Calling all programmers (Full Version)

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GaryChildress -> Calling all programmers (7/27/2011 2:17:48 AM)

At times like this I wish I knew programming. I think it would be really helpful, at least to me, to create a GUI editor for PC. It would be so much nicer to be able to edit the campaign and equipment files without having to name and rename, copy and paste data. I'm wondering, are there any talented programmers out there in PC land who might know how to create such an editor?

I wonder if a person could us MS Access to create such an editor?



Dumnorix -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/27/2011 6:54:18 PM)

Hi Gary,
First you can bring up your nice WW2 and modern units without blue civ colour into PC !

Thank you



GaryChildress -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/28/2011 11:34:54 AM)

I had considered creating some units similar to People's General, just one soldier representing an infantry unit. Or maybe units with two soldiers representing them. Here's a sample of what I was working on. Haven't figured out how PC handles the shadows yet though.


[image]local://upfiles/17421/01EA31736108485C9DF2883A77E81884.gif[/image]



GaryChildress -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/28/2011 11:39:36 AM)

Here's an in game shot. As I say, I haven't figured out the shadow part yet:


[image]local://upfiles/17421/D0262F2171464CE1A26E95BB1ADC0221.jpg[/image]



Dumnorix -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/28/2011 11:46:09 AM)

Hi Gary
Looks very nice ! I hope you can spend hunderts of your nice infantry units here. 3 soldiers looking better - like the original, but wit hdifferent poses and clothing - possible one officer and 2 solfiers.

Let me known if you need help with the shadows:

Here are 2 of my new 12 units:
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26566

Best wishes !
Send me mail please - than we can discuss some things !

H.Balck



mgarnett -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/28/2011 12:05:45 PM)

Hi Gary,

I'm a programmer and I'm happy to help, what sort of editor were you thinking about?

Cheers

Mark



VPaulus -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/28/2011 5:21:16 PM)

To be able to load, edit and save the "equipment.pzeqp", "campaign.pzdat" and "efx.pzdat", in a user friendly way.
I think that's what Gary wants, and well, I would end up use it also.[:'(]



dazoline II -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/28/2011 6:07:23 PM)

Opening up the equipment.pzeqp file it looks like a tab delimited values file. Something Excel should be able to handle.

Edit: Renamed it .tsv in the screenie.

[image]local://upfiles/26972/4FC779A8F2A0493DB2E4FCC60B42CD58.jpg[/image]



GaryChildress -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/29/2011 3:10:20 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: mgarnett

Hi Gary,

I'm a programmer and I'm happy to help, what sort of editor were you thinking about?

Cheers

Mark


Hi Mark, what I was thinking of is a GUI program that could directly open the "equipment.pzeqp" and "campaign.pzdat" files and then easily manipulate the data, sort, filter, edit values and then save back directly into the "equipment.pzeqp" and "campaign.pzdat" formats. I know you can do that with Excel but I for one would like to see a more friendly interface.

Here is a pic of a fan made editor for Cid Meier's Civilization III sort of along the lines of what I was thinking of:



[image]local://upfiles/17421/A8DD91B331EE47AE96D1BA234716A793.jpg[/image]



GaryChildress -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/29/2011 3:11:55 AM)

Or here's a pic of the interface for the official War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition Editor...a bit similar:



[image]local://upfiles/17421/039503B8E9B942EBA4B059D057D8FE0A.jpg[/image]



Razz1 -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/29/2011 3:12:19 AM)

the editor is simple enough in excel



GaryChildress -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/29/2011 3:35:54 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Razz

the editor is simple enough in excel


Then use excel. I'd rather use something simpler.



Rood -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/29/2011 7:36:19 AM)

What you want is certainly possible but maybe a lot of work [:)].
I program in Access and VB, would choose VB over Access since people need Access to use it.

I'll give it a shot to see how much work it would really be, but don't expect anything soon, I need my weekend's for some much needed [>:].

PS I suck at designing interfaces, I use these tools (and SQL Server) a lot to do data analysis and not so much for full fledged programs.





mgarnett -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/29/2011 8:33:09 AM)

Hi Gary,

I'll put together a quick protoype GUI this weekend. The files are tab separated values, so loading them up in a user friendly way shouldn't be difficult. The most time consuming part will be the GUI. I'll put something together and post it for you to have a look at.

Cheers

Mark



mgarnett -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/29/2011 11:18:09 AM)

Hi Gary,

Here's a rough GUI that I've just put together. Can you have a look and see if this is what you're looking for. Also, if there's anything in particular you want added let me know. In relation to the unit graphics, I will add an option so that you can choose for the editor to look in the game directory for the graphic or in another location of your choice.

I also thought you'd want some way of organising your unit graphics but I wasn't sure what you would need.

Cheers

Mark

[image]local://upfiles/18753/F3B47E25C4544816B60CFC4A2743CE6C.jpg[/image]



mgarnett -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/29/2011 11:20:26 AM)

One more thing, I wasn't sure if you wanted to be able to filter your list, for example show tanks only, or just infantry. It's easy enough to add, so let me know.

Thanks

Mark



GaryChildress -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/30/2011 12:48:21 AM)

ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! PERFECT! That's exactly what I had in mind!

Yes, if you would make it able to filter by almost any stat, that would be great! And then when a person clicks the save button it would save to a particular folder the user chooses as [filename].pzeqp and be instantly compatible with the game.

Wow! I'm excited now! Thank you for your generous help! [&o]

EDIT: Example: let's say I want to compare all units with a soft attack of 5. Maybe I want to compare and contrast the units to determine if they all look like they should have the same soft attack. Then I could use your editor to do the comparison easily. That would be IDEAL!



VPaulus -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/30/2011 2:43:57 AM)

Great job.
Mark, could you do the same for "efx.pzdat"?
It has less fields.
Thanks



mgarnett -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/30/2011 5:36:05 AM)

Hi Gary,

No problems, I'll set to work on an initial version today but it will most likely take me a week or to complete fitting it in between work/family etc.

I'll also have a think about a query/comparison function. Probably something like a small query window you access from the editor where you can select what unit attributes to use in the query and then have it pop up with a list of results.

Cheers

Mark



mgarnett -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/30/2011 5:36:54 AM)

Hi VPaulus,

No worries, I'll have a look at that as well. I'll try and implement it into the same editor so you only need one aditor for both files.

Cheers

Mark



Rood -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/30/2011 7:47:05 AM)

mgarnett has got it sorted out already, looks great btw, good back to sleep then [;)].



Dumnorix -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/30/2011 9:25:03 AM)

Yeah - this editor is very usful for my own work !

Thank you
H.Balck



mgarnett -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/30/2011 10:21:50 AM)

Hi All,

I have everything working now for loading. The editor parses the equipment file and loads the values and you can navigate to each item. Just left to implement saving, querying and filtering and then it should be good to go for a test drive.

I'm away all day tomorrow but I hope to get some more time tomorrow night to fill in some more gaps.

Cheers

Mark



GaryChildress -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/30/2011 10:53:44 AM)

Many thanks Mark! I'm looking forward to the test drive! Your editor will no doubt open doors (or maybe more like a floodgate) for many new modders. [:)]

PS Please don't forget to include an editor for the campaign file so that it's easier to create new campaigns as well. [:)]

Thank you again! [&o]



VPaulus -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/30/2011 1:20:22 PM)

It will be a useful tool and will be adopted by the mod community.
Thanks Mark! [sm=00000436.gif]



mgarnett -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/30/2011 1:38:34 PM)

Hi Guys,

It's really nothing. Anybody who does even a little bit of coding could whip a similar editor.

Cheers

Mark



mgarnett -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/30/2011 2:49:53 PM)

Hi,

Hi Guys, thought I'd post another update. I managed a little bit of coding between dinner and bed so I thought I'd post an updated image of the GUI and Query screen. Can you let me know if there are any glaring issues that you can see. The Query screen is pretty rudimentary, so let me know your thoughts. After running a comparison query you can save your result out to a file (I'll also add the ability to print them).

The results are displayed on-screen in the grid box you can see at the bottom of the dialog.

I'm pretty happy with how it's looking, but not being a modder, I'm sure that it can be better tailored to your needs.

Cheers

Mark



[image]local://upfiles/18753/B337B3A88C2E46088FAB6CC2B46357A1.jpg[/image]



mgarnett -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/30/2011 2:50:38 PM)

And the query dialog.




mgarnett -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/30/2011 2:51:42 PM)

And the query dialog.



[image]local://upfiles/18753/3A02ACA2944241C1AD08A12DE0038286.jpg[/image]



mgarnett -> RE: Calling all programmers (7/30/2011 2:58:00 PM)

Apologies for all these posts, but as soon as I post I remember another question I meant to ask!  At the moment, when loading an equipment file, if an entry says "Reserved" I omit it from the listing of unit types (it will still get saved "back" into the file after you have finished editing so there are no missing unit ID numbers).  Is this OK, or do you want to be able to see the "Reserved" entries.  I assumed these were for the use of the developers but I could be mistaken.

Cheers

Mark



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