A buffer is a region of physical memory used to temporarily hold data while it is being moved from one place to another or manipulated in some way, for example you can use a buffer to hold game state data. GameMaker Studio 2 has a number of specific actions related to creating, modifying and loading/saving buffers, but before using them please note the following points:
- When a buffer is created, it is automatically cleared and filled to 0.
- The "size" argument of the buffer functions always refers to
the size in bytes of the buffer.
- DnD™ buffers are always 1 byte aligned. The "alignment"
refers to how data is stored within a buffer and is used when using
the GML buffer
Functions, but for Drag And Drop, it's not relevant.
- Data in buffers is read and written in a sequential
manner (ie: you call the Write
Buffer action three times, then it will write the first data,
move forward, right the second data, move forward and then write
the last data), with something called the "seek" value to tell you
where in the buffer the next read/write will take place.
- All data is written to the buffer and returned from the buffer as a string so if you have stored any real numbers you will have to use one of the Data Type Actions to convert it from the string to the value.
The memory used for creating buffers is system memory so even when the game doesn't have focus, any data stored in a buffer should be safe, however if the app is closed or re-started then it will be lost. The following page explains how buffers work within the context of GameMaker Studio 2 and contain a couple of GML code examples:
The Buffer library has the following actions:
|
Create Buffer |
|
Copy Buffer |
|
Delete Buffer |
|
Read Buffer |
|
Write Buffer |
|
Seek Buffer |
|
Get Buffer Size |
|
Get Buffer Position |
|
If Buffer Exists |
|
If End Of Buffer |