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[Sean Mirrsen]

Alright, MSVS2k8 didn't work out as planned, so I got the old 2k3 version from up on the high shelf. Added bonus of not requiring .Net framework 2.0.

The prototype, so far, can only load the raws, and with a lot of creaking and leaking at that. I'll need to find a way to optimize, the darn routine takes longer than generating a standard world...

Also, so far conflict crushing works in reverse. As in, any erratic tag placement will most likely crash the thing. 'm working on it....

[Sean Mirrsen]

Cut down startup time to 8 seconds by forcing the program to skip the language raws. I guess I'll leave language modding a strictly manual task.

Stuff left to do:
- ensure that all tags are read correctly.
- concatenate special tag cases, like attack flags.
- make double sure comments don't end up mistaken for tags.
- devise a way to keep curly brackets without disturbing purring maggots.
- if that fails, devise a new way to indicate entry or tag removal within a mod.
- start on raws compilation.
- handle problems that will undoubtedly arise.
- make it so DF can run with generated raws.

In other words, as we russians say, "All that's left to do is start and finish."  

[Sean Mirrsen]

Changed thread title again. I think it's the fourth already.

Listed details on the project in the first post.

Got the program to load all raws, including language, in under two seconds in debug mode. I guess that's about as fast as DF would load them.

Next up is some more interface work and starting on generating output.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Bump without content. Still working on basics for raws recompilation.

By the way, is it really that much of a worthless idea, or are people here just genuinely not interested in this kind of program?

[Wiles]

I'm interested. I've been watching the thread to see how it develops. It seems like it could be a very useful program.

[Captain Mayday]

This seems really useful. Please keep up the good work.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Whee, I'd almost forgotten how hard it was for me to code something from scratch, even a little proggie such as this.   That with my lack of concentration and all..

Nevertheless, there is progress.
The program's functionality is at zero-zero level, which means it can output the same stuff it takes in. I've successfully made it eat DF raws and then put them back, almost the way they were. Almost, because I didn't want to concern with the aesthetic aspect of the raws, so all NOPAIN, NOFEAR and the like are written in column. All comments are gone, too. I successfully got an adventurer killed by elves with a set of raws produced by the program. One small misstep for man....  one giant feast for the elfkind.  

Next up on the agenda.
-Get the program to merge several raw sets into one.
-Polish the stuff so that removing an [ATTACK] tag will also remove any trailing flags, same with bodyparts.
-Think of at least SOMETHING to prevent the program from crashing in the presence of the smallest typo. (it can close forgotten closing brackets though.. I think)

Also, the program is now running very very fast. I made some design alterations, particularly altering my over-ambitious "single-file-mod" concept. Mods will now be loaded from folders in the \raws directory, with description files in the same directory providing pointers to load them. Current startup time in release is still around two seconds. The entire DF raws are written in less than a second. Fast enough, methinks.

If this is ever completed (was any of my projects ever?.. lemme think...  hm, I guess not..), it will become my second greatest coding achievement, replacing that rotating buildings extension for TASpring. The first was a zombie attack simulator, with an open space where zombies were catching the people, the people were running away, and marines were shooting the zombies, giving weapons to civilians and injecting infected ones with the cure...  was slow as hell and with more bugs than Daggerfall at release...

[Blacken]

Is source available?

EDIT: Also, Mono can't run VB.NET worth a crap. You really should look into porting to C# so Mac/Linux users can use the app. I could help with this. (And sticking to .NET 1.1 is kind of silly these days, FWIW.)

[ June 09, 2008: Message edited by: Blacken ]

[Sean Mirrsen]

Bump with content.  

Porting to C# might be easy, because almost every time I see an explanation for something in MSDN, it's usually VB and C# at the same time, with vaguely similar syntax. I just think better in VB.  

Also, pic:

[Sean Mirrsen]

With the forums going down tomorrow, I probably won't be able to update the prog until they come back up. At least, through normal means.

So if you have some comment on the prog, you should post it as soon as possible.

Right now I found another oversight on my part - removing a parent [ATTACK] or [BP] tag will not remove the trailing tags that are part of the tag's composure. So using the removal method on these two tags is not advised.
Also, I think I know of another one, at least I speculate that it might cause a problem - removing all entries from a file will not remove the file itself, though AFAIK, DF expect each file to have at least one entry.

If you have anyhting to add, make it quick!

[Deon]

You've finally done it! Your first release,  congratulations on this. I was waiting for this utility. Now, to the new DF version, and I will convert my mods to this standard =). Thanks for your work.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Can you kinda, uh, playtest the raws the program outputs? There's a set of original DF raws provided, so if you disable the Martial Arts mockup thing when you assemble, it should make basically a machine copy of the vanilla DF raws. Try loading a save long into the game with those raws and see if any errors creep up.

Then try making mods in this new standard as well. I basicaly want to know if there are more special tag placement cases than I accounted for.

Also, Blacken or any other "Sharp-C'ing" individual out there, I need some manner of help in traversing the C# bog. Specifically, the most annoying instances are being unable to call a struct's internal functions before all internal variables are set (I suppose it means "initialized" though, so it's probably less of a problem than I think), and the lack of a "ReDim Preserve" equivalent. Is there any direct way of taking an array and resizing it? Also, switch-cases accepting one argument per case == bad when you've got a few dozen cases per effect...

[Sean Mirrsen]

Khrm...  No way I'm going to make it work in see-sharp on my own...

I'll just concentrate on the version that already works and leave porting to whoever needs it most. Sorry, C# is beyond my current skills and comprehension, the sheer amount of declaration differences is killing me. Or maybe it's the VS version that's so old, because it doesn't have autocompleting functions for C#.
Btw, I'm not specifically evading the need to use framework 2.0 or higher, it's just that I can't get MSVS2005 with MSDN, and 2008 needs 3.5 framework that I can't install for some reason.

I've spent most of the day trying to do that thing, so there was little progress on the actual working prog.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Alright, now it's merely hours till these forums begin the scheduled one-way trip into the nether regions, BUT!!

A new version of my prog has crept up!  

Now it's lacking only the reference-a-tag feature, which isn't all that required.

And thanks to the raws Toady made available, it's actually new-version-ready! I added a few more repeating tags from the entities, and it's all set!

The program will now delete a file that doesn't have any entries, and will warn the user if any sub-module can't find a file, though it will not crash in those circumstances.

I also added a progress meter for those people with slow machines (though how slow they would have to be to make use of it, I don't know).

I'll upload the raws when I get home. VB.Net.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Bump with loads of content!!!

First off, many blatantly obvious (now) bugs have been fixed, namely the program omitting the last file in each mod module, checkboxes in the component list having no effect, and several crash bugs.

Then, I added two very nice features - entry referencing that allows you to make one entry a carbon copy of another and then edit it, and tag referencing that allows you to make a weapon have for example twice the damage of another weapon. The latter seems not very useful, but if you want to make a shitload of weapons that have to have properties based on those of another weapon, you will love this.

And finally, I converted the latest versions of the Minerals and Martial Arts mods into this format, and included them in the pack. I'll work on further making use of the new features.