[TOOL] Cope's DoW2 Toolbox - V1.991h released! [09/01/2012]

[Old Painless]

Nice tool Cope, im making my first DOW2 mod. I miss the AE, any chance you could make the RBF files relational again ?

Keep up the good work.

[Copernicus]

I've got some ideas for relational things but for relational features like inheritance one had not only to rebuild the whole inheritance system but also the base-files from which the other files inherit. I'll probably add a feature for custom inheritance, we'll see. It's currently not top-priority but if you've got a specific idea / requests feel free to post it, then I'll take care of it (if it's possible and quick to implement) .

-cope.

[Z405]

"Copy Value Path" copies a string which describes the position of the value in the RBF, e.g. "GameData\whatever\somewhat\value".

Just use "Copy Value" .

Allright so basically i right click on attrib_level_attributes, i select "Copy Value", i should then select attrib_levels (at least to my logic, since this is the "folder" i would like to add another set of attrib_levels_attributes) but once i do this, instead of adding another string, it pastes the file directly over attrib_levels instead of adding a 6th attrib_levels_attributes.

If i "Copy Value" one of the attrib_levels_attributes and select one of the 5 listed (in hopes of that i might think that i want to add another file to the 5 present in the tree) it (logically ofc) also copies over the file i just selected.

Then i thought maybe if i just click on attrib_levels, i see a column/table with 1 open space beneath the 5 already used attrib_level_attributes, but once i type/copy a sixth value there (in hopes of a 6th one showing up in tree list) i receive some form of error message.

I`m not sure how to achieve want i want to accomplish.

[Copernicus]

Ok, let me explain...

An RBF consists of a collection of VALUES. Each node in the tree-view of the RBF represents a value. A value can have one of five different TYPES:
1. string - a collection of characters (e.g. "foo")
2. float - a floating point number (e.g. 3.141)
3. integer - a number (e.g. 1 or 2 or 168493)
4. boolean - a logical value (either TRUE or FALSE)
5. table - a collection of values

A value stores information about it's name, type, and the value itself (e.g. TRUE, 3.141, "foo", 1235 etc.).

Each node, that has any subnodes is a TABLE. A table is also a value. Right clicking any value (read: any node) and selecting Copy Value will copy it to a clipboard (not THE clipboard, just a clipboard ). Right clicking on another value and clicking Insert Value will overwrite the internal value (e.g. TRUE, 3452, "bar" etc...) of the selected value but keep the name of the selected value.
Right clicking on a table value and selecting Insert Value will thus overwrite the table. Selecting Insert Value Into instead will put a copy of the value in the clipboard into the collection stored in the table value.

I hope that helps .

-cope.

[Z405]

...

Copy Value and then Insert Value into Table... and it works. I thought it was something entirely different so i didn't even try it

Thanks again

[Copernicus]

No problem, Z405; it's not only you . The system seems to be quite abstract and difficult to understand. I used Corsix' Modstudio for CoH/DoW for a couple of years and this principle of copy/inser/insert into is totally normal for me. I'll add proper tooltips for the next version.

-cope.

[Z405]

this principle of copy/inser/insert into is totally normal for me.

Explains alot, i`m not hardcore modman, but the modding i did, was only with DoW2Assistant, so a program like you just made, even though i`m not quite as familiar as with all the "abilities" really is a breath of fresh air

Btw. perhaps this is working as intended, but when i open a .rbf file and immediately close it, it just does that. Which is normal. But when i open a .rbf file, alter it, SAVE it, then directly after i saved it and want to close it i receive the message:

"The current file has not been saved since the last changes have been made (which was 1 second ago lol); Save it now?"

I think it didn't ask me this in 1.4; or i`m just plain wrong.

[Copernicus]

Could be a bug as I reworked the saving-system. Thanks for the report.

-cope.

[Clonesa]

In 1.4 it would prompt if you immediately opened and closed the tab without making any changes, but not right after saving.

Seems like rather than storing bool isSaved should be bool isModified :P

Release what I have done with that plugin so far (well what worked). Does not support image editing or syntax highlighting atm See post for download and details of issues.

[edit] Fixed saving issue. Beta 0.2.



[edit]

Erm this issue with saving and my plugin has been driving me crazy. But did some debugging. I'm pretty its actually a new bug in 1.5. Getting the path for a .lua file in "DATA" returns a path in "ATTRIB". This is file_.FilePath.

[Copernicus]

Clonesa, please write me a PM next time or create a next post. I somehow don't get any updates when you edit a post. Then I can fix things faster . Oh, and that plugin looks great .

However, after 2 days of writing about Barack Obama and his online campaign while listening to Bon Jovi's Brokenpromiseland for the 112th time in two days (only interrupted by Burzum (and no, I don't approve Vargs political opinion!)) I felt like taking a short break and fix some problems. Here comes V1.51!


VERSION 1.51 RELEASED.

Changelog:

Changelog

V1.51 - 04/11/2010

General:
- support for SGA archives of version 4 (used by Company of Heroes in all versions except CoH:Online)
- fixed an issue with wrong paths when using drag-and-drop with module and SGA files
- files from DATA now have correct paths

RBF-Editor:
- the Save-reminder message has been fixed

PlugIns:
- returning false in the method Close() will now stop the plugin from being closed

DOWNLOAD


EDIT: I might change to x86 if x64 is too much of an issue. Even this release could have been x86 if I read that message on your board just some minutes earlier. I don't think it's really helpful to start of another forum but that's your choice .

[Clonesa]

Well I had wanted to build my own website for some time (infact I had one, although far different layout) well before DoW2 even came out hehe :P And I like to have my own stuff over there, not that I have anything against RelicNews, but I feel I can potentially do things that a straight up forum can't like the wiki and hosting sites/blogs for bigger mods. But mostly because I want to create my own site for the sake of doing so

In the future I will PM you with issues.

An x86 parallel version would be cool if you don't want to switch over totally.

[Copernicus]

Someday I'll burn in hell for too frequent releases. Maybe. If I believed in something like hell...

While the last version was dedicated to Khorney, this one is dedicated to Clonesa .

VERSION 1.52 RELEASED.

Changelog:

changelog

V1.52 - 04/11/2010
General:
- switched to x86

RBF-Editor:
- save-reminder is now DEFINITELY fixed

DOWNLOAD

[Old Painless]

Sorry to jump back to my previous post. I am doing many things repeatedly like setting weapon accuracy at range and accuracy by size as well as cover effects. Its something i was used to sorting via inheritance using the AE.

It would probably require sorting inheritance completely so i expect its a bit much to ask.

[Clonesa]

Has anyone been able to get a custom .action file working using Cope's tool?

From my experience they either crash the game or simply don't show up.

[Copernicus]

I'll look into it on friday.

[Crandoman345]

just out of pure curiosity, would it be possible to re-work this tool into some form of a mod manager, where the files for each mod are stored in one location, and are simply transferred into the game folder upon activation? Personally I have no modding experience, though I would like to try my hand at a little bit of it, though creating and editing game files is (so far) out of my league....

[Copernicus]

Hm, I don't like the idea of transforming this tool into anything else =P.
I'm not totally sure I got your idea right: You want a tool that sort of merges mods? That would certainly break the functionality of 90% of all the mods.

-cope.

[Clonesa]

I think he's talking about a user end tool for launching mods, which is completely unnecessary for this game. Despite several authors refusing to use it properly this game has a fully modular system. Each mod has its own directory and should not be touching any original game directories with the exception of a single .module in the root and the .ucs localization file, which for some reason is outside this system.

[Copernicus]

It's not actually friday but I managed to get some spare time to look into it and perform some updates.

Version 1.53 Released!

Download

Changelog:

Changelog

V1.53 - 04/13/2010
General:
- fixed a bug which produced corrupt RelicChunkies
- added the 'New DoW2 Mod' option to the main menu

RBF-Editor:
- added tooltips

Oh, and sorry for all the bugs I keep producing. I'm quite stressed these days and sometimes forget to test everything.

[Clonesa]

Sweet, I can confirm this works! Yay for custom .action files.

NP, bugs are to be expected. At this point you've done more for this community than Relic has.

[Z405]

Greetings Cope, great work on 1.53

If i might add, when i save an .rbf file, it appears in the newly created simulation folder; then when i copy this file and rename it, so that there are two files and i refresh the list, it doesn't appear.

I need to close down "whatever" and restart it for it to appear in my list.

[Copernicus]

Copying files and refreshing work perfectly fine on me. Could you give me a full walk-through on how to reproduce that bug?
Oh, and your idea of red marks hasn't been forgotten, it's on my list.

@Clonesa:
Thanks . I'm just trying to be useful.

[Z405]

Copying files and refreshing work perfectly fine on me. Could you give me a full walk-through on how to reproduce that bug?

Sure thing:

I`m using a random .rbf for this. I open up "Whatever" (1.53 in this case) and select csm_marines_mark_of_tzeentch then i go to this folder

C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\dawn of war 2\GameAssets\Data\simulation\attrib\upgrade\pvp\race_chaos\troops

select the file, copy paste it in the same directory and rename it (not needed by whatever) to csm_marines_mark_of_tzeentch_2

Then i go back to "Whatever" and press with the right mouse button on the list and i select "Refresh Folder" which should result in seeing the following files below each other (well to my logic)

csm_marines_mark_of_tzeentch
csm_marines_mark_of_tzeentch_2

the second however, does not appear.

Oh, and your idea of red marks hasn't been forgotten, it's on my list.

This will still come in very useful ^^

[Copernicus]

Don't forget to right-click on the node which represents the folder you'd like to refresh .

[Z405]

...

doh

[Copernicus]

This is another feature you might understand better if you are used to Corsix' Modstudio for DoW/CoH:
Using Corsix' Modstudio you always had to refresh the entire mod to detect new files. My tool has the ability to refresh single directories (and their subdirectories) which of course is somewhat faster .

-cope.

[Z405]

Well glad you cleared that up; just didnt cross my mind to select the directory itself; beats needing to shutdown the program and starting it up again

[Copernicus]

Sounds like some tooltips would help on this end as well.

-cope.

[Quozzo]

its nothing major but when i have an rbf open and then open an sga the tabs of the rbf disappear i always open the sga first and then an rbf but if someone did lots and lots of work (ahem) then opens an sga, wave bye bye to the rbf you just worked on

I changed my mind, it is major!

[Copernicus]

I should at least put a warning there, you're perfectly right. The tool isn't really made for jumping from archive to archive. It's better to put your mod's archives into it's module file, then you can load the module file which automagically loads all the SGAs. However, I'll change it not to close all the tabs for now.

-cope.

[Promythyus]

Let me start by saying that I think the ability you have to be able to understand and code all of this stuff is amazing, far beyond my capacity, so I hope this doesn't make me sound like an idiot, or ungrateful.

I sorta find the UI a bit clunky. Overall it's easy enough to use, but it could be streamlined. I've put together an image showing how I think the UI could be compressed abit.

Spoiler

Note that the save button is 1px shorter than the close buttons, so it'll need to be made taller to be in line with the others

and

^^ the buttons on the hex editor are abit small, maybe add 1-2px?

Also, maybe removing the icons in the directory tree, they take up space unnecessarily.

Naturally, you're free to ignore my crazy ramblings but this is just what I feel would make a great program even better.

EDIT: oh and also, maybe make it so we can change the default dow2 directory. I'd like to be able to use this tool in conjunction with MartinNJ's tool

[Copernicus]

I did not even notice that gradient, removed it.

The bar on the bottom has been removed. I'll re-add it as soon as I need it.

I like the icons in the file-tree, maybe I'll add an option for not displaying those (doesn't hurt to have that option ).
I won't move the "Save" button to the buttons for tab-management because they are part of the RBF-Editor plugin. Each plugin has the freedom to place it's own buttons.

Row headers have been removed, most people don't know what they're for anyway.

You cannot change the DoW2 directory but the tool remembers the last directory you used.

[Z405]

I would like to add, that thanks to your tool, you've made modifying dow2 for me, so much more easy. One thing i found to be truly a gift is the ability to copy a value, just select the main tree and select "insert value into table" and it just automatically places it in the correct spot, while when using DoW2Assistant, when experimenting with .rbf files, it often went completely blank after saving, because i didn't know where to exactly place it. So thanks to you, even "noobs" like me, can, with a little bit of actual brain usage, do some nice work.

I salute you

Hail Cope!

[Z405]

I've actually got one more request if you don't mind
Probably best for chaotic people, but here goes:

When i close down "Whatever" for when i`m calling it quits for a couple of hours to do something else, and then get back, open up "Whatever" and then select the mod file i was working on the resume my progress, it would be kinda nice if the directories i altered files in would also be colored red.

Like for instance, if i editted .rbf files in the Attrib, Attrib would be colored red, then after opening it, lets say i only editted the files

upgrade\pvp\race_chaos\troops\csm_csm_aspiring_champion

and

ability\pvp\race_chaos\globals\csm_damage_aoe_chaos_nuke

So that their folders:

upgrade
pvp
race_chaos
troops

&

ability
pvp
race_chaos
globals

would be marked equally red so i`ll know in which folders i actually editted .rbf files.

I would very much appreciate this

[Copernicus]

Sorry, Z405, but I'm in serious lack of red color. Could you get me some Blood for the Blood-Whatever?

Sounds like a feature that should already have been in the first version of the tool .

-cope.

[Z405]

Well, when Van Gogh was in need of red, he just chopped of his ear; since i`m a musician, i can't spare one of my ears; but maybe a limb will do

Blood for the Blood-Whatever?

Sounds like a great name for your program; gives it a certain "je ne sais quoi"!

Sang pour le N'importe quoi Sang

/frenchmode off

[Copernicus]

I unfortunately don't speak any French at all (well, I normally manage to get most of it by comparing it to Spanish and Latin but I'm never sure about the results). However, you're free to translate it to either English, German, Spanish or Latin so I can understand you .

-cope.

[Z405]

"je ne sais quoi"!

Roughly translated into "i dont know what". The saying it adds a certain "je ne sais quoi" means that, even though you don't know what causes it, it adds "something" (often positive) to it.

Sang pour le N'importe quoi Sang

Simply is Blood for the Blood Whatever Allthough maybe N'importe Quoi could have been placed after Sang.

[Copernicus]

Here comes the next release . Greetings to Promythyus and Z405 (still no highlighting in RBFs but I'm working on it)!

Download

Changelog:

Changelog

General:
- added some more information like tooltips, message boxes etc...
- tuned the GUI in some parts
- some smaller fixes
- added an options-menu
OPTIONS:
- mark changed directories as well in red (default is on)
- hide icons in directory-view (default is off)

RBF-Editor:
- added the possibility to save a file to XML and open XML files

-cope.

[Z405]

Here comes the next release .

You are a working beast

(still no highlighting in RBFs but I'm working on it)!

I`m just glad you even took my thoughts unto consideration

[Clonesa]

Ladies and gentlemen he's a machine. I assume directories containing local mod files are highlighted red. Sounds cool on the xml part.

Since you seem to be taking request I guess I'll layout a few things that have come to mind. Note that some of these things are a little more far off dreamy than others :P

1) A lookup for values. Say you have an XML based DB with all known keys and their values and known extensions gathered from Relic's RBF files. When the user encounters a listed key a drop down box is populated with known values and of course they can type a custom value should something not be listed. In addition, you can press a shortcut key to open a menu to insert an extension (known table). This could be used for UCS as well. Say your in a string key and press Ctrl+U, a menu pops up with your mods+Relic's UCS values and you can quick search and double click to insert the lookup value.

2) File/Directory creation/copy&paste. Its a little bit of a pain to alt-tab, navigate to the dir and copy and paste a file and then refresh. Should be easy enough to implement a UI feature to copy and paste files and automatically refresh or even t create new files based on blank templates (weapon template, ebps template, etc.).

3) Extended plugin functionality. Plugins are loaded on load of the app and can hook into more events and interact with existing controls (file open would now be an event we would listen to).

4) Ability to launch the game running the currently open mod. This is pretty simple and a bit of a time saver.

5) More UI context sensitivity and MS windows conformity. Things people are unconsciously used to such as File->Save. Closing a tab being top right 'X'. Copy and paste context sensitivity. If I copy a key and paste it inserts a key into current table rather than specific options. Drag and drop.

6) Multiple directory views providing the ability to view only local mod directory files or only Relic SGA embedded files and the ability to sort the view.

[Copernicus]

Yepp, I'm taking requests .

#4 should already work, I actually tested this. See the changelog for V1.4. Or are you talking about a 'Test Mod' button?

#3 - Can you elaborate on that? I'm totally willing to do this but I'd certainly like to hear what exactly it is you're wanting.

#1 - I've already spent some thought on this but I'm not sure what would be the best way to do this. Saving all encountered strings in an XML would not be helpful... In the long run I might completely switch to XML rather than RBF for editing, that way things like user-made inheritance or custom types would be much easier to integrate. Oh, and I've just today rewritten some pretty old UCS-Reader/Editor code (which totally sucked (the code, not the re-writing)) .

#5 - I'm not good at designing GUI and I appreciate any proposals on how to improve it. I'll definitely look into your suggestions.

#6 - Sounds rather useful.

#2 - I'm working with two screens so I don't actually need to use Alt-Tab, that's why I don't stumble upon such problems. Sounds easy to integrate, will look into it.

-cope.

EDIT: Requests are important 'cause you are using the tool way longer and more often than I do. I haven't actually modded anything in the last weeks.

[Promythyus]

Here's another thought I had last night (when trying to edit a texture), in the right click menu you could possibly add a menu item for opening the file in whatever windows has as your default application (ie. it will open .dds files in Paint.NET because that's what i have as default)? I tried to do this as a plugin just for myself, but I apparently suck reallly badly at coding

Also, upon launching after updating from 1.53 to 1.54, I now get an error message when opening it, "Could not load plugin!". I made sure this wasn't related to my failed plugin by deleting all the plugins and re-extracting them and I still get that error. Your tool then proceeds to load, but I can't open any RBFs, instead i get "Can't open the selected file, no suitable plugin found!". RBF plugin doesn't appear in the filetypes manager either.

EDIT: You made an option to hide the icons! I love you!! Overall the tool looks alot better now, thanks

[Clonesa]

Ya, I meant a 'test mod' button :P No biggie, but I doubt it wouldn't be more than a few minutes thing to implement.

Loading the plugin once on load rather than creating an instance every file open might increase load times a bit if they have massive plugins, but could reduce overhead when lots of files are open or being opened. Not that performance is really an issue. The real reason I'm interested is being able to control more of the app with a plugin outside the scope of a single file. Say I want to code a batch processing plugin or add an options menu for my plugin to the main menu or add a tool bar to the main app (above the scope of a single open file). Certain UI controls and properties could be made accessible and more events fired.

Well I think this value lookup DB thing (whether xml based or not) would be nice for things like say require meant reason which is limited to the strings: "display", "usage", "produce", "usage_and_produce", etc. Instead of having to memorize or copy these values a drop down box could be populated with these values when the user selects a key with the name "reason". That would a dream come true for me :P Whether or not its worth the trouble or how to implement it is up to you.

One UI thing I would like that shouldnt be too big of a deal is selecting multiple tables/keys using Ctrl and copying and pasting them.

[Z405]

OPTIONS:
- mark changed directories as well in red (default is on)

Didn't have the time to check it out... this is great. If it didn't sound so gay, i'd say i love you

I`m either doing something wrong or i`m experiencing a bug>

when changing the minimum and maximum levels for online_annimator_attachments, it reverts to the original setting once i edit the next setting. It also reverts to the original setting after (or actually before) saving.

I also experienced some type of bug that randomly mentioned an error report upon saving an .rbf while doing nothing out of the ordinary. Just like with the above; editing some online animations>

i made a couple of chaos lords and each of the chaos lords has a different name; each chaos lord will now have a different visual appearance depending on his name: the name is a reference to the type of armor he`ll be using. But that's not really important i guess; just when i try to save something, randomly i get an error report; it happened most of the time while having multiple (like 3) .rbf files opened and then saving 1 and receiving the error report.

*edit*

double checked this with version 1.53 and in this version i do not have problems with saving the altered minimum and maximum levels of the online animation.

[Promythyus]

Just noticed that in using 1.53 (since I can't use 1.54 due to the rbf plugin bug), if I didn't extract the attrib files prior to editing them, I actually ended up editing GameAssets\Archives\gameattrib.sga. Obviously this is not preferable, since I had to redownload it so i can play MP Not sure if this is a bug or intended, but it doesn't go very well.

[Copernicus]

@Promythyus:
You cannot edit SGA-files using my tool. I've never written any code for it. Thus there's no way this could be a bug .

I'm pretty sure I've added the PlugIn to the V.1.54 release and apparently Z405 managed to use the RBF-Editor in version 1.54, so it's most likely a problem on your end.

@Z405:
Thanks for the report.

@Clonesa:
Changing the way plugins work so they listen to events will most likely break some functionality like specifying a certain plugin for a special type of files.
However as you might already have noticed the filetypes-folder is a subdirectory of plugins... When I started the tools I planned to have two different types of plugins: Filetype-Handlers and some sort of global-plugins. There are no specific plans yet though.

[Quozzo]

im having the same problem as Z405, its just not saving the changes made to rbf files anymore in v1.54. luckily i still have v1.4

[EDIT] does anyone have a link to v1.53?

[Copernicus]

Yepp, look here.

[Copernicus]

Version 1.55 Released

Only one fix: Reworking the GUI removed some eventhandlers, these were readded.

DOWNLOAd

V1.55 - 04/16/2010
RBF-Editor:
- fixed changes not being saved at all

Folks, the next version will most likely need .NET4 so make sure to update yours. Also, music .

-cope.