Messages

76

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.30)

« on: 2014-08-08 20:48:00 »

Grr :/ you are correct, I have prepared the update wrong. Installing manually would have worked, but it is best if the auto update works too of course.

Updated v1.31 download: https://mega.co.nz/#!LJEmQZzL!wYMIo8HehC71MLnYfKPDwTEntlL6EyckvFJjWh5c9fs

And auto-update will work now I hope. Although you might discover  that actually it has installed the update fine even though there was an error message.

77

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.30)

« on: 2014-08-08 20:19:42 »

Grr! Such a silly bug...

You are basically correct: although the limit wasn't 1MB, there was a bug with small GDrive downloads that stopped them from working sometimes. I wish all bugs had such useful bug reports though

Your IRO / IROP files and catalog XML looks absolutely fine so the new version should make them work.

v1.31: https://mega.co.nz/#!yR8i1T5S!5KTI8bwm64ucWhJX2c--kJz9C-Rx6DDnPxYuh_-x07c
(Auto update should work...)

Fix: Small GDrive files sometimes didn't download
Fix: IROP patches were not deleted after installing

78

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.29)

« on: 2014-08-08 10:57:31 »

New version v1.30: https://mega.co.nz/#!SVlVWD4A!49almnriOetNxk0Y7vZXiMHGwLwUxH3jPgJPJg5BPaY

If you have v1.29 installed then it will hopefully offer to update automatically.

Fix: Catalog refresh didn't update UI straight away
New: Compression support for IRO archives
New: Patch support for IRO archives

Explanation:

1) Compression. When you create a IRO archive you can choose whether to compress the files in it. This makes the IRO smaller (faster download or install, smaller disk space) but COULD mean it slows things down when running the game - because it will have to wait for a file to be decompressed, when it tries to access the file...

The options when creating a IRO are:

Never: Do not compress files at all.
Always: Always compress files. Probably not a good idea.
By Extension: Do not compress PNG, JPG, MP3, OGG files. Compress all other files. Probably a good idea, there is no point trying to compress a file which is already quite well compressed.
By Content: TRY to compress every file, but if it saves < 10% size, then do not bother. Will take longer to create the archive but should only compress files, which will actually benefit.

I have tested this and it works for me, but, like always, perhaps there are bugs so please try it and tell me


2) Patch support.

Imagine you have a big IRO file - music, movies, lots of PNGs, could be anything - and it is 1GB to download. Well, OK, it has to be that big if the files are high quality/long. Then you find a bug and want to release a new version - maybe a few of the PNGs need to be updated with a transparent fix. It is not very good for everybody to download the new 1GB mod again, when you have only changed 5MB of PNG files...

So, what you can do now is:

-When you upload the first version of the mod, you upload the large 1GB IRO file
-Then you make a new version. You still probably upload a new 1GB IRO file with the latest version - for people who are downloading the mod for the first time - but 7H will also let you create a patch file. This is a smaller file that contains only the changes between the first IRO and the newer IRO, so if you have only updated 5MB of files, it will only be ~5MB in size.
-If you include a link to this patch file in your catalog, 7H will automatically work out if the user has a version which can be patched, and if yes, it will download and apply the patch instead of downloading the whole thing again.

To make a patch file, there is a new tab on the IRO screen in 7H. You tell it where the original IRO is, where the new version IRO is, and where to save the patch. You also choose whether to compress files, same as creating a new IRO.

The catalog should look like this:

Code: [Select]

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Catalog>
  <UpdatedOn>2013-08-08 13:34</UpdatedOn>
  <Mods>
    <Mod>
      <ID>BFAE987C-C1E6-C451-8139-FF039842D72E</ID>
      <Author>Iros</Author>
      <Link>http://forums.qhimm.com/</Link>
      <Name>Test music/patching</Name>
      <MetaVersion>1</MetaVersion>
      <Description>Testing music in a IRO archive</Description>
      <Tags>
        <string>Music</string>
      </Tags>
      <LatestVersion>
        <Link>iros://Url/http$www.myserver.com/7H/Music2.iro</Link>
        <Version>2.0</Version>
        <ReleaseDate>2014-08-08</ReleaseDate>
        <CompatibleGameVersions>Original</CompatibleGameVersions>
        <PreviewImage></PreviewImage>
        <ReleaseNotes></ReleaseNotes>
      </LatestVersion>
      <Patch VerFrom="1.0" VerTo="2.0">iros://Url/http$www.myserver.com/7H/Music_1_to_2.irop</Patch>
    </Mod>
  </Mods>
</Catalog>

The "Patch" line says which version(s) the patch can update and what version it updates you to, and has the link for downloading the patch file 7H has created.

Questions?

79

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.29)

« on: 2014-08-07 12:00:13 »

I used the "Check subscriptions now" button, but it looks like we still have to close and reopen to update the catalog after changing the metaversion.

I THINK I have a fix for this, although I am not sure if I have seen the same error as you.

If I change a MetaVersion on a catalog, then update the catalog, then mods I see on the screen do not change, but if I refresh the display (e.g. by doing a search again) then the new details show up. Is that what happens for you?

If yes, then it's what I found, and next version should fix

80

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.29)

« on: 2014-08-06 17:49:10 »

So far everything seems to work. I had a crash, but this was caused by wrong commands in the script. You said that only the way I used the 'No' command was wrong, so is it possible to nest the 'Or' command in the 'And' command?

Yes, certainly. And, Or, Not entries contain other entries, this can either be Option node, or another And, Or, Not, that is fine. It is just Not can only contain ONE child node.

And I have no idea what 'Option' should do or when it is better to use it.

Well, at some point you have to use Option to actually check a config var! And / Or / Not just combine the results of some other checks together in some way, so to do anything useful, there should be one or more Option entries that you then combine together with And/Or/Not to decide when the folder is active...

e.g.

Code: [Select]

<ActiveWhen>
  <And>
    <Or>
      <Option>Sword = 0</Option>
      <Option>Color = 0</Option>
    </Or>
    <Or>
      <Option>Sword = 2</Option>
      <Option>Color = 3</Option>
    </Or>
  </And>
</ActiveWhen>

For the first <Or> to be true, then either Sword must equal 0, OR Color must equal 0.
For the second <Or> to be true, either Sword must equal 2, OR Color must equal 3.

If BOTH of these are true then the <And> becomes true (and the folder is activated). If you have no <Option> entries then it will not check any config vars (and then why do you even bother to have the ActiveWhen entry?)

81

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.28)

« on: 2014-08-05 20:48:28 »

Update v1.29: https://mega.co.nz/#!nFE2iRJA!DBTKcFTBAgY-yfq23v8tEqNj7oqsUo5GQpnxLtUJz6g

-Fix Conditional folders using new ActiveWhen tags
-Add auto update feature

7H will now tell you when a new version is out and [I hope] download & install the new version automatically if you choose to install it. You can disable the update check in settings if you don't want it of course. Since v1.29 is the first version with the updater, you still have to download this version and apply it manually of course

@Kaldarasha: Although most of your tags looked right to me, this one:

Code: [Select]

<ActiveWhen>

<And>
<Option>Dynamic = 1</Option>
<Option>CloudSword = 1</Option>
</And>
<Not>
<Option>Sword = 0</Option>
<Option>Sword = 1</Option>
</Not>
</ActiveWhen>

won't work since a <Not> can only contain one other node (otherwise, it would not know how to combine the results of the various child nodes?).

<And> can contain any number of other nodes and it is active only if ALL the contained nodes are active.

<Or> can contain any number off nodes too, it is active if ANY of the container nodes are active.

<Not> can only contain one node, it is active if the one node is NOT active.

<Option> cannot contain any other nodes, it actually checks a config option.

If you have problems, tell me what you are trying to do and we will get it working...

82

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.28)

« on: 2014-08-05 15:12:02 »

Definitely a bug :/ will fix it

83

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.27)

« on: 2014-08-05 08:45:51 »

v1.28: https://mega.co.nz/#!yQN2WaIR!oUC5TZNUvnsNeGHjhChS2r6uUbzyIj58DfnERphiOeI

-Fix uninstalls, again, probably
-Add support for ActiveWhen to have multiple conditions

Now instead of ActiveWhen being specified as an attribute you can specify an ActiveWhen child node containing various conditions: And, Or, Not, and Option (which actually checks an option)

for example:

Code: [Select]

  <ModFolder Folder="NewStuff">
<ActiveWhen>
<And>
<Option>newmodels = 2</Option>
<Option>battlemode = 1</Option>
</And>
</ActiveWhen>
  </ModFolder>

Activates the folder if option newmodels is set to 2 AND option battlemode is set to 1

Code: [Select]

  <ModFolder Folder="OtherStuff">
<ActiveWhen>
<Or>
  <Option>newmodels = 1</Option>
<Option>battlemode = 0</Option>
</Or>
</ActiveWhen>
  </ModFolder>

Activates folder OtherStuff if newmodels is 1 OR battlemode is zero.

84

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Re: [FF7 PC] EXE 1.02 "Editting Real Estate"

« on: 2014-08-04 21:03:05 »

Are you definitely certain that none of the functions are called indirectly, i.e. through a function pointer (or table of function pointers)? I could not tell whether the way you generated this list, was checking for this or not (and I am not sure how you could be certain of whether a function was called indirectly or not, without examining the indirect calls manually).

85

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.27)

« on: 2014-08-04 14:43:45 »

Hm, OK. I think I have a fix for the uninstall problems anyway so next version should solve this.

Also you said movie mods aren't injecting properly, are you sure? I tried replacing a movie file in a mod and it looks OK to me...

86

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.27)

« on: 2014-08-04 10:43:12 »

Try this: https://mega.co.nz/#!3c0AgJzD!L6ZVHxZDQz1Usa5OzT5N9WxsUq--Hfqj3jGNs5Uo9tc

With this version it doesn't look perfect to me ... but, it looks the same as if I apply the hext patches to FF7 directly which is working for men now, so I guess that means it is probably working?

87

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.27)

« on: 2014-08-02 20:01:40 »

How is it possible to set a mod folder against two multiple 'Active when'?

Hmm, not currently possible :/

Although depending on what condition you wanted (Active when X AND Y, or Active when X OR Y?) there is a workaround ... if you want OR, you could just list the mod folder twice. There is no way to do AND, though...

I guess you would like this in a future version?

88

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.27)

« on: 2014-08-02 19:03:51 »

Well, just deleting the offsets seems like it should work. The permissions lines may not be necessary since 7H already handles setting memory permissions automatically, and the patches are quite small so they take really no time to apply.

However the patches EQ2Alyza provided crash when I try doing that - but they also crash FF7 if I apply them using Hext, so I am guessing they are for a different version of the FF7 exe than the one I have, or a different version of the Aali driver, or something? That means I can't really test very well.

Hmm, well it doesn't matter whether they work together anyways. All Hext_Launch files work using the hext folder in 7H. The ones I linked above are for Hexteditor.exe, which Iros states does not work like Hext_Launch. We just need the above link to be translated to Hext_Launch capabilities and the need to launch it won't be necessary. I have no idea if that's even possible

I reaaaaally don't like the idea of releasing multiple .exe to the public because I can see how much Q&A it's going to cause due to user error.

I'm pretty sure there's a feature to compress the mod folders into a .7z and have it read all subfolders inside it after downloaded. I think I tried compressing an .iro file into a .7z way back when the tool was first released, but it didn't read from the .iro properly. This was months and moths ago though, and I haven't look into it since.

Yes, you can make the download a zip or 7z and 7H will decompress it after downloading, to make the download smaller. It should work to compress a IRO file into a 7z, although I cannot be sure there are certainly no bugs

There is not a way now for the actual IRO file to be compressed - since I was worried that decompressing data while the game was running could be slow. However I haven't tried this so possibly it could be added once it has been tested.

89

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.27)

« on: 2014-08-02 09:53:10 »

Hm, the problem with those files is that they're meant for hext_edit so they are to actually edit the files on your disk, not patch the memory of the game while it is running. 7H is expecting hext_launch type files that patch memory as it does not want to permanently edit files on your disk.

It is probably very possible to convert most of them to hext_launch type files, especially because it looks like most of the files are actually using memory addresses with an offset to convert them to the disk file locations, but probably some things might not work straight away so the authors would know best what each change is meant to do.

90

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.26)

« on: 2014-08-01 19:28:26 »

Great work so far Iros. The catalog is coming along nicely now thanks to all the fixes you've made

- The program still tends to crash a bit when I try to uninstall a mod. It doesn't happen every time, but frequently enough to be worth reporting. When it crashes, I am always able to reopen and uninstall with no problem.

- If the mod's Update Type is set to "update automatically" then using the "Check subscriptions now" button will download the update perfectly and also update the UI properly. If the mod's Update Type is set to "notify me" then changing the LatestVersion or MetaVersion in the catalog does not update the UI properly. At that point, 7H has to be closed and reopened to get the UI to update properly. Can we get it to update the same way as "update automatically" without having to close and reopen 7H?

- The blue box and check mark for the "Update Type" selected has some alignment issues.

New version 1.27: https://mega.co.nz/#!6R0VjIoY!woSypy9clEoNxiUz9phQ1ZtpC6YPG_ESrGEfXRAT9Vg

Should fix these bugs above - I think. The uninstall crash I hope is fixed, I got it to happen once, but then not again ... new version may have solved this.

- Can the hext folder be used to edit ff7.exe? Right now I'm using a separate one for Menu Overhaul, but I'd like to eliminate that if possible.

Yes, definitely. In fact I have only tested it for editing ff7.exe - if you link me to the hext patch I can double check if it should work.

I look forward to seeing the catalog

91

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.25)

« on: 2014-07-23 12:04:09 »

Could be I'm goofing up, but changing the music plug-in for the OGL config doesn't save. Everything else does, but that.

Hm, I can't reproduce that, it works for me.

As everyone has said, if the XML file does not open properly in IE, it is definitely not valid and 7H will not be able to load it for sure   If you still have trouble then post your XML and I am sure one of us will see the problem.

Small release: v1.26 - https://mega.co.nz/#!vFF1iRgS!Q-m121mvCdNagvFoOnHaTAJY7DFWkyVskO7B_fwWXQg

-Fix: mods not being added in compact mode even when compact mode ticked
-Fix: if 7H crashes after download/installing a mod, it did not remember that the mod was installed

I will be a bit busy for the next week so I may not be online so often, but, please keep testing things and I will certainly look at the thread when I am free again, this should be by the end of next week

92

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.25)

« on: 2014-07-22 07:38:48 »

What's the folder structure to use for chunks? flevel.lgp\xxxx.chunk.x?

I have not tested that feature yet, but I'll take Kaldarasha's word for it. If we get it working, then we should have no issues with compatibility between Menu Overhaul and any gameplay mod.

Yes - e.g. flevel.lgp\mrkt2.chunk.1 or flevel.lgp\mrkt2.chunk.2 etc.

I will have a look at the other problems...

93

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.24)

« on: 2014-07-21 15:42:47 »

I can't seem to get any of the gameplay mods to work. Debug will show that the various .bin files are being overridden by 7H, but the game will crash on launch and the APP.LOG reports that the .bin files cannot be read. I have tested all the .bin files and get the same crash message for them all.

Can you try testing this mod for Aeris Revival and see what it does for you: https://mega.co.nz/#!GtxSiQxA!yHkW3Jtmv6P1F2LTg2cPjK2zMAzrmcibSCJtxb-O_Q4

Ah, well found: my fix for the vgmstream files broke the .bin files, grr. Still easily fixed now you have noticed it. Also, it is quite slow to load FF7 with that mod active, I will try and speed things up - it should not be so slow.

v1.25: https://mega.co.nz/#!3JUikL4T!DAN4uVVGRpRS2PXQOEgVPRAJA7DGzP_vKWMYhIh7Wo8
-Fix .bin files not loading from archive
-Speed loading up a bit
-Fix error changing priority of mods in some situations

By the way that's not a real bug, but if a mod uses chunks of the flevel.lgp it disables all non-chunks flevel.lgp folders in other mods (even if they are loaded at first). I think that 7. H. searches at first for chunks and then for flevel files, but if it find a chunk it stops searching for the other flevel files. That's not really a problem because a.) mod's which uses chunks are smaller and b.) the farer away we are from the original file archives the better for us.

Well, maybe not a big problem, but it shouldn't happen :/ so I may fix this in another version

94

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.24)

« on: 2014-07-19 19:07:31 »

7thWorkshop: https://mega.co.nz/#!mkIzxDJS!NpgInvormThuuK0Ka8SoFM5rQwAj_fy2BSxfDZGKlbE

Thanks, I will look at it.

EDIT: Reproduced the bug, thanks! Next version will fix it, might be tomorrow.

What about if they are packed into the same .iro, then does the list order within it take any priority? If not, I'll have to pack the Menu Overhaul and Gameplay mods into the same .iro since they have a lot of overlapping files. I imagine that will still give some compatibility issues. Bootleg manages to install them in a specific way/order so that they are all compatible, so I know it can be done.

Yes, the order any extra folders are listed in the mod.xml sets the priority.

When 7H is checking if a mod replaces a certain file, it looks at the contents of the mod like this:

1. -Checks in the 'root' of the mod (e.g. if FF7 wants battle\scene.bin, it looks in modfolder\battle\scene.bin). If it finds the file, uses it and stops looking.

2. -Checks through any extra folders listed in 'ModFolder' entries from mod.xml, in the order they are listed in mod.xml. If it finds the file in any of those folders, uses it and stops looking.

3. -Checks through any conditional folders listed in 'Conditional' entries from mod.xml, in the order they are listed in mod.xml. If it finds the file in any of those folders, uses it and stops looking.


So basically yes: the order you list folders in mod.xml is important and you can control which folder takes priority that way.

95

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.24)

« on: 2014-07-19 11:50:49 »

All the sudden I'm getting an error after installing any new .iro and attempting to move it up the list on the Active Mods tab.

Hm, I cant reproduce that :/ can you give me any more details about exactly what you're doing?

[EDIT: Or post/upload the contents of your %APPDATA%\7thWorkshop folder - exclude the cache if it is too big. That will let me see your library/mod setup]

I also have a question about how list priorities work. If I have two separated mods, each with a kernel.bin for example, will the one above use its kernel.bin and negate using the one below at all? Or does it use the one below first, then overwrites it with the one above?

The first option, I think.

If two mods both contain the same file, then the higher priority file is used, and it is like the low priority mod did not contain that file at all, the file will never be accessed at all. When FF7 loads a file, 7H goes down the list of mods in priority order seeing "does this mod replace the file?" and as soon as it finds a mod that does replace the file, it stops searching.

96

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.24)

« on: 2014-07-18 13:48:04 »

Wouldn't this mean that the dll are loaded twice? One time by 7th Heaven and one time by Hext_launch. Couldn't you simply add a set path for Hext_launch.exe and then launch it automatically through 7th Heaven? As long as all dll are placed in dll_in everything should work fine.

Well, for DLLs you want to always load, then put them in your DLL_in folder I suppose. But if you want to include a DLL in a 7H mod (either a mod folder or a .iro) then it is certainly easier for 7H to load it.

(Loading DLLs is slightly different to replacing PNG / LGP files or similar. Because you do not just have to convince FF7 - or Multi.dll, or Aali's driver - that the new file exists even when it is not really there - you have to convince Windows as well, because it is Windows that actually does the work to load a new DLL...)

I'm a bit OCD when it comes to organizing, so that works for me. Textures it is

Well, I see two ways of doing things.

One is this way, it makes the mods organized better, but the mod path in Aali's driver MUST be set to 'textures' or things stop working.

The other is that, since 7H can load the opengl cfg file, then instead of asking the user to choose the mod path, we just read it from the cfg file. So whatever it is set to, even if the user changes it, 7H will continue to work.

97

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.24)

« on: 2014-07-18 13:24:43 »

Oh, OK. For loading DLLs it is probably more straightforward for me to just add DLL inject support into 7H so a mod can load a DLL. It's trivial since 7H is already injecting its own DLL...

98

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7PC] Mod manager - 7thHeaven (v1.24)

« on: 2014-07-18 06:28:23 »

Is there anyway to have it place files in the root folder? A couple mods benefit from their own files placed there.

Really? Hm, do you have an example? Didn't know there were files in the root that were worth overriding...

99

FF7 Tools / Re: [FF7] Mod manager - 7thHeaven

« on: 2014-07-17 18:44:47 »

Well, you are both correct, it is certainly broken. It was not the debug mode but the code I added to fix VGMStream. Still not sure why it broke controllers, but, easy to work around...

v1.24: https://mega.co.nz/#!PB8yBbCI!2eBAvmNhbQ-V1geUr-IchmRWvozEXJmg4vTHsLRPi9c

Fix: controllers not working for some reason
Update: OpenGL config XML with Kaldarasha's changes

100

FF7 Tools / Re: 7thHeaven

« on: 2014-07-17 14:46:03 »

?? You mean, controller support is broken by the new version of 7H? The controller works fine if you run FF7 directly, and not when you run through 7H?

If yes, that is very weird, but I will try and work out what the cause is...