VGAP Programming

To tell you the truth I have only been programming in VGAP for a month now. Other then vpcplay (cplayer source code) I had a hard time finding information on the host/player data file structures. After a while I found a great site called Source Code Central that had loads of information on file structures and programming for VGAP. This web site is devoted entirely to programming for Vga Planets, I have another site (which is a lot more flashy) at The Vga Planets Battle Station.

Download/view or utilize the below files at your own risk. There is no warranty on the below files expressed or implied. So if by using the below information your monitor explodes, or your vgap games are all messed up you can't blame me! I'm also not responsible for any bad programming habits you pick up from looking at my source.

I have here some text files you can download in zip format to use for your own vgap programming. I also have source code that I'm playing around with, the source code is being worked on.

File Format -- This text file has excellent explanations on most (if not all) data files for both host and player side.

C Player Source -- I believe the publishing of C Player by Tim is what started all the 3rd Party development. I think VGAP is better for it!

My vgaplib.zip -- This is a library of all functions I've made for working with vgap data files. It includes a readme file and all of the source files below.

readme.txt -- This is the readme file for my library and source code, basically it is a disclaimer.

vgaplib.h -- I've placed the header file I use/wrote/converted from vpcplay on the page. And yes the variables and structure names look *very similar* to vpcplay. There are some other structures I've added to it for dealing with message files.

simpleIO.c -- Source code for reading/writting torp/engine/beam/hull/planet/ship/base data, both player and host side.

msgIO.c -- Source code for reading/writting subspace messages, player and host side.

Linux.tar.gz -- Here is the vgaplib.tar.gz, it is the same as the above stuff but it has been successfully compiled for Linux (I don't know how useful this is).

Here are some utilities I've written for VGA Planets using the above library, please note that some of these utilties are useless to almost everybody :)

No Economics -- This utility sets all in ground minerals to 10,000 KT. And with a little program know-how you can change other planetary stuff like the climate, natives, etc. Source included, must have vgaplib.lib to compile.
Planet dump -- Utility I used to dump all the info in the pdata.hst file, for debugging purposes. Source included, must have vgaplib.lib to compile.

I hope to add more of my source files and stuff when they become available (i.e. I write more). If you actually browse my source code please leave me a comment, I'm fairly new at C.

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