Newbie questions about external files

[CBSection31]

Hi all,

I apologize for the simplicity/stupidity of these questions; I have not yet purchased the iOS export module, as I want to ensure that I have a way of adapting my current game first. In addition, I am nowhere near an expert with MMF2 as-is, and so there may be simple answers to these.

My current game (PC version) uses many external files, consisting of INI files and images. According to the stickied thread in this forum, one of the limitations of iOS export is the lack of external file support, with the exception of INIs, which are embedded somehow.

In effect, I need to find a way to be able to access many different INI files in my iOS game (read only). How would I accomplish this? I assume that I would have to somehow embed the files into my MMF2 application.

In addition, I need to be able to load many images dynamically. I would prefer to be able to somehow do this on an image-by-image basis, as opposed to having them all loaded at the start, because that would bog down RAM. Is there a way to load images on call? In the PC version, I use Active Picture for this, but that extension is not available with iOS.

Please let me know if you need clarification on anything. Thank you in advance for your time and help.

[Francois]

For the moment, you have to manually add the files to the XCode project, in the resource folder.
I am working on handling files included in the application as binary data, which is simpler. This will be for the next update.
Loading images is not supported though.

[jjsonick]

Is support for loading images (some variant of the Active Picture) possible in some update further down the road? It's a feature that could greatly help reduce RAM use and loading times, and there's some game ideas I have that could make much use it.

[CBSection31]

Thanks for the reply, Francois.

I would be interested to hear an answer to jjsonick's question, as well. My game, which is an RPG, absolutely cannot be adapted without some way of loading images on-call. It would be much appreciated if this were included in an update.

[GaryG]

Simple putting the file in the Resource folder in the unzipped file doesn't work. The system only recognizes the system as a resource if you add it manually to the resource folder using the MAC xcode system itself, which I have done. After doing so, it appears in the Resource list for the build in xcode.

But still, the file doesn't open.

Is there a trick here that I need to know? For example, does it need an .arr at the end of the name?

Having a way to reference such files as in build>application you do for your "build> installation" program would greatly simplify the matter.