Stalled again

More and more I find other things to do to work on that don’t provide immediate, visible results. This time it’s the file system and adding a basic packed data format for the GD-ROM. It’s so specific that it will be useless for the storage expansion. I’m still unsure if I’ll keep it around or rework it to be compatible with both storage options. File read times are definitely improved. Not by much, but it also means that I don’t have to worry about changing directories (which is pretty expensive) or recalculating the file sizes and starting locations. Asynchronous file loading is made far simpler by using the packed files, though. So that’s a bonus.

CSG and the lightmapper are definitely on my radar for things to do next. I’d like to get scenes created in the editor and loaded by the game, first. The editor is still a wreck. It’s far too flaky to be used by anyone who doesn’t want to put up with its limitations and outright bugs. When I started enumerating the directories and files, the items below half the window’s height would be vastly offset. It’s still an issue that I’m just putting up with for the time being. There’s no data-driven way of defining menus or ending a game state. Everything is hard-coded and it makes me incredibly wary of continuing on with handling things that way as it just leads to writing copious lines of code which could be better spent on a data-driven solution.

I think what I should work on next is the “teaser” demo with the simplest of assets and not worry about the lightmapper right now.