Can't make a file to save game data

[JamesWillson]

Hello there, and thank you for taking the time to read this.

I'm having a slight problem, I'm trying to save game data, (variables) to a file, but I can't get it to work! I've tried love.file.system.write("save.lua", coins) but it just dosn't work! Is it not saving it to the right place? Or am I doing something wrong? Is it the best way to save game data?

Thanks very much.

[MadByte]

Next time try to post problems in the "Support & Devlopment" area.

I save files by serialize tables.
You will need a Serialization library or write it on your own. I use TSerial.

Then do something like this.

Code: Select all

function saveOptions()
  local file
  file = love.filesystem.newFile( "config.txt" )
  file:open("w")
  file:write( TSerial.pack( options ) )
  file:close()
end


function loadOptions()
  
-- Load the options file 
  local file
  love.filesystem.setIdentity( "nameOfYourGame" )
  if love.filesystem.exists( "config.txt" ) then
    file = love.filesystem.newFile( "config.txt" )
    file:open("r")
    options = TSerial.unpack( file:read() )
    file:close()
  end
end

[T-Bone]

Depends on what "coins" is. You can only write strings to files, because you're writing text files. So you need a way to translate your variables to strings and back again. There are some good libraries for doing this to tables. I personally prefer to write valid lua code due to my fetish for code that writes code, but it's not really good practice

[JamesWillson]

Thanks a lot!! Yeh, I'm new to the forums. I'll do that next time. Thanks again!!

[Zeliarden]

or use love filesystem...

Code: Select all

--saves
love.filesystem.write( "save.lua", Tserial.pack(coins) )
-- loads
coins = Tserial.unpack( love.filesystem.read( "save.lua"  ) )

[MadByte]

or use love filesystem...

Code: Select all

--saves
love.filesystem.write( "save.lua", Tserial.pack(coins) )
-- loads
coins = Tserial.unpack( love.filesystem.read( "save.lua"  ) )

arw. :/ that easy ... But my attempt is good practice... !

[JamesWillson]

Thanks very much for all of your quick responses. This is great, however I'm still not sure where it is saving? Is it in the game directory or the love directory?

[MadByte]

If you don't change anything then it will save in the %appdata% directory. ( windows )
i.e C:/users/user/appdata/LOVE/YourGameName/

[JamesWillson]

And sorry if I'm bugging anyone, but when trying to say print the values in the table, how would I go about that? I've tried doing options.coins or options[1] am I way off?

[severedskullz]

And sorry if I'm bugging anyone, but when trying to say print the values in the table, how would I go about that? I've tried doing options.coins or options[1] am I way off?

You would most likely want to use the "for pairs" loop. Assuming it is just a 1 level table. If its a multilevel table you would have to iterate through each sub-table.

Code: Select all

for k, v in pairs (YOUR_TABLE) do
	print("Key: " .. k .. " / Value: " .. v)
end