Thread: can someone explain .p and .d files to me?

Originally Posted by guydatpwnz3

I've downloaded a matrix server and after inspecting the code base, the players information is being stored with in a .p file
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I'm unsure of how to edit this file, as when i open it in notepad it returns mangled text:
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I also have found .d file types where I believe the nps drops are being stored:
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Could someone with more knowledge please shed some light upon I?

They're being serialized in a binary format - modifying them with a text editor is unsafe to do; if you want something human readable / editable, use JSON, XML, CSV, YAML, SQL etc.

Originally Posted by elitecodez

They are essentially RandomAccessFile

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The file extensions .p & .d have no real significance to the file-type. For example; .p could stand for player or packed. It's really decided at the programmers discretion and could be changed to .apples if you really wanted to.

Has nothing to do with Random Access File(s), though you are correct in that the extension is arbitrary.

Important information regarding serialized files: they were not created to support changes made to the code, but rather to store objects with a fixed structure like database objects. In other words, if you remove or change a field from the Player class you might get errors trying to load a previous player save.