c++ - How can you put all images from a game to 1 file?

I've just finished a basic RPG game written in C++ SFML, I've put a lot of effort into the game and I'd want to distribute it, however I've ran into a small issue.

Problem is, I have well over 200 images and map files (they're .txt files which hold map codes) all in the same folder as the executable, when I look in the folder, it makes me want to cry a little bit seeing so many resources, I've never seen a game which shows you all the resources directly, instead I believe they pack the resources in a certain file.

Well, that's what I'm trying to achieve: I'm hoping to pack all the images in 1 file (Maybe the .txt files as well) then being able to read from that file or easily add to it.

Answer

Game programmers have relied on one of two main methods of data storage:

• store each data file as a separate file


• store each data file in a custom archive format

The drawback to the first solution is the wasted disk space problem, as well as the problem of slower installations.

The second solution provides it's own pitfalls, first is that you must write all your own image/sound/etc. loading routines which use a custom API for accessing the archived data. A further drawback is that you have to write your own archive utility to build the archives in the first place.

Unless you will always load all files from the archive, TAR/GZ might not be a very good idea, because you cannot extract specific files as you need them. This is the reason many games use ZIP archives, which do allow you to extract individual files as required (a good example is Quake 3,​​​​ whose PK3 files are nothing but ZIP files with a different extension).

EDIT : "Hide" the game folder structure and "Keep" only the executables

Another solution is often used to "hide" the game files in folder structure. Keep only your executables and maybe a readme file in the main directory and move the game files into a sub folder named "data" or other related.

EDIT : Gamedev Tuts Plus have a nice resource

EDIT : libarchive

One potential solution libarchive, which is an archiving library that will handle extracting files from an archive such as a ZIP file. It even allows you to assign the extracted file to a standard FILE pointer, which would make interfacing with any other libraries potentially more straightforward.

EDIT : ZIP Format files with alternative extension

Here, I like @Joachim Sauer's Comment

Using ZIP-format files with alternative extensions has a great tradition outside of games as well: Java does it, the OpenDocument Format (a.k.a. the OpenOffice/LibreOffice format) does it, even Office Open XML (a.k.a. the "new" Microsoft Office format) does it.