Reader Revival

[builderman 3]

OK, I'm back, from another extended vacation (approx 8 months.) During this time, I was still working on SimCity related things. One of those was reviving ilive's reader project. I've gotten the program to successfully compile in MS Visual C++ 2003. I haven't done much experimenting yet, but it looks very good. I'm interested in suggestions and comments you have about the last version of the Reader (0.9.3) I might try to program new features, but it is one hundred thousand lines of code, and I have no idea what most of it does. Still, suggest away.

[J_McSim 0]

Hi builderman,

 

  I'm new here, but have been programming for years, I downloaded the reader source

a while back now, and after some minor problems got it to compile, I have not however

successfully linked it yet. . . may I ask, where did you find '3dsftk.lib' ??

 

  Not sure if I'd be a help or hinderance to you, I was going to start writing my own tools

in Java, a language/environment I'm more comfortable with, but it would be nice to be able

to play with the reader, my MFC skills are somewhat rusty though.  And from what I have

looked at from the reader source, it's patched together from a million bits and pieces, and

not well documented... but that's par for the course, I guess.

 

Cheers,

   - James

 

 

Date: 7/17/2005 1:08:10 PM Author:builderman OK, I'm back, from another extended vacation (approx 8 months.)  During this time, I was still working on SimCity related things.  One of those was reviving ilive's reader project.  I've gotten the program to successfully compile in MS Visual C++ 2003.  I haven't done much experimenting yet, but it looks very good.  I'm interested in suggestions and comments you have about the last version of the Reader (0.9.3)  I might try to program new features, but it is one hundred thousand lines of code, and I have no idea what most of it does.  Still, suggest away.

quote>

 

[Tropod 144]

successfully compiles? woow [:0]

Did you have any priorities at this point with what you wanted to do in regards with the Reader? Maybe as a suggestion, it would be a good idea to do a preliminary release? I mean, a release of the compiled version you've managed to do, just incase there's any (platform?) issues. I dunno . This does sound promising though.

 

Suggest away he says

 

uumm where to begin...........

way I see it, there's basically three main things that could be done;

-Decoding remaining file types (including save game files). Obviously would require someone to manually decode them first.

-Add new features

-Improve on existing features

 

So, some suggestions then to get the ball rolling;

-Create a Masking mechanism for when you're editing a specific property for multiple Exemplars. Similar to the TGI Global editor, but with Property values. Obviously this may only work properly with Property values of the same lenght. So Exemplar window > Prop (the left one) > EnterPropertyValue/Name > Values of Exemplars appear > Select several of them & bring up the Edit box > Edit box would contain # as a mask.

-S3D Models; add the ability/button that changes the coordinates of a given Index &/or Vert Group values under a given column, in a manner that can rotate the model/textures 90/180/270 degrees & also able to flip the model/textures. This can be done at the moment, but requires lots of copying/pasting between the Reader & excel (setting up basic forumlas), & lots of clicking clicking & more clicking......

-Index Analyser; add a 'show files' button. So, search a given From & To Range according to TGI (or mix or whatever) & 'x' number of files appear under the Index Analyzer. Select say a dozen files, & then click 'show files' button to display the files in the main window. As is, you have to manually synchronise each file you want to show up in the main window. This is rather time consuming if you use for example the Virtual dat & are looking for something in a particular range, just as an example.

 

I'll leave it for this for now. If you want further explanation for any of these suggestions, don't hesitate to let me know.

 

[builderman 3]

J_McSim:3dsftk.lib is part of a toolkit availible on the web, get it here The reader is bits of code cobbled together from everywhere, and little to no commenting. I'm trying to figure out parts of it now, if you need help, feel free to pm me. A clean implementation of the stuff is probably the best way to go, but I don't have the willpower to do that. There is a wealth of information on the forum about the file types, so you probably could write your own classes without the reader's code.
Tropod:Alright, I've compiled and ran the resulting code. First problem was that the open dialog boxes didn't appear. That's been fixed. I opened the NAM file and proceeded to play with it. Exemplars seem to be ok, s3d files crash the program though. Either ilive didn't exactly use the best programming practices, or the upgrade from VC6 to 7 broke a lot. From my previous experience, I'd say it's mostly the latter. It will take lots of time to determine what works and what doesn't. Anything that doesn't work will have to be fixed, then I'll try adding new features.

When I posted this, I hadn't gotten past the open problem yet. I didn't expect to find problems in code other than user interface stuff. This could be harder than I thought. A fun new challenge awaits me.

[Tropod 144]

S3D files have been known to crash the Reader, depending on what you're doing. If it crashes just trying to view a (unmodified) model file though, then I'd say there's a problem with something to do with the compilation (like the upgrade aspect you pointed out). Sometimes the Reader can crash if you've edited a S3D file &/or removed the textures it relies on, but trying to view an unmodified model (whether it be maxis or custom) shouldn't crash it. If you need help sorting/figuring out if something (specific) has been broken or isn't working as it should be, I'd be more than happy to help where I can.

 

[builderman 3]

It's unmodified, and it happens everytime, so I think it's compile related. It tries to delete a null pointer somewhere.

[6459978. 106]

I normally wouldn't have posted here (--I'll leave things like this to the real programmers--) but then I saw the comment about deleting a null pointer and I couldn't resist. That's exactly the problem I've been battling a lot in my recent C++ forrays, although I can usually debug it. One reason I've ended up with the deleting null pointers problem is because I have occasionally made copies of an object that contains pointers for use in a function, and then when this copy goes out of scope it destructs, freeing the memory block that the original pointer was pointing too. So yeah, I dunno if that would help but it's one thing to look for.

[builderman 3]

Yeah, I think that's most likely the problem. I think MFC class destructor behavior changed between VC6 and 7. However, there are so many problems like this that I'm not sure it's worth it. The code is virtually unmaintainable.

[lakeyboy 12]

One feature I would love to be included in a new reader (if a new version ever comes a reality) is the ability to have a mini-program in the reader where you load a BMP or PNG image into the reader, it will automaticaly turn it into a proper FSH then just save and use it in the lot editor. And an option where the same above applies but for use with networks, it will automaticaly place wealth level sidewalks if you have done the original texture right.

[Zelgadis 638]

Reference bump #2

ISF