I first noticed this with v6.1 but since 7.0 was due soon, I waited to do some testing with it.
In the limited amount of testing I've done there seems to be 118 icon slots available, over and above the 110 known ones.
If you are experienced using spilc and spile and want to help test, your efforts would be appreciated.
OK, if you do a spile of v7.0 mech.exe go to at least 1231 entries. You will notice that the entries of 1111 and 11112 have data already. Skip them, that is, DO NOT OVERWRITE 1111 and 1112. Unless like me you're curious. But before you cut the blue wire make a backup.
mech orig v70.exe or something you can identify later.
Next, you'll notice that the enties from 1113 to 1230 appear empty. Worse case is that the game may overwrite your data at some point but I have not seen it happen. 1230 - 1110 = 120, less 2 for the used ones is 118 new slots.
Just fill these with icon codes that mean something, run spile, (remember to use the number from spilc) and play as usual.
From time to time run spile to see if the game has overwritten anything... you don't have to save anything at this point, just take a look.
My testing has not been extensive. I prefer making things for the game to playing sometimes.
I don't play E-mail, or online so that is untested. And as yet I haven't played a mega campaign. Post any results you find.
-Dogfish
118 new icon slots available... need help to test
Moderator: MOD_SPWaW
118 new icon slots available... need help to test
When you're wounded and left
on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out
to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Kipling
------------------
on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out
to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Kipling
------------------
Hey Mike:
Been awhile... yeah I ran into the preferences thing in 6.1. I didn't catch it at first, so I don't know if it is a result of rewriting with spilc, adding more items, or pushing the envelope too far out. All of which I did... by the time I noticed the resetting of preferences I had 20 or so new icons out there, and wasn't about to redo.
If I find time I'll play with a virgin 6.1 mech.exe to see exact cause.
What I did notice that's different are the slots 1111 and 1112. I don't remember them containing info in 6.1. If they did then we both missed it.
Rewriting of 1111 and 1112 in 7.0 doesn't cause the preferences to be lost, however, it causes a major crash back to windows.
Right now I have data in all the new slots (it's all pointing to a few different icons), and my preferences are the same as first day I set them.
So far no overwrites by the game... but like I said, my testing is limited. I only play against the AI, no on-line, no PBEM, and no Mega Campaigns.
I hope some other people are interested in testing. The ability to add 118 new icons without having to do an in depth analysis of the existing shp files would I think be welcome by all.
If this works, the next hurdle would be the overcrowded oob's. I'm thinking of splitting mine into 2, by date.
Anyway, thanks for looking into it. If you need me to, I can send you the exact steps I took. It took me awhile to re-remember spile and spilc.
-Dogfish
Been awhile... yeah I ran into the preferences thing in 6.1. I didn't catch it at first, so I don't know if it is a result of rewriting with spilc, adding more items, or pushing the envelope too far out. All of which I did... by the time I noticed the resetting of preferences I had 20 or so new icons out there, and wasn't about to redo.
If I find time I'll play with a virgin 6.1 mech.exe to see exact cause.
What I did notice that's different are the slots 1111 and 1112. I don't remember them containing info in 6.1. If they did then we both missed it.
Rewriting of 1111 and 1112 in 7.0 doesn't cause the preferences to be lost, however, it causes a major crash back to windows.
Right now I have data in all the new slots (it's all pointing to a few different icons), and my preferences are the same as first day I set them.
So far no overwrites by the game... but like I said, my testing is limited. I only play against the AI, no on-line, no PBEM, and no Mega Campaigns.
I hope some other people are interested in testing. The ability to add 118 new icons without having to do an in depth analysis of the existing shp files would I think be welcome by all.
If this works, the next hurdle would be the overcrowded oob's. I'm thinking of splitting mine into 2, by date.
Anyway, thanks for looking into it. If you need me to, I can send you the exact steps I took. It took me awhile to re-remember spile and spilc.
-Dogfish
When you're wounded and left
on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out
to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Kipling
------------------
on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out
to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Kipling
------------------
Cool, if it works, then there are 50+ slots in the original run of 1109, that are unuseable now because of bad associations!! I'm fixin' to try this out today some... Thanks for the offer to help with spilc, but me and these programs go waaaayyyy back, only thing threw me off was I forgot the address would be different, was using the old 16686C string, two times running the program, with weird resulting charts, then I remembered to look for the new address!!! Duh!! Have fun, let me know how you progress, I'll try to keep you updated as well <img src="cool.gif" border="0">
Glad you're going to get involved testing, Mike. I was expecting more response, but maybe it's due to the holiday. It's funny, if you or I were to post that we had 118 new units complete with icons, people would be asking where to download them. Asking for help on the first step gets no response. Reminds me of the kid's book, "The Little Red Hen". I'm suprised at the amount of work that Matrix keeps doing, for all the flak they get. Happy and prosperous 02.
PS... still running, no problems
-Dogfish
PS... still running, no problems
-Dogfish
When you're wounded and left
on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out
to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Kipling
------------------
on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out
to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Kipling
------------------
Dogfish,
In my case, it isn't a case of not being interested, it is just that I don;t have a clue of what you and Mike are talking about. <img src="frown.gif" border="0"> What the heck are spilc and spile? and where do I get them, then what do I do with them? <img src="confused.gif" border="0"> I will wish you good luck though.
Happy New Year! <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">
In my case, it isn't a case of not being interested, it is just that I don;t have a clue of what you and Mike are talking about. <img src="frown.gif" border="0"> What the heck are spilc and spile? and where do I get them, then what do I do with them? <img src="confused.gif" border="0"> I will wish you good luck though.
Happy New Year! <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."<br />- Gerald Ford
@ Bchapman- They are programs that help to change, and/or add icon associations into the data table in the mech.exe. You can get them at http://blake.prohosting.com/fchlanda/. They are not to hard to use, after you get the hang of it, but if you aren't used to playing around with shp files, and using these, it can be very intimidating!!!
@ Dogfish- I probably won't be much help, am moving in 2 1/2 wks!! However, from what I've done in the last days with spilc, all seems well! The only thing is that for e-mail play, both players will need the same mech.exe, and oob's to correspond. Also probably not a good idea to replace any existing icons, in the interest of playing user made scenarios shipped with the game?! I think you won't get many takers with this venture, aside from yourself and me, there aren't a lot of folks that like to tinker with the workings, most just want play the games, as they might not have much time on there hands. Will try to assist how I can manage, I like messing with this stuff!! Take it easy! <img src="smile.gif" border="0">
@ Dogfish- I probably won't be much help, am moving in 2 1/2 wks!! However, from what I've done in the last days with spilc, all seems well! The only thing is that for e-mail play, both players will need the same mech.exe, and oob's to correspond. Also probably not a good idea to replace any existing icons, in the interest of playing user made scenarios shipped with the game?! I think you won't get many takers with this venture, aside from yourself and me, there aren't a lot of folks that like to tinker with the workings, most just want play the games, as they might not have much time on there hands. Will try to assist how I can manage, I like messing with this stuff!! Take it easy! <img src="smile.gif" border="0">
BCHAPMAN... What Mike said is true... however I wasn't looking for people to go out and learn something new just to help test... we all do what we can here. If adding icons interests you then you'll want to become familiar with spilc and spile. You can do some damage so backup your mech.exe file first. If you give it a try and have a question, post it and someone will help.
DON... I don't know if you know spilc and spile, if you do then the addition of the 118 slots an take 10-15 mins... pretty painless... the just play as usual and check with spile for any overwrites... I've tested scenario's and am running a campaign now. But only against the AI... need testing in PBEM etc... not sure if both would need the same mech.exe since no calls will be made to the new slots.
ALL... sorry about the tone of my earlier post,... thought more people were into making/changing icons. Over 5000 registered...at one quarter of one percent, should be at least 10 people into it.
MIKE... Good, glad you're getting positive results. Looks bullet proof so far... Wrong time of year to be moving... good luck. If this works and we get a consensus of what units/icons to add, then we just need Matrix to sanction the change and release it with/or as the next version that they claim they won't release.
I've got a couple new icons I'll get together and send to you. Just getting back into this. Had a hard drive crash Sept. 13th. Lost years of graphics and programs I had done, some from CivCTP and most from SP. About 300 high qual color lbm's for SP3 or a modern SPWAW. About 200 color WW2 lbms including some B/W's that I colorized. About 40-50 icons between both. Lost it all... no backup. Been into computers since 70's... should know better... if you have any of the old stuff I sent you I would really appreciate a copy.
-Thank's All
-Dogfish
DON... I don't know if you know spilc and spile, if you do then the addition of the 118 slots an take 10-15 mins... pretty painless... the just play as usual and check with spile for any overwrites... I've tested scenario's and am running a campaign now. But only against the AI... need testing in PBEM etc... not sure if both would need the same mech.exe since no calls will be made to the new slots.
ALL... sorry about the tone of my earlier post,... thought more people were into making/changing icons. Over 5000 registered...at one quarter of one percent, should be at least 10 people into it.
MIKE... Good, glad you're getting positive results. Looks bullet proof so far... Wrong time of year to be moving... good luck. If this works and we get a consensus of what units/icons to add, then we just need Matrix to sanction the change and release it with/or as the next version that they claim they won't release.
I've got a couple new icons I'll get together and send to you. Just getting back into this. Had a hard drive crash Sept. 13th. Lost years of graphics and programs I had done, some from CivCTP and most from SP. About 300 high qual color lbm's for SP3 or a modern SPWAW. About 200 color WW2 lbms including some B/W's that I colorized. About 40-50 icons between both. Lost it all... no backup. Been into computers since 70's... should know better... if you have any of the old stuff I sent you I would really appreciate a copy.
-Thank's All
-Dogfish
When you're wounded and left
on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out
to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Kipling
------------------
on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out
to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Kipling
------------------
-
richmonder
- Posts: 154
- Joined: Sun Dec 09, 2001 10:00 am
- Location: Richmond, VA USA
- Contact:
Mike, I just wanted to take the opportunity as a newcomer since the graphics have been completed, to say THANKS for all your hard work on the graphics for SPWaW. It is my understanding that you did the lion's share of them? Anyways, thank you - I love them.
Respectfully,
Richmonder
(formerly Gen. Richmond)
Richmonder
(formerly Gen. Richmond)
@ richmonder- thank you very much, it was, and is, my pleasure!!
@ Dogfish- Put one in the last slot last night, and seems that now the scrolling is much slower, but I will delete the steel.prf again, and pursue it some more!
According to a message from Fred Chlanda to me last year, it was possible to enter 1500 slots?! Haven't had a chance to verify if the table is that long anymore, what with at least two versions since that mail.
More to come...
@ Dogfish- Put one in the last slot last night, and seems that now the scrolling is much slower, but I will delete the steel.prf again, and pursue it some more!
According to a message from Fred Chlanda to me last year, it was possible to enter 1500 slots?! Haven't had a chance to verify if the table is that long anymore, what with at least two versions since that mail.
More to come...
-
richmonder
- Posts: 154
- Joined: Sun Dec 09, 2001 10:00 am
- Location: Richmond, VA USA
- Contact:
Guys, I am willing to help with this. I am not a graphics boy by any means, but am not intimidated by the SPILC and SPILE programs.
One question for Dogfish - what did you mean that you'd like to next work on OOBs and cut them into two?
I won't be of much help for another week or so. I need an assignment.
One question for Dogfish - what did you mean that you'd like to next work on OOBs and cut them into two?
I won't be of much help for another week or so. I need an assignment.
Respectfully,
Richmonder
(formerly Gen. Richmond)
Richmonder
(formerly Gen. Richmond)
Hey Richmonder:
What I meant about splitting the oobs, is simply to split each oob into 2 parts. The oob space is getting very cramped, as was the icon space.
First, I would backup all OOB's by renaming each with "orig" added to it's name. I would pick a date, maybe Jan. 42, or whenever it looks like the number of new units began to increase.
I would take all units that didn't exist before Jan '42 and put them in seperate oob, keeping slot entries correct. Name this OOB82A and all the other, after Jan '42 units into an OOB82B.
If a unit existed pre and post '42 you would need to decide the rarity of it post '42 and use the replacement unit if best.
Anyway that was only my quick thoughts on it... I'm sure ther would be alot more problems and issues... but since I would be doing it for myself... I'd only have myself to please and to blame.
There is a program out there for manipulating multiple OOB's... my apologies to the creator, but I lost it when my HD crashed... One could use that, or write a launcher to check dates and select the appropriate OOB and rename it to what the game expects (no orig,A, or B). In the case of a campaign, or scenario spanning pre and post '42 you would have to use OOB*orig, others would rename the A or B OOB's to what the game expects.
Any campaigns or scens not written or edited by you would only use the units they were designed with. Other's that you create or edit could use the new units that you made room for.
It was a quick thought by me how to add new units/icons and still keep the originals intact.
What I meant about splitting the oobs, is simply to split each oob into 2 parts. The oob space is getting very cramped, as was the icon space.
First, I would backup all OOB's by renaming each with "orig" added to it's name. I would pick a date, maybe Jan. 42, or whenever it looks like the number of new units began to increase.
I would take all units that didn't exist before Jan '42 and put them in seperate oob, keeping slot entries correct. Name this OOB82A and all the other, after Jan '42 units into an OOB82B.
If a unit existed pre and post '42 you would need to decide the rarity of it post '42 and use the replacement unit if best.
Anyway that was only my quick thoughts on it... I'm sure ther would be alot more problems and issues... but since I would be doing it for myself... I'd only have myself to please and to blame.
There is a program out there for manipulating multiple OOB's... my apologies to the creator, but I lost it when my HD crashed... One could use that, or write a launcher to check dates and select the appropriate OOB and rename it to what the game expects (no orig,A, or B). In the case of a campaign, or scenario spanning pre and post '42 you would have to use OOB*orig, others would rename the A or B OOB's to what the game expects.
Any campaigns or scens not written or edited by you would only use the units they were designed with. Other's that you create or edit could use the new units that you made room for.
It was a quick thought by me how to add new units/icons and still keep the originals intact.
When you're wounded and left
on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out
to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Kipling
------------------
on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out
to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Kipling
------------------
Hey Mike:
Don't keep me in suspense about the scroll problem you encountered. I'm playing the Stalingrad campaign as a test and it's still bulletproof.
I haven't altered my preferences or deleted steel.prf so I'm interested in the effect that this has.
The only time I have seen any slow down in the scrolling or animations in the game is when I have severely tasked the machine's memory before or while playing the game. For instance doing alot in Painshop before playing, or Word or something doing alot of cut/pasting. Jumping out of the game alot to use WAWED and Excel to edit a .csv file. (I do this alot to resurrect the dead in the scens where they tend to crash into buildings often).
The fix for the slow down is always to exit and restart the game or worst case to shutdown and reboot. If this fixes it, then it not from something written in mech.exe. If it were, it would be consistent after a restart or reboot.
Don't keep me in suspense about the scroll problem you encountered. I'm playing the Stalingrad campaign as a test and it's still bulletproof.
I haven't altered my preferences or deleted steel.prf so I'm interested in the effect that this has.
The only time I have seen any slow down in the scrolling or animations in the game is when I have severely tasked the machine's memory before or while playing the game. For instance doing alot in Painshop before playing, or Word or something doing alot of cut/pasting. Jumping out of the game alot to use WAWED and Excel to edit a .csv file. (I do this alot to resurrect the dead in the scens where they tend to crash into buildings often).
The fix for the slow down is always to exit and restart the game or worst case to shutdown and reboot. If this fixes it, then it not from something written in mech.exe. If it were, it would be consistent after a restart or reboot.
When you're wounded and left
on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out
to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Kipling
------------------
on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out
to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Kipling
------------------
@ Don- You must type in 162A70, in the address box at the right of the search box for 2, 3, or ww2. Then, underneath, enter 1230 in that box, then hit search, then load, then save as Sp2il. When you change an icon then, with the resulting csv, in the run box, type;C:\SPWAW\SPILC 4 Sp2il.csv mech.exe 162A70, assuming you have your WAW in the dir as above, if not, substitute appropriate path. Hope this helps?!
@ Dogfish- it's all good, must've been because I had run so much last night before running SPWAW!!
@ Dogfish- it's all good, must've been because I had run so much last night before running SPWAW!!
Hey Mike:
Glad to hear everthing is still working. I had thought that would be the case. Not even a hiccup on my end.
As far as testing, I've done scens and I'm in the middle of a campaign.
Still need PBEM, online, MC's, and anything else you can think of. Do you do any of these? Maybe you can influence some players of these other things to test.
Hey Richmonder:
Are you still in...? Do you need any help re: spilc and spile?
Hey Don:
Did you get it to work? What modes of play can you test?
Glad to hear everthing is still working. I had thought that would be the case. Not even a hiccup on my end.
As far as testing, I've done scens and I'm in the middle of a campaign.
Still need PBEM, online, MC's, and anything else you can think of. Do you do any of these? Maybe you can influence some players of these other things to test.
Hey Richmonder:
Are you still in...? Do you need any help re: spilc and spile?
Hey Don:
Did you get it to work? What modes of play can you test?
When you're wounded and left
on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out
to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Kipling
------------------
on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out
to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Kipling
------------------
Did someone say test?
I have all MCs working and campaigns too... I do have one installation that says: this is for pbem with Warhorse <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0"> and I will mess it up to what ever Mike has in mind, so deside something... I think Mike will send me package when he wakes up...
mosh
I have all MCs working and campaigns too... I do have one installation that says: this is for pbem with Warhorse <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0"> and I will mess it up to what ever Mike has in mind, so deside something... I think Mike will send me package when he wakes up...
mosh
salute
mosh
If its not rotten, shoot again
mosh
If its not rotten, shoot again
Hey Mosh, I will ship you the latest tonite, when I get home, it's just one shp file, the mech.exe, and oob's for UK and Italy;-) If you like, we can do a concurrent very small scenario, made up of UK on one side, and Italy on the other, using the armored cars for the UK, and the S-37 for the Italians, then some other stuff thrown in? Let me know, ok?