Re: [pygame] map format

["Chris Smith" <maximinus@xxxxxxxxx>]

I generally make the map file as simple to read and change in a text editor as I can. This generally makes the python code to parse the file a bit more complex, but since this is done only once at start-up I don't notice any speed issues.

Another way of doing it is to write a simple map loader that then pickles the data structure and saves it, and then in your game, load the pickle file.

On 12/17/06, spotter . <talonspotter@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Thanks, I just wanted to make it fast because if I start loading the
map at the beginning, it might seem to take a while before the game
starts due to parsing and caching. Probably just my computer though,
its a bit low on ram :(

On 12/17/06, Ethan Glasser-Camp <glasse@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> spotter . wrote:
> > Hey everybody,
> >
> > I am in the process of trying to make a file format for maps.
> >
> > The meta file will have the info like name, author, date, version, and
> > the width and height.
> >
> > The other file will have the actual map data in it. This method will be
> > slower,
> > since it involves opening, parsing, and closing two files.
>
> I think that unless you're going to be opening/reading map files all
> the time -- numerous times per frame? -- the performance differential
> is likely to be negligible. Get it working, then get it fast.
>
> If loading maps does turn out to be slow, perhaps you can cache them
> once loaded. I do something like this with image files, storing the
> images as .png with information like colorkey in a seperate file.
> Since I'm caching images anyhow, performance doesn't suffer much.
>
> > The second method will be easier to read in, but will affect performance.
> > How do all of you implement maps? Do you use regular expressions or
> > simple search a string ?
>
> I typically try to write my maps as "pure Python" that call game
> engine functions. For instance, I've been toying with something like this:
>
> setMap('''
> 000001111
> 000000001
> 000001111''')
> setTerrain(0, passable=True, tile="grass")
> setTerrain(1, passable=False, tile="forest")
>
> Of course, the last two times I tried to write a tile-based RPG I got
> nowhere fast and gave up, so maybe you shouldn't take my advice. :)
>
> The map format I describe above is inspired by looking at some Wesnoth
> maps, which look like a huge block of letters, with some other "meta"
> information stored in a seperate file.
>
> Ethan
>
>
>
>

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