Datafiles with Irrlicht

[emf2718]

I don't know how many here are familiar with Allegro, but it has a nifty feature: It has built-in support for datafiles so users can store graphics, fonts, sounds, etc. in a single data file so files aren't thrown everywhere. I really like Irrilcht but the only data files that Irrlicht supports as far as I can see are level data (.irr files). What I'm looking for is the ability to store media in a single file, then load the datafile, then create a scene based on the graphics data in that file.

Does Irrlicht support datafiles like that?

(EDIT: I'd like to create a 2D scene before a 3D scene, so the data file should contain only graphics and/or sound data, no meshes yet...)

[Virion]

yes, irrlicht can load ZIP files.

[emf2718]

I saw in the demo that comes with Irrlicht a few minutes after I posted that it can use zip files with the method addZipFileArchive. But I'm a bit confused as to how it's used. The file has two jpeg's, but neither are referenced in the demo program. Note that I'm not talking about loading a 3D map from a zip file, but loading an image that I can use in a 2D-ish program right now.

[Sylence]

you just add the zip file using addZipFileArchive() and then you can load the files in the archive like they we on the disk.

So for example you have a zip file "my.zip" with the file "texture..jpg" you would load the texture like that:

Code: Select all

FileSystem->addZipFileArchive( "my.zip" );
ITexture* tex = VideoDriver->getTexture( "texture.jpg" );

[emf2718]

Never would have guessed it would be that simple...Wow this is one easy engine.