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thorium-nova app routes docs Plugins plugins.md
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title: Plugins order: 1 #

Plugins #

What are Plugins? #

Plugins are wrappers around all the things that can be configured in Thorium Nova, and all of these things can be edited from within Thorium Nova. These include different "Aspects", which are the parts of Thorium Nova that the plugin affects. These include:

  • Custom themes for the controls
  • UI sound packs that play when clicking on buttons and using the controls
  • Ships which fly around the 3D Starmap
  • Ship systems, like engines or weapons, which are a part of these ships
  • Inventory on the ship, like probe casings, coolant, and repair supplies
  • Solar systems, stars, and planets in the Starmap
  • Factions, or organizations which control the planets and solar systems and define the behavior of ships.
  • Campaigns, Mission storylines, and timelines, including any visuals and content used during the missions

This also includes all of the assets and files which are used by these plugins, such as images, 3D models, and sounds.

Plugins are intended to be modular, where a Flight Director can choose to add or remove plugins before starting a flight to adjust what is possible during the flight. Currently, it isn't possible to add or remove plugins after a flight has started.

Plugin Config #

Plugins can easily be created from within Thorium Nova. On the Plugin Config page, click "New Plugin" and enter a name. From there you can add a description, tags, and a cover image. These last two items won't really be useful until the Thorium Plugin Registry is available, which lets users share the plugins that they've created.

Plugin Config

The actual content of the plugin is handled by "Plugin Aspects", which are the different pieces that can be configured. You can see the aspects that can be configured by clicking the edit icon next to the plugin in the list, or by clicking the "Edit Plugin" button.

Plugin Aspects

Currently, only the "Ships" aspect is available, since it's the only one that has been developed. You can learn more about editing aspects on the Ship Aspect page

Editing Outside Thorium Nova #

It is possible to edit plugins outside Thorium Nova using the file system and a text editor.

Plugins are stored in the Thorium data folder (usually in the user's documents folder, or in the /server/data folder during development) inside a folder named plugins. Each plugin is its own folder, where the name of the folder is the name of the plugin.

At a minimum, plugins need a manifest.yml file which contains the data for the plugin. Here's a sample manifest:

name: Thorium Default
author: "Thorium Nova Contributors"
description: "The default plugin which is provided with Thorium Nova."
tags: []
coverImage: coverImage.svg

Assets #

For all plugins and their aspects, assets can be stored using either relative or absolute paths. Relative paths are relative to the ./assets/ folder in the same folder as the manifest file. Absolute paths are relative to the Thorium data folder. Asset paths can also be urls starting with http:// or https://.

For the plugin above, the coverImage.svg file is stored at /plugins/Thorium Default/assets/coverImage.svg.

Aspects #

Plugin aspects are stored in folders inside the plugin folder, one for each aspect. As of right now, there is only the Ships aspect, stored in the ./ships/ folder. Check the Ship Aspect page for more information on configuring this aspect.