Class Info

Class info maps numeric class IDs to human-readable network class names. It is the bridge between the integer identifiers used in the entity bit stream and the serializer definitions that describe each class’s fields.

Structure

ClassInfo
  bits: 9              — number of bits needed to encode a class_id
  classes:
    [0] class_id: 0,   network_name: "CWorld",     table_name: "CWorld"
    [1] class_id: 5,   network_name: "CPlayer",    table_name: "CPlayer"
    ...

  • class_id: integer identifier written into the entity bit stream during creation

  • network_name: the class name used to look up the serializer (e.g., "CCitadelPlayerController", "CCitadelPlayerPawn")

  • table_name: the send table name (typically the same as network_name)

  • bits: ceil(log2(max_class_id)) — determines how many bits the parser reads for the class ID when creating a new entity

How It’s Used

  1. Parsed from the DEM_ClassInfo command during initialization

  2. During entity creation, the parser reads bits bits from the entity data stream to get the class_id

  3. The class ID is looked up in class info to get the network_name

  4. The network name is used to find the corresponding serializer

  5. The network name also becomes the entity’s class_name field, which is how entities are filtered (e.g., "CCitadelPlayerController")

Relationship to Other Systems

class_id (from bit stream)
    → ClassInfo.by_id(class_id) → network_name
        → SerializerContainer.get(network_name) → Serializer
        → instance_baselines[class_id] → baseline field data

Class info is the central lookup that connects the compact integer encoding in the wire format to the rich schema definitions in the serializer system.