessionEvent
- ToggleFreeCameraEvent
- MedalEvent
- UnlockEvent
- MissileInitEvent
- UAVEvent
- ContentCheckEvent
- DropVehicleEvent
- CreateSpawnGroupEvent
- RemoveSpawnGroupEvent
- UpdateTriggerEvent
- GrapplingHookContainerCreateEvent
- GrapplingHookContainerUpdateEvent
- GrapplingHookContainerDetachEvent
- GrapplingHookCreateEvent
- GrapplingHookUpdateEvent
- PlayerTearGassedEvent
- SetNightVisionEvent
- VerifyPlayerTeamEvent
- FixPlayerTeamEvent