TShock is a toolbox for Terraria servers and communities. That toolbox is jam packed with anti-cheat tools, server-side characters, groups, permissions, item bans, tons of commands, and limitless potential. It's one of a kind.
These instructions assume Windows. If you're setting up on Linux or macOS, please refer to the in-depth guide (and don't forget to install the latest version of mono-complete
on Linux).
Download the latest stable version and unzip
the folder using your favorite unzip tool. Make sure that all of the files in the zip get into one folder. This is where your server will be stored. The file structure looks like this:
GeoIP.dat
Newtonsoft.Json.dll
OTAPI.dll
ServerPlugins\
|------BCrypt.Net.dll
|------HttpServer.dll
|------Mono.Data.Sqlite.dll
|------MySql.Data.dll
|------TShockAPI.dll
TerrariaServer.exe
sqlite3.dll
Start TerrariaServer.exe
and TShock will boot. Answer the startup questions, and you should be ready to roll. In the background, TShock made some folders for you. We'll come back to those later.
Startup Terraria. Connect to a multiplayer
server via IP and enter localhost
if you're doing this on your local computer. If you're doing it on another computer, you need its IP address.
Look at the server console for the setup code. Type /setup [code]
(example: /setup 12345
), then a space, then the code you see in the console in your game chat. Instead of chatting, you'll run a command on the server. This one makes you temporary admin. All commands are prefixed with /
or !
(to make them silent).
Use the in-game command /user add [account name] [password] owner
(example: /user add shank lovely-ashes owner
) to create an account. This gives you owner rights on your server, which you can configure more to your liking later.
Login to your newly created account with /login [account name] [password]
(example: /login shank grilled-cheese
). You should see a login success message.
Turn off the setup system with /setup
and your server is setup for initial use. TShock also created several files inside a new tshock
folder. These files include config.json
(our big configuration file), sscconfig.json
(the server side characters configuration file), and tshock.sqlite
. Don't lose your tshock.sqlite
or you'll have to re-setup TShock.
You can now customize your configuration, build groups, ban items, and install more plugins.
To download experimental versions of TShock, you have two real options: AppVeyor builds or GitHub builds. You can also get archived Travis CI builds. Fair warning though: experimental versions of TShock are point-in-time releases that are not technically supported by us. If you have to report an issue, please make it clear which commit or branch you downloaded your build from, which service, and the build number if applicable.
On AppVeyor, click on history, find the build you want, click on the commit message, and then click on the artifacts tab. You can download either the debug or the release build. AppVeyor only keeps builds back 6 months though.
On GitHub, click on the actions tab, then click on "build server" on the commit or branch you want. If it was successful, you can download either the experimental release or debug artifacts.
These instructions are also available as a video tutorial on Streamable.
Whether you want to contribute to TShock by sending a pull request, customize it to suit your own elvish desires, or want to build your own plugin, this is the best starting point. By the end of this, you'll be able to build TShock from source, start to finish. More than that, though, you'll know how to start on the path of becoming an expert TShock developer.
But first, you need some background.
Terraria is a C# application written on the .NET framework using the XNA game framework. TShock is a mod for Terraria's server, which is also written in C# on the .NET framework. Some might compare TShock to hMod in the Minecraft world (the precursor to Bukkit and its server, CraftBukkit). This is a good comparison to make in how the underlying build process works. When the project started, TShock was injected directly into the decompiled source code for Terraria. Unlike Minecraft, Terraria is not obfuscated, which means that many variable names and inner workings are sanely-named out of the box. Now, TShock uses advanced techniques to operate.
TShock is, first and foremost, a plugin written for the server variant of the Terraria API, an unofficial construct originally built by bladecoding
. TShock
has been colloquially used to refer to both the plugin as well as the server and plugin together. Similarly, the Terraria API's client version was abandoned long ago, and development of the Server
API led to the abbreviation TSAPI
, for Terraria Server API
. The plugin TShock
is executed by the Terraria Server API, which is in turn bound to the Open Terraria API
, more commonly OTAPI
. The Open Terraria API is maintained by DeathCradle.
Now, the way that TShock
runs on TSAPI
through OTAPI
can be summarized as the following:
TSAPI
, additional modifications are done to support TSAPI specific features. This done through the TShock Mintaka Patcher
.Terraria Server API
uses hooks provided by OTAPI
to provide higher level hooks as well as legacy hooks for existing TSAPI applications.TShock
is executed by TSAPI
, uses hooks provided by both TSAPI
and OTAPI
, and provides even higher level hooks and support tools to other TSAPI
plugins.With all of this in mind, the primary goal when compiling TShock is to remember that only the second and third layers are required to be interacted with. The first layer, OTAPI
, is provided pre-compiled through NuGet. The second layer, TSAPI
, is provided in the TShock
repository through a git submodule. Its primary home is the Terraria Server API repository.
Let's get started.
You need to get the source code. Using git, clone this repository.
The next set of instructions are the technical details to setup both the Terraria Server API and TShock. More importantly, the Terraria API steps here are written under the assumption that you are building TShock primarily. Before you start, you need to initialize the git submodules and then update them. You need to use the following commands to do this.
$ git submodule init
$ git submodule update
If you're using GitHub Desktop, you need to perform additional steps. After cloning the TShock repository, go to the Repository
menu and select Open in Command Prompt
. If you don't have Git (not GitHub Desktop) installed, you can follow the prompts to to install Git for your command line. Once Git is installed, use this same process to get to the command prompt. Then, run the above commands.
On Windows, you need to install Visual Studio Community Edition or a better (more expensive) version of Visual Studio.
Open the TShock.4.OTAPI.sln
solution in the TerrariaServerAPI
folder.
Set the TShock.Modifications.Bootstrapper
project as the StartUp project.
Build the solution in either debug or release mode, depending on your preference. NuGet will automatically fetch the appropriate packages as a result of its magical powers.
Hit the "Start" button in Visual Studio to run the TShock Mintaka Bootstrapper
.
Watch the output window and make sure that a non-zero number of modifications ran. When it completes, you have successfully bootstrapped TShock Mintaka
.
Set the TerrariaServerAPI
project as the StartUp project.
Build the solution in either debug or release mode, depending on your preference.
Close TShock.4.OTAPI.sln
in Visual Studio.
You need to re-run the patcher any time OTAPI
updates. You need to rebuild TerrariaServerAPI
any time that the submodule in TShock
gets changed, if you're doing this from inside the TShock repo. You also need to update the submodules (git submodule update
) if they're out of date on a pull too.
Open the TShock.sln
solution in the root of the repository.
Build the solution. It should correctly download NuGet packages automatically and build against the aforementioned TerrariaServerAPI
project you just built.
Install Homebrew if you haven't already.
Install mono:
$ brew install mono
Verify that mono is available:
$ mono --version
Mono JIT compiler version 5.0.1.1 (2017-02/5077205 Sun Sep 17 18:29:46 BST 2017)
...
Proceed to the unix build steps to continue.
DO NOT just install mono from your package manager unless told to do so. If you do and it's out of date, you probably won't be able to successfully develop for TShock.
Follow the official install instructions for mono. DO install mono-complete
or you're missing components.
Proceed to the unix build steps to continue.
You need to get NuGet. Download the latest nuget.exe
from NuGet.
Make a ~/bin
folder if you don't have one. Then, put nuget.exe
inside it.
$ mkdir ~/bin/
$ cp ~/downloads/nuget.exe ~/bin/
Set an environment variable to store if you plan to build in debug or release.
$ export BUILD_MODE=Debug
or
$ export BUILD_MODE=Release
Perform a NuGet restore in the directory above TerrariaServerAPI
.
$ mono ~/bin/nuget.exe restore ./TerrariaServerAPI/
Build the TShock.4.OTAPI.sln
solution the configuration you chose:
$ xbuild ./TerrariaServerAPI/TShock.4.OTAPI.sln /p:Configuration=$BUILD_MODE
Run the TShock Mintaka Bootstrapper
with the TShock modifications. If you don't use /bin/bash
as your primary shell, you might want to temporarily switch to it, or the bootstrapper may fail.
$ cd ./TerrariaServerAPI/TShock.Modifications.Bootstrapper/bin/$BUILD_MODE/
$ mono TShock.Modifications.Bootstrapper.exe -in=OTAPI.dll \
-mod=../../../TShock.Modifications.**/bin/$BUILD_MODE/TShock.Modifications.*.dll \
-o=Output/OTAPI.dll
Verify that non-zero modifications ran successfully. Then, build the Terraria Server API executable.
$ cd ./../../../
$ xbuild ./TerrariaServerAPI/TerrariaServerAPI/TerrariaServerAPI.csproj \
/p:Configuration=$BUILD_MODE
You need to re-run the patcher any time OTAPI
updates. You need to rebuild TerrariaServerAPI
any time that the submodule in TShock
gets changed, if you're doing this from inside the TShock repo. You also need to update the submodules (git submodule update
) if they're out of date on a pull too.
Perform a NuGet restore in TShockAPI
folder that contains TShockAPI.sln
.
$ mono ~/bin/nuget.exe restore
Build TShock in the BUILD_MODE
you set earlier.
$ xbuild ./TShockAPI.sln /p:Configuration=$BUILD_MODE
You're done!
Working with Terraria in TShock and in other Terraria Server API plugins is different from most other APIs. Due to the nature of how OTAPI works, you have direct access to all public fields in the Terraria
namespace. This means that you can access Terraria member methods directly. TShock and other plugins do this quite often, mostly to modify the game world, send data, and receive data. Calls to Main
are one such example of direct access to Terraria. This is the equivalent to net.minecraft.server
(NMS) calls in CraftBukkit.
You might find yourself wondering where these fields are. Pryaxis provides the decompiled Sources to Terraria's server, updated with each release. Note that these decompiled servers do not re-compile. The process of fixing the decompiles has proven to be nearly impossible in a reasonable timeframe with the modern Terraria Server.
Finally, you may be interested in developing other Terraria Server API plugins. The TShockResources organization has several plugins you can look at and build on. TShock is itself a plugin, and most plugins are open source. This gives you ample room to figure out where to go next.
Need help? Join us on Telegram or Discord.
By participating in the TShock for Terraria community, all members will adhere to maintaining decorum with respect to all humans, in and out of the community. Members will not engage in discussion that inappropriately disparages or marginalizes any group of people or any individual. Members will not attempt to further or advance an agenda to the point of being overbearing or close minded (such as through spreading FUD). Members will not abuse services provided to them and will follow the guidance of community leaders on a situational basis about what abuse consists of. Members will adhere to United States and international law. If members notice a violation of this code of conduct, they will not engage but will instead contact the leadership team on either the forums or Discord.
Do not attempt to circumvent or bypass the code of conduct by using clever logic or reasoning (e.g., insulting Facepunch members, because they weren't directly mentioned here).
Note: This list is out of date. All contributors listed on the GitHub graph should be listed here.
Thanks goes to these wonderful people (emoji key):
AviKav 🐛 ⚠️ |
Rodrigo Rente 💻 📆 ⚠️ |
Stargazing Koishi 💻 🚇 |
Axeel 📖 📆 |
Patrikkk 💻 📖 ⚠️ |
Nathan Easton 💻 |
Shinon ⚠️ 💻 📖 |
Retrograde-i486 💻 |
Colin Bohn 💻 |
mrshroomy ⚠️ |
agentsparrow ⚠️ |
This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!