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{utility release} GUI for convertdata to automate the conversion of files in folders between BIN & TXT

harpos TXT BINner *v1.19.12* as at 15/3/2010

By on May 23, 2009 6:19:26 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

harpo99999

Join Date 02/2008
+374

I have started coding on another little program for automated conversion of files between txt & bin formats using the actual convertdata*.exe's and the correct convertdata for the files based on the pathname eg for entrenchment mods/reference files the path should contain "entrenchment" ditto for the next expansions, and for vanilla sins it SHOULD NOT contain any of the expansions names also it will work on all drives in the computer BUT does need the sins installation in the location pointed to by the registy.

it will also be able to make TXTed reference files as easily as converting an entire mod to/from bin

to make your own reference set you first COPY the program files sins folder to another location in the computer like for example 'my documents', then delete FROM THE COPY the appdata,font & sdplugins folders and the dll and exe files in the root of the copy then run the txt binner doing the entrenchment folder first then any other expansions you have and finally the vanilla sins and for each folder note which files have FAILED conversion

a more detailed overview of the program

psudo code outline

get the conversion type

get the location to convert

determine which convertdata to use based on the location (all three expansions will be supported)

scan the location to create a list of all files

for each file in the list use the convertdata to convert each file if it is NOT the type wanted, then test to see if it was converted correctly, if not list it in the failed conversion list, if it was  then list it in the success list

end psudo code outline

note additional minor feature if you have a location you want to use as a sins reference files location and want it to be accessably with a single button then create a sinsref.txt in the same folder as the txt binner.exe and have as the first line of the file as the path to your sins reference location eg 'f:\sins reference'  note the LACK of trailing backslash the program does not want it

the new versions of the mod updater and TXT BIN GUI use the correct version of the convertdata to do the actual convesion to text/bin eg updateing mods from entrenchment 1.01 to 1.03 the mod updater converts to text with convertdata_entrenchment1.01.exe and updates the entities, then converts back to bin with convertdata_entrenchment 1.03.exe.

I suggest not using the old version files the current is 1.1

the latest version is included in the utility pack that an be downloaded from my mod updater thread

 

harpo

my new txt bin converter GUI

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April 22, 2012 6:11:11 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

did you try the links in the reply above yours?, they work for me.

harpo

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April 22, 2012 6:49:17 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

posting here so I will see replies.

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May 4, 2012 6:01:53 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

just a quick note to let you all know that I am currently updating the textbig gui to work with rebellion AND trinity/sins/entrenchment/diplomacy, but the different paths are causing some issues., but at present it looks like I might be close to having a beta grade version available in the next couple of weeks (rl permitting (15 hour days with 1- 1.5 hours travel on top))

harpo

 

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May 5, 2012 4:48:39 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

With Rebellion being stand alone it is both a good, and bad thing. Obviously the good outweighs the bad, because you wont have to worry about conflicting files from trinity, or the confusion of what mod works for which version of sins. Mods made for Rebellion will be strictly for Rebellion only.

The bad of course is that rebellion uses different paths than trinity. Not really a bad thing just a minor annoyance from confusion.

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May 5, 2012 5:37:22 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

for those of us that WANT to test and help debug with the beta of my textbin gui (note it is intended as rebellion AND sins entrench/dip/trinity friendly so should work with all expansions) here is a link (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8023186/sins%20modding%20utilities/sinstextbinner2.exe), just save it into the same folder as the rest of my utilities and as it has a different name to my sins only it will NOT overwrite the working version.

and just a reminder that my utilities look at the PATH to the file to choose the convertdata to use, eg folder name contains entrenchment, it uses the convertdata_entrenchment, folder name has diplomacy, it uses convertdata_diplomacy, folder name contains rebellion, it uses convertdata_rebellion, and if NONE of the preceding three conditions are met it then uses convertdata_originalsins.

harpo

 

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May 8, 2012 9:28:43 PM from Stardock Forums Stardock Forums

How much time does it normally take ? Because I've been stuck on your gui window for over an hour...

 

Nevermind, I created a Batch file, much simpler.

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May 9, 2012 4:56:41 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

the most likely reason for the gui to not respond is that you do NOT have the expansion name in the path to the files, and the conversion time for rebellion is  20-30 minutes which is also about the time it takes for the entire rebellion fileset to be copied from the program files area to another drive .

harpo

 

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July 20, 2012 6:40:31 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

and here is an update of the text bin gui for rebellion. the main difference is that there is a hidden option that is activated (the option is made available) in debug mode which is set by the fifth line in the targetsinsver.txt having debug as the total line.

the hidden option is called 'cook CPU' as it disables the wait till the convertdata finishes before starting the conversion of the next file(on my i7 2600k system with the option OFF it takes approx 11 minutes to convert a copy of rebellion and cpu temps get to 40 c and only two 'cores' are getting any significant work, and all files are correctly reported as to whether or not the cinversion was needed/successfull or failed, BUT with the option on the gui reports all the files failed to convert(they did convert, just not when the gui tested them), and ran in 6 minutes, BUT the cpu cores hit 50 c (the computer has water cooling AND was running in 18 c air temp and the idle temp for the cpu was 30c) and ALL eight 'cores' (hyperthreaded quad core) were at 100% use for the whole time.

harpo

 

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October 31, 2012 6:15:28 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

if you are getting an issue with the gui 'not responding' on win7 it might be that the ConvertDataRebellion.exe in the folder with the gui needs to be replaced with the one from your rebellion game folder as the apparent causes is the usual issue of the convertdata's from each patch are not compatible with a different patch of the same expansion or different expansions.

harpo

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January 15, 2013 1:15:19 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Thanks again Harpo, but I think I'm a lost cause with the conversions of bin to txt. I've been trying again and again. And I'm pretty frustrated at not being able to do it. I went through the instructions again and, just in case it's something idiotically trivial I did, this is what I did.

I copied the SoaSE game directory to my documents (Trinity 1.37, without Rebellion). I deleted all the files except for gameinfo and the convertdata.exes. I directed your data converter v.1.3 to the folder and tried convert in place. Set it for bin to txt. I received the popup message 'conversion complete'. But when I looked all the Sins files are still in bin format. I did the same thing for the GameInfo for Entrenchment and Diplomacy, I directed the converter to the Entrenchment or Diplomacy folder and changed the version to the appropriate setting.

I've tried doing this on copies in various different locations as well as setting the output path elsewhere. I've tried running the converter as an administrator. The most joy I can get out of this is when I set the destination folder and select include subfolders and then select everything to ignore except GameInfo. The converter creates a GameInfo in the destination, thinks a little more and then displays the conversion complete. The spawned folder is however empty. I've also tried converting individual .entity files, with no success. My operating system is Windows 7 and my game version is the 1.37 Trinity download from Stardock. I'm opening the files converted-in place using Notepad++.

 

I tried placing copies of the ConvertData_exes from my install in the Converter program folder and received a 'Debug Assertion Failed!'

Program:..

File: fread.C

Line: 156

Expression: num < SIZE_MAX / elementSize)

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January 15, 2013 4:32:25 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

zanypilot, the text big gui assumes that it has the convertdata(expansion)(version).exe in the folder it is run from, OR the convertdata(expansion).exe in the folder installation that is pointed to in the drengin.net path values(thedrengin.net values seem to be only populated after RUNNING the sins expansion as does the mod-(expansion)(version) folders, regarding copying the convertdata's from the program folder into the textbin gui's folder, that IS exactly how I update the utility pack, and I then ADD the exact version number to the name of the convertdata(expansion).exe.

as far as my ref files production, Ihave a folder set on another drive for all versions of the reference files in text form, and when a new version has been installed I copy the latest files from my program files folder and paste it into my reference files folder, then run my textbin gui, then delete the executables(excluding the convertdata and needed files for the convertdata.exe's), the dll's, movies, sounds, textures, maps and utility folders eg galaxy forge,convertxsi,particle forge,  then zip the remaining files and folders and upload(sometimes I do this on a win7 64 bit system, other times it is on a xp system).

regarding the error, perhaps your convertdata was corrupted during the update as the error implies a C runtime error reading a file and the textbin gui is written in VB6.

harpo

 

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January 15, 2013 5:53:38 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Thank you for your perseverance with helping me on this, its much appreciated.  I did some tinkering with files early on, perhaps I have mixed versions and that is why the converter cannot convert.  I'm going to do a game reinstall and try again. Thanks alot.

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January 16, 2013 12:48:36 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Quoting ZanyPilot,
Thank you.... I'm going to do a game reinstall and try again...

I reinstalled Trinity v1.37 and tried the conversions using that installation's converdata_exes. OrignialSins converted without problems on your utility.  Entrenchment and Diplomacy would not convert and hung up the converter or on the sinsconverter.exe generated errors.

I reinstalled my disc Trinity v1.00 and utilising the convertdata_exes from that installation was able to convert data to and from txt without problem.

I think other than my nubness, that my ConvertData_Entrenchment.exe and ConvertData_Diplomacy.exe for the Trinity v1.37 from the Stardock download might be the problem.  I'm going to try re-downloading and re-installing, but not immediately as we have some games scheduled.

Thanks a lot for your help, sorry I'm so lame at this.

Edit: Everything is fine, all the ConvertData_exes files are good, no idea how I messed it up.  Finaly suceeded with MyFist0's batch method (I could not get individual files to convert, but the batch conversions were all good) Thanks again.  Good community.

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