Is it possible to dynamically import all .js files found in a specified subfolder of the C3 project Scripts folder? I think this may work in Node, but in a browser it looks trickier, and might involve C3 scripting API use. Though I'm not sure getting a C3 project folder's file/contents list is supported in the C3 API.

e.g.

Suppose, within the C3 project "Scripts" folder, I create an "entity_definitions" folder. In that subfolder, I create several individual js files, each exporting an entity definition. Can I, at runtime, get a list of the files names in that folder, and dynamically import them?

Motivation

There are a variety of preset js-objects I want to define, and I'd like to organize these definitions as one definition per .js file.

I want to collect these .js files in to packs of definitions that all reside in their own folder.

Roughly speaking, I'll end up with some folders (e.g. "pack1", "pack2", "pack3"), each containing a bunch of little .js files.

For flexibility and extensibility reasons, I would prefer not to have to hardcode the names of all these files directly into import statements in the game code. (Also kind of nice for modding.)

My understanding of the Node context so far

I think this should be possible in a Node context using the core "fs" module.

That is, if I export for node, or use remote preview for Node, I think this is doable.

My understanding of the Browser context so far

However, in a browser context, the file-system is not directly accessible, so I think I'd need to use some C3 API feature to get access to files that were part of the C3 project file hierarchy. I'm pretty sure C3 provides a way to get single files by name, but I'm not sure about getting a list of file names from a C3 project folder.

Some notes

It's not a must that the final project work directly in a web browser, but it's a nice-to-have, and it would be convenient to use the default chrome-based preview, instead of remote preview. (Though I do very much appreciate that the remote preview in Node feature exists, as it may turn out to be a critical part of my work on this project.)

Anyway, any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

Thanks for the replies, R0J0hound and Oosyrag, :)

What you both mentioned about a 2D world's data growing in memory at a much slower rate than a 3D volumetric one, and possibly fitting entirely in RAM for much longer is a really good point.

And your caution about getting stuck in the pre-optimization weeds before it's actually solving a concrete problem is good advice, Oosyrag.

Mainly, I just wanted to check with people more familiar with C3, that streaming to/from file wasn't ruled out by something I wasn't aware of. I figure at some point, an infinite world is going to have to go to disk, and even if it's a problem to solve much later on, I'm just at the engine scouting phase. So it's handy to have an idea of how much a given engine will be working for or against certain aspects of the project, before committing to one.

It sounds like NW.js would be the way to go for file read/write stuff, which has been my experience with C2. I made a C2 color theme editor quite a while back, and it relied on the NW.js file facilities, though I don't recall if I could invoke a save/load without a prompt using the built-in NW.js C2 object. I could always code a plugin though, if the functionality is available somewhere in NW.js features.

Anyway, thanks again for the info, R0J0hound and Oosyrag. :)

Given a tile-based procedurally generated world, in the vein of Minecraft or Terraria, is there a good way to save and load map data chunks to disk as needed?

That is if a player travels East, new chunks are procedurally created ahead of them, and old chunks far behind them are saved to disk and unloaded from memory. Then when the player turns back and travels West, the chunks ahead of them to the West are reloaded from disk as needed.

I know that the browser-based nature of C3 is likely to make this a bit tricky, because browsers don't have free reign to write files for security reasons.

Ideally I'd be looking for desktop style behavior, where the game stores map data essentially the same way Minecraft does.

e.g. Loosely speaking, Minecraft streams map chunck data to and from a local folder, which differs slightly by platform.

• Win: %appdata%\.minecraft
• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft
• Linux: /home/USERNAME/.minecraft/

Another benefit of this desktop-style behavior, is that world data stored in the folder isn't vulnerable to erasure by clearing local browser data.

I'm not sure what the best approach would be, but my initial impression is that this would require exporting for NW.js in order to take advantage of the more desktop-like context NW.js operates in.

Would an NW.js exported application allow saving and loading of map data, without prompting the user for a save location for each chunk file? I figure that prompting multiple chunk file saves every few blocks would slightly encroach on the spirit of exploration. :)

I'm not familiar with the nuances of C3, but my experience with the prior incarnations of Construct so far, is that just about anything is possible, with enough insight.

If there's a better approach, or if it's genuinely not doable, or simply not something that C3 is a good fit for, any thoughts or suggestions are welcome. :)

Thanks Wisdoms. :)

Hey Ashley, :)

Hope you're doing well. I don't know if you remember me, but quite a while back I used to spend a lot of time writing up tutorials and answers to user questions for Construct 1 and 2 in the forums. I've talked with you a few times here and there.

I just got my C2-based game funded on Kickstarter, and it's still climbing past the original funding goal, and I wanted to thank you and the rest of the Scirra team.

It's not an exaggeration to say that my dream is becoming real because of you. So thank you, Ashley. :)

I posted about my game in the "Your Construct 2 Creations" forum, though I know most traffic has likely moved to C3 at this point.

I would like to share the game with the wider Construct community, but I'm not sure if there's a good place to do that. If you have any advice or suggestions, I'm all ears. No worries if not though.

This is the post I just made in the "Your Construct 2 Creations" forum.

Down Ward - an Owl Flight Platformer

Thanks again, and best wishes for the continued success and growth of Construct 3. I'm looking forward to getting familiar with it in the future. :)

Thanks —, much appreciated . :)

Down Ward

Gable, flutters her way through a leafy alcove. :)

Okay, just posted a bug report, as per your suggestion.

Thanks again for helping me look into this Ashley. You're the best. :)