Cocos2D Start

Architecture and Directory Structure

1. Cocos2d-x

1.1 Architecture

1.2 Directory Structure¶This document is describing the folder structure of cocos2d-x v3.0-alpha1 and later.

After you download cocos2d-x repo from github, or unzip a stable release zip ball, you will see the directory structure like this:

Directory	Explain
build	This folder includes top level xcode projects, visual studio solutions and makefiles
cocos	This is the major directory for cocos2d-x framework.
docs	You can download doxygen, use it to open doxygen.config file in this this folder, then generate offline API docs by yourself
extensions	This folder is almost deprecated after v3.0. Please use cocos/gui instead of extensions/GUI, use cocos/physics instead of extension/physics-nodes. Assets-manager can work but will be refactor sooner
external	Here are all 3rd libraries which is dependencied by cocos2d-x
licenses	Cocos2d depends on many other open source projects. All of their licenses are here. We've avoid all GPL/LGPL libraires, so cocos2d-x and its dependencies are commercial friendly.
samples	IMPORTANT. This is where you should start from. Cpp/HelloCpp can be your first lesson, and you can find the usages of all classes in TestCpp. Looking for lua and js samples? They’re also here.
template	Here're templates for creating cocos2d-x new project in different IDEs and various platforms.
tools	Lots of different command line tools, such as createing new projects, binding c++ to lua to javasript, compile javascript into bytecode, etc. We're refactoring this into cocos-console.

2. Cocos2d-html5

2.1 Architecture

2.2 Directory Structure

Directory	Explain
CocosDenshion	Audio support. Note that you need at least two audio formats to support all browsers
cocos2d	Main directory, contains everything and maintains API the same as Cocos2d-x and Cocos2d-iPhone. The platform compatibility is well designed, enjoy it
box2d	Box2dweb Physics engine v2.1a
chipmunk	Chipmunk Physic engine with no version number, ;)
Demo	There are couples demos which you may get started from them
extensions	If you looking for more GUI controls, EditBox, CocosBuilder support, CocoStudio support, or any third party libs, that’s where it is
HelloHTML5Wrold	An advance Hello World for you to get started
lib	It contains a min version engine when you run /cocos2d/build.xml with ant tool to package all engine flies to a single file
licenses	Cocos2d depends on many other open source projects. All of their licenses are here
samples	You can find all classes usage in Tests. It also includes sample games. All the tests and games can be run in JSB.IMPORTANT. This is where you should start from
template	templates for creating a new Cocos2d-html5 project
tools	JSDoc and Closure Compiler
index.html	Index of Cocos2d-html5
AUTHORS	List of all contributors
CHANGELOG	Well, it lists changes that above guys have done

3. Javascript Binding

Crossing platform is good, but not good enough. Programming in C++ is super slow, in the other hand, C++ code cannot run on web browsers. That’s why we add javascript binding. We can pack javascript code into:

• native app on cocos2d-x + SpiderMonkey, which can parse javascript code into C.
• web app on cocos2d-html5

We have a same API set on cocos2d-x and cocos2d-html5. Therefore, we can create 100% javascript game natively in cocos2d-x. When you want to run it on browsers, want you need is only switch engine to cocos2d-html5, without modifying your source code.

The benefits are：

• Much faster coding speed than c++
• Don’t need to deal with wild pointers / reference count / memory leak
• Crossing both native and web
• Online updating