AssetDB

AssetDb is persistent layer for CDB that support import/export of asset from fs, net etc...

Why

Because CDB is strictly memory-oriented we need some mechanism to load/save it.
We need mechanism for convert DCC assets like Texture/Meshes/Scene to CDB object that can be used inside engine.
We need support VCS systems like Git.

How it works

Asset is CDB object associated with name, folder and is load/save from fs, net etc.
Asset act like wrapper for real asset object that is store inside "asset" property.

Asset JSON base format

Assets are saved as valid JSON object. Filename is derived form asset name, CDB type and path by folder ex.: core/core_subfolder/foo_subcore.ct_foo_asset has asset name foo_subcore ,CDB type ct_foo_asset and is in folder core_subfolder.

{
  "__version": "0.1.0",
  "__asset_uuid": "018b5c74-06f7-740e-be81-d727adec5fb4",
  "__description": "Simple test asset",
  "__type_name": "ct_foo_asset",
  "__uuid": "018b5c74-06f7-79fd-a6ad-3678552795a1",
  "__prototype_uuid": "018b5846-c2d5-712f-bb12-9d9d15321ecb",
  "u64": 110,
  "i64": 220,
  "str": "foo subcore",
  "blob": "e1ae88d73f1f6a11",
  "subobject": {
    "__type_name": "ct_foo_asset",
    "__uuid": "018b5c74-06f7-7472-b90c-945f1737ba9d"
  },
  "subobject_set": [
    {
      "__type_name": "ct_foo_asset",
      "__uuid": "018b5c74-06f7-70bb-94e3-10a2a8619d31"
    }
  ],
  "subobject_set__instantiate": [
    {
      "__type_name": "ct_foo_asset",
      "__uuid": "7d0d10ce-128e-45ab-8c14-c5d486542d4f",
      "__prototype_uuid": "018b5846-c2d5-7584-9183-a95f78095230"
    }
  ],
  "subobject_set__removed": [
    "ct_foo_asset:9986f5cc-bc90-4443-8ad0-83357c02d28d"
  ],
  "reference_set__removed": [
    "ct_foo_asset:028ef368-9b36-44f9-b8cc-d377365f836c"
  ]
}

Reserved keyword begin with__ prefix and some with __ postfix after property name. Reference UUID is in format cdb_type_name:UUID.

Keyword	Required	Description
`__version`	Yes	File format version in semver format
`__asset_uuid`	Only for top-level	UUID for asset wrapper not asset object
`__description`	No and allowed only for top-level	Description for asset
`__type_name`	Yes	CDB type name as string
`__uuid`	Yes	UUID of asset object
`__prototype_uuid`	No	If object is based on prototype must have this filed
`<PROPNAME>__instantiate`	No	This create subobject instance from prototype, and replace it in set. Valid only for `SUBOBJECT_SET` base properties.
`<PROPNAME>__removed`	No	This remove subobject from set. Valid only for `_SET` base properties.

.ct_temp/assetdb_graph.d2

This file contain asset dependency graph.

.ex: for fixtures/test_asset/.ct_temp/assetdb_graph.d2

17 May 2026