Introducing DFConnect

DFConnect is a class library that handles the nitty-gritty of reading Daggerfall’s known file formats. Written completely in C#, this is a ground-up rewrite of the code I have developed over several years, and will allow other developers to create their own Daggerfall tools without facing complicated format specifications.

The key feature of DFConnect is simplicity. Supported file formats can be opened and enumerated with only a few lines of code. Data is fetched easily from native files (no need to allocate or convert anything, just fetch away), and emitted back to your application in a format that can be effortlessly used. Data is emitted as standard managed types (e.g. strings, images, and structures) but can also be emitted as byte arrays for some data types (such as A8R8G8B8 texture data for marshalling into your favourite 3D engine).

Built on the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, DFConnect is compatible with modern Microsoft operating systems (XP, Vista, and Windows 7). The DFConnect library can be used in any .NET language, such as C# and VB.NET. This also grants you a wide variety of options for 3D visualisation with graphics libraries like MOGRE, Irrlicht.NET, and XNA that also support these languages.

While DFConnect is still in the early stages of development, I am going to make it available to everyone for testing right from the start. A series of basic tutorials will accompany the initial release, and more will be added over time. Please keep an eye on the Tutorials and Download pages for more information.