Sins Editor - Pre-release information

from Sins Forums

For those of you who have been following, which are probably not many, I have started development of a editor for files contained in the Gameinfo directory. I have now decided to name it Sins Editor (Not Entity Forge, which is what I believe some people were expecting).

I want to get a version out somewhat fast in order to get feedback on it, thus I will be releasing a v1.0 within 2 weeks that will NOT be feature complete.

These are the features I am planning on programming into Sins Editor, over time

  • Support for any Parent -> Child node structured file in the Gameinfo folder.
  • Support for opening multiple files and editing them whether or not they are in binary or text format. Binary format files will be automatically converted to text format when they are read by the program.
  • Support for saving multiple files in either binary or text format. 
  • Support for creating new files with automatic templates for the file type.
  • Support for basic editing functions like Copy, Cut, Paste, Delete, Add, Search, and Replace/Replace All. 
  • Support for automatic selection of predefined constants, such as abilities, buffs, and events. 

The features in bold are the ones that will be available for the first release. After I receive some feedback, I will make appropriate fixes to the program based on the feedback as well as begin adding in the features that are not in bold.

 

Thank you all for reading,

comments are welcome.

-Ian

modding
40,947 views 66 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Looking forward to testing this. :)

Curtains - Customize Windows with additional styles
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

This sounds like a dream come true for Sins modders.

 

:fox:

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Very Nice! Thank you.

 

Will this be Entrenchment Compatible?

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Awsome!

 

are you going to add my idea of the program being able to automaticly add new constraints?

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

"Will this be Entrenchment Compatible?"

Assuming the format of the files remains unchanged, I am sure it will work. The program has no hardcoded value limits (besides the ceiling value on an integer, lol), thus any added parameters will be no problem.

For the conversion between binary/text files for Entrenchment, I remember Annatar saying that there was one extra parameter taken by the ConvertData.exe. I will take this into account when coding the load/save feature.

 

"are you going to add my idea of the program being able to automaticly add new constraints?"

I'm sorry, can you explain this a bit more?

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Awesome. Thanks jjz-. Is there anything we can do to help you out on this?

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

earlier, I posted on your other thread you have going.

As my post was rather long, I do not want to re-type it all again, I will just quote part of that here:

 

Unfortunatly, this will be difficult as you will have to go though and figure out what the struture for every possible entry is.  And this would have to be updated every time Sins is.

 

One idea is to make it so a user of this program can add more modifiers if a new one is seen. Anouther idea, is have it so when the entity file (buff, ability, ect) is opened, the program checks to make sure the constrants match the current known constraints.

If they do not, the user has a few options, one of which is "Automaticly add new constraint" Which makes it eaisier on you, you can just start opening abilities and buffs and clicking "Automaitcly add new constraint" to add all the constraints!

Or you could be mean and make the user upload all the constraints.....

 

 

 

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

"Awesome. Thanks jjz-. Is there anything we can do to help you out on this?"

Annatar has been helping me figure out a few things about the Sins file structure, since I have only been modding Sins for a few days.

Just give feedback on the release when I put it up for download :) That would help me improve the next release. I plan to make 3 releases, assuming there are no bugs.

 

EvilTesla, templating and such will be added in v1.2, so this will not be applicable to v1.0.

Also, after discussion the issue of value enumeration and templating with Annatar, I already have a good idea of how to tackle these two problems and I plan to have Sins Editor be a feature-complete solution by v1.2. You will see how it works in v1.2, which could be somewhat far away.

 

-Ian

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

Alright, sounds awsome.

 

I like it when I sugest what sounds like a good idea, and someone goes, "I have a better Idea"

 

I can't wait to see what you will come up with.

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

Oh, I in no way meant to say the way I am going to handle it is better than yours. It's just that I am doing the coding, thus I want to code in a way that is easiest for me. I chose things in a way that would make coding as easy as possible for me while still providing the features I said I would provide.

Don't think I was belittling your idea or any thing like that.

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

K.I.S.S.

Keep It Simple Stupid 

Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

LOOOL..you might want to keep the stupid part out as it may offend certain people who arent in a predesposed good mood :) also it might reduce unwanted arguments which would start from such an acronym (really noit bad btw...remember you using it on me :) )!

 

But true, this program would kick sins into an entire new dimension for coders! Jusdt like entrenchement is giving us the possibility to have upgrading ships! whats more realistic than an upgrading ship :) YOUPIIIIIIIIII

Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top

So far I have one person who is willing to test the pre-release version for bugs and such before I release it.

I want a few more testers.

Anyone who is interested please message me, thanks!

Oh and to update you all, I have the very basic coding done (obviously this includes the gui, but also the actual parsing of files). I will post a screenshot of what a file read into the editor will look like in a few days. 

-Ian

Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top

I'll beta test it.

Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top

Well, with that then, I think I will close the beta testing. I have enough users now to get feedback, and I do not want to try to handle too much feedback at once.

Thank you Evil and the rest who PMd me.

-Ian

Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top

Can't wait.

Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top

 

Very early alpha shots!

Merry Christmas!

 

Parsed file: http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/2962/sinseditor1wx3.jpg

Menu shot: http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/306/sinseditor2ek8.jpg

 

Sorry they are big, I was too lazy to crop them. I am very tired.

Tell me what you think!

-Ian

 

Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top

Looks great so far.

 

Can't wait to test it.

Reply #21 from Sins Forums Top

I can't wait for this :)

I remember asking about something simular ages ago, I' m glad to see someone taking that challenge :)

Reply #22 from Sins Forums Top

Brilliant, keep up the good work!

Reply #23 from Sins Forums Top

Looking good :P What are you using for it? .NET? MFC?

Reply #24 from Sins Forums Top

Im kinda durnk so i dunno i fi c an answer correctl

but im using .NET Framework Version 3.5

HAPPY NCHRISTMAS MARREY NEWYEARS 'D

Reply #25 from Sins Forums Top

I think that's more than kinda drunk, but thanks :P