Darkflame Universe (DLU) is a server emulator for LEGO® Universe. Development started in 2013 and has gone through multiple iterations and is now able to present a near perfect emulation of the game server.
Developed by NetDevil and The LEGO Group, LEGO® Universe launched in October 2010 and ceased operation in January 2012.
Darkflame Universe is licensed under AGPLv3, please read LICENSE. Some important points:
- We are not liable for anything you do with the code
- The code comes without any warranty what so ever
- You must disclose any changes you make to the code when you distribute it
- Hosting a server for others counts as distribution
Throughout the entire build and setup process a level of familiarity with the command line and preferably a Unix-like development environment is greatly advantageous.
We do not recommend hosting public servers. Darkflame Universe is intended for small scale deployment, for example within a group of friends. It has not been tested for large scale deployment which comes with additional security risks.
Darkflame Universe is a server emulator and does not distribute any LEGO® Universe files. A separate game client is required to setup this server emulator and play the game, which we cannot supply. Users are strongly suggested to refer to the safe checksums listed here to see if a client will work.
If you would like a setup for a single player server only on a Windows machine, use the Native Windows Setup Guide by HailStorm and skip this README.
- Clone this repository
- Install dependencies
- Database setup
- Build the server
- Configuring your server
- Verify your setup
- Running the server
- User Guide
- Docker
If you are on Windows, you will need to download and install git from here
Then run the following command
git clone --recursive https://github.com/DarkflameUniverse/DarkflameServerEnsure that you have either the MSVC C++ compiler (recommended) or the Clang compiler installed. You'll also need to download and install CMake (version CMake version 3.25 or later!).
Ensure you have brew installed. You will need to install the following packages
brew install cmake gcc mariadb openssl zlibMake sure packages like gcc, and zlib are installed. Depending on the distribution, these packages might already be installed. Note that on systems like Ubuntu, you will need the zlib1g-dev package so that the header files are available. libssl-dev will also be required as well as openssl. You will also need a MySQL database solution to use. We recommend using mariadb-server.
For Ubuntu, you would run the following commands. On other systems, the package install command will differ.
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
# Install packages
sudo apt install build-essential gcc zlib1g-dev libssl-dev openssl mariadb-server cmakeThis project uses CMake version 3.25 or higher and as such you will need to ensure you have this version installed. You can check your CMake version by using the following command in a terminal.
cmake --versionIf you are going to be using an Ubuntu environment to run the server, you may need to get a more recent version of cmake than the packages available may provide.
The general approach to do so would be to obtain a copy of the signing key and then add the CMake repository to your apt. You can do so with the following commands.
# Remove the old version of CMake
sudo apt purge --auto-remove cmake
# Prepare for installation
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y software-properties-common lsb-release && sudo apt clean all
# Obtain a copy of the signing key
wget -O - https://apt.kitware.com/keys/kitware-archive-latest.asc 2>/dev/null | gpg --dearmor - | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/kitware.gpg >/dev/null
# Add the repository to your sources list.
sudo apt-add-repository "deb https://apt.kitware.com/ubuntu/ $(lsb_release -cs) main"
# Next you'll want to ensure that Kitware's keyring stays up to date
sudo apt update
sudo apt install kitware-archive-keyring
sudo rm /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/kitware.gpg
# If sudo apt update above returned an error, copy the public key at the end of the error message and run the following command
# if the error message was "The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 6AF7F09730B3F0A4"
# then the below command would be "sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 6AF7F09730B3F0A4"
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys <TheCopiedPublicKey>
# Finally update and install
sudo apt update
sudo apt install cmakeFirst you'll need to start MariaDB.
For Windows the service is always running by default.
For MacOS, run the following command
brew services start mariadbFor Linux, run the following command
sudo systemctl start mysql
# If systemctl is not a known command on your distribution, try the following instead
sudo service mysql startYou will need to run this command every time you restart your environment
If you are using Linux and systemctl and want the MariaDB instance to start on startup, run the following command
sudo systemctl enable --now mysqlOnce MariaDB is started, you'll need to create a user and an empty database for Darkflame Universe to use.
First, login to the MariaDB instance.
To do this on Ubuntu/Linux, MacOS, or another Unix like operating system, run the following command in a terminal
# Logs you into the MariaDB instance as root
sudo mysqlFor Windows, run the following command in the Command Prompt (MariaDB xx.xx) terminal
# Logs you into the mysql instance
mysql -u root -p
# You will then be prompted for the password you set for root during installation of MariaDBNow that you are logged in, run the following commands.
# Creates a user for this computer which uses a password and grant said user all privileges.
# Change mydarkflameuser to a custom username and password to a custom password.
GRANT ALL ON *.* TO 'mydarkflameuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password' WITH GRANT OPTION;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
# Then create a database for Darkflame Universe to use.
CREATE DATABASE darkflame;You can either run build.sh when in the root folder of the repository:
./build.shOr manually run the commands used in build.sh.
If you would like to build the server faster, append -j<number> where number is the number of simultaneous compile jobs to run at once. It is recommended that you have this number always be 1 less than your core count to prevent slowdowns. The command would look like this if you would build with 4 jobs at once:
./build.sh -j4Depending on your operating system, you may need to adjust some pre-processor defines in CMakeVariables.txt before building:
- If you are on MacOS, ensure OPENSSL_ROOT_DIR is pointing to the openssl root directory.
- If you are using a Darkflame Universe client, ensure
client_net_versioninbuild/sharedconfig.iniis changed to 171023.
This server has a few steps that need to be taken to configure the server for your use case.
Darkflame Universe can run with either a packed or an unpacked client.
Navigate to build/sharedconfig.ini and fill in the following fields:
mysql_host(This is the IP address or hostname of your MariaDB server. This is highly likelylocalhost)- If you setup your MariaDB instance on a port other than 3306, which can be done on a Windows install, you will need to make this value
tcp://localhost:portNumwhere portNum is replaced with the port you chose to run MariaDB on.
- If you setup your MariaDB instance on a port other than 3306, which can be done on a Windows install, you will need to make this value
mysql_database(This is the database you created for the server)mysql_username(This is the user you created for the server)mysql_password(This is the password for the user you created for the server)client_location(This is the location of the client files. This should be the folder path of a packed or unpacked client)- Ideally the path to the client should not contain any spaces.
- After the server has been built there should be five
inifiles in the build directory:sharedconfig.ini,authconfig.ini,chatconfig.ini,masterconfig.ini, andworldconfig.ini. authconfig.inicontains an option to enable or disable play keys on your server. Do not change the default port for auth.chatconfig.inicontains a port option.masterconfig.inicontains options related to permissions you want to run your servers with.sharedconfig.inicontains several options that are shared across all serversworldconfig.inicontains several options to turn on QOL improvements should you want them. If you would like the most vanilla experience possible, you will need to turn some of these settings off.
Your build directory should now look like this:
- AuthServer
- ChatServer
- MasterServer
- WorldServer
- authconfig.ini
- chatconfig.ini
- masterconfig.ini
- sharedconfig.ini
- worldconfig.ini
- ...
If everything has been configured correctly you should now be able to run the MasterServer binary which is located in the build directory. Darkflame Universe utilizes port numbers under 1024, so under Linux you either have to give the AuthServer binary network permissions or run it under sudo.
To give AuthServer network permissions and not require sudo, run the following command
sudo setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' AuthServerand then go to build/masterconfig.ini and change use_sudo_auth to 0.
If you are running this on a linux based system, it will use your terminal to run the program interactively, preventing you using it for other tasks and requiring it to be open to run the server.
Note: You could use screen or tmux instead for virtual terminals
To run the server non-interactively, we can use a systemctl service by copying the following file:
cp ./systemd.example /etc/systemd/system/darkflame.serviceMake sure to edit the file in /etc/systemd/system/darkflame.service and change the:
UserandGroupto the user that runs the darkflame server.ExecPathto the full file path of the server executable.
To register, enable and start the service use the following commands:
- Reload the systemd manager configuration to make it aware of the new service file:
systemctl daemon-reload- Start the service:
systemctl start darkflame.service- Enable OR disable the service to start on boot using:
systemctl enable darkflame.service
systemctl disable darkflame.service- Verify that the service is running without errors:
systemctl status darkflame.service- You can also restart, stop, or check the logs of the service using journalctl
systemctl restart darkflame.service
systemctl stop darkflame.service
journalctl -xeu darkflame.serviceRun MasterServer -a to get prompted to create an admin account. This method is only intended for the system administrator as a means to get started, do NOT use this method to create accounts for other users!
If you are just using this server for yourself, you can skip setting up Nexus Dashboard
Follow the instructions here to setup the DLU Nexus Dashboard web application. This is the intended way for users to create accounts and the intended way for moderators to approve names/pets/properties and do other moderation actions.
The admin level, or Game Master level (hereafter referred to as gmlevel), is specified in the accounts.gm_level column in the MySQL database. Normal players should have this set to 0, which comes with no special privileges. The system administrator will have this set to 9, which comes will all privileges. gmlevel 8 should be used to give a player a majority of privileges without the safety critical once.
While a character has a gmlevel of anything but 0, some gameplay behavior will change. When testing gameplay, you should always use a character with a gmlevel of 0.
Some changes to the client boot.cfg file are needed to play on your server.
To connect to a server follow these steps:
- In the client directory, locate
boot.cfg - Open it in a text editor and locate where it says
AUTHSERVERIP=0: - Replace the contents after to
:and the following,with what you configured as the server's public facing IP. For exampleAUTHSERVERIP=0:localhostfor locally hosted servers - Next locate the line
UGCUSE3DSERVICES=7: - Ensure the number after the 7 is a
0 - Launch
legouniverse.exe, throughwineif on a Unix-like operating system - Note that if you are on WSL2, you will need to configure the public IP in the server and client to be the IP of the WSL2 instance and not localhost, which can be found by running
ifconfigin the terminal. Windows defaults to WSL1, so this will not apply to most users.
To update your server to the latest version navigate to your cloned directory
cd path/to/DarkflameServerRun the following commands to update to the latest changes
git pull
git submodule update --init --recursiveNow follow the build section for your system and your server is up to date.
- A list of all in-game commands can be found here.
To verify that you are indeed using a LEGO® Universe 1.10.64 client, make sure you have the full client compressed in a rar file and run the following command.
# Replace <file> with the file path to the zipped client
# If on Linux or MacOS
shasum -a 256 <file>
# If on Windows using the Command Prompt
certutil -hashfile <file> SHA256Below are known good SHA256 checksums of the client:
8f6c7e84eca3bab93232132a88c4ae6f8367227d7eafeaa0ef9c40e86c14edf5(packed client, rar compressed)c1531bf9401426042e8bab2de04ba1b723042dc01d9907c2635033d417de9e05(packed client, includes extra locales, rar compressed)0d862f71eedcadc4494c4358261669721b40b2131101cbd6ef476c5a6ec6775b(unpacked client, includes extra locales, rar compressed)
If the returned hash matches one of the lines above then you can continue with setting up the server. If you are using a fully downloaded and complete client from live, then it will work, but the hash above may not match. Otherwise you must obtain a full install of LEGO® Universe 1.10.64. You must also make absolutely sure your LEGO Universe client is not in a Windows OneDrive. DLU is not and will not support a client being stored in a OneDrive, so ensure you have moved the client outside of that location.
Darkflame Universe clients identify themselves using a higher version number than the regular live clients out there. This was done make sure that older and incomplete clients wouldn't produce false positive bug reports for us, and because we made bug fixes and new content for the client.
To verify that you are indeed using a Darkflame Universe client, make sure you have the full client compressed in a zip file and run the following command.
# Replace <file> with the file path to the zipped client
# If on Linux or MacOS
shasum -a 1 <file>
# If on Windows using the Command Prompt
certutil -hashfile <file> SHA1Known good SHA1 checksum of the Darkflame Universe client:
91498e09b83ce69f46baf9e521d48f23fe502985(packed client, zip compressed)
The Darkflame Server is automatically built and published as a Docker Container / OCI Image to the GitHub Container Registry at:
ghcr.io/darkflameuniverse/darkflameserver.
Warning
It seems that Docker Desktop on Windows with the WSL 2 backend has some issues with MariaDB (c.f. mariadb-docker#331) triggered by NexusDashboard migrations, so this setup may not work for you. If that is the case, please tell us about your setup in NexusDashboard#92.
You can use the docker-compose tool to setup a MariaDB database, run the Darkflame Server and manage it with Nexus Dashboard all
at once. For that:
- Install Docker Desktop
- Open the directory that contains your LU Client
- If the
legouniverse.exeis in a subfolder calledclient, you're good to go. There may also be a folderversions. - Otherwise, create a new
clientfolder and move the exe and everything else (e.g.resandlocale) in there. This is necessary to work around a bug in the client that will prevent that you to log back in after getting disconnected.
- If the
- Download the docker-compose.yml file and place it next to
client. - Download the .env.example file and place it next to
clientwith the file name.env- You may get warnings that this name starts with a dot, acknowledge those, this is intentional. Depending on your operating system, you may need to activate showing hidden files (e.g. Ctrl-H in Gnome on Linux) and/or file extensions ("File name extensions" in the "View" tab on Windows).
- Update the
ACCOUNT_MANAGER_SECRETandMARIADB_PASSWORDwith strong random passwords.- Use a password generator like https://keygen.io
- Avoid
:and@characters - Once the database user is created, changing the password will not update it, so the server will just fail to connect.
- Set
EXTERNAL_IPto your LAN IP or public IP if you want to host the game for friends & family
- Open a terminal in the folder with the
docker-compose.ymlandclient - Run
docker compose up -d- This might require
sudoon Linux, and a recent version of docker compose
- This might require
- Run
docker exec -it dlu-darkflameserver-1 /app/MasterServer -aand follow the instructions to create the initial admin account - Open http://localhost:8000 to access Nexus Dashboard with the admin account to create normal users
- Set
AUTHSERVERIP=0:localhostinclient/boot.cfg- Replace
localhostwith the value ofEXTERNAL_IPif you changed that earlier. - Also make sure
UGCUSE3DSERVICES=7:is set to0
- Replace
- Launch
legouniverse.exe
This assumes that you have a database deployed to your host or in another docker container.
A basic deployment of this contianer would look like:
# example docker contianer deployment
docker run -it \
-v /path/to/configs/:/app/configs \
-v /path/to/logs/:/app/logs \
-v /path/to/dumps/:/app/dumps \
-v /path/to/res:/app/res:ro \
-v /path/to/resServer:/app/resServer \
-e DUMP_FOLDER=/app/dumps \
-p 1001:1001/udp \
-p 2005:2005/udp \
-p 3000-3300:3000-3300/udp \
ghcr.io/darkflameuniverse/darkflameserver:latestYou will need to replace the /path/to/'s to reflect the paths on your host.
Any config option in the .ini's can be overridden with environmental variables: Ex: log_to_console=1 from shared_config.ini would be overidden like -e LOG_TO_CONSOLE=0
This is a Work in Progress, but below are some quick links to documentaion for systems and structs in the server Networked message structs General system documentation
- Cole Peterson (BlasterBuilder)
- TheMachine
- Matthew
- Raine
- Bricknave
- humanoid24
- pwjones1969
- Simon
- ALL OF THE NETDEVIL AND LEGO TEAMS!
React
Typescript
Django
Laravel
Facebook
Microsoft
Google
Alibaba
D3
Tencent