Saving/loading supah-fast

pollier · 2002-02-05T23:26:19

Hello! This is probably a very simple question, but I learned C++ the hard way (switching over from VB) and I''m not clear on some topics... I''ve finally got my 3DS model loading stuff working and computing normals, and it''s all stored into a big struct containing lots of little structs. However, this program only makes the file format to be imported in the actual game. Example (this isn''t really what it looks like...): struct myObject { int vertCount; int faceCount; int texVertCount; int materialID; int flags; Vector3 *Vertices; Vector3 *Normals; Vector2 *TexVertices; Face *Faces; }; struct my3DModel { int objectCount; int materialCount; vector Material; vector Object; }; ...etc. What''s the best way to save ''my3DModel'' to a file? Would I have to loop through all the info or can I just dump it all in one line? I want to load my model information as fast as possible in the game, even if it means making the files a bit larger. Thanks!

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Started by pollier January 31, 2002 11:03 PM

14 comments, last by pollier 22 years, 2 months ago

RipTorn

722

February 05, 2002 10:51 PM

in a case like that... it''s likly best to whack a function inside of MyObject that creates a buffer for you.. but this can get mighty complex, and you need to be careful with memory allocation if you do..

the best thing is to save each myObject in it''s own file. assuming there arn''t 10,000 of em...

RipTorn

722

February 05, 2002 10:53 PM

on second thought... it''d would likly be a lot better to actually re-think how you are managing your data in such a case.

pollier

122

Author

February 05, 2002 10:59 PM

I suppose...

I could make a big array containing all of the data for every object and then set pointers to different indexes in the array for every object?

"No break 'till you die!" - Mr. Foster, my English teacher

RipTorn

722

February 05, 2002 11:15 PM

don''t use pointers, use index''s... these can be saved with much greater ease.. and you can use unsigned shorts, which save 2 bytes.

you should NEVER save a memory pointer to a file. as it will NEVER be the same the next time you run the app. (unless some crazy miricle occurs)