Storing a large amount of values?

Hello. Is there an alternative to player prefs for storing data? I am looking into making an RPG (specifically a pokemon like RPG), and it would be impossible to have a player prefs key for everything(mainly because new party members are always being added). Is there a way to basically create a prefab from within the game(the way the data for the monsters works is, they are all variants on a single monster template script, using public variables to access their statistics), and then load it up later? Thanks

 

I would use a file for storing the values.
You can store data at Application.persistentDataPath subfolders/files.

Basically I would create a runtime representation class for each object to store (player, monster, ...) and either write them to a file myself using classes from the System.IO .NET namespace (like StreamWriter/Reader or BinaryWriter/Reader) or using the XmlSerializer for convenience.

For the data template you can use the same method but just load it from your asset path (Application.DataPath) instead.

 

That sounds pretty complex, do you have an example?

 

Monster.cs

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. using System.Xml;
3. using System.Xml.Serialization;
4.  
5. public class Monster
6. {
7.     [XmlAttribute("name")]
8.     public string Name;
9.    
10.     public int Health;
11. }
12.  

MonsterContainer.cs

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. using System.Collections.Generic;
3. using System.Xml;
4. using System.Xml.Serialization;
5. using System.IO;
6.  
7. [XmlRoot("MonsterCollection")]
8. public class MonsterContainer
9. {
10.     [XmlArray("Monsters"),XmlArrayItem("Monster")]
11.     public List<Monster> Monsters;
12.    
13.     public void Save(string path)
14.     {
15.         var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Monster));
16.         using(var stream = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Create))
17.         {
18.             serializer.Serialize(stream, this);
19.         }
20.     }
21.    
22.     public static MonsterContainer Load(string path)
23.     {
24.         var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MonsterContainer));
25.         using(var stream = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Open))
26.         {
27.             return serializer.Deserialize(stream) as MonsterContainer;
28.         }
29.     }
30. }
31.  

monsters.xml

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. <MonsterCollection>
3.     <Monsters>
4.         <Monster name="a">
5.             <Health>5</Health>
6.         </Monster>
7.         <Monster name="b">
8.             <Health>3</Health>
9.         </Monster>
10.     </Monsters>
11. </MonsterCollection>
12.  

TestUsage.cs

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. using UnityEngine;
3. using System.IO;
4.  
5. public class TestUsage : MonoBehaviour
6. {
7.     MonsterContainer monsterCollection;
8.    
9.     // Use this for initialization
10.     void Start ()
11.     {
12.         monsterCollection = MonsterContainer.Load(Path.Combine(Application.dataPath, "monsters.xml"));
13.     }
14.    
15.     // Update is called once per frame
16.     void Update ()
17.     {
18.        
19.     }
20.    
21.     void OnGUI()
22.     {
23.         foreach(var monster in monsterCollection.Monsters)
24.         {
25.             GUILayout.Label(monster.Name);
26.         }
27.     }
28. }
29.  

For all other methods you can search the keywords I gave you here
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/

 

Good question... if do you share any examples, i will appriciate

 

thanks

 

Nice!!

here I was thinking that I was going to have to write a parser to save and load stuff in my game...

That's a hell of a lot easier!! Thanks!!

Cheers

 

I know this sounds dumb, but the six or so months of programming with Unity, experience I have only be learning Javascript, so I am kinda confused on billykater's C# examples(I understand a little, but It would be easier if it were in JS) . Can anyone put them in JS for me? Can anyone direct me to a good tutorial for translating C# to javascript and vice versa? Thanks

 

billykater is using a standard .NET reflection-based serialization library thats found in System.Xml.Serialization.

Luckily, you can call any .NET library from javascript using import <libraryname>.