File handle to a memory location

[Robert602]

I'm working with a pair of third party APIs trying to play a video straight (SMK format) out of a compressed library (MPQ format). I can use the mpq api to extract the video out of the library into a memory buffer, but the smk api requires a file handle (like that obtained from CreateFile) to point to the file.

Is there any way I can use CreateFile or anything else to obtain a similar handle to a block of memory, rather than a place on the hard disk?

Of course, I could write the buffer to a temporary file on the disk before playback, but these videos are to be used in a game and I'd like to avoid disk I/O as much as possible.

Thanks a lot.

[Salem]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...createfile.asp
Look at pipes

[Robert602]

Thanks, I'll give that a try. I'll probably have to implement a pipes system alongside a temp file method though, apparantly win9x doesnt support creating named pipes, fortunate that 9x seems to be a dying breed.

[anonytmouse]

You could try using this in your call to CreateFile() before you go to the trouble of implementing a pipe system.

FILE_ATTRIBUTE_TEMPORARY - The file is being used for temporary storage. File systems avoid writing data back to mass storage if sufficient cache memory is available, because often the application deletes the temporary file shortly after the handle is closed. In that case, the system can entirely avoid writing the data. Otherwise, the data will be written after the handle is closed.

I don't see why you would need named pipes to implement a pipe system, anonymous pipes should do just fine.