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.
The format is also indiscriminate of the two styles of rotation available in VP (AW & VP Axis-Angle type) so it can be used as a universal format to store AW backups too.
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
External links
- OpenOffice Calc - Free open-source spreadsheet software that can edit TSV files