[Demo] A Database plugin for 3dgs!!

Hello there!

After a developement time of nearly two years, I finally finished my work.
A database plugin for 3dgs, without implementation of mySQL or something else.

My first version was based on text files, but I soon recognized that the speed is not acceptable.
30 seconds for a data amount of 1000 strings (ten chars) is way too much

Therefore, I tried a version based on the heap memory - the speed increased for about 10 000 times.
I think the current speed is acceptable now.

The database works a bit different than others, for example
- no script language, all is based on functions (but you could implement a language, of course.. )
- no front end (means no predefined columns, every row can imply different data types)
- no query tables (resulting out of the first and the second example)

Features

• save / load all your data in/from only one file!
  
• multithreaded save/load functions, the engine can run while your database is stored!
  
• organize your data in tables!
  
• name your tables as you like!
  
• store as many variables/strings/vectors needed in only one row!
  

advanced dll Features (full version)

• create as much databases as you like (via dll)!
  
• complete source code provided!
  

I have uploaded a demo version in the Webshop
The full version is not available at the moment.
I have to write a bit more documentation for it, means it will take some days to its release.

Try it, and feel free to comment, report bugs or send new innovations by mail, post or PM.
A documentation for the dll is included in the download.

Regards,
Sinthoras

Thanks. I have a dialogue heavy project with a subtitles option, so this should make life easier.

Wow, I needed a non-SQL database and have been searching for ages. Now that I found one I don't know what to do

Good job, you do a lot of great work Sinthoras.

what version of 3dgs do you need for this?

@Orange Bratt and sheefo:
Thank you, I hope you can enjoy my work.

@darkstein:
Well, I think the Standard Version 6.4 is enough. You can use plugins there, too, and no special feature of higher versions is recommended.

Sounds good , but what is the max number of chars for a cell ?

What do you mean with 'for a cell'?

I tried storing a 50kilobyte string (~50000 chars) at position 1,1 of a table - no errors, I could save, load and change it.

[in addition]
I already tried saving a 16 mb table in a file, with around 10000 strings in it. This lasted quite long, means around 20 seconds (without threading the save function the engine stops for that time!!). You shouldn't save that many data in only one table, not because of save / load time but for access speed matters.
It is definately better to create a small amount of big strings and store it to quite little positions than create hundreds of thousand small strings.

Is it limited on strings, chars and numbers (floats/int) or can it also save as container format for other data types? Tell more about encryption possibilities.

Well - if you own the source code, you can store any data type possible. You just have to reserve memory (with a special dll function) and copy your data there.
The functional structure in c++ is nearly the same as in c-script.

The demo version (without source) is limited to 4*4 = 16 data cells per (3 possible) tables.
[important!]
The limitations of the demo version are 1-4 cells per row / column, not 1-5 as written in the README.
I regret this, thought it was more..

You can store one variable, one vector or one (unlimited) string in each of these cells.
In c-script, of course.

The full version is not limited in cells per table, and also not in tables per database.

Encryption is not implemented yet, because its hard to find a way to crypt all possible byte structures. If you have a good solution, just say it. (Or wait for the full version and implement it yourself )

Quote:

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Encryption is not implemented yet

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Would be nice to have a strong encryption method, although MD5 and SHA are not completely safe, it is always more secure then saving plain text passwords in the database.

Dusty