What is DataForge?asked by Jack Hiroshi
TL;DRDataForge is an internally developed database storing the connections and rules between every item in the Persistent Universe, which moved most (not all) data away from CryEngine's XML system.
It's pain. It's drop-down pain.
DataForge is pain. This is DataForge here. DataForge is basically the place where we keep all of the connections between every individual item that makes up the universe and set up the rules and the guidelines in how that interacts with one another. The crazy, insane database at the heart of the Persistent Universe. I'm sure some folks who have been around here for a while might be able to remember links to old ATVs where DataForge was being developed originally. We did some segments on it way back when, if you're really curious to learn more. But it's a totally internally developed way to store and retrieve the data that is necessary to make the Persistent Universe work. And one of the biggest things it did was it got us away from CryEngine's XML system for a lot of stuff. Not everything, for being completely honest, but for most things.
I don't even really know what else you can compare it to, really. It's really, really cool. Essentially what I did when setting up the first deployable that I ever did, it was essentially mashing two DataForge records together and learning how they both worked. And it's a really cool modular system that can actually do stuff like that. It's really awesome.
There are other things like it from other developers; the issue is that other developers don't share them. They don't talk about them. They don't expose them. So the references wouldn't make any sense. But it's our version of a common necessity for MMOs.