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I'm trying to get my head around using JSON files to store level data . Specifically in this example is to make my walls. (its a top-down game like pacman). Each wall prefab is a 1x1x1 cube. I just want the JSON to hold the x,y,z. I have seen tutorials about how best to deserialise the data into Unity and I think im fine doing that, but I am unsure of how exactly to word the JSON file.

I see the example on Unity docs says the format is like this:

{"level":1,"timeElapsed":47.5,"playerName":"Dr Charles Francis"}

so, I could just do something like:

{"index":0,"x":5,"y":1,"z":0}

but I know that there needs to be a bit above, similar to XML and of this im clueless of what it needs to contain.

I looked on Json.org but i didnt really understand it still. This is one example:

{
"glossary": {
    "title": "example glossary",
    "GlossDiv": {
        "title": "S",
        "GlossList": {
            "GlossEntry": {
                "ID": "SGML",
                "SortAs": "SGML",
                "GlossTerm": "Standard Generalized Markup Language",
                "Acronym": "SGML",
                "Abbrev": "ISO 8879:1986",
                "GlossDef": {
                    "para": "A meta-markup language, used to create markup languages such as DocBook.",
                    "GlossSeeAlso": ["GML", "XML"]
                },
                "GlossSee": "markup"
            }
        }
    }
}

}

But what is 'Glossary' and 'title' in the context of my game? All I currently have is a cube called Wall, with a script attached called Wall.cs that currently does nothing, but I will be making an array of Wall and plan on using the deserialised data from the json file to lay the Walls[] out using my GameController.cs

Once I know what to put above and below to open and close the JSON file off, im pretty sure I can get it working how I need it to. I hope that made some sense.

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What you are looking for is probably an Array, unless you want to name each of your wall parts.

{
  "walls": [
    {
      "x": 1,
      "y": 1,
      "z": 1
    },
    {
      "x": 2,
      "y": 1,
      "z": 1
    },
    {
      "x": 3,
      "y": 1,
      "z": 1
    },
    {
      "x": 3,
      "y": 1,
      "z": 2
    }
  ]
}

Couple of quick tools to help:
https://jsonlint.com/
http://www.json.org/
http://json2csharp.com/

As for the C# serialization, getting this data into a class. You may be able to make a class that holds an array of Vector3 objects. I haven't done serialization with Unity specifically, but with C# alone.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Hi there, thanks this is just what i meant. However I'm still not sure of what to put above and below the actual data lines. I will check out those links now though and im still trrying some youtube videos to fill in the blanks fo rme, but its slow progress so far :\ \$\endgroup\$ Commented Aug 15, 2017 at 15:20
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    \$\begingroup\$ If that's all the data you want in that file, then that is a complete JSON object and should be valid syntax (after I remove the one last trailing comma on the last object). JSON is very lax, there's no required formality of defining what it holds. One of those coordinate systems could contain a fourth variable "w" that holds a secret recipe for making sausages. However, depending on how you code the serialized class, C# may complain when loading the data. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Aug 15, 2017 at 15:25
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    \$\begingroup\$ You could give Visual Studio Code a try. It's a free, lighweight editor that mirrors VS2015/2017, but is more in line with dealing with text based coding. Javascript, Html, JSON, etc. I typically use both side by side. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Aug 15, 2017 at 15:33
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    \$\begingroup\$ Yea, any text editor can make it. It's literally just a text file. I don't know if Np++ has tools that will validate as you write it, and format it for readability. Good luck. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Aug 15, 2017 at 15:37
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    \$\begingroup\$ You'd probably create a class that holds the three float values as x, y, z. And then when you've loaded all of those, convert them into Vector3 objects. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Aug 15, 2017 at 16:52

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