entities.md

.entities Files

The gist of the format is a header (always Version 6) and then a series of entity definitions. The format of the definitions is similar to Steam's VDF files.

Here is a pseudo-syntax-digaram for the definitions:

<definition-type> {
    <entity-type> <entity-identifier> {
        <key> = <value>
    }
}

Everything other than <value> must be a valid token that would match [a-zA-Z0-9_]+ except for a few special cases where they can also include [ and ].

Definition types are only component or entity.

There are a ton of entity type markers for components but only entityDef for entity definitions.

Entity identifier's are unique per .entities file.

Keys are just keys, often things that are obvious class member names like m_version but some that are probably special like class, inherit. I just treat 'em like dictionary keys, they are unique within a scope.

Values are special, they can be any of these basic types:

• strings (" or ' wrapped with \ for escapes)
• true or false
• NULL
• integers or floats (potentially marked with units like 200m or 0.2km)

Or the most common and complex version of a value, a nested scope like this:

edit = {
    inherit = "worldspawn";
    class = "idWorldspawn";
    spawnPosition = {
        x = 6.9;
        y = 42.03333333;
        z = -7;
    }
}

There can be very deeply nested.

Finally I have also seen a few types of special value, they are identical to the nested scope but use that special case for keys. Here is an example for what I think are matrices:

spawnOrientation = {
    mat = {
        mat[0] = {
            x = -0.9700315595;
            y = 0.2429793626;
        }
        mat[1] = {
            x = -0.2429793328;
            y = -0.9700314403;
        }
    }
}

An example for lists:

m_connectionPoints = {
    num = 2;
    item[0] = {
        m_id = 275855564;
        m_name = "LevelLoadedFirstTime";
    }
    item[1] = {
        m_id = 384100613;
        m_name = "NewGameStarted";
    }
}

A possible enum:

m_playerDefs = {
    enumItem[PLAYER_UNDEFINED] = NULL;
    enumItem[PLAYER_EMILY] = "models/characters/player/emily/body_tutorial.def";
    enumItem[PLAYER_CORVO] = NULL;
}

And something weird, maybe a kind of dictionary/map:

m_componentDecls = {
    item_begin = true;
    item_add["MJR_l1"] = {
        inheritedDecl = "models/winds/generic/wind_disabled.cpntwind";
    }
    item_add["atvCQ1"] = {
        mapComponentDecl = "map_cpntaudio_decl_1";
    }
    item_add["lJUhP3"] = {
        mapComponentDecl = "map_cpntpatrolsquadtree_decl_1";
    }
}