Storing prefab pieces

[xoft]

That really depends on how we want to store the structures in the C++ source. I was thinking about this way (inspired by the XPM3 format, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_PixMap#XPM3 ):

static const cPrefab::sDef g_TestPrefabs[] =
{
	{
		8, 4, 8,  // SizeX = 8, SizeY = 4, SizeZ = 8
		"A:1:0;"  /* E_BLOCK_STONE */ \
		"B:0:0;"  /* E_BLOCK_AIR */ ,
		
		// Level 0:
		"AAAAAAAA" \
		"ABBBBBBA" \
		"ABBBBBBA" \
		"ABBBBBBA" \
		"ABBBBBBA" \
		"ABBBBBBA" \
		"ABBBBBBA" \
		"AAAAAAAA" \

		// Level 1:
		"AAAAAAAA" \
		"AAAAAAAA" \
		"AABBBBAA" \
		"AABBBBAA" \
		"AABBBBAA" \
		"AABBBBAA" \
		"AAAAAAAA" \
		"AAAAAAAA" \

		// Level 2:
		"BBBBBBBB" \
		"BAAAAAAB" \
		"BAAAAAAB" \
		"BAABBAAB" \
		"BAABBAAB" \
		"BAAAAAAB" \
		"BAAAAAAB" \
		"BBBBBBBB" \

		// Level 3:
		"BBBBBBBB" \
		"BBBBBBBB" \
		"BBAAAABB" \
		"BBAAAABB" \
		"BBAAAABB" \
		"BBAAAABB" \
		"BBBBBBBB" \
		"BBBBBBBB" \
	},
	// Another prefab here
};

This could be fully automated by an export plugin accompanying the Gallery plugin, and it is also somewhat human-readable, so it could be tweaked in-source if needed.

This format would require an additional RAM of about 1 byte per block stored, so a 10x20x10 structure would need ~2 KB. To give some perspective to that, most our houses in the Gallery are about 10 x 6 x 10 on average, consider some 20 different houses, that amounts to (20 * 10 * 6 * 10 = ) 120 KB extra RAM consumed (and diskspace as well, by the MCS executable). Multiply by some generous 5 village types, it's 600 KB, still acceptable.

Come think of it, we could do both - have some structures built in and later add the possibility for the generator to load structures externally.