The X3 Savegame Manager - updated 07/01/2012 - X3: Albion Prelude Version released

Samuel Creshal · Post by **Samuel Creshal** » Sat, 26. Mar 11, 15:54

Add some debug info with the coordinates of the app, if not already existing. And add some feature to save the window position on click instead of automatically on close. Solved a lot of multi-monitoring related headaches on Windows for my apps.

Zero Tolerance · Post by **Zero Tolerance** » Sat, 26. Mar 11, 16:14

Howdy,

I've seen this problem before with other apps, at the office, where we have a lot of multi-monitor setups. (most of them 2 monitors)
That's how I recognised it.

Do you yourself use more than one monitor?

Some of these apps use an ini-file where you can tell the app to go to the "main" monitor.

Does this program save settings somewhere?
In that case you could also save where the window is located, an
that would be a neat feature. The app "remembers" where it was opened last.

Just my 2 cents.

Edit --- I did some googling: and found this forumthread: http://www.coderanch.com/t/437752/GUI/j ... n-multiple

Maybe it'l help.

By the way: I told windows that one of my screens was to the right of the main screen, and voila, there was the savegame manager.

mrbadger · Post by **mrbadger** » Thu, 5. May 11, 19:25

Little update for savegame manager using pepes.

Savegame Manager 2 is well underway. I'm dropping Java and moving to C++, so no more nasty java runtime dependancies. yay!

I've decided not to support X-BTF and X2 after all, because those games both store savegames in the main application directory, and I don't want to go messing with that because of the possible problems relating to multiple installs and such.

So, the new SM will support X3:R, X3:TC and X-Rebirth, in a single application. I probably won't be able to include explicit X-Rebirth support until that game's out, but I'm coding to make this a trivial change later and making an educated guess as to the possible savegame/folder structure that might well just work anyway.

There's no beta release yet, I'm still building up the supporting codebase. I'm at the stage where I'm confident I can complete it based on my current design, hence this update.
Hopefully it won't be too long before the first beta, but I can't promise much beyond 'in the next few months'.

I'm adding multi-language support too, because that was an oft asked for feature. The way I'm implementing it will mean people will easily be able to produce translation files for the english text in the application. It's rather fun actually, but that's because I'm a geek and I like interesting problems.

You'll be able to import your current campaigns and archived saves into the new application too. All in one go, so no fiddling about.

No skinning tho, don't ask for it, turns out that'll be too much work for too little gain. I'll just be leaving it as standard windows grey. I think most people only wanted it before to get rid of the yucky colours I chose in the current version

That's all for now.

MrBadger

TTD · Post by **TTD** » Thu, 5. May 11, 21:22

Thanks for the update.
Looking forward to it.

Zero Tolerance · Post by **Zero Tolerance** » Fri, 6. May 11, 15:07

Hi,

good to hear.

If you need testing- just let me know.
I can test multi-monitor (2 and 3) setups.
I can also translate to Dutch.

Greetz, Thomas

mrbadger · Post by **mrbadger** » Fri, 6. May 11, 16:22

@Zero Tolerance. As soon as I'm up to beta release I'll put up the file that needs to be completed to add a new language. It's a fairly simple xml format of key value pairs. I'll write a little app to make it easier to add the translated text.

Just finished testing the code to let multiple languages be used and it seems to be working perfectly, so I am chuffed.

IcarusII · Post by **IcarusII** » Wed, 7. Sep 11, 19:23

Hi there,

Im hoping someone might be able to help me out with a confusing issue - its been a while since there was a post in this thread - but ill try here first.

Im playing TC, and have got to a point where I thought I could do with a little safety in the form of game backups. I came across this awesome programme and just installed it. everything seems to be working fine, ive made backups and I believe I understand how to use this programme...aside from:

The Pilots Log File editor. ive opened it, and I really wanted to customise the log as I thought it was a great idea for making notes of what you are doing and what you are up to and want to achieve (sometimes I come back fomr a weeks break and cant remember any of my mini goals). So anyhow - I understand the basic concepts of the log file and the log file editor, but in the instructions on the first page of this thread the chap who wrote the programme shows a log file template which lists his credits, his game day, his amout of universe explored etc.

When I add the phrase 'credits:' to my log file, just as shown and save it does not populate my next log file generated with the number of credits in any of the games in my campaign.

Am I missing something or are these just free text fields im supposed to fill in manually?

The only thing which works is adding <datetime> which happily gives me the date and time. But for which game in the campaign?

Thanks for any help
IcarussII

mrbadger · Post by **mrbadger** » Wed, 7. Sep 11, 19:37

I see what your problem is. That log file is for people to add their own things to. I don't know of a way to read the save file and extract that information.

I mainly added that because of the number of people who like to role play their games, and thus keep records as they go along.

There *might* be a way to export that information when X3:Rebirth comes out, I have no idea how though.

I'm soon going to 'end of life' this tool anyway, since I'm working on the next version, and that will work for all X3 games too.

For a given value of 'soon', I just dumped the current code and started over.

TTD · Post by **TTD** » Wed, 7. Sep 11, 19:43

I'm soon going to 'end of life' this tool anyway, since I'm working on the next version, and that will work for all X3 games too.

Sounds good.
Please keep us informed.

mrbadger · Post by **mrbadger** » Wed, 7. Sep 11, 19:49

TTD wrote: Sounds good.
Please keep us informed.

Depends what you mean. If you mean vague promises of release dates, fine. If you want rants about how much I have come to despise the Microsoft File Handling API, then possibly not so much

Using Python instead now. So much code to recreate

Right now I'm not at all sure I can meet the X:Rebirth release date. Whatever it is.

IcarusII · Post by **IcarusII** » Wed, 7. Sep 11, 20:35

Thanks for the reply Mr Badger,

At least I now understand that I wasnt doing anything wrong. Glad i didnt spend too much time trying to get something to work that dosnt.

Cheers and good luck with the next project. Im sure you will beat the X-R release date - sounds like 2012 is more on the cards than 2011.

Thanks again,
IcarussII

TTD · Post by **TTD** » Wed, 7. Sep 11, 20:42

IcarusII wrote:Thanks for the reply Mr Badger,

...

Cheers and good luck with the next project. I'm sure you will beat the X-R release date - sounds like 2012 is more on the cards than 2011.

Thanks again,
IcarussII

Seconded.

Just let us know when you have something for us to work with.
This last project has been very useful for many of us.

mrbadger · Post by **mrbadger** » Wed, 7. Sep 11, 20:48

TTD wrote: Just let us know when you have something for us to work with.
This last project has been very useful for many of us.

It's all gone a bit pear shaped (big QT4 and Microsoft File API compatability issues), so right now I'm working on a small quantity of Python code, having abandoned what was getting close to a testable alpha release, albeit with only the same features as the original software. I might have resolved it had I more time, But I wasted several weeks trying to get it to work consistantly across all Microsoft platforms, and I just can't keep trying, lest I kill my computer to death with the aggravation of it all (I'm normally a Linux coder type)

The good news is that with Python I can make it a lot nicer without too much effort. But it has meant starting over.

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Wed, 7. Sep 11, 22:12

You can write Windows applications using GTK+, which ought to make them reasonably source code compatible between that and Linux!

mrbadger · Post by **mrbadger** » Wed, 7. Sep 11, 22:26

pjknibbs wrote:You can write Windows applications using GTK+, which ought to make them reasonably source code compatible between that and Linux!

I did consider that, but I decided to go for pyGame, which will let me eventually produce a prettier interface, and can also be packed into a windows executable.

This is the plan anyway.

This problem only came up because I want to preserve all attributes for savegame files. If I just let them vanish I'd have been done ages ago, but that was a big thing in the early development of the first savegame manager.

Well ok, that and I know very little about native Windows programming, I code for Linux prediminantly, and until now, never with the native Windows API. Windows programming makes me want to drown things...

TTD · Post by **TTD** » Sat, 31. Dec 11, 00:24

What progress and are you doing one for AP?
I have had to re-install Windows 7,due to an error on my part while re-organizing my hard drive. So I may try this manager again soon.

M.Xmas/H.N.Y.

mrbadger · Post by **mrbadger** » Sat, 31. Dec 11, 00:55

I've been having a lot of personal issues recently that stalled work on the new savegame manager, but I have resumed. I was caught out by the release of AP, but the new build will include it. A beta should be available soon.

infy dev · Post by **infy dev** » Sat, 31. Dec 11, 02:23

if anyone wants to get the old version working with Albion in the meantime - copy the whole directory* to a new folder called 'x3apSavegameManager' or similar, rename the copied .jar file to x3apSavegameManager.jar, and adjust the savegame path in cfg.xml with a text editor.

under Win 7 the path will typically look something like:

Code: Select all

<saveFolderPath><![CDATA[C:\Users\{username}\Documents\Egosoft\X3AP\save]]></saveFolderPath>

where {username} is replaced with, obviously, your username.

* you'll need to clean out the Campaigns and Vault directories in the copy, since the savegames aren't compatible between TC and AP.

kylania · Post by **kylania** » Sat, 31. Dec 11, 02:42

Thanks for that tip infy, worked great!

mrbadger · Post by **mrbadger** » Sat, 31. Dec 11, 03:43

@infy, thanks for pointing that out. I must shamefully admit it didn't occur to me because I haven't got AP. Given that I added the save folder specification to the savegame manager that does seem rather stupid of me...

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The X3 Savegame Manager - updated 07/01/2012 - X3: Albion Prelude Version released