[DM-dev] Selena calling...

[Selena W. <se...@al...>]

Hey guys!
        I come into town and what do I find: A big whopping pile of email.
Your DungeonMaker traffic has really taken off, Peter. Please be a bit more
selective in what you forward to me in the future. If my inbox is too full,
I'll simply have to ignore it altogether.

>2. DESIGNparams - formerly called the rooms-file
>
>contains these params formerly formerly from the constants-file:
>maxCrawlers
>chDirOnStraight
>joinDist

I would say both maxCrawlers and joinDist could be GeneticParams. Why did
you put them into DesignParams?

>For version 2, I will write an "evolutionary-engine" object that will manage
>the GENETICparams-file, accept user-ratings, and return fresh
>GENETICparams-sets upon request.

In order for the things that Peter wants to do with the DungeonMaker in the
future to be possible, Stephan will have to supply interface functions like
this:

DesignParams* GetDesignParams(); //returns a pointer to a struct or class
containing the design params;
WriteDesignParams( filename );

GeneticParams* GetGeneticParams( generation );
WriteGeneticParams( filename );

The last two functions could then later be replaced by the genetic engine,
working with its own binary file. I think storing single Crawlers will not
be useful - as I understand them, one Crawler is pretty much as good as
another, they get their quality from the interaction of an entire set
(right, Peter?). The two save/restore types that I perceive to be of real
benefit will be saving the entire dungeon data in one file, and saving
design and genetic data to two different files. Stephan, when the user works
from one of these file structures to update dungeon data, will the
DMProperties object be able to update the other file structure also? Or
maybe you will need a function

GenerateDesignAndGeneticParamFiles( fromUnitaryFile )and the other way round?

Oh, yes, the naming, DMProperties... how about DungeonDataKeeper? That is
very descriptive, and also funny.

So do I understand this right, you'll have the main classes: 
DungeonDesigner - manipulates DesignParams (and possibly GeneticParams),
contains all kinds of high level constructs such as Rooms, Palaces,
CrawlerPairs, ... hands them to the DungeonMaker as elementary simple data
for Walls, Crawlers, etc...

DungeonMaker - more or less as is, constructs the dungeon from elementary data

DungeonDataKeeper - keeps all the data, both design data and map data, and
can present data to be rendered, and save and load, and change between formats.

Ahh, you're sure working hard. Hope you're having fun,





                   Selena
________________________________________________
The void liberates you from all conceptual views
    ...but if you conceptualize the void...