From 8f75d58deda62215f80c7665035ee6dff1a14e8d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: DualFroz <me@dualfroz.com>
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2026 17:31:54 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] feat(core): declare NBT tag tree read and write interface

---
 core/include/vf/Nbt.h | 103 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 103 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 core/include/vf/Nbt.h

diff --git a/core/include/vf/Nbt.h b/core/include/vf/Nbt.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8f4b9e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/include/vf/Nbt.h
@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+#pragma once
+
+#include <array>
+#include <cstdint>
+#include <string>
+#include <utility>
+#include <vector>
+#include "Chunk.h"
+
+namespace vf {
+
+enum class NbtType : uint8_t {
+    End = 0,
+    Byte = 1,
+    Short = 2,
+    Int = 3,
+    Long = 4,
+    Float = 5,
+    Double = 6,
+    String = 7,
+    ByteArray = 8,
+    IntArray = 9,
+    List = 10,
+    Compound = 11,
+};
+
+class NbtTag;
+
+using NbtList = std::vector<NbtTag>;
+using NbtCompound = std::vector<std::pair<std::string, NbtTag>>;
+
+// A single NBT-like tag: one of the scalar/array/container payloads above.
+// Containers (List, Compound) hold NbtTag by value, so a whole tree round
+// trips as one self-contained object.
+class NbtTag {
+public:
+    NbtTag() = default;
+
+    static NbtTag makeByte(int8_t v);
+    static NbtTag makeShort(int16_t v);
+    static NbtTag makeInt(int32_t v);
+    static NbtTag makeLong(int64_t v);
+    static NbtTag makeFloat(float v);
+    static NbtTag makeDouble(double v);
+    static NbtTag makeString(std::string v);
+    static NbtTag makeByteArray(std::vector<int8_t> v);
+    static NbtTag makeIntArray(std::vector<int32_t> v);
+    static NbtTag makeList(NbtType elementType);
+    static NbtTag makeCompound();
+
+    NbtType kind() const { return type; }
+    NbtType listElementType() const { return elementType; }
+
+    int8_t asByte() const { return static_cast<int8_t>(integerValue); }
+    int16_t asShort() const { return static_cast<int16_t>(integerValue); }
+    int32_t asInt() const { return static_cast<int32_t>(integerValue); }
+    int64_t asLong() const { return integerValue; }
+    float asFloat() const { return static_cast<float>(floatingValue); }
+    double asDouble() const { return floatingValue; }
+    const std::string& asString() const { return stringValue; }
+    const std::vector<int8_t>& asByteArray() const { return byteArrayValue; }
+    const std::vector<int32_t>& asIntArray() const { return intArrayValue; }
+
+    NbtList& asList() { return listValue; }
+    const NbtList& asList() const { return listValue; }
+    void listAppend(NbtTag tag) { listValue.push_back(std::move(tag)); }
+
+    NbtCompound& asCompound() { return compoundValue; }
+    const NbtCompound& asCompound() const { return compoundValue; }
+    void put(const std::string& key, NbtTag tag);
+    const NbtTag* find(const std::string& key) const;
+
+private:
+    NbtType type = NbtType::End;
+    NbtType elementType = NbtType::End;
+    int64_t integerValue = 0;
+    double floatingValue = 0.0;
+    std::string stringValue;
+    std::vector<int8_t> byteArrayValue;
+    std::vector<int32_t> intArrayValue;
+    NbtList listValue;
+    NbtCompound compoundValue;
+};
+
+// Big-endian binary encoding: tagType(1) + nameLen(u16) + name + payload,
+// recursively. Compounds are terminated by an End tag; lists carry a shared
+// element type and a u32 count instead of per-element headers.
+std::vector<uint8_t> serializeNbt(const std::string& rootName, const NbtTag& root);
+bool deserializeNbt(const uint8_t* data, std::size_t size, std::string& rootName, NbtTag& root);
+
+// Palette-based section encoding (format v4): the distinct blocks used by a
+// chunkVolume-sized section, followed by fixed-width bit-packed indices into
+// that palette (LSB-first within each byte).
+struct NbtPaletteSection {
+    std::vector<Block> palette;
+    std::vector<uint8_t> packedIndices;
+    int bitsPerIndex = 0;
+};
+
+NbtPaletteSection encodeSectionPalette(const std::array<Block, chunkVolume>& blocks);
+void decodeSectionPalette(const NbtPaletteSection& section, std::array<Block, chunkVolume>& outBlocks);
+
+} // namespace vf