OpenRA3

A from-scratch, portable re-implementation of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 in C++26 using C++ modules and import std;, built with Clang for both Linux and Windows.

Red Alert 3 runs SAGE 2.0. EA never released that engine's C++ source, but it did open-source the closely related SAGE 1.0 engine as electronicarts/CnC_Generals_Zero_Hour (GPLv3). OpenRA3 uses that tree as the architectural reference and reconstructs the RA3-specific behaviour by decompiling the retail ra3_1.12.game binary with Ghidra.

OpenRA3 ships no game assets or binaries. You must own Red Alert 3. The engine reads your own local installation at runtime; nothing from it is ever copied into this repository. Command & Conquer and Red Alert are trademarks of Electronic Arts; this project is unaffiliated with and unsupported by EA.

Status

OpenRA3 is at v0.8.0. The engine compiles and runs headless, and a minimal skirmish is playable: it reads a real multiplayer map out of your install, recovers the player start waypoints, and simulates two sides building a base, extracting ore and fighting until one side is wiped out. The balance is the retail Red Alert 3 balance, pinned in ra3.data from EA's open RA3 XML: damage types, ArmorTemplate percentages, weapon target masks, build costs and the ore economy. Presentation offers Vulkan (ra3.vulkan), Direct3D 11 / 12 (ra3.dx), WebGPU (ra3.webgpu, the wasm worker backend) and WebGL 2 (ra3.wasmgl, the SDL-free wasm worker fallback) GPU backends with an SDL software blit and null fallbacks; the backend is selectable from the in-game menu and the software renderer still produces headless images. Terrain tiles cross-fade the way the retail Terrain.fx does (a per-cell blend ramp plus a gutter-padded atlas), so material boundaries are smooth instead of a grid of hard lines; the buildings and props a map places are decoded from the retail compiled W3DMesh art (the uncompressed worldbuilder.bin stream and its embedded DDS textures) and drawn with a depth test over the terrain. An in-window menu lists the maps by their localized name and exposes every render/skirmish option for tweaking before launch. The whole tree builds for Linux (clang + libc++) and cross-compiles to Windows (openra3.exe + SDL3.dll) with llvm-mingw — both using C++26 modules and import std;.

$ openra3 skirmish --game-dir "/game" --map map_mp_2_feasel4
OpenRA3 skirmish  map=map_mp_2_feasel4  source=archive:map_mp_2_feasel4  seed=1
start positions:
  P0 (1338, 1940)
  P1 (1291, 1404)
result: decided  winner=0  frames=9293 (309.8 s)
  P0 Commander  Allied  money=   700 units=15 kills=21 losses=15
  P1 AI         Soviet  money=   376 units= 0 kills=15 losses=21

Offline only

OpenRA3 implements offline skirmish and, eventually, LAN/single-player. There is deliberately no online mode: no EA account, no online service, no matchmaking, no GameSpy/Steam integration, and no networking in the simulation. The match loop is deterministic and self-contained so it can be replayed and tested without any external service.

Assets

The runtime reads a portable assets/ folder next to the executable — there is no --game-dir at run time. The build extracts it from your install:

• openra3_assets (build target) runs cmake/extract_assets.cmake, which
  • extracts every map (double-unwrapped CkMp) and terrain TGA into assets/ via the engine's own openra3 extract;
  • with -DOPENRA3_EXTRACT_ALL=ON (default) also dumps every .big entry plus models, textures (.png), sound effects/voice and movie audio via the ra3-headless/ra3tools scripts.
• CMake cache vars: RA3_GAME_DIR (default C:/Red Alert 3), RA3TOOLS_DIR (the ra3tools scripts), PYTHON_EXECUTABLE.
• The step is skipped when the exe cannot run on the build host (a Windows cross-build in a Linux container); the exe then extracts maps/terrain on first launch, and the full dump can be run explicitly: cmake --build <build> --target openra3_assets on a native host, or openra3 extract --game-dir DIR --out DIR.

No game data is committed or distributed. reference/, assets/ and the ra3tools checkout are git-ignored. Without an install the engine falls back to a built-in test map so the project still builds and runs in CI.

Layout

Path	Purpose
src/core/ra3.core.cppm	fundamental types, math, strings, random, message stream
src/logic/ra3.logic.cppm	objects, players, teams, spatial partition, game loop
src/client/ra3.client.cppm	display abstraction + shared interactive loops + client facade
src/display/ra3.display.cppm	picks the backend (Vulkan/D3D11/D3D12/WebGL, then SDL) for the app
src/game/ra3.game.cppm	RA3 sides, player templates, skirmish defaults
src/data/ra3.data.cppm	retail RA3 balance: damage types, armour, weapons, units, economy
src/fs/ra3.fs.cppm	BIG4 archives, RefPack codec, local install locator
src/map/ra3.map.cppm	map catalog, EAR/RefPack unwrap, start waypoints, gamestrings.csf display names
src/skirmish/ra3.skirmish.cppm	base building, economy, AI, combat, win condition
src/terrain/ra3.terrain.cppm	CkMp terrain: HeightMapData, BlendTileData (tiles + blends), Terrain.big tiles
src/models/ra3.models.cppm	compiled W3DMesh art (BAB stream + DDS textures) for the objects a map places
src/render/ra3.render.cppm	ARGB framebuffer, TGA decode, BMP encode, map compositing, bitmap-font text
src/ui/ra3.ui.*.cppm	SDL3 window viewer and menu (null backend when SDL3 is absent)
src/vulkan/ra3.vulkan.*.cppm	Vulkan presentation backend and menu (null fallback without a loader)
src/dx/ra3.dx.*.cppm	Direct3D 11/12 presentation backend (runtime HLSL; null fallback off Windows)
src/wasmgl/ra3.wasmgl.*.cppm	SDL-free wasm backend: engine on a Web Worker, WebGL2 on an OffscreenCanvas, lazy assets (null fallback off Emscripten)
src/webgpu/ra3.webgpu.*.cppm	WebGPU wasm backend (Dawn emdawnwebgpu, WGSL; the default on wasm, falls back to ra3.wasmgl)
third_party/libenderlog/	vendored C++26 module logger (import ender.log;, MIT) with a native stack fallback for libc++
src/ra3.cppm	umbrella module re-exporting the SDK
apps/openra3/main.cpp	menu / maps / skirmish / render CLI
tests/ra3_tests.cpp	smoke tests (run via ctest)
tools/	reference fetch + Ghidra-driven reconstruction helpers
docs/	architecture & master plan, reverse-engineering notes
Dockerfile	Linux build image (dev toolchain + deploy runtime)
Dockerfile.win	isolated Windows cross-build image (llvm-mingw + SDL3 MinGW)
cmake/toolchains/	llvm-mingw-x86_64.cmake cross toolchain
scripts/	build-linux.sh / build-windows.sh one-shot builders
.gitlab-ci.yml	build both targets → test → package pipeline

Why Clang + import std;

The engine never #includes the standard library: every module does import std;. CMake's support for that (CXX_MODULE_STD) works today with Clang + libc++. Linux uses the distro clang (LLVM 21); Windows cross-compiles with llvm-mingw (clang 23 + libc++ + the libc++ std module). The two toolchains live in separate images so their compilers and standard libraries never interfere.

Build

The host needs no toolchain: each target builds inside its own image.

# Linux (amd64)   -> build/linux/bin/openra3 + .deb
scripts/build-linux.sh

# Linux/arm64     -> build/linux-arm64/bin/openra3 + .deb   (cross)
scripts/build-linux-arm64.sh

# Debian (amd64)  -> build/debian/bin/openra3 + .deb
scripts/build-debian.sh

# Debian (arm64)  -> build/debian-arm64/bin/openra3 + .deb   (cross)
scripts/build-debian-arm64.sh

# Windows (x86_64) -> build/windows/bin/openra3.exe + SDL3.dll, .zip, .msi
scripts/build-windows.sh

# Windows (arm64)  -> build/windows-arm64/bin/openra3.exe + SDL3.dll, .zip   (cross)
scripts/build-windows-arm64.sh

# WebAssembly      -> build/wasm/bin/index.html (+ openra3.js/.wasm, openra3.worker.js)
scripts/build-wasm.sh

Every target is cross-built from x86_64 Linux in its own image: llvm-mingw for the Windows targets, clang + libc++ with dpkg multiarch for the arm64 targets, and Debian/Ubuntu-specific images for the .deb packages.

Or drive Docker directly:

docker build --target dev -t openra3-linux:local .
docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/work" -w /work openra3-linux:local \
    cmake -S . -B build/linux -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/work" -w /work openra3-linux:local cmake --build build/linux -j
docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/work" -w /work openra3-linux:local ctest --test-dir build/linux --output-on-failure

docker build -f Dockerfile.win --target dev -t openra3-windows:local .
docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/work" -w /work openra3-windows:local \
    cmake -S . -B build/windows -G Ninja \
        -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=cmake/toolchains/llvm-mingw-x86_64.cmake \
        -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/work" -w /work openra3-windows:local cmake --build build/windows -j

Behind a slow or blocked mirror, pass --build-arg APT_MIRROR=<url>.

The two images are deliberately separate so the Linux (clang + libc++) and Windows (llvm-mingw + MinGW SDL3) toolchains never interfere. The Windows demo is build/windows/bin/openra3.exe next to SDL3.dll:

# show a real map in a Vulkan window
openra3.exe render --game-dir "C:\Red Alert 3" --vulkan

Vulkan is provided by vendored volk + headers (third_party/), resolved at runtime, so neither image needs a Vulkan SDK.

WebAssembly

OpenRA3 also builds to WebAssembly with Emscripten (scripts/build-wasm.sh), producing openra3.js + .wasm plus the index.html page and openra3.worker.js bootstrap. The browser gets the same GPU renderer as the desktop builds: the engine runs on a Web Worker (no SDL, no blocking of the page) and draws into an OffscreenCanvas handed over by the page. The default wasm backend is ra3.webgpu (WebGPU, WGSL shaders via Emscripten's emdawnwebgpu port); it falls back to ra3.wasmgl (WebGL2, the GLSL ES ports of the desktop shaders) when WebGPU is unavailable. The page keeps the DOM (input, resize) and forwards events to the worker, so the main thread stays responsive.

Because the runtime's main thread lives in the worker, its filesystem is local to it and assets load on demand: point OPENRA3_WEB_ASSETS at the extracted asset tree and the build embeds an assets.manifest.json; at startup the worker registers every listed file as a lazy file, so the browser fetches a file only when the engine first opens it (entering a map pulls just that map and the tiles it uses, not the whole tree).

# build (generates the manifest from the extracted assets, embeds it)
OPENRA3_WEB_ASSETS=/path/to/assets scripts/build-wasm.sh

# serve the build output (Range-capable, COOP/COEP; --assets is the lazy tree)
python3 apps/web/serve.py --root build/wasm/bin --assets /path/to/assets
# open http://localhost:8199/index.html

The engine's frame loops are blocking; the wasm build yields to the worker's event loop via Asyncify (display::sleep_frame calls emscripten_sleep), so the page repaints and handles input. Log records go to console.log at their real level (the console sink uses stdout on the web instead of stderr). Without OPENRA3_WEB_ASSETS the module still loads and starts, but exits at the menu because no maps are found.

Packages

CPack produces the release artifacts; the Docker images and CI run it for every target.

Target	Portable	Installer
Linux amd64 (Ubuntu 26.04)	.tar.gz	openra3_<v>_amd64ubuntu26.04.deb
Linux arm64 (Ubuntu 26.04)	.tar.gz	openra3_<v>_arm64ubuntu26.04.deb
Linux amd64 (Debian 13)	.tar.gz	openra3_<v>_amd64debian13.deb
Linux arm64 (Debian 13)	.tar.gz	openra3_<v>_arm64debian13.deb
Windows x86_64	openra3-<v>-windows-x86_64.zip	openra3-<v>-windows-x86_64.msi
Windows arm64	openra3-<v>-windows-arm64.zip	(WiX-only; see below)

The .deb dependencies are derived from the binary with dpkg-shlibdeps. The .msi is built with wixl (msitools) straight from the Linux cross image; wixl 0.106 has no arm64 support, so Windows/ARM64 ships the portable .zip (the MSI toolchain for ARM64 would be WiX v4 via the .NET SDK).

Logging

Every run writes openra3.log in a per-user logs/ folder — on Windows %LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenRA3\logs, elsewhere $XDG_STATE_HOME/openra3/logs (falling back to ~/.local/state/openra3/logs) — created on first use and kept out of the binary's own directory, through the vendored libenderlog module (import ender.log;). A file sink archives the previous log to openra3.<YYYYmmdd-HHMMSS>.log on open, so each run gets its own file; the active file rotates at 4 MiB and the last 10 archives are kept. Records at warn and above carry a call stack (Windows CaptureStackBackTrace / POSIX execinfo, because libc++ has no <stacktrace>). A hard crash also writes openra3_crash.log alongside it with the faulting module and a raw backtrace.

Running a skirmish

# list the maps in your install
docker run --rm -v "/path/to/Red Alert 3:/game:ro" openra3-linux:local \
    /work/build/linux/bin/openra3 maps --game-dir /game

# play a headless skirmish on a real map
docker run --rm -v "/path/to/Red Alert 3:/game:ro" openra3-linux:local \
    /work/build/linux/bin/openra3 skirmish --game-dir /game --map map_mp_2_feasel4 --seed 7

The Windows build is a native openra3.exe — copy it next to SDL3.dll and run it from cmd/PowerShell, e.g. openra3.exe skirmish --game-dir "C:\Red Alert 3".

--frames N caps the simulation length (default 15 minutes of game time at 30 Hz). The result is deterministic for a given map and seed.

Menu

Run openra3 with no arguments (or openra3 menu) to open a window listing the maps by their localized display name (read from the install's gamestrings.csf, e.g. map_mp_2_feasel4 → "Battlebase Beta") with their id below. The Options column exposes every render/skirmish parameter — mode (3D terrain / top-down / skirmish), window size, camera pitch/yaw/height, FOV, zoom, terrain scale, terrain pitch, world size, seed, frame cap, the overview thumbnail toggle and a BMP output path. Up/Down selects, Left/Right changes a value (or moves the text caret on the BMP field), Tab switches between the map list and the options, Enter starts and Esc quits. Starting a 3D or top-down view opens the viewer; closing it returns to the menu. When no window backend is available the same flow falls back to a console picker, and openra3 menu-preview renders one menu frame to a BMP for inspection.

Rendering the map

render draws the real terrain: it parses the map's HeightMapData (elevation grid) and BlendTileData (per-cell tile index plus the per-cell Blends/ThreeWayBlends and their BlendDescriptions), loads the tile textures from Data\Terrain.big (RefPack + TGA), and rasterises the map with an elevation shade. Each cell cross-fades into its blend neighbour with the same linear ramp the retail Terrain.fx uses, so material transitions are smooth; on the GPU path the tile atlas is padded with a replicated gutter so filtering never bleeds between tiles. It also draws the buildings and props the map places: the ObjectsList chunk is decoded into (type, position, angle) instances, the type resolves to its compiled W3DMesh parts in the map's art stream (Data\WBData.big's uncompressed worldbuilder.bin), the embedded DDS textures are decoded, bind-pose skinning places each mesh's bone-space vertices (W3DHierarchy), and the scene is flattened into one world-space triangle soup. The terrain raymarcher writes a depth value so the model pass depth-tests against the relief; the GPU path draws it in a second pipeline (shared camera basis, with a small depth bias so ground decals do not z-fight) and the software path rasterises it with a z-buffer. Match state is overlaid (start markers in yellow, player 0 in blue, player 1 in red). --thumbnail uses the old <map>_art.tga overview instead.

Roads / sidewalks are drawn too: the map stores each as a RoadType::Start/End pair of objects, and render emits a flat textured ribbon along each segment, lifted onto the terrain with a small depth bias so it does not clip into the ground.

Offscreen image (works anywhere, no display needed):

docker run --rm -v "/path/to/Red Alert 3:/game:ro" -v "$PWD/out:/out" openra3-linux:local \
    /work/build/linux/bin/openra3 render --game-dir /game --map map_mp_2_feasel4 --out /out/map.bmp

On Windows the same command runs natively: openra3.exe render --game-dir "C:\Red Alert 3" --map map_mp_2_feasel4 opens an SDL3 window.

Interactive window (Vulkan with --vulkan, otherwise SDL3). The camera follows the retail tactical view: it opens centred on the first player's start, the wheel zooms, pushing the cursor against a screen edge scrolls, dragging with the left button pans, and Esc quits. --zoom Z sets the initial zoom (1 fits the whole map). In a container you need an X server on the host — on Windows run VcXsrv and launch it with "Disable access control", then:

docker run --rm -v "/path/to/Red Alert 3:/game:ro" -e DISPLAY=host.docker.internal:0.0 \
    openra3-linux:local /work/build/linux/bin/openra3 render --game-dir /game --map map_mp_2_feasel4

If no display is available the viewer falls back to writing openra3_view.bmp. The unit overlay uses an approximate world scale (--world-size, default 5120); exact calibration from the map's heightmap is on the roadmap.

Reverse engineering

The reconstruction is driven by Ghidra against the retail binary. See docs/REVERSE_ENGINEERING.md for the workflow and the recovered symbol map, and tools/ for the helpers.

License

Project code: GPLv3, matching the CnC_Generals_Zero_Hour reference (see LICENSE).