Equipment Editor - (Re-release now with all files in ZIP!!)
Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 1:48 pm
Hi Guys,
VPaulus over at the Matrix forums asked me to post this over here as you might be intersted. The download is available at http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.as ... =�
Cheers
Mark
Hi All,
I've finally finished the first beta for the equipment editor. It's fully functional (I think!!) for editing the equipment files. The next beta will include additional functionality as well as bug fixes.
Additional features to be included in the next version include:
- The ability to synchronise/edit the "efx.pzdat" files to the newly edited equipment file
- The ability to edit the "campaign.pzdat" file
- The ability to save queries
Short instructions for using the editor:
By way of requirements, I built the editor using the .Net framework version 4. I'm pretty sure most people should have this anyway, but it's freely downloadable from Microsoft. If this causes issues, I can scale back to .Net 2 I think.
At the moment, when you start the editor and click "Open", you will be prompted to select the equipment file you want to load via a standard windows "open file" dialog. Once selected, another dialog pops up asking you to choose your unit graphics directory. You can either select the directory where you have your graphics installed (in which case the units graphics are displayed for each entry), or select cancel (in which graphics won't be displayed but the equipment file is still loaded and the editor is fully functional). I'm happy to take suggestions on how to make this a little less clunky.
When editing the equipment file, if you choose to edit an existing unit and you change values and want to re-save the unit over the top of the original, you click the "Commit Unit" button. I thought about real time editing (i.e. the database is edited on-the-fly as you click values), but I though this was a little unforgiving in that you don't get to think about your changes before committing them back to the database. This can be changed in a future version if you would prefer it that way though.
If you want to add a unit, just change the currently selected unit's values to anything at all and then just click "Add Unit" and a new unit will be added at the end of the database. If you don't like a unit, just right click on a unit in the list on the left hand side and select "Delete Unit" and the selected unit will be removed from the database.
The traits list boxes were a pain to code, but as you can see, they are populated with all of the known traits as per Dumnorix's post. As you view a unit, traits applicable to that unit will be highlighted. If you want to add a trait to a unit, just highlight the traits you want (you can select multiple) and either commit your change or add the unit as a new unit and the extra traits will be added.
As a safety measure, NO CHANGES ARE MADE TO YOUR ORIGINAL DATABASE. Changes are made to a copy in memory and and then saved to an equipment file when you click the "Save" button.
The comparison function is fairly rudimentary, it basically allows you to select units that match specific criteria of the unit you are currently viewing. At the moment, I have put 11 criteria in the query. I can add more, I was just being a little lazy! All you do is select the "comparison" button and the query screen will pop up. Select the criteria you wish to use for the query and click "OK". Any units matching the query will be listed in the window list box.
If you want to save the query, just click the "Save" button and it will be saved out to a text file (acutally so as not to delay release, I haven't had time to implement this so the "save query" button doesn't do anything yet!!!).
After you have finished editing your file, click the "save" button and your edited equipment database will be saved out to a file at a location you chose using a standard windows save file dialog box.
That's about it for instructions, but if there's anything your not clear about, I can always put some screen caps together.
To be on the safe side, please test this on a copy of your equipment data file and please report any bugs and suggestion either via my email in the about box, or the forums. I don't take offence and welcome criticism, so please let me know if there are things you don't like or could be done better. If you don't tell me, I can't change it.
Cheers
Mark
VPaulus over at the Matrix forums asked me to post this over here as you might be intersted. The download is available at http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.as ... =�
Cheers
Mark
Hi All,
I've finally finished the first beta for the equipment editor. It's fully functional (I think!!) for editing the equipment files. The next beta will include additional functionality as well as bug fixes.
Additional features to be included in the next version include:
- The ability to synchronise/edit the "efx.pzdat" files to the newly edited equipment file
- The ability to edit the "campaign.pzdat" file
- The ability to save queries
Short instructions for using the editor:
By way of requirements, I built the editor using the .Net framework version 4. I'm pretty sure most people should have this anyway, but it's freely downloadable from Microsoft. If this causes issues, I can scale back to .Net 2 I think.
At the moment, when you start the editor and click "Open", you will be prompted to select the equipment file you want to load via a standard windows "open file" dialog. Once selected, another dialog pops up asking you to choose your unit graphics directory. You can either select the directory where you have your graphics installed (in which case the units graphics are displayed for each entry), or select cancel (in which graphics won't be displayed but the equipment file is still loaded and the editor is fully functional). I'm happy to take suggestions on how to make this a little less clunky.
When editing the equipment file, if you choose to edit an existing unit and you change values and want to re-save the unit over the top of the original, you click the "Commit Unit" button. I thought about real time editing (i.e. the database is edited on-the-fly as you click values), but I though this was a little unforgiving in that you don't get to think about your changes before committing them back to the database. This can be changed in a future version if you would prefer it that way though.
If you want to add a unit, just change the currently selected unit's values to anything at all and then just click "Add Unit" and a new unit will be added at the end of the database. If you don't like a unit, just right click on a unit in the list on the left hand side and select "Delete Unit" and the selected unit will be removed from the database.
The traits list boxes were a pain to code, but as you can see, they are populated with all of the known traits as per Dumnorix's post. As you view a unit, traits applicable to that unit will be highlighted. If you want to add a trait to a unit, just highlight the traits you want (you can select multiple) and either commit your change or add the unit as a new unit and the extra traits will be added.
As a safety measure, NO CHANGES ARE MADE TO YOUR ORIGINAL DATABASE. Changes are made to a copy in memory and and then saved to an equipment file when you click the "Save" button.
The comparison function is fairly rudimentary, it basically allows you to select units that match specific criteria of the unit you are currently viewing. At the moment, I have put 11 criteria in the query. I can add more, I was just being a little lazy! All you do is select the "comparison" button and the query screen will pop up. Select the criteria you wish to use for the query and click "OK". Any units matching the query will be listed in the window list box.
If you want to save the query, just click the "Save" button and it will be saved out to a text file (acutally so as not to delay release, I haven't had time to implement this so the "save query" button doesn't do anything yet!!!).
After you have finished editing your file, click the "save" button and your edited equipment database will be saved out to a file at a location you chose using a standard windows save file dialog box.
That's about it for instructions, but if there's anything your not clear about, I can always put some screen caps together.
To be on the safe side, please test this on a copy of your equipment data file and please report any bugs and suggestion either via my email in the about box, or the forums. I don't take offence and welcome criticism, so please let me know if there are things you don't like or could be done better. If you don't tell me, I can't change it.
Cheers
Mark
