Question about handling large data.

[Vect0rZ]

Hey,

I'm new around theese forums and lately been using SFML(C++).

I did some stuff, but now I'm wondering something:

Let's say I got a class Levels{}; with some properties like: name, background sprite, number of objects, height, width... .
And class Objects with allmost the same properties wich i will use in the level.

So,

Now let's say my game have like 200 levels (only example), how should I store properly the info?

1. Should i load all those levels before game start?
2. If i have to load them one by one, should i store them somehow in a class or functions and call them on certain conditions?

Thanks in advance! =]

[G.]

Store your levels in files.
Unless you have a reason to load every level at once, only load the level you need when you need it.

[Vect0rZ]

Thanks for the fast reply.

Excuse me, but you mean like using ostreams, and reading the data from there?

Like
Name["Level1"];
Background [Resources/level1.png];

[Jesper Juhl]

What I do, for most of my projects, is to create my maps with the Tiled map editor and save as JSON. Then I use picojson to parse the map files and read various properties.
And at the start of each level I destroy any data related to the previous level and load the current one - keeps mem usage down and it only takes a few ms to load and parse a new level.
Regarding how to load the data from file to memory; use std::ifstream, fread or what ever else suits you - that's a detail.