Map Metadata in Game Libraries

DaniJ

<i>This post was originally made by <b>danij</b> on the dengDevs blog. It was posted under the category: Games.</i>

Now that map metadata is defined via DED MapInfo definitions (and the MAPINFO lump in jHexen) do we still need to keep (defaults) within the game libraries?

I'm wanting to clean up the source for the games as much as possible for the 1.9.0 release, so with your approval I'd like to shift the remaining stuff (eg par times) to the games' DED files.

skyjake

So you mean things like map names and suchlike? It would be a good idea to get rid of the hardcoded values. It should clean up certain places of the code nicely.

I don't remember how it works atm, but if the Dehacked plugin can modify the map names and parts of the map metadata, we should retain that functionality (if possible).

DaniJ

Additionally, where values can be defined via Values in DED - could these internal defaults be removed from the Game libraries also?

I would like to set a precedent for the 1.9.x series where new values should be implmented via DED instead of in the games' code (where applicable).

DaniJ

<blockquote>I don't remember how it works atm, but if the Dehacked plugin can modify the map names and parts of the map metadata, we should retain that functionality (if possible).</blockquote>
I've recently done a bit of work on the Dehacked plugin. I recall - support for customising map metadata is implemented by patching the MapInfo defs held in Doomsday directly.

skyjake

<blockquote>where values can be defined via Values in DED - could these internal defaults be removed from the Game libraries also?</blockquote> The Values def was added for that purpose exactly. All the hardcoded values like maximum healths and the amounts of ammo received from items should be defined (only) as Values. It is the easiest way to allow customization.

DaniJ

Excellent, I'll make the necessary changes.

DaniJ

Another clean up question:</p>
<p>Do you think we can get rid of all the (really) old OBSOLETE CVAR names in eg <tt>Src/jDoom/d_console.c</tt>?</p>

skyjake

Yeah, I think we can. They were left in so that people's configs weren't totally lost when the cvar names were changed, but now they're pretty much meaningless.