NoLifeNx

A C++17 library that can read NX files.

Originally authored by retep998 and licensed (along with other NoLifeStory software) under the GNU AGPL v3+.

Dependencies

None.

Using NoLifeNx

In order to use NoLifeNx you need to compile NoLifeNx, and link the resulting library into your program. You also need to #include the relevant *.hpp files. Here follows a brief overview of the various classes:

nl::file

• Does not allow copying or moving, so the recommended way of creating an nl::file is either as a static/global variable or by allocating it on the heap.
• Comes with only one constructor: nl::file::file(char const *). Just pass this constructor a C-style string containing the name of an *.nx file with the ".nx" extension included.
• Feel free to open multiple nl::files to the same *.nx file. The nl::nodes will still be compatible. Just keep in mind OS handle limits.
• When an nl::file is destroyed, all nl::nodes originating from that nl::file are now invalid and it is UB to use them.
• nl::file::base() returns the root node of an nl::file.
• The four count functions are there just in case you want to know how big the *.nx file is.

nl::node

• nl::node is nothing more than a fancy pointer wrapper, so feel free to copy and move them around. Don't waste your time allocating them on the heap.
• To get a child node, use operator[]. It can take C-style strings: nl::node node = other_node["Hello"];. It can take C++-style strings: std::string str = "Hello"; nl::node node = other_node[str];. It can even take other nodes, in which case it uses the string value of the node, not the name: nl::node node = other_node[third_node];.
• To get the name of the node as a C++ string, use nl::node::name().
• To get the number of children that a node has, use nl::node::size().
• nl::node implements begin() and end() along with several other operators in order to make it a proper iterator. This allows you to use nl::node in various C++ algorithms that take iterators. This also lets you conveniently recurse through the children of an nl::node using for (nl::node child : parent) { /* ... */ }.
• To get the type of an nl::node, use nl::node::data_type(), which returns a value of the enum nl::node::type.
• To get the value of an nl::node, you can either use the operators which allow easy implicit or explicit casting, or you can use the manual get_* functions.
• Some operator examples:
  • void foo(int n); foo(some_node);
  • std::string s = some_node;
  • double d = (double)some_node;
• Some get_* examples:
  • std::int64_t n = some_node.get_integer();
  • nl::vector v = some_node.get_vector();
• The operator bool does not return the value as a bool. Instead, it returns whether or not the nl::node exists. If you want to get the bool value, you'll need to use nl::node::get_bool() instead, or use nl::node::get_bool(bool def), which takes an optional bool parameter to specify the default value.
• You can get the individual values of a vector-type nl::node using nl::node::x() and nl::node::y().
• All methods do null checks, have default values, and do not return anything. This ensures that your program will not crash, but beware of unexpected consequences of "soft failure".

nl::audio

• One of the different value types that nl::node can have: nl::audio a = some_node;.
• nl::audio is nothing more than a fancy pointer wrapper, so feel free to copy and move them around.
• To get the length of the data, use nl::audio::length().
• To get a pointer to the data itself, use nl::audio::data(). Do not attempt to free or modify this data.
• Feel free to cache the pointer, because the data at that pointer will never go away or change.

nl::bitmap

• One of the different value types that nl::node can have: nl::bitmap b = some_node;.
• nl::bitmap is nothing more than a fancy pointer wrapper, so feel free to copy and move them around.
• To get the width and height of the image use nl::bitmap::width() and nl::bitmap::height().
• To get the data itself, use nl::bitmap::data(). Note that this function decompresses the data entirely each time that you call it, so try not to call it more than once when you don't have to. Also, the data at that pointer is volatile and will change with your next call to nl::bitmap::data(), or the pointer may even become invalid, so just copy the data to whatever internal texture you need and use it that way. The returned data is standard raw 32-bit BGRA pixel data.
• nl::bitmap::length() provides the length of the uncompressed pixel data in case you're too lazy to calculate it yourself from the width and height.
• nl::bitmap::id() returns a unique ID for that bitmap, useful as the index in a cache of textures.