Binary part files

[xtoro]

Now I know in the "What not to suggest" thread, it says "Change part loading". But, that's not exactly what I'm suggesting here...

I'm suggesting that cfg files for parts be binary, and not text. As any programmer can tell you, it's much faster to read and write binary data compared to text. The equivalent of the information in a text file can be saved as binary data in a much much smaller file. Text files are bloated data meant for humans to read.

I realize that people would complain that they can't edit their part files. However, if you use the current text cfg file layouts as a template for conversion, then you can have a program which will convert the binary cfg back to a text cfg. Then you do your editing, reconfiguring, and then convert it back to binary. You don't even actually have to convert it to a separate file, you could just have a program open the file and display it as text, and edit it right there and then click save.

If you've ever used Regedit in Windows to modify registry values, then you used such a program. The Windows Registry is a good comparison. The registry is a binary file, but when you use Regedit, it will display all the data inside in plain readable text, and let you edit it.

If anyone has any interest at all, I may take some time to tinker... But, I really think this needs to be a big optimization done soon. And I don't know why Squad wouldn't want to embrace this huge improvement...