I am announcing a new utility that can copy all of a players MODS AND update the mods to a new patch.
at present it it can update mods in txt form from entrenchment 1.01 &1.02 to entrenchment 1.03 and sins 1.15-6 to 1.17, it works in a similar way to my map updater ie it first copies the files from the source folder( and it does copy ALL files and folders), it then reads in the entity file from the destination folder, re-names the entity to entold, checks to see if it needs the changes and makes the nessacary changes and saves the corrected entity. I have already tested it with manshooters dynamic v0.9b and my own megastarbases mod (both in txt form and it copied and updated both in 33 seconds, but the more mods and the larger the mods and also if the mods ar binned the SLOWER the updating time. eg with celestial bodies v0.8b, ds entrenchment beta 0.7, dynamic 0.9b, firefall 2.2, ms entrench v2.22, requiem 2.2, sins of the 13th tribe v0.4, unknown darkness beta 0.01 and my megastarbases mod (totaling 3.9GB of files) it took 40 minutes to update all of them.
and as the entity files in the mods ARE updated you only need to run the utility when a new patch to entrenchment comes out and I have supplied updated instructions to the program.
the links for old versions have been removed
I have been given permission to include the convertdata*.exe's with my utilities so I am now releasing my utility pack
I have released all of my modding utilities/tools in one archive and INCLUDED the NOW needed convertdata*.exe's from all of the sins versions that my utilities support, ie sins 1.15,1,16 & 1.17 and also entrenchment 1.01,1.02, & 1.03
also I made sure that the correct targetsinsver.txt is included
1/1/2010 the latest version which has the updated program for the textbin gui and diplomacy compatibility is now up at
7/2/ 2010 uploaded the 1.19 release of the utilities including the latest mod updater which is set to ignore the 5 fx files that can cause dumps in entrenchment mods
19/2/2010 latest version of the complete modding utiities with the essentals files incuded is up at
the latest version is up at http://www.filefactory.com/file/b0b3g8a/n/harpo_sins_utilities_1.191_e_d.rar
now also at http://www.filefront.com/15858795/harpo-sins-utilities-1.191ed.rar/
and the dip 1.21 version http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8023186/sins%20mods/harpo%20sins%20utilities%20for%20sins%201.191%2Cent%201.051%2Cd1.21.rar
I have tested this version on 32 bit & 64 bit sins,entrenchment & diplomacy, the only issue is a overflow value with many mods in a mod folder. I will fix this in the next version
just a reminder if you are getting an error stating that sins version found ::: need version 1.1.9 then you NEED the registry keys that point to the sins install folder for 32bit windows
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Stardock\Drengin.net\sinsfor 64bit windows
HKLM>SOFTWARE>Wow6432Node>Stardock>Drengin.net>sins
and they should have a Path string value that contains the EXACT path to the sins game folder
the latest version includes the use of the sinstrinity registry key to find the path to the sins install if the sins path key is blank, and also a probable fix for the error 76 (path not found) error that appears to be caused by having a '\' at the end of the sins(trinity) path, so you do NOT need to edit the registry entries
here is the drop box link
and the file factory link
and now the utility pack with diplomacy 1.3 and trinity 1.3 convertdata btw I do not recommend using the mod updater to update the mods to diplomacy 1.3 as there are a large number of changes in the playerRACE.entity files and the entity manifest, and new and removed pacts compared with diplomacy 1.21
corrected the link above, the above link archive NOW has the diplomacy1.21 convertdata
and the first link for the utility pack with convertdatadiplomacy 1.31(file factory)
utility pack convertdatadiplomacy 1.31 (drop box)
updated the utility pack for the latest patch and the mod updater WILL update original mods to 1.192, entrenchment (still uses the 1.051 folder so no update) and diplomacy 1.3# to 1.33
filefactory link to full utility pack for o1.192 e 1.052 d/t 1.33
18/11/2011 updated the utilities to the latest steam compatable patch ie original 1.193, entrenchment 1.053, diplomacy 1.34, trinity 1.34 AND updated the manifest maker to remove the two entities that diplomacy no longer wants
filefactory latest utility pack for O1.193 e1.053 d1.34 t1.34
harpo
Thanks for the help, I have it, my friend doesn't want to get it....
I don't get it, it won't conert anything that isn't in the mod folders? why is that? I tried to convert something in my documents folder, yet i won't allow me to do it
I designed the mod updater to update mods in the mods folders. it uses the folder name to determine which version of sins the mod was for so it can use the correct convertdata to convert the mod to txt then update it then convert it back to binwith the new convertdata if it was in bin, and also to determine which set of instructions to use to do the updates. mostly for the players so that they could keep playing their favourite mods after a patch update does it's usual thing of breaking mods.
a possible work around would be to name the folders that contain the mods you want to update in the my documents in the same way as the actual mods folders, eg. mods-V1.15,mods-v1.16,mods-v1.17,mods-entrenchment v1.01,mods-entrenchment v1.02,mods-entrenchment v1.03, and place the mod into the version folder it is for, the mod updater should then work with you navigating to the my documents folder for both source and destination
hope this helps
carbon016,
the mod updater 1.1 WILL UPDATE mods inplace ie will update all mods from mods-entrenchment v1.01 or mods-entrenchment v1.02 to the mods-entrenchment v1.03 folder and also from mods-v1.15 and mods-v1.16 to mods-v1.17 folders ie the WORKING mods folders older versions to the current version.
the plain english instructions for the mod updater are
1 have the mods in the folders where they work from older versions of sins/entrenchment
2 have updated sins/entrenchment
3 extract utility pack to a folder on computer
4 in said folder doubleclick on sins mod updater
5 in mod updater navigate into the folder that contains the mods that you want to update eg mods-entrenchment v1.02
6 click on the button ;set source to copy from'(by the way the program uses this path to determine WHICH of the convertdata's to use for updating the mods from as each of the convertdata's will only work on files processed with that version)
the button captikon will change to the path that you had entered
a new folder browser window will open on the right which will default to the current version mods folder
7 in the destination folder view select the desired destination folder
8 click on set destination to copy to
the button caption will change to the destination folder
9 click on the button copy and update the entity files
the program will now copy ALL THE FILES and FOLDERS in the path, and check whether the file is txt or bin if bin converts it to txt using the convertdata from the eairlier version, then checks the entity file to see if it needs updating, updates it, then if the original was bin it then converts it BACK to bin with the later convertdata, reporting on the files copied, the files updated, and the files that would NOT convert to txt for updating
10 click either on the reset the settings button if you have mods in another sins/entrenchment version that you want to update OR the EXIT button
does this help carbon016?
Very Nice Harpo!!
-Teal
just a quick anouncment.
I will release an updated modding utilities pack within a day of 1.18/1.04's release and the new version's name will be harpo's modding utilites v1.18.
I just have to find all the changes in the files and make the nessecary updates and new files for the mod updater , txtbin gui and mapupdater
YES!!!!
Just want to say, that this tool made coming back to sins after several months absence bearable... Without it, all my custom mods would have been useless until I'd updated by hand (which always took forever in the past). Can't wait for the 1.04 version! Thanks for this tool!
Actually, there is alot of things that have changed, just porting 1.03 to 1.04 it was barely running. Nearly all of changes I have noticed was mainly in the windows files...
I don't see how that is possible. I don't think we changed a single window file.
blair, I am having trouble with the release convertdata exe's not running in my xp32 boxes, sofar in testing they only run on my win7 64bit, and NONE of my xp pro sp3 32bit systems.
I still have to make a developer build and a few other things for a modding package. Let's hope we can get it running before that goes up. Is anyone else able to test the convertdata's on their machines? The latest ones would be included in the last patch including all associated dlls and manifest files.
the test procedure that I use is open your sins of asolar empire folder,
find the convertdata_originalsins.exe double click on it
it should open a dosbox and close it, if it errors then post the error, the windows version, the dotnet version here
"Application failed to initialize properly 0xc0000034"
win xp sp3 , .net 3.5
going to try on windows 7 box
works there
process mon says it is looking for msvcp80.dll ( UPDATE: when I have this file present it works)
Last time you said the package would be ready for 1.03 in a few days, yet you only released dev version instead of the "whole" package citing problems, so are you giving us guarantee that there will be more than just the dev program?
The appropriate dlls and manifests were included in the update.
I'm not sure what else is needed besides the ConvertData's (already included) and the dev build. None of the other tools need changing to be compatible.
thank you evillejedi your info solved the issue
Hmm. Worked fine on my Vista 32 system.
latest status is that I am currently testing the updating of most of the available mods in my two fastest computers, and when the mod updating is finished I will then try loading the mod(s) in sins 1.18/entrenchment 1.04 to test it the update instructions are correct. if the mods work properly, then I will rar the entire collection of modding utilities AND the needed dll's and other support files and upload them.
I have recieved some information that suggests next patch will be worth waiting for, but WILL break the mods again.
I am holding off on the release of the mod updater till after the hotfix is out.
hopefully it will be similar in scope to the 1.01 entrenchment release ie fix the little bugs from the last big release and a new version number with updated exe's
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