Resource_tree

The Resource Tree, sometimes simply referred to as The Tree, is a
graphical tree structure for organizing resources similar to other
IDEs.

This page makes heavy use of Tree terminology, so please familiarize
yourself with Tree Data
Structures in
order to best understand this.

Nodes

A tree data structure, whether graphical or non-graphical is made up of
nodes. LateralGM refers to these as ResNodes.
Game Maker and LateralGM break the tree up into
three kinds of nodes. The GM Format Documentation refers to this as
"Status".

• Primary - Should be an immediate child of the root node. Primary
  nodes should only contain Groups and/or Secondary (Resource) nodes,
  or they may be empty. A Primary node has a
  #Kind associated with it, so that every
  resource in it should be of the same kind as the Primary node's
  kind.
• Group - Should be a descendant of a Primary node. May contain
  any number of Groups and/or Secondary (Resource) nodes, or may be
  empty.
• Secondary - Essentially a Resource node. Should be a descendant
  of a Primary node associated with its Kind, or should be an
  immediate child of the root node (as is the case with Game
  Information, Game Settings, and Extensions). Should be a leaf node.

Special rules apply to Primary nodes and immediate children of the root
node. This behavior is enforced in Game Maker's interface, and is the
default behavior (although able to be changed) in LateralGM. Primary
nodes cannot be renamed, moved, deleted, or added. This does not apply
to their descendants, which may be renamed, moved, deleted, and added
almost freely. The only conditions on the descendants is that they
cannot be moved outside of their Primary node, and a Secondary
(Resource) node cannot be added to a Primary node of a different Kind.

Note the use of the words "should" above. These rules only apply to the
interface. The backend structure, and, by extension, the GM file format,
allow these rules to be bent freely, if you have a good hex editor or a
program capable of doing it for you. For instance, you could rename and
re-order the primary nodes, move a secondary resource node into another
primary node, or even treat a secondary resource node as a branch node
and add children to it. Be warned, though, this is an undocumented
feature of Game Maker, and may cause the interface to behave strangely
or override it.

Kind

Every Secondary Resource node and Primary node has a Kind or Type
associated with it. Older GM Format Documentation referred to this as
"Grouping", whereas LGM prefers the term "Kind". Game Maker defines
about 13 kinds, and an identification number which must be used in GM
files to identify the kind. So far, the identification number only uses
4 bits, but 32 bits are reserved. EGM associates 3-character strings
with each kind (a 4th byte is usually included with value 0x20, the
space character, so a Sprite could be "SPR "), and encourages use of
those in place of the integer identifier because it is more
human-friendly while still being machine-friendly and
extensibility-friendly. The following table shows known Resource Kinds,
their GM identifier, EGM identifier, and what versions of GM they appear
in (going back as far as GM
4.3c).

Tree	Name	GM	EGM	Version
1	Sprites	2	SPR	All
2	Sounds	3	SND	All
3	Backgrounds	6	BKG	All
4	Paths	8	PTH	All
5	Scripts	7	SCR	All
6	Data Files	9[1]	DAT	GM 500 only
6	Fonts	9[2]	FNT	GM 540+
7	Time Lines[3]	12	TML	All
8	Objects	1	OBJ	All
9	Rooms	4	RMM	All
10	Game Information[4]	10	GMI	All
11	Global Game Settings[5][6]	11	GMS	All
12	Extension Packages[7]	13	--	GM 700+. Non-node in EGM.

Resource Kinds

<references></references>

Category:Formats

1. GM recycled the Data Files ID later for Fonts.

2.

1. LateralGM uses the string "Timelines" instead.

2. Appears as a Secondary Resource node, rather than a Primary node.

5.

1. GM 500 used the string "Game Options" instead.

7.