What configuration file format allows the inclusions of otherfiles and the inheritance of settings?
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22-07-2019 - |
Question
I'm writing a Multiplayer C++ based game.
I need a flexible file format to store information about the game charactors.
The game charactors will often not share the same attributes, or use a basew
For example:
A format that would allow me to do something like this:
#include "standardsettings.config"
//include other files which this file
//then changes
FastSpaceship:
Speed: 10 //pixels/sec
Rotation: 5 //deg/sec
MotherShip : FastSpaceship //inherits all the settings of the Spaceship ship
ShieldRecharge: 4
WeaponA [ power:10,
range:20,
style:fireball]
SlowMotherShip : MotherShip //inherits all the settings of the monther ship
Speed: 4 // override speed
I've been searching for a pre-existing format that does all this, or is similar, but with no luck. I'm keen not to reinvent the wheel unless I have to, so i was wondering if anyone knows any good configuration file formats that support these features
Solution 4
After alot of searching i've found a pretty good solution using Lua
Lua I found out was originally designed as a configuration file language, but then evolved into a complete programming language.
Example
util.lua
-- helper function needed for inheritance
function inherit(t) -- return a deep copy (incudes all subtables) of the table t
local new = {} -- create a new table
local i, v = next(t, nil) -- i is an index of t, v = t[i]
while i do
if type(v)=="table" then v=inherit(v) end -- deep copy
new[i] = v
i, v = next(t, i) -- get next index
end
return new
end
globalsettings.lua
require "util"
SpaceShip = {
speed = 1,
rotation =1
}
myspaceship.lua
require "globalsettings" -- include file
FastSpaceship = inherits(SpaceShip)
FastSpaceship.Speed = 10
FastSpaceship.Rotation = 5
MotherShip = inherits(FastSpaceship)
MotherShip.ShieldRecharge = 4
ShieldRecharge.WeaponA = {
Power = 10,
Range = 20,
Style = "fireball"
SlowMotherShip = inherits(MotherShip)
SlowMotherShip.Speed = 4
Using the print function in Lua its also easy to test the settings if they are correct. Syntax isn't quite as nice as I would like it, but its so close to what I want, i'm not gonna mind writing out a bit more.
The using the code here http://windrealm.com/tutorials/reading-a-lua-configuration-file-from-c.php I can read the settings into my C++ program
OTHER TIPS
JSON is about the simplest file format around, has mature libraries, and you can interpret it to do anything you want.
{
"FastSpaceship" : {
"Speed" : 10,
"Rotation" : 5
},
"MotherShip" : {
"Inherits" : "FastSpaceship",
"ShieldRecharge" : 4,
"WeaponA": {
"Power": 10,
"Range": 20,
"style": "fireball"
}
},
"SlowMotherShip": {
"Inherits": "MotherShip",
"Speed": 4
}
}
YAML? It's like JSON without the commas and quotes.
You might want to check out some sort of frame-based representation, since it seems that's exactly what you're talking about. That wikipedia page links to a few existing implementations that maybe you could use, or create your own.