Loading other bot wayponts (standard format?) & Standardized directory structure? - Page 2

botmeister

I'd like to have "should we use XML or INI" debated and resolved.

Someone please point out the advantage(s) of using XML over INI.

stefanhendriks

XML is a sort of HTML kind of thing, with scopes and such. Its nice and all.

INI is a bit different. You do have scopes but yo udon't know them always (unless specificly documented). Its also harder to read when you are 'out of scope' and such.

You can see an XML example at the previous post, but to compare it with an 'ini' scoped thingy i give ya an example:

Code:

[GAME]
 
; common game info:
[COMMON]
name=MyGame
 
; out of scope here
 
[UNITS]
 
; common information for unknown units 
[COMMON]
name=Unknown

I'd say, don't use them both! ONLY store xxxx,yyyy,zzzz

There is NO NEED for INI or XML in the general waypoint data. Its only needed to include 'neighbouring' data and other stuff (goals, etc). This is imo already to specific. We all know how to code it, hence we could release source code for that.

Quote:

-2321.232 2892.232 1234.0832
2312.322 3215.314 8421.2354

this should be enough!

Pierre-Marie Baty

nah, nah, nah, guys.

How will I store the number of corners of my walkfaces and the vector locations of each of these ?

How will I store the entrypoints (navlinks) to these ?

I have a very different "waypoint" structure than most of you ; if you really want to be generic you must take exotic features in account too. Harder than you thought, I suppose

stefanhendriks

looking through all bots, i'd say you have to figure that yourself pmb

We outnumber you with your nav-evilmesh thingy

Is'nt there a way to strip down your data to 'walkable vectors/points' only? If you can do that, there also has to be a way to do that the other way around.

I do admit that it probably will be very hard, or perhaps impossible to convert from 'normal waypoint data' to your navmesh thingy. Nevertheless, there are A LOT of waypointed bots. It would be nice to have one format.

Pierre-Marie Baty

Unfortunately if I "strip down" the data as you say, the navmesh is of no use... and there's strictly no way to get the information back after it would have been "stripped" to vectors.

I suppose I'll have to step out of your project...

@$3.1415rin

about xml and ini files ...

e.g. pierre could put all his data to that file, also providing a middle vector of each walkable node and telling to which of the neighbors it is connected. in xml, it is no problem to load that data not considering the additional data pierre had included because he needs somewhat more data. this may be a bit more complicated with ini files, although solvable.

With xml one would already have a ready-to-use system, just looping thru the tags and comparing them to some keys, no need to bother about any possible differences in the actual data provided ...

dunno, I'd now prefer xml

stefanhendriks

yes, with xml you can possibly make a mid-way for this. So pierre can save additional data for his meshes, and we can simply extract data that we only need. I have read there are already some xml readers available on the net, so there is no need actually to write one from scratch.

botmeister

Just a note about what I mean by "INI" file. I'm not talking about Windows INI files where you use the windows system calls to extract information. I'm talking about a simple text file with tags similar to what is seen in an INI file. With such a file, you can have it do anything you want, including read/write XML formatted text.

For example, PMB's extra info could simply be skipped over if not usable - I don't see a need for XML to do such a simple thing.

I don't really care if XML is used or not, I just don't see what the big deal is about it. Given the lack of advantages, my concern is that if we stick to XML then we are limited to XML.

@$3.1415rin

an advantage of xml is that normal webbrowsers support their display, allowing to collapse parts etc ...

XML is a well known international standard, so why use an own .ini file format ?!

botmeister

Quote:

Originally Posted by @$3.1415rin

an advantage of xml is that normal webbrowsers support their display, allowing to collapse parts etc ...

XML is a well known international standard, so why use an own .ini file format ?!

One reason we'd use our own ini style of format is if XML cannot do whatever it is that we want it to do. Since we do not yet know exactly what we want done, the fist step should be to decide what it is that we want done, then we decide what is the best means of supporting it. Make any sense? ???