Forwarded message: -------------------Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 16:16:15 +0200
From: warewolf@mayn.de (Christian Reiniger)
Subject: Re: [SDL] Why using resources by file names? (fwd)
Sam Lantinga wrote:
Chris, you might want to plug your “wad” loader here, if it’s mature enough…
Well, I suggest the “wad” writer is mature enough, but we haven’t started
implementing the reading stuff. Perhaps someone on the SDL list wants to
help? 
Just reply to me, and I’ll forward the messages, if you’re not already on the
SDL mailing list.
Erm, no, I’m not.
internals of the SDL media formats. Personally, I’d like to see
something that can be dropped into SDL that will load arbitrary files
from other files (Perhaps using a callback function to handle the
nitty-gritty of file encryption/compression), but I don’t have the
talent to write it myself. It’s a catch-22.
Well, actually writing that stuff shouldn’t be difficult for someone who
likes writing C code. Our problem is mainly that we’re almost all C++ /
ObjC lovers
trying to do things like create general file loading routines and so forth.
They are a work in progress, so as far as I know they don’t have any usable
code yet, but I’ll CC this to the PenguinPlay list and let them comment. 
Ok, this is the current state:
-
The PakFile format is standing. I only expect minor fixes to that in the
near future
-
The PakFile writing utility is in a usable state. It compiles at least on
my Linux system with egcs 1.1 and it seems to do what it should.
Compression/encryption, support for symlinks and checksums for vital data
structures are not implemented yet, but everything else is fine.
-
The File access API is defined except for 2-3 functions (explicit PakFile
mounting/unmounting, initialization). It will be a direct clone of the
stdio API (for the C version) and the fstream API (for the C++ version).
-
the behavior of the File access functions is partly defined. Finishing
this should be a matter of about 1 hour. Perhaps I’ll do that soon.
-
The file access functions is not implemented yet. We’re looking for
people to do that (or to help with it).
Cu
Christian
Efficient programers save hex at every opportunity.
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------------------- end forwarded message.
See ya!
-Sam Lantinga (slouken at devolution.com)
I think the reason for SDL is to provide a simple, plattform independend
way to access the hardware needed to develop games. This includes graphics,
sound, timers, realtime-input and perhaps some networking support. But
there is a good plattform independend interface for loading and saving
files, and whoever needs a wad-file style loader can implement it BESIDE
SDL on top of fopen/fread/fclose. On the other hand, having a simple WAV
and BMP loader can not hurt.
The importance of your project is that it provides the best solution to the
Linux-low-level graphics problem I have seen so far, and not to duplicate
the work of “never get nowhere” projects like PenguinPlay.
Dierk Ohlerich
@Dierk_Ohlerich
Dierk Ohlerich wrote:
But there is a good plattform independend interface for loading and saving
files, and whoever needs a wad-file style loader can implement it BESIDE
SDL on top of fopen/fread/fclose.
…
The importance of your project is that it provides the best solution to the
Linux-low-level graphics problem I have seen so far, and not to duplicate
the work of “never get nowhere” projects like PenguinPlay.
I very much agree with this.
Maybe there could be something called
simple–a-little-bit-higher-than-direct–filesystem–layer?
SFSL…
I agree anyway…keep files off SDL itself.
The official word on file-loading in SDL:
I will not add special file formats or special wad-type loading support to
the Simple DirectMedia Layer library.
I would be more than happy to include a special file loading library with
the demos archive.
If you don’t want to write your own wad-style file loaders, you might look
into using ZIP, which is available at info-zip, and you are welcome to use
the file format code from the SDL examples and demos as long as you follow
the appropriate copyright notices.
Yea, that’s cool. That way it allows noobies (like me ;>) to use those
file loaders until they develop the skills to do it themselves.
my 2c.
Sam Lantinga wrote:>
The official word on file-loading in SDL:
I will not add special file formats or special wad-type loading support to
the Simple DirectMedia Layer library.
I would be more than happy to include a special file loading library with
the demos archive.
If you don’t want to write your own wad-style file loaders, you might look
into using ZIP, which is available at info-zip, and you are welcome to use
the file format code from the SDL examples and demos as long as you follow
the appropriate copyright notices.
See ya!
-Sam Lantinga (slouken at devolution.com)
–
@ Steven Wong (aka NoEscape)
| homepage: www.iinet.net.au:80/~swong
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