Thelvyn on 24/4/2007 at 01:56
Potter has been MIA for 3 months now and there are nothing but problems with his program. So I am considering writing one in C++ instead of VB. No more of those runtime issues. Not designed for every game under the sun. Just Thief3 and nothing else(Unless Thief1 and/or Thief2 is desired by you the community)
Would anyone be interested in such a program before I take the time to write it ?
I have experience writing something similar from 10 years ago so I know what I am getting into.
scumble on 24/4/2007 at 07:26
If you can come up with something simple and reliable like DarkLoader I think it would be worth the effort. How long do you think it would take you?
Vigil on 24/4/2007 at 08:29
I did interface designs for a T1/T2/T3/SS2 loader in XUL a while ago, which is Mozilla's user interface language. I gave up on it once I realised that to go any further would require learning a proper application programming language and I couldn't be bothered. If you have Firefox 1.5 or higher then you might want to check out the mockups for ideas to rip off:
(
http://www.washboardabs.net/igarrett/)
If your plan is to focus specifically on T3 though then that's not a very appropriate interface, as there aren't (and probably won't be) enough missions to warrant an iTunes-style searchable categorised list view.
nomad of the pacific on 24/4/2007 at 10:00
As long as you can keep the ibt compressor functionality and have it work with preexisting fms, I'd be interested.
Thelvyn on 24/4/2007 at 11:27
Quote:
If you can come up with something simple and reliable like DarkLoader I think it would be worth the effort. How long do you think it would take you?
Couple of months at least. Still have to work and contribute to TDM.
Quote:
I did interface designs for a T1/T2/T3/SS2 loader in XUL a while ago, which is Mozilla's user interface language. I gave up on it once I realised that to go any further would require learning a proper application programming language and I couldn't be bothered. If you have Firefox 1.5 or higher then you might want to check out the mockups for ideas to rip off:
(
http://www.washboardabs.net/igarrett/)
If your plan is to focus specifically on T3 though then that's not a very appropriate interface, as there aren't (and probably won't be) enough missions to warrant an iTunes-style searchable categorised list view.
Interesting. I was planning to keep it pretty simple but we will see how it goes.
Quote:
As long as you can keep the ibt compressor functionality and have it work with preexisting fms, I'd be interested.
Its a DLL right ? I dont see why not.
The only area of concern for me is the audio conversions. If I can find something to do that with the rest is just time.
I really was not planning on replacing darkloader unless there is a need.
I am however planning on supporting TDM when it is done.
The decision (So far) is to put very basic loader functionality in TDM with the thought that there will be a Loader out by the community.
Beleg Cúthalion on 24/4/2007 at 19:52
I thought GarrettLoader was meant to become open-source with the next Version...?! Whatever...:erm:
With respect to the language problems I had to deal with when doing all the translations, I'd like to have some kind of language support check when the programm is looking into new FMs. There are text files in the "Content\books\English..." directory and in the sub directories "briefings", "debriefings", "String_tags" and "Quotes"; furthermore those in "Sounds\schemas\conversations\PlayerGarrett" which contain the mission objectives.
All those *.sch files in there contain code à la:
Quote Posted by Crystal Clear Conscience
(lot of numbers...)
CrystalClearObjectives_001000/meta1
lang_english 2006-02-26 17:25:54:00 "Steal the Pride of Dayport. Quigsley will do just fine without it."
lang_french 2006-02-26 17:25:54:01 "Steal the Pride of Dayport. Quigsley will do just fine without it."
lang_german 2006-02-26 17:25:54:02 "Stehlen Sie den Stolz von Dayport. Quigsley kommt auch ohne ihn zurecht."
lang_italian 2006-02-26 17:25:54:03 "Steal the Pride of Dayport. Quigsley will do just fine without it."
none
Without those language entries books and (even more often) the goals are invisible. As far as I know from Visual Basic it should be possible to check if the non-english tags are empty or don't even exist and (if so) copy the english one into the French/German/Italian, so there is at least this one visible for everybody. This would make playing them a lot easier (well, with invisible objectives it is quite...complicated...although you can deduce a lot). I know this sounds like a lot of annoying programming, but I would appreciate this feature.
Thelvyn on 25/4/2007 at 00:15
Quote Posted by Beleg Cúthalion
I thought GarrettLoader was meant to become open-source with the next Version...?! Whatever...:erm:
News to me. No one has seen or heard from him in 3 months apparently.
Quote:
With respect to the language problems I had to deal with when doing all the translations, I'd like to have some kind of language support check when the programm is looking into new FMs. There are text files in the "Content\books\English..." directory and in the sub directories "briefings", "debriefings", "String_tags" and "Quotes"; furthermore those in "Sounds\schemas\conversations\PlayerGarrett" which contain the mission objectives.
All those *.sch files in there contain code à la:Without those language entries books and (even more often) the goals are invisible. As far as I know from Visual Basic it should be possible to check if the non-english tags are empty or don't even exist and (if so) copy the english one into the French/German/Italian, so there is at least this one visible for everybody. This would make playing them a lot easier (well, with invisible objectives it is quite...complicated...although you can deduce a lot). I know this sounds like a lot of annoying programming, but I would appreciate this feature.
Doesnt thief3 deal with this as long as the files are there ??
If the files are in the fm I am going to put them where they belong.
Or is something extra required that I am unaware of ?
Ziemanskye on 25/4/2007 at 17:50
No it doesn't.
The schema files are read to put the text into the game - that's all normal, but if there isn't a version in the french section of the schema file then playing the game in french just has no text.
I'm guilty of missing those bits out myself (but that's okay, my missions weren't worth fixing, having been designed more to look pretty than much else).
What Beleg's asking for is the installer to check the .sch files for the language markers and copy the english version accross to any missing/broken parts of the files, so that people playing on non-english versions of the game don't have to go blindly into it, or have to force their version of the game to be English for a while when playing FMs.
Pretty straight forward, if horribly tedious, kind of thing to implement as far as I know, since it's got to check every *.sch file that comes with the level and possible copy/paste large chunks of it.
Thelvyn on 26/4/2007 at 00:15
Quote Posted by Ziemanskye
No it doesn't.
The schema files are read to put the text into the game - that's all normal, but if there isn't a version in the french section of the schema file then playing the game in french just has no text.
I'm guilty of missing those bits out myself (but that's okay, my missions weren't worth fixing, having been designed more to look pretty than much else).
What Beleg's asking for is the installer to check the .sch files for the language markers and copy the english version accross to any missing/broken parts of the files, so that people playing on non-english versions of the game don't have to go blindly into it, or have to force their version of the game to be English for a while when playing FMs.
Pretty straight forward, if horribly tedious, kind of thing to implement as far as I know, since it's got to check every *.sch file that comes with the level and possible copy/paste large chunks of it.
I will look into it. Well I would imagine that blows portability out of the game though. I may just have to write a separate TDM loader since linux/mac/windows portability is a must as we are targeting all of these platforms for TDM.
Have to see if I can come up with a solution that works for all platforms.
Thanks for the info.
Beleg Cúthalion on 26/4/2007 at 20:29
Quote Posted by Ziemanskye
I'm guilty of missing those bits out myself (but that's okay, my missions weren't worth fixing, having been designed more to look pretty than much else).
Hehe, I translated half of the Impurities-diary entries and got jumpy after a while. :p But the mission was quite kafkaesque (except there was no one threatening you), and - although there are only few of them - "a lot" of all T3 FMs are like that...might be the AI. I think this is an expandable idea concerning the way of storytelling in FMs.
Quote:
What Beleg's asking for is the installer to check the .sch files for the language markers[...]
Yes, that's right. In fact this should be the author's duty, but it would ne an espacially nice feature. ;)
