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Dogfish -> (1/6/2002 8:19:00 AM)

Hey Mike: Looks like we were both typing our posts at the same time. At least you managed to keep your's brief. I think maybe I went too in depth. Maybe someone will benefit. Is there any way to add pics to your posts without them being links? I don't have a website.



Warhorse -> (1/6/2002 9:48:00 AM)

Dogfish, not sure if there is or not, I'm not real savvy on all this html, and stuff, just physical programs, I can usually figure them out!!



Dogfish -> (1/10/2002 11:00:00 AM)

Hey All: No new posts so can I assume that everything is working still? I just finished a whole US Medical thing... a Field Hospital, based on info I found, to same scale as units, multi hex. An ETO Dodge WC-64 Ambulance (new from scratch), a medic jeep (existing jeep with medical cross. Also a bunch of color lbm's of Field Hospital, medics, medic jeeps, and ambulances. Also, GP large and medium tents, a few other tents (again scaled) even small, pup, 2 shelter halves type. Lots of related color pics. I've used the FH as a an HQ unit, to add benefits thereof. Unfortunately there is no way to specify non-combatants... If any of you scen/camp makers are interested in some behind the lines stuff, let me know. I remember WB did a few scens with medical units.



RockinHarry -> (1/11/2002 1:04:00 AM)

Hi dogfish, just tried to alter the icon table as you described in earlier posting. Unfortunately didnīt work!
I put in new values into slot 1113 (with exact pointers to the desired (new) shape in icon0017.shp file and put the altered table into the mech.exe with SPILEC. No error messages..all seemed to work as intended. Starting the new and altered mech.exe then resulted in no icons showing up anymore in the running game and also a new scan with the SPILE program, resulted in a disappeared icon table! As said...I EXACTLY followed the procedures you mentioned above,..right command string for SPILEC with right address, csv format ect., right folders to use...
As it seems SPILEC messed up the icon table in the (V7.0) mech exe, so the game (AND SPILE) canīt find the icons anymore! Any ideas?? ___________
Harry



Warhorse -> (1/11/2002 1:56:00 AM)

Hmmm, I've never had this problem!! You entered the correct address in the command line for spilc, it's imperative you have the correct one, I noticed the address Dogfish gave up there wasn't the correct one!! That would right a totally wrong table, hence your problem... The address I gave in my post was the correct one, he had all the address right except for the one letter. Sorry can't be more specific, but the page here didn't load all the previous posts regarding this, so am flying blind!! Hope you backed up the mech.exe??!!



Dogfish -> (1/11/2002 7:17:00 AM)

Harry: Sorry about the problem, but I'm not clear on what it is yet. I checked my posted procedure and just duped the spile process here again. I have to go to a meeting tonight, like right now. Depending on how things go, I'll be back between 8:30 and 9:30 PM EST. If things go totally as bad as possible I'll still be back by 10:30. If you are available tonight let me know here. Then when I get back I'll post here that I'm in chat room. I'm quite prepared to go through it step by step to see what's going on. Again sorry about any problems you encountered... but I'm sure we can fix it.



Dogfish -> (1/11/2002 1:34:00 PM)

Hey Mike: Don't know what's going on here. If I run through all the steps as I outlined, everything works. If I select (SP2) in Spile and let it search it comes back with the address 162870. If I start it again and enter the address 162A70, it still finds the table at 162870. Is it possible I have a different mech.exe v7 than yours? I got mine from the download not from an MC. The Spile is the latest I could download from Fred. I can send you a copy of mine, if you like but it would be good to be in agreement on this. I spent 3 hours going over it and getting the same results, and everything works. After all, the clinical definition of insanity is doing the same thing, the same way, but expecting different results. I think if I do any more tonight, I'll be approaching that. I hadn't noticed at first the difference in the address we were using. When I saw Harry's post, I thought I had made a typo, but I've gone over it and that is exactly what I do. Hope you have some ideas.



Warhorse -> (1/11/2002 9:09:00 PM)

Dogfish, HOW STRANGE!! We are both correct, it seems, if I put in 162870, I get nothing, but it would appear yours works with it!!? This is strange indeed. My exe is from the download also, I was working with the pre-release, but as soon as the official came out, I used that one. I'll try out the exe tonite from the official install I have, and check out the results.....



Warhorse -> (1/12/2002 8:20:00 AM)

To all interested, just did a test with 3 different installs of the game
My private install, version 7-address is 162A70
Official install, version 7-address 161A70!!
PBEM install, for in progress games with 6.1-address 162870!! Pretty freaky, eh?! It seems you must do the search on your individual mech.exe, once the file is loaded, then load the table after the address is displayed on the right, yours may be either 162870, or 162A70, or who knows what!! You must use this address at the end of the command line for Spilc to write the correct table for your mech.exe, who knew,, and I wonder WHY there is a difference?!!! Twilite _ _ _ _ ing zone, or what?!



Dogfish -> (1/12/2002 9:34:00 AM)

Hey Mike: I think what we have here are mech.exe's that were compiled at different times. Maybe some slight changes, maybe no changes at all. Remember that the date is embedded somewhere when you do a compile. I agree though the best bet is to let spile find the table and note the address. Don't know how the alternate languages effect the mech.exe... guess I should look into that. As far as Harry's problem, if he followed my instructions, and let spile find the table he may have had a different address. This is why I say to look for "none" in the table as displayed by spile. This is a good clue that you've found the right table. Also there should be no negative numbers. Fred interpreted the -1's in spile and display's "none". When the next release comes out we should get pretty standardised. The alternate language thing may be another problem, although I would think that the only changes are to ascii text, and that enough room was left to handle differences without changing any major internal pointers. Since it would be a different compile time it will probably be different, but I think all the tables in all the mech.exe's will be in the same neihborhood. HARRY: Again I'm sorry for all the problems you've had but it was exactly the kind of testing that was needed to get things standardised. If you use the address that spile says the table is at, I don't think you'll have any problems. If you do send me a copy of your mech.exe. Since you can extract, make no changes, and rewrite any part of the exe file without doing any damage, you may want to try that. If it bombs then there is something else wrong.



RockinHarry -> (1/14/2002 4:42:00 PM)

Hi dogfish, Mike am just back in the net. Well,..I tried with 162870, thatīs the address that SPILE initially found in my V7 mech.exe!
Iīll try tonight using the address Mike mentioned above with SPILC and let you know tomorrow if it works. __________
Harry



Dogfish -> (1/14/2002 8:14:00 PM)

Hey Harry: If you still have a problem try what I mentioned above.... use spile to extract the table and use spilc to rewrite it back to the mech.exe, but don't change anything. You could do this with anything you find at any address and it will have no effect on anything. Like saving a file again with no new changes. If this causes a problem then you may want to start fresh with a new spilc/spile download.



Dogfish -> (1/14/2002 8:26:00 PM)

Harry: Just thought of something else while rereading your post. If your new icon does not have a turret associated with it then you must enter "-1" for the turrect icon and "-1" for the turret icon number. The value before you edited was probably 0,0... if it were than that would not cause it to bomb. If anything else were ther that essentially points to either a file number, or icon number that doesn't exist then you will bomb. Remember that the table as it is written in the mech.exe starts at location 0 and not 1. So if you look at an icon file with shp edit and using the collage display you see 5 icons, what you are really seeing is 5 icons labeled 0,1,2,3,4.... if you want to add a 6th icon, you would edit in a 5, for the next one inline. If you edit in 6, that's a location that doesn't exist and you will bomb. Hope this helps,... but we'll get it eventually.



RockinHarry -> (1/15/2002 9:41:00 PM)

Hi dogfish, Mike I finally solved my problem.
Excel somehow corrupts the CSV file while saving, although SPILC had no problem using it for importing into the mech.exe. Darn M****s**t products Doing exactly the same edits with windows notepad worked fine. Now I see my new "Dugout/Cellar" unit which I put into the norway OOB and has its shape graphic located at (pointer) 1113! Actually itīs an unarmed "cave" class unit with infantry carry capacity of 16 and has a "stolen" shape graphic of the "other" Steel Panthers. Now testing the playabilty of this new "bunker" class...
Once again the procedure I followed to do the edits: ----------------------------
official download V7.0 mech.exe (file date: 11.28.01 / 21:39:54) english language
----------------------------
SPILE (version 0.11 (11.25.00)) SPILE: mech.exe (on win98 desktop) ---> 00000300060009 (SP2) ---> "Search" ---> 162870 (shown in box) ---> Entries:1231 ---> "Load" ---> Correct icon table shown. (1113-1230 empty : 0/1/0/1))
Save: (to desktop) as sp2il.csv
--------------------------
sp2il.csv opened in Excel (on second try with Windows Notepad)
Edited address 1113 ("A" column) to 17 ("B"), 75 ("C"), -1 ("D") and -1 ("E"). 17 = icon0017.shp file (shape file that contains various gun graphics, parachute, bunkers ect.) 75 = "Body" shape number 75 in icon0017.shp file (actually Nr.76 in Freds shape editor, as an offset of 1 is used) Note: original icon0017.shp file only has 75 entries, but I added a new bunker graphic at the end of the file.(=No. 76) -1, -1 = No turret (in SPILE shown as NONE)
-------------------------
Excel: "Save" edited file back to desktop in original CSV format.
(Same with Notepad on second try. Always use "Save" and NOT "Save as..." to preserve the internal data structure/format!!)
-------------------------
SPILC (version 0.11 (11.26.00)) Open DOS window ---> change directory (cd) to desktop (where spilc, mech.exe and sp2il.csv is located) ---> Enter command string: spilc 4 sp2il.csv mech.exe 162870 ---> "You are to overwrite the image list table in mech.exe located at 162870 with the data in sp2il.csv
Is this Ok?" ---> typing "Y" for Yes ---> "changing mech.exe. Done" ---> Leaving DOS window ------------------------- With SPILE now open the changed mech.exe from windows desktop, repeat search procedure as mentioned above ---> Messed up icon table shown at weird address with the EXCEL csv file edited mech.exe. Also no icons in SPWAW shown anymore and the window scroll rate slowed down considerably! (The notepad csv file edited mech.exe worked as intended. SPILE shows original table AND the edits at correct address! SPWAW works as usual and the new unit is shown with the correct new icon!) BTW: The V7.1 version Iīm testing now, has its icon table shown with SPILE at address 162C70! _____________
Harry



Dogfish -> (1/16/2002 12:43:00 AM)

Hey Harry: I'm glad you got it. You brought up another great point... the workings of excell. I totally forgot about any detail on that, and yes you must maintain the comma seperated integrity of the file and not switch to excell format. If I remember, even doing a save and not a save as, excell will give you another opportunity to screw things up when you exit. Since it looks like 7.1 is in the works, I think there will be a need to work on that version, when it is released, and to look at the alternate language exe files as well. Maybe I'll do a more comprehensive in depth tutorial then if one is needed. In the mean time if you add a lot of new icons, keep a backup oob somewhere and a listing of the icon locations, so that it will be fairly painless to modify the new mech.exe v7.1



Dogfish -> (1/16/2002 12:56:00 AM)

Harry: I somehow missed yor reference to 7.1 until I reread everything. How close is this to what will be released? When is time frame for release? As I mentioned earlier I think we have the icon space established. It is the oob space that is limited. Alot of units from other countries use the same icon number. This makes the icon space go even further, the 118 slots can translate to more than 118 units. Since it appears that Matrix doesn't want to do major work on SPWAW anymore, like boost the oob slots to 500 or more, then an alternate method has to be found and agreed on. I suggested somewhere in this post that the oob's be split in two, at a date where unit production was on a major upswing. If you are testing 7.1 then you have someone's ear already. Also probably have some input with those people working on the oob's. Maybe you can inspire them.



Don Doom -> (1/23/2002 6:35:00 AM)

quote:

Originally posted by RockinHarry:
Hi dogfish, Mike I finally solved my problem.
Excel somehow corrupts the CSV file while saving, although SPILC had no problem using it for importing into the mech.exe. Darn M****s**t products Doing exactly the same edits with windows notepad worked fine. Now I see my new "Dugout/Cellar" unit which I put into the norway OOB and has its shape graphic located at (pointer) 1113! Actually itīs an unarmed "cave" class unit with infantry carry capacity of 16 and has a "stolen" shape graphic of the "other" Steel Panthers. Now testing the playabilty of this new "bunker" class...
Once again the procedure I followed to do the edits: ----------------------------
official download V7.0 mech.exe (file date: 11.28.01 / 21:39:54) english language
----------------------------
SPILE (version 0.11 (11.25.00)) SPILE: mech.exe (on win98 desktop) ---> 00000300060009 (SP2) ---> "Search" ---> 162870 (shown in box) ---> Entries:1231 ---> "Load" ---> Correct icon table shown. (1113-1230 empty : 0/1/0/1))
Save: (to desktop) as sp2il.csv
--------------------------
sp2il.csv opened in Excel (on second try with Windows Notepad)
Edited address 1113 ("A" column) to 17 ("B"), 75 ("C"), -1 ("D") and -1 ("E"). 17 = icon0017.shp file (shape file that contains various gun graphics, parachute, bunkers ect.) 75 = "Body" shape number 75 in icon0017.shp file (actually Nr.76 in Freds shape editor, as an offset of 1 is used) Note: original icon0017.shp file only has 75 entries, but I added a new bunker graphic at the end of the file.(=No. 76) -1, -1 = No turret (in SPILE shown as NONE)
-------------------------
Excel: "Save" edited file back to desktop in original CSV format.
(Same with Notepad on second try. Always use "Save" and NOT "Save as..." to preserve the internal data structure/format!!)
-------------------------
SPILC (version 0.11 (11.26.00)) Open DOS window ---> change directory (cd) to desktop (where spilc, mech.exe and sp2il.csv is located) ---> Enter command string: spilc 4 sp2il.csv mech.exe 162870 ---> "You are to overwrite the image list table in mech.exe located at 162870 with the data in sp2il.csv
Is this Ok?" ---> typing "Y" for Yes ---> "changing mech.exe. Done" ---> Leaving DOS window ------------------------- With SPILE now open the changed mech.exe from windows desktop, repeat search procedure as mentioned above ---> Messed up icon table shown at weird address with the EXCEL csv file edited mech.exe. Also no icons in SPWAW shown anymore and the window scroll rate slowed down considerably! (The notepad csv file edited mech.exe worked as intended. SPILE shows original table AND the edits at correct address! SPWAW works as usual and the new unit is shown with the correct new icon!) BTW: The V7.1 version Iīm testing now, has its icon table shown with SPILE at address 162C70! _____________
Harry
By using the above I have mine working. I tried it by copying a 76mm sherman and maus and both show up in the encyclopedia twice.
Then tried playing some scen. I have in process and no problems. Any icons you all would like to have tested.



Dogfish -> (2/10/2002 10:54:00 AM)

Hey Velovich: Bumped this for you, and if you have read this from the beginning and followed along you should be able to add icons. If you have more questions re: icons, post them here. Maybe they will help someone else. Without the search feature it's probably best to keep this stuff together here.



Don Doom -> (2/10/2002 7:36:00 PM)

Dogfish how about we move this thread over to the Hall of Fame. Hint Hint Hint[PV.G.WB]



Dogfish -> Old Post (4/27/2002 12:47:28 PM)

Hey Mike:

I found the old post and thought I'd bring it up to date for people to add new test info to. I had found two slots initially that you can't use. I haven't tried the ones you mention, if they are different. You should add the info here if you like, there might actually be others crazy enough to try this, and any info will help.



Belisarius -> A new record? (4/27/2002 5:01:58 PM)

WTF!! 19 views on this thread, and [SIZE=3]49[/SIZE] replies!! :eek:

Art of wargaming forum - eat your heart out. :D :D :D



Warhorse -> (4/27/2002 8:08:27 PM)

Heh, heh, icons rock!!:D



Don Doom -> Anyone know how. (4/28/2002 1:42:41 AM)

Warhorse,Dogfish,Rockinharry.
Does anyone know how to center a turent on a blockhouse turent ring? I have three icons, one made two inprocess of block houses that have turents on them. I have added one to the list but the turrent does not line up. help!



Warhorse -> (4/28/2002 2:10:24 AM)

Dude, zip it up and send it to me, I'll see what the deal is!:) Is it not centering EXACTLY, or just not centering at all? Could be the 'ring' is not exactly centered pixel-wise, and then you must offset the turret accordingly...Or it could be that's it's just being a bugger:D



Don Doom -> (4/28/2002 2:40:04 AM)

So then I should also center the turrent. Ok then I will make a seperate turrent icon and center it. I did not think of that and was using those in the shp file. Thanks



Don Doom -> Work in progress (4/28/2002 3:34:02 AM)

Warhorse, here is one I started back in feb, based on a model I saw in pictures.



Warhorse -> (4/28/2002 6:36:28 PM)

Don, are you going to put this in the standard shp files, or in the terrain shp's? Also, would you mind if I took the liberty to finish this bunker, very intrigueing?! I would be done in a day or so, then I'll send it back, this bunker rocks!!



Don Doom -> (4/28/2002 7:35:38 PM)

Morning Warhorse.
I was going to add it to the end of the shp file with the other bunkers so I could use the pzk III L/M turrent. I could also add it to ter86 or ter90 file.
If you have the time go right ahead.
I wrote to a german bunker web site that I use and he replyed

"this PZK III turret was in 1944-45 mountet an Ringsupport, conkret or Timber made but not fixt in real Bunkers.
(Sorry for my english)."
:D



Warhorse -> (4/28/2002 11:19:42 PM)

Don,Here you go, you will most likely need to put it in a regular shp file, like a turret tank destroyer class, so it will rotate. I tested it out, and it works well, but I tested it in my custom build, which no way resembles the icon slots in the official, so I can't let you have the shp file with it installed, as you would need to change your mech.exe, and everything else!! So, here are the 2 BMP's, I redid them, hope they are acceptable?!:D



Don Doom -> That was quick. (4/29/2002 12:22:50 AM)

Had nothing else to do today. he he
Thanks again.

ps. which III turrent did you try?
:D



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