How to handle multiple user save games of a RPG in SQL
I have a complex RPG video game under development and it supports multiplayers, matchmaking, and cloud save game. For a lot of reasons, we are handling the "cloud save" ourselves - mainly for cross platform support.
For this, we created a SQL database on our servers, and for now we have a "users" table handling the different login, password, save, Steam/PlayStation/etc ID, and anything unique to a user. We have a "saves" table, and that's where I feel we can improve. The table definition looks like this:
CREATE TABLE saves (
id uniqueidentifier PRIMARY KEY,
user_id INT NOT NULL,
create_date DATETIME NOT NULL,
edit_date DATETIME NOT NULL,
name text NOT NULL,
data text NOT NULL,
FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES users(id) ON DELETE CASCADE
);
The place I feel is lacking the data text NOT NULL, where right now we simply feed a Json'ed of a save game. In a RPG, a player may have an inventory, a number of quests, different NPC dialog states and so on. However, from what I understand there is no "clean" way of doing arrays inside a table cell in SQL. Having each saves game being in a different table would be terrible, as we could end up with tens or hundreds of tables.
Is there something we are overlooking, or is using a cell to store a serialized version of the save data the best I can do in SQL?
sql arrays json
asked Nov 20 '18 at 5:29
LightStrikerLightStriker
12.7k21724
|
show 3 more comments
I have a complex RPG video game under development and it supports multiplayers, matchmaking, and cloud save game. For a lot of reasons, we are handling the "cloud save" ourselves - mainly for cross platform support.
For this, we created a SQL database on our servers, and for now we have a "users" table handling the different login, password, save, Steam/PlayStation/etc ID, and anything unique to a user. We have a "saves" table, and that's where I feel we can improve. The table definition looks like this:
CREATE TABLE saves (
id uniqueidentifier PRIMARY KEY,
user_id INT NOT NULL,
create_date DATETIME NOT NULL,
edit_date DATETIME NOT NULL,
name text NOT NULL,
data text NOT NULL,
FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES users(id) ON DELETE CASCADE
);
The place I feel is lacking the data text NOT NULL, where right now we simply feed a Json'ed of a save game. In a RPG, a player may have an inventory, a number of quests, different NPC dialog states and so on. However, from what I understand there is no "clean" way of doing arrays inside a table cell in SQL. Having each saves game being in a different table would be terrible, as we could end up with tens or hundreds of tables.
Is there something we are overlooking, or is using a cell to store a serialized version of the save data the best I can do in SQL?
sql arrays json
asked Nov 20 '18 at 5:29
LightStrikerLightStriker
12.7k21724
You have the option of storting json data into your database. Otherwise almost all of the database have support for storing xml.
– George Joseph
Nov 20 '18 at 5:32
@GeorgeJoseph : I know, that's what I said I was doing. Is there a way to store Json other than by a "text" data type? But my goal was to not just dumb a huge string and go "That's the data" and be more "This cell holds the inventory, this cell holds the stats, this cell holds the quests". I assume this is impossible?
– LightStriker
Nov 20 '18 at 5:36
It is possible to create user defined type and store it in the database table. The user defined type would contain the attributes. See an example in oracle database : oracle-base.com/articles/misc/object-views-and-nested-tables
– George Joseph
Nov 20 '18 at 5:45
You could use either XML or JSON and build SQL views to give you an easy query mechanism. In a way expand the json into relational view. It might not be the most performant. blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlserverstorageengine/2015/12/09/….
– Akrion
Nov 20 '18 at 5:46
@Akrion That's just for views, no? I still need to store the data as a string?
– LightStriker
Nov 20 '18 at 5:54
|
show 3 more comments
I have a complex RPG video game under development and it supports multiplayers, matchmaking, and cloud save game. For a lot of reasons, we are handling the "cloud save" ourselves - mainly for cross platform support.
For this, we created a SQL database on our servers, and for now we have a "users" table handling the different login, password, save, Steam/PlayStation/etc ID, and anything unique to a user. We have a "saves" table, and that's where I feel we can improve. The table definition looks like this:
CREATE TABLE saves (
id uniqueidentifier PRIMARY KEY,
user_id INT NOT NULL,
create_date DATETIME NOT NULL,
edit_date DATETIME NOT NULL,
name text NOT NULL,
data text NOT NULL,
FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES users(id) ON DELETE CASCADE
);
The place I feel is lacking the data text NOT NULL, where right now we simply feed a Json'ed of a save game. In a RPG, a player may have an inventory, a number of quests, different NPC dialog states and so on. However, from what I understand there is no "clean" way of doing arrays inside a table cell in SQL. Having each saves game being in a different table would be terrible, as we could end up with tens or hundreds of tables.
Is there something we are overlooking, or is using a cell to store a serialized version of the save data the best I can do in SQL?
sql arrays json
asked Nov 20 '18 at 5:29
LightStrikerLightStriker
12.7k21724
I have a complex RPG video game under development and it supports multiplayers, matchmaking, and cloud save game. For a lot of reasons, we are handling the "cloud save" ourselves - mainly for cross platform support.
For this, we created a SQL database on our servers, and for now we have a "users" table handling the different login, password, save, Steam/PlayStation/etc ID, and anything unique to a user. We have a "saves" table, and that's where I feel we can improve. The table definition looks like this:
CREATE TABLE saves (
id uniqueidentifier PRIMARY KEY,
user_id INT NOT NULL,
create_date DATETIME NOT NULL,
edit_date DATETIME NOT NULL,
name text NOT NULL,
data text NOT NULL,
FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES users(id) ON DELETE CASCADE
);
The place I feel is lacking the data text NOT NULL, where right now we simply feed a Json'ed of a save game. In a RPG, a player may have an inventory, a number of quests, different NPC dialog states and so on. However, from what I understand there is no "clean" way of doing arrays inside a table cell in SQL. Having each saves game being in a different table would be terrible, as we could end up with tens or hundreds of tables.
Is there something we are overlooking, or is using a cell to store a serialized version of the save data the best I can do in SQL?
sql arrays json
sql arrays json
asked Nov 20 '18 at 5:29
LightStrikerLightStriker
12.7k21724
asked Nov 20 '18 at 5:29
LightStrikerLightStriker
12.7k21724
asked Nov 20 '18 at 5:29
LightStrikerLightStriker
12.7k21724
asked Nov 20 '18 at 5:29
LightStrikerLightStriker
12.7k21724
asked Nov 20 '18 at 5:29
LightStrikerLightStriker
12.7k21724
12.7k21724
You have the option of storting json data into your database. Otherwise almost all of the database have support for storing xml.
– George Joseph
Nov 20 '18 at 5:32
@GeorgeJoseph : I know, that's what I said I was doing. Is there a way to store Json other than by a "text" data type? But my goal was to not just dumb a huge string and go "That's the data" and be more "This cell holds the inventory, this cell holds the stats, this cell holds the quests". I assume this is impossible?
– LightStriker
Nov 20 '18 at 5:36
It is possible to create user defined type and store it in the database table. The user defined type would contain the attributes. See an example in oracle database : oracle-base.com/articles/misc/object-views-and-nested-tables
– George Joseph
Nov 20 '18 at 5:45
You could use either XML or JSON and build SQL views to give you an easy query mechanism. In a way expand the json into relational view. It might not be the most performant. blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlserverstorageengine/2015/12/09/….
– Akrion
Nov 20 '18 at 5:46
@Akrion That's just for views, no? I still need to store the data as a string?
– LightStriker
Nov 20 '18 at 5:54
|
show 3 more comments
You have the option of storting json data into your database. Otherwise almost all of the database have support for storing xml.
– George Joseph
Nov 20 '18 at 5:32
@GeorgeJoseph : I know, that's what I said I was doing. Is there a way to store Json other than by a "text" data type? But my goal was to not just dumb a huge string and go "That's the data" and be more "This cell holds the inventory, this cell holds the stats, this cell holds the quests". I assume this is impossible?
– LightStriker
Nov 20 '18 at 5:36
It is possible to create user defined type and store it in the database table. The user defined type would contain the attributes. See an example in oracle database : oracle-base.com/articles/misc/object-views-and-nested-tables
– George Joseph
Nov 20 '18 at 5:45
You could use either XML or JSON and build SQL views to give you an easy query mechanism. In a way expand the json into relational view. It might not be the most performant. blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlserverstorageengine/2015/12/09/….
– Akrion
Nov 20 '18 at 5:46
@Akrion That's just for views, no? I still need to store the data as a string?
– LightStriker
Nov 20 '18 at 5:54
You have the option of storting json data into your database. Otherwise almost all of the database have support for storing xml.
– George Joseph
Nov 20 '18 at 5:32
You have the option of storting json data into your database. Otherwise almost all of the database have support for storing xml.
– George Joseph
Nov 20 '18 at 5:32
@GeorgeJoseph : I know, that's what I said I was doing. Is there a way to store Json other than by a "text" data type? But my goal was to not just dumb a huge string and go "That's the data" and be more "This cell holds the inventory, this cell holds the stats, this cell holds the quests". I assume this is impossible?
– LightStriker
Nov 20 '18 at 5:36
@GeorgeJoseph : I know, that's what I said I was doing. Is there a way to store Json other than by a "text" data type? But my goal was to not just dumb a huge string and go "That's the data" and be more "This cell holds the inventory, this cell holds the stats, this cell holds the quests". I assume this is impossible?
– LightStriker
Nov 20 '18 at 5:36
It is possible to create user defined type and store it in the database table. The user defined type would contain the attributes. See an example in oracle database : oracle-base.com/articles/misc/object-views-and-nested-tables
– George Joseph
Nov 20 '18 at 5:45
It is possible to create user defined type and store it in the database table. The user defined type would contain the attributes. See an example in oracle database : oracle-base.com/articles/misc/object-views-and-nested-tables
– George Joseph
Nov 20 '18 at 5:45
You could use either XML or JSON and build SQL views to give you an easy query mechanism. In a way expand the json into relational view. It might not be the most performant. blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlserverstorageengine/2015/12/09/….
– Akrion
Nov 20 '18 at 5:46
You could use either XML or JSON and build SQL views to give you an easy query mechanism. In a way expand the json into relational view. It might not be the most performant. blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlserverstorageengine/2015/12/09/….
– Akrion
Nov 20 '18 at 5:46
@Akrion That's just for views, no? I still need to store the data as a string?
– LightStriker
Nov 20 '18 at 5:54
@Akrion That's just for views, no? I still need to store the data as a string?
– LightStriker
Nov 20 '18 at 5:54
|
show 3 more comments
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You have the option of storting json data into your database. Otherwise almost all of the database have support for storing xml.
– George Joseph
Nov 20 '18 at 5:32
@GeorgeJoseph : I know, that's what I said I was doing. Is there a way to store Json other than by a "text" data type? But my goal was to not just dumb a huge string and go "That's the data" and be more "This cell holds the inventory, this cell holds the stats, this cell holds the quests". I assume this is impossible?
– LightStriker
Nov 20 '18 at 5:36
It is possible to create user defined type and store it in the database table. The user defined type would contain the attributes. See an example in oracle database : oracle-base.com/articles/misc/object-views-and-nested-tables
– George Joseph
Nov 20 '18 at 5:45
You could use either XML or JSON and build SQL views to give you an easy query mechanism. In a way expand the json into relational view. It might not be the most performant. blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlserverstorageengine/2015/12/09/….
– Akrion
Nov 20 '18 at 5:46
@Akrion That's just for views, no? I still need to store the data as a string?
– LightStriker
Nov 20 '18 at 5:54