User:Chris/WIP/VPPTSV

Under construction

VP Propdump TSV Version 1 (VPPTSV1)

A simple propdump format for VP designed with flexibility and user friendliness in mind. Based on the Tab-separated values format, the VPPTSV format is intended to be a universal format for storing the object data of worlds in VP and allowing them to be easily edited. The format takes elements from the C++ programming language but was designed with .NET programming in mind.

Many computer programs support the TSV format, such as spreadsheet and text editor software. This can mean that for the end-user, no additional programs need to be downloaded to edit a propdump.

The format could be used to store a few builds or an entire world. It could also be useful as an intermediate format when converting between different formats. By providing a textual representation of objects, it can make modification of multiple objects a much easier task, for instance if a person needs to modify each texture on an object and replace it with a different one.

File format specification

The specification is still currently a work in progress.

Each line in a VPPTSV file is an individual object, with the data values being separated by tab characters. The magic number or header which must be the first line is "vp propdump tsv1". This is used to identify the file format and version.

Programs parsing the file should ignore lines that start with a hash # allowing for comments to be added such as the creation date and world.
Lines starting with "O" should also be ignored as they are most likely the optional header, which is to name each field, user friendliness, spreadsheet software.

VP SDK Attribute	VPPTSV Attribute	Data Type (C#)
VP_OBJECT_USER_ID	Owner	unsigned int
VP_OBJECT_TIME	DateTime	DateTime
VP_OBJECT_X	PositionX	float
VP_OBJECT_Y	PositionY	float
VP_OBJECT_Z	PositionZ	float
VP_OBJECT_ROTATION_X	RotationX	float
VP_OBJECT_ROTATION_Y	RotationY	float
VP_OBJECT_ROTATION_Z	RotationZ	float
VP_OBJECT_ROTATION_ANGLE	RotationAngle	float
VP_OBJECT_TYPE	ObjectType	unsigned int
VP_OBJECT_MODEL	Model	string
VP_OBJECT_DESCRIPTION	Description	string
VP_OBJECT_ACTION	Action	string
VP_OBJECT_DATA	ObjectData	byte[]

Newline is replaced with \n and tab is replaced with \t
Note that the header version may be incremented to 1.1 if a small update is made to the specification, instead of whole numbers (float type). This must be accounted for if your program will be processing the version number. Spreadsheet software will recognise the header and comments as part of the table, so there may be tabs after the header line, if the propdump has been edited with such software.

Sample

This can be better visualised in a table using spreadsheet software.

TODO: Colour code the lines to make each section more distinct, how would this be done inside a pre tag?

vp propdump tsv1
# Created:	09/03/2013 23:43:53
# World:	Blizzard

Owner	DateTime	PositionX	PositionY	PositionZ	RotationX	RotationY	RotationZ	RotationAngle	ObjectType	Model	Description	Action	ObjectData
104	09/03/2013 22:49:39	-1.136963	8.195639E-09	0.2480469	0	1	0	0	0	tbtree003.rwx		create ambient .5,diffuse .5,specular 0
104	09/03/2013 23:13:00	-0.105957	0.005000007	-0.8530273	0	1	0	0	0	pp16w2.rwx		create scale .7 .6 .6,color 0;activate move -1 0 0 wait=10
104	09/03/2013 23:12:46	0.03393555	0.005000007	-0.8530273	0	1	0	0	0	pp16w2.rwx		create scale .7 .6 .6,color 0;activate move 1 0 0 wait=10
104	09/03/2013 23:15:24	0.2128906	0.101	-0.001953125	0.7700768	0.3189757	0.552482	1.286658	0	pole1m02.rwx		create visible no,solid no,light color=skyblue
104	09/03/2013 23:05:52	0.2141113	6.705522E-09	0.1479492	0	1	0	0	0	thseb1g.rwx		
104	09/03/2013 23:14:05	0.2128906	0.301	0.0480957	0	1	0	0	0	thsed2.rwx		
104	09/03/2013 23:11:47	0.4628906	0.301	1.148926	0	1	0	0	0	sign3.rwx	Cheap Test House\nfor example purposes only	create sign	
104	09/03/2013 23:15:36	0.3640137	6.705522E-09	1.398926	0	1	0	3.141593	0	mailbox1.rwx		
104	09/03/2013 23:15:42	0.2141113	6.705522E-09	1.148926	0	1	0	0	0	doorpic2.rwx		create scale .9,solid no

Date & Time Structure

For the end user, most spreadsheet software should be able to understand a standard Date & Time, allowing for the ability to manipulate objects in propdumps based on their date and time, for instance only selecting objects built before a certain date or only selecting objects from a certain date. The date can be flexible and may be altered slightly by some spreadsheet software when performing simple manipulations.

The DateTime string can be parsed into a DateTime structure when programming in a .NET language using the DateTime.Parse Method. This method accepts many date & time formats making it very flexible, so it should understand most date and times. When using the VPNet SDK, it is easy to parse the DateTime string directly into a VpObject structure using this method.

See also

• VPATSV Atdump specification
• VPETSV Elevdump specification

External links

• OpenOffice Calc - Free open-source spreadsheet software that can edit TSV files