Unified Theater directory naming structure

[Snake Man]

Unified Theater directory naming structure

PMC is proposing a theater directory naming stucture for all upcoming theaters. My suggestion is

<falconroot>/Theaters/<THEATER>/

So all theaters are located in one nice neat directory. Under there would be of course

Theaters/<THEATER>/art/
Theaters/<THEATER>/campaign/
Theaters/<THEATER>/objects/
Theaters/<THEATER>/terrdata/

And the tdf + tga file would remain in the Theaters/<THEATER>/ root directory.

Here is practical example of the directories in my latest work, Iran theater.

<falconroot>/Theaters/Iran/art/ <- art files
<falconroot>/Theaters/Iran/art/art/
<falconroot>/Theaters/Iran/art/art/main/
<falconroot>/Theaters/Iran/art/art/resource/
<falconroot>/Theaters/Iran/campaign/ <- campaign files
<falconroot>/Theaters/Iran/terrdata/ <- terrain and weather files
<falconroot>/Theaters/Iran/terrdata/terrain/
<falconroot>/Theaters/Iran/terrdata/texture/
<falconroot>/Theaters/Iran/terrdata/weather/
<falconroot>/Theaters/Iran/iran.tdf <- theater definition file
<falconroot>/Theaters/Iran/iran.tga <- tga image for tdf

When we all would use this theater directory naming structure, it would mean that the Falcon directory is neat and clean, only one (1) dir for any theaters. Also installing and uninstalling theaters is easy as we can merely just "unpack" them into this one dir and its good to go, when removing, we just remove the one dir.

Couby who did the OF conversions of PMC theaters already is using this directory naming structure, Malc from Panama theater is planning to use this and I will use it for all upcoming PMC theaters and any theaters that I'm unofficially releasing or helping out with. I'm pleading for any and all theater makers out there to start using this dir structure so we can all benefit from it.

Thank you.

[T_Rex]

EXCELLENT idea.

I'll support it in any conversions/new theaters we do over at FF.

[T_Rex]

Just to make sure I have the right idea... something like this:



Edit - oh, and editing of the .tdf to reference the new structure. Anything else need editing? Like .idx or anything?

I just noticed something else - this creates \art\art and \art\art1024... is this correct?

[Snake Man]

Anything else need editing? Like .idx or anything?

Nope, the idx/rsc works just fine in their dirs (if thats what you meant).

this creates \art\art and \art\art1024... is this correct?

Yeah the first art/ dir can be called anything I think, F4 then looks for art/ and that art1024/ dirs in there.

Your dir setup looks just fine.

[T_Rex]

And so the theater.lst entry reads:
Theaters\{theatername}\{theater}.tdf

Or in your case:

Theaters\Iran\Iran.tdf

[Snake Man]

Thats right, here is my RV theater.lst as of now.

Code: Select all

# list of all know theaters
terrdata\theaterdefinition\korea.tdf
terrdata\theaterdefinition\korea_2005.tdf
terrdata\theaterdefinition\eurowar.tdf

Theaters\Korea128\korea128.tdf
Theaters\Europe\europe.tdf
Theaters\Europe\europe2.tdf
# Theaters\DesertStorm\desstorm1.tdf
Theaters\DesertStorm\desstorm2.tdf
# Theaters\DesertStorm\desstorm3.tdf
Theaters\Vietnam\vietnam.tdf
Theaters\Vietnam\vietnam2.tdf
Theaters\Iran\iran.tdf
Theaters\Nevada\nevada.tdf
Theaters\Afghanistan\afghan.tdf
Theaters\Taiwan\taiwan.tdf

And same for F4AF

Code: Select all

#hum
terrdata\theaterdefinition\Korea.tdf
terrdata\theaterdefinition\Korea2005.tdf
terrdata\theaterdefinition\Korea2010.tdf
terrdata\theaterdefinition\Balkans.tdf
terrdata\theaterdefinition\Balkans2005.tdf
terrdata\theaterdefinition\Balkans2010.tdf
# PMC stuff
Theaters\Korea128\Korea128.tdf
Theaters\Nevada\nevada.tdf
Theaters\Vietnam\vietnam.tdf
Theaters\Vietnam\vietnam2.tdf
Theaters\Afghanistan\afghan.tdf
Theaters\DesertStorm\desstorm1.tdf
Theaters\DesertStorm\desstorm2.tdf
Theaters\DesertStorm\desstorm3.tdf
Theaters\ODSAF\desstorm.tdf
Theaters\Iran\iran.tdf
Theaters\desstorm256\desstorm256.tdf
Theaters\Europe\europe2.tdf

And finally the important parts from my iran.tdf file

Code: Select all

# bitmap to display on theater page
bitmap Theaters\Iran\iran.tga

# Where the campaign directory is
campaigndir Theaters\Iran\campaign

# where the terrain data is
terraindir Theaters\Iran\terrdata

# where art is loaded from
artdir Theaters\Iran\art

[T_Rex]

Excellent - thank you very much!

[T_Rex]

Interesting problem... Tom's hitiles for the Balkans. I used the new directory structure to practice the theater installer process and it works great. Except if you want to install Tom's Hitiles for the Balkans. It looks for a \terrdata\Balkans\ entry. Not a big deal to move it, then move it back, and I think this would be the only existing theater that would have that issue.

Just thought I'd mention it.

[ranger822]

Excellent . . . idea - just getting around to reading about it.