Forge Graphics Server — a basic introduction

Prerequisites

You need the following software to use the Forge Graphics Server:

• node
• bower
• A terminal to type commands at (e.g. Windows PowerShell)
• It is also recommended to have git installed and to know the basics of how to use it (here's a great tutorial/reference: https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/what-is-version-control)

Downloading

1. Run git clone [url] to clone the repository (the URL is probably https://github.com/forgemedia/forge-graphics.git or http://bitbucket.org/forgemedia/forge-graphics.git)
2. Run cd [folder] to change to the folder the repository was cloned to (probably forge-graphics)

First-time setup and updating

1. (optional but recommended) Run git pull to check for and download updates. The default git branch is varsity, and some versions that were used live in Forge productions have tags.
2. Run npm install
3. Run bower install

Usage

1. Run node server.js
2. The character generator can be found at localhost:3000 (add this to a BrowserSource in OBS Studio)
3. The control dashboard can be found at localhost:3000/dashboard (in a web browser)

Development

1. Run grunt to compile
2. Run grunt watch to watch for changes to JS and SCSS files
3. Run node server.js --debug to output debug messages
4. Use nodemon to monitor for changes to server.js as the server is running
5. Use grunt dev to run watch and nodemon (with debug) at the same time