I know that the pilot file is written to every time you land on a planet, but how often does the EV engine read from the pilot file? Only when entering the game?
Anyone know?
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Originally posted by seant:
**I know that the pilot file is written to every time you land on a planet, but how often does the EV engine read from the pilot file? Only when entering the game?Anyone know?
**Bald-faced guesses only: but as the pilot file contains all info relating to the player's game status...everything from your pilot's name and type of ship and number of fuel tanks and proton turrets to the systems that like the player versus the systems that hate the player versus the systems that the player has dominated to the number of credits in the player's bank account to all the systems that the player has visited to all the missions that the player has completed to...well...jeez.
My impression is that the pilot file is accessed and read constantly during a game, and updated, written to, just as constantly.
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PlanetPhilif you lived here, you'd be home by now
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Originally posted by PlanetPhil:
**My impression is that the pilot file is accessed and read constantly during a game, and updated, written to, just as constantly.
**I want to believe that is true, but it simply can't be writing data to the pilot file all the time. If it were, then you wouldn't start out on the last planet you had landed on.
I'm hoping that the pilot file is read every time the player enters a new system, though this probably isn't the case. I just haven't taken the time to figure out what's going on.
I suppose that if I started playing the game, and then opened the pilot file w/ ResEdit, that would tie the file up (can't write, being used by something else). This might tell me exactly when read/write occurs.
The whole point of this question is that, if the pilot file is read often, one could make another app that runs in the background, watches for certain changes in the pilot file, and then writes novel data. Wormholes could be made in this way.
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Originally posted by seant:
**I want to believe that is true, but it simply can't be writing data to the pilot file all the time. If it were, then you wouldn't start out on the last planet you had landed on.I'm hoping that the pilot file is read every time the player enters a new system, though this probably isn't the case. I just haven't taken the time to figure out what's going on.
I suppose that if I started playing the game, and then opened the pilot file w/ ResEdit, that would tie the file up (can't write, being used by something else). This might tell me exactly when read/write occurs.
The whole point of this question is that, if the pilot file is read often, one could make another app that runs in the background, watches for certain changes in the pilot file, and then writes novel data. Wormholes could be made in this way.
**
AFAIK the pilot file is updated upon take-off from a spb and is only read when loaded on the main title screen.
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Durandal 7400 -
As it was pointed out, the pilot file stores all the weapon data, outfits, ship, last planet, escorts etc, so it would have to be read at least every time you take off from a planet (because you could have bought new weapons or whatever) and after you board a ship (you could have taken ammo, credits, cargo etc, and you might have captured the ship). It probably also accesses it when you enter a system too.
-Machiavelli
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It doesn't have to be read that often.
The pilot files are small enough that the entire thing is in memory as long as the game is running, and is constantly updated. I am assuming that the only time the pilot file is read from disk is when you launch EVO. The rest of the time, it is in memory, and updated on the fly. Then, when you land on a planet, all the data in memory is written to disk, but no reading ever takes place. That's what I would think.
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"The impossible is easy; it's the unfeasible that poses a problem."