[physfs] Mounting Archive from within an archive

[Christian]

Hey,

I think my description about his was a bit weird. 
Normally a Descent mission consists of a *.MSN (a description file) and a 
*.HOG. This HOG then contains all the different levels of the mission, 
additional music and maybe other stuff. In DXX-Rebirth, these files will be in 
the subfolder "missions" of my Sharepath (so it's not really messy). If a 
mission is launched, the HOG is added and removed if t's done.
 
Now if a level is offered for download, both MSN and HOG often are just put 
inside a ZIP or. Also there are whole compilations of hundreds of missions 
(hod+msn) inside a single ZIP (which is actually not as big as it sounds - 
thes levels are small and compress rather good).

My idea would just be to add such a ZIP without the need to extract them (this 
would also make it easier to some day implement an auto-download feature for 
Multiplayer for example). 
Then again this is not really necessary. I am now implementing a routine to 
dynamically add ZIPs which will serve as mods to override original game 
content. That mission thing would just have been a nice addition - but not a 
necessity. 

Best regards,
Christian

> Hello Christian,
> 
> 	Instead of having a bunch of archives within archives, you may just want
> to put all the mission ones inside of a folder and just mount them them to
> missions/ when you need the one for that mission then unmount it when you
> are done with it. You'll have more loose files but since they won't be all
> mounted at the same time you shouldn't loose much efficiency.
> 
> Friday, August 13, 2010, 1:40:26 PM, you wrote:
> 
> C> Hey Christoph,
> 
> C> Thanks for your reply. I feared that this would be the case but well,
> "if you C> don't ask you won't know", I guess. :)
> 
> C> Well I at least came up with an idea on how to solve this. I don't know
> if I'm C> going to implement this idea but IF I would do it like this:
> 
> C> Even if I cannout mount the file I can check pretty good if it is
> located in an C> archive or in physical form in the "missions/" directory.
> C> If it's in an archive I probably just  read out the HOG and write it to
> C> "missions/" physically. In short: extracting the file. If the mission is
> C> unloading, this temporary HOG could be removed/deleted/overwritten.
> 
> C> Anyways thanks for the help!
> 
> C> Best regards,
> C> Christian
> 
> >> Am 12.08.2010 22:15, schrieb Christian:
> >> > So is it even possible what I am trying to do here?
> >> 
> >> No, this cannot work. The supported archives are all hardwired to use
> >> the platform-specific file I/O functions, so "chaining" or cascading is
> >> not supported. The files made available by PHYSFS cannot used by PHYSFS
> >> itself, it just not looks for them.
> >> 
> >> Kind Regards
> >> 
> >> Christoph
> 
> Best regards,
>  Indy Sams
>  mailto:indy at driftsolutions.com
> 
>  P.S. This is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q & R were
> eliminated.
> 
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-- 
http://www.dxx-rebirth.com // The Rebirth of Descent
Lead Programmer, Project Maintainer

-- 
http://www.dxx-rebirth.com // The Rebirth of Descent
Lead Programmer, Project Maintainer