A Simple Game Editor in C# - Game Coding Complete - page 785

Figure 22.4
The ActorComponentsEditor showing two components.

C++ classes, such as the TransformComponent , which stores position and orienta-
tion, or the GridRenderComponent , which stores the color, texture filename, and size
of a grid scene node. Each of these components has member data that should be exposed
to the editor. Exposing these data members to the editor would mean creating controls
like a text box to edit a filename or a combo box to make a selection from a list.
One method might be to simply write some C# code that mirrors each C++ compo-
nent. It does create a weakness in the editor, however. If the C++ component changes
by adding or removing data members, the editor must be changed, recompiled, and
redistributed to anyone using it. Wouldn t a better solution be data driven?

Imagine an XML file that defined components from the editor ' s point of view:

'

<Components>
<Component name= “ TransformComponent ” >

<Element name= “ Position ” type= “ Vec3 ” fieldNames= “ x,y,z ” />

<Element name= “ YawPitchRoll ” type= “ Vec3 ” fieldNames= “ x,y,z ” />

</Component>
<Component name= “ GridRenderComponent ” >

<Element name= “ Color ” type= “ RGBA ” />

<Element name= “ Texture ” type= “ File ”

extensions= “ Image Files(*.JPG;*.GIF;*.DDS) ∣ *.JPG;*.GIF;*.DDS ” />

<Element name= “ Division ” type= “ int ” />

</Component>
</Components>