[CrimsonGT]

Alright, so initially I was using a sourcemod plugin to open a keyvalues file, and pull out the settings for game modes. However, now more than one plugin need this information and I decided it would be much easier to just open this config file once, store the settings in c++ in a struct or something similar, and create a native to pull out the data I needed. I have hit a road block though, as I didnt completely think through how to set it up, so I am hoping theres something similar I can do.

Basically I have this, which opens the config file, pulls out the settings and sticks them in my struct.

void CBaseGameRules::ParseGameSettings()
{
    char path[256];
    KeyValues *kv = new KeyValues("GameSettings");

    g_pSM->BuildPath(Path_SM, path, sizeof(path)-1, "rocketarena/configs/gamemode_settings.cfg");
    kv->LoadFromFile(filesystem, path);

    KeyValues *cv = kv->FindKey(g_szGameMode);
    if(cv)
    {
        gamesettings_t.default_health = cv->GetInt("default_health");
        gamesettings_t.default_armor = cv->GetInt("default_armor");
        gamesettings_t.powerups_enabled = cv->GetInt("enable_powerups");
        gamesettings_t.selfdamage_enabled = cv->GetInt("enable_selfdamage");
        gamesettings_t.falldamage_enabled = cv->GetInt("enable_falldamage");

        gamesettings_t.max_rocketammo = cv->GetInt("max_rocketammo");
        gamesettings_t.max_grenadeammo = cv->GetInt("max_grenadeammo");
        gamesettings_t.max_railgunammo = cv->GetInt("max_railgunammo");
        gamesettings_t.max_lightningammo = cv->GetInt("max_lightningammo");
        gamesettings_t.max_shotgunammo = cv->GetInt("max_shotgunammo");
        gamesettings_t.max_plasmaammo = cv->GetInt("max_plasmaammo");
        gamesettings_t.max_machinegunammo = cv->GetInt("max_machinegunammo");

        gamesettings_t.enable_rocketlauncher = cv->GetInt("enable_rocketlauncher");
        gamesettings_t.enable_grenadelauncher = cv->GetInt("enable_grenadelauncher");
        gamesettings_t.enable_railgun = cv->GetInt("enable_railgun");
        gamesettings_t.enable_lightninggun = cv->GetInt("enable_lightninggun");
        gamesettings_t.enable_shotgun = cv->GetInt("enable_shotgun");
        gamesettings_t.enable_plasmagun = cv->GetInt("enable_plasmagun");
        gamesettings_t.enable_machinegun = cv->GetInt("enable_machinegun");
        gamesettings_t.enable_melee = cv->GetInt("enable_melee");
    }
}

Then I was going to try and do something like this with a native to retrieve the data I needed, but it doesnt work since 'str' isnt a member of the struct. So I am wondering if something similar is possible, or if im going to have to go with a much slower method such as hash maps, or something not as clean like arrays.

cell_t GetGamemodeSetting(IPluginContext *pContext, const cell_t *params)
{
    //Get the setting string pointer for Param[1]
    char *str;
    pContext->LocalToString(params[1], &str);

    int ret = 0;
    //ret = *(&gamesettings_t.str();
    ret = gamesettings_t.str();
    return ret;
}

[BAILOPAN]

First, ask yourself whether it's really necessary to expose all (or any) of these things (i.e., are you solving an existing problem, or introducing an artificial problem and then solving it?)

Then, decide what is best for users. String queries to a native is kind of awkward and lacks type checking. Another idea is something like what SourceMod does with the "magic" MaxClients public variable. If it doesn't change very often, you can just pump updates to plugins and they won't have to query anything through natives.

[CrimsonGT]

Well I realized I was extremely overcomplicating things, and by just making the keyvalue pointer global, I could just access that as needed, rather than moving them from the keyvalues to some other storage. Not sure if its the best method, but its working and I dont have to continually access it so I cant imagine its very resource intensive.

Thank you for the help.

[BAILOPAN]

KeyValues are pretty slow, I wouldn't use them for fast access, but I assume you've made that judgment call based on your use case.