Contributing
Thank you for your interest in contributing to the NEXUS Framework! ♥️ We appreciate all forms of contributions, big and small — every little bit helps move the needle forward.
Bug reports, bug fixes, documentation additions, features, code, coffee, etc., benefit everyone.
While items on the Roadmap correspond to our own needs and ambitions, that doesn’t mean that contributions should be limited to just those things. If you want to drop in a feature that you think would benefit others, make a Pull Request! (against dev).
Coding Standard
We follow the published Epic C++ Coding Standard wherever possible. There are some minor cases where we will diverge with an opinionated purpose, with inspirations from Michael Allar’s UE5 Style Guide as well.
Included with the project is an EditorConfig which attempts to enforce our coding standard while working on the TestProject.
AI Policy
Touchy subject! At times, we have used JetBrains AI to generate the initial code summaries/documentation. We then review and edit them accordingly, but this has allowed us to accelerate the code documentation process. A common prompt we have used is:
id like a blurb explaining what this class does and is used for
Where the class/file and classes/files that references the class are attached for context. This is the extent to which AI is involved in this project's codebase.
Automation
Every commit to the main and dev branches (and PRs before being merged) undergoes an initial smoke test, followed by more intensive daily tests (including performance and functional tests, as well as packaging). This allows us to have some level of confidence in the framework and its capabilities.
There is also a manual test dispatcher (for approved contributors), which allows us to run tests ad hoc as needed. We also have some built GitHub actions which parse both the results JSON and the Unreal Editor log to bubble up details for ease of access.
While thorough testing is a core pillar of the framework, it is also important that we listen to real-world feedback from users of the framework to provide further validation of NEXUS. That’s a call out to everyone using the plugin to bubble up things when they happen!
Assisting With Documentaion
The documentation is meant to be a living document that allows for easy additions and corrections. The documentation is statically generated from a GitHub repository that can be easily edited. Each page of the documentation has a corresponding Edit this page link at the bottom.
Let's not kid ourselves... We are all a little lacking in documenting our work area, so this is our best bet at creating a spot to collate formalized documentation. Code documentation should still be present to mark up methods and other elements.
For more information about how to work with the documentation, please see its repository.
Source Assets
All of the source assets used by the NEXUS Framework are included in the repository. We elected to use Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, and Blender as our tools of choice. This should allow for easier access for other developers who are tired of Adobe.