Tomb Raider 3 source code notes

The source code for TR2/TR3 was briefly leaked online in March 2018 (see info).

This post will document my studies of the code.

First step is to get the project opened in an IDE.

I have Visual C++ 6.0 running on Windows 98 in a Vmware virtual machine.

The workspace file (.dsw) and project file (.dsp) were not recognized initially.

I found I had to convert the line endings in each file from Unix style to Windows style. I used Programmer’s Notepad to do this.

VC++ 6.0 said the project was created in a previous version so I guess the project was created in Visual Studio 97.



VC++ 6.0 has rather limited tools for exploring code so I opened the original workspace file  (with corrected line endings) in VS 2013 Community. The project is converted but does not build successfully – too many errors.

C++ programs start executing at the “main” function or “WinMain” function for Windows C++ programs.

I found the “WinMain” function in “main.cpp” in the “PC Specific” folder.

This calls the “GameMain()” function which you can jump to by right clicking on the function name and selecting “Go to Definition”. This finds the “GameMain()” function in “smain.cpp”.

This is where the script file , “tombPC.dat”, is loaded.

“GameMain()” calls “GF_DoLevelSequence()” to start the game which is found in “gameflow.c”.

“GF_DoLevelSequence()” calls “GF_InterpretSequence()” which is also in “gameflow.c”.

“GF_InterpretSequence()” calls “StartGame()” in “Game.cpp”.

“StartGame()” is where the level is loaded, in “InitialiseLevel()” in “Setup.c”.

“StartGame()” calls “GameLoop()” also found in “Game.cpp”.

The program keeps executing in the while loop found in “GameLoop()” until the game is over.

Two functions are called repeatedly in the game loop.

“ControlPhase()” found in “Control.c” and “DrawPhaseGame()” found in “Draw.c”.


part 2

How to build source code in VS 2019