DirectX "X" binary file with c++

Alright nutterx it took me a while to find the time to dig through this but here's the jist:

If you checked out the examples and templates:

template              : TOKEN_TEMPLATE name TOKEN_OBRACE
                            class_id
                            template_parts
                            TOKEN_CBRACE

template_parts        : template_members_part TOKEN_OBRACKET
                        template_option_info
                        TOKEN_CBRACKET
                      | template_members_list

template_members_part : /* Empty */
                      | template_members_list

template_option_info  : ellipsis
                      | template_option_list

template_members_list :    template_members
                      | template_members_list template_members

template_members      : primitive
                      | array
                      | template_reference

primitive             : primitive_type optional_name TOKEN_SEMICOLON

array                 : TOKEN_ARRAY array_data_type name dimension_list
                        TOKEN_SEMICOLON

template_reference    : name optional_name YT_SEMICOLON

primitive_type        : TOKEN_WORD
                      | TOKEN_DWORD
                      | TOKEN_FLOAT
                      | TOKEN_DOUBLE
                      | TOKEN_CHAR
                      | TOKEN_UCHAR
                      | TOKEN_SWORD
                      | TOKEN_SDWORD
                      | TOKEN_LPSTR
                      | TOKEN_UNICODE
                      | TOKEN_CSTRING

array_data_type       : primitive_type
                      | name

dimension_list        : dimension
                      | dimension_list dimension

dimension             : TOKEN_OBRACKET dimension_size TOKEN_CBRACKET

dimension_size        : TOKEN_INTEGER
                      | name

template_option_list  : template_option_part
                      | template_option_list template_option_part

template_option_part  : name optional_class_id

name                  : TOKEN_NAME

optional_name         : /* Empty */
                      | name

class_id              : TOKEN_GUID

optional_class_id     : /* Empty */
                      | class_id

ellipsis              : TOKEN_DOT TOKEN_DOT TOKEN_DOT



That gives you the token explination of how to parse this file.

The data object explination:
object                : identifier optional_name TOKEN_OBRACE
                            optional_class_id
                            data_parts_list
                            TOKEN_CBRACE

data_parts_list       : data_part
                      | data_parts_list data_part

data_part             : data_reference
                      | object
                      | number_list
                      | float_list
                      | string_list

number_list           : TOKEN_INTEGER_LIST

float_list            : TOKEN_FLOAT_LIST

string_list           : string_list_1 list_separator

string_list_1         : string
                      | string_list_1 list_separator string

list_separator        : comma
                      | semicolon

string                : TOKEN_STRING

identifier            : name
                      | primitive_type

data_reference        : TOKEN_OBRACE name optional_class_id TOKEN_CBRACE



Gives you data object token information.

The general idea is given in the examples:

TOKEN_TEMPLATE, TOKEN_NAME, 3, 'R', 'G', 'B', TOKEN_OBRACE,
TOKEN_GUID, 55b6d780, 37ec, 11d0, ab, 39, 00, 20, af, 71, e4, 33,
TOKEN_FLOAT, TOKEN_NAME, 1, 'r', TOKEN_SEMICOLON,
TOKEN_FLOAT, TOKEN_NAME, 1, 'g', TOKEN_SEMICOLON,
TOKEN_FLOAT, TOKEN_NAME, 1, 'b', TOKEN_SEMICOLON,
TOKEN_CBRACE

Meaning this:

The token name you have a 3 wide binary data segment defining an RGB triplet.  It would look something along the lines of:
Hex:  0x00 0x00 0x00 aka 0x000000 to 0xFFFFFF same as html works also meaning you would have this in binary:
Binary: 'B'(0000 0000) 'B'(0000 0000) 'B'(0000 0000) wich is the same as 'B'(0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000)

Pretty much each hex position is defined by 4 binary positions so F in hex is the same as 1111 in Binary.  (F being 15)

But it is stating lower that you have the token r then a semicolon the g then a semicolon then b and then a semicolon which will define a single RGB triplet.

THen you have your matrix definition:

TOKEN_TEMPLATE, TOKEN_NAME, 9, 'M', 'a', 't', 'r', 'i', 'x', '4', 'x', '4', TOKEN_OBRACE,
TOKEN_GUID, 55b6d781, 37ec, 11d0, ab, 39, 00, 20, af, 71, e4, 33,
TOKEN_ARRAY, TOKEN_FLOAT, TOKEN_NAME, 6, 'm', 'a', 't', 'r', 'i', 'x',
TOKEN_OBRACKET, TOKEN_INTEGER, 4, TOKEN_CBRACKET,
TOKEN_OBRACKET, TOKEN_INTEGER, 4, TOKEN_CBRACKET,
TOKEN_CBRACE

It will be a 9x4 Matrix defined by an array of 6 then 2 sets of 4 and the TOKEN_GUID is the format and ranges of the tokens same as the RGB triplet tokens.

Pretty much Microsoft is giving you templates you can plug into MSDN Visual Stuidio.NET and make it fly with the data they are giving you.  Reading and writing 'X' format files is not a very simple task...  If I were to recomend you a place to start looking I would recomend looking at the token information for PPM formats as they are defined fairly simple:

Header defines the max color required aka whether the max color value is 0-255 and the number of rows and columns plus some various other BS that you don't need to read in.  You are jumping off the deep end here and going for one of the biggest file formats to decript and looking for the token information from MSDN which always offer such Robust explinations *laughs*  Nothing against Microsoft but they have never been great for explaining things.

Flip through what I said and look at a few files in a hex editor instead of looking at the straight binarys and read the hex data as it should be much more straight forward than straight binarys.

Good luck Nutterx!

~Aqua