Nodes
Every node is an instance of a metanode, giving it a descriptor for its property values and data structure.
Nodes represent the main data structure in the VRTree. Instances of nodes are arranged into a tree structure, with each instance referencing the following other nodes (if present)
| Relative | API Function | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Parent | VRGetParent | The parent node. Every node in the tree is expected to be a child of something else, except the root node (VRGetRootNode) |
| Child | VRGetChild | The first child node |
| Sibling | VRGetNext | The next sibling node (sharing the same parent) |
Paths
All nodes have a name. They cannot have an empty string for a name. (The GUI prevents this, but it is not enforced by the API. Technically you can create nameless nodes, you just won't be able to find them again, or save files with link properties pointing at them).
The tree structure allows every node to have a path composed of the names of all ascending nodes up to the root node.
Starting at the root node, a node's absolute path starts with a / (signifying the root), followed by node names separated with a / (e.g. /Scenes/MyAssembly is the path to the MyAssembly node under the Scenes node).
If there are multiple children of a node with the same name, an array index suffix is added to their name in the path (e.g. /Scenes/MyAssembly[1] finds the second node called MyAssembly under the Scenes node).
Paths can also be relative to the node being searched from (VRFind) - e.g. VRFind(VRGetScenesNode(), "MyAssembly") finds the first MyAssembly node under the Scenes node.
Link properties are serialized to paths when saved to a file, and they use this mechanism to resolve to the target node when the file is loaded again.