R Soul on 26/10/2016 at 18:00
I could make an import tool but I don't have as much free time as I used to, so that rules out me figuring out how to access an Access database. If you can export the details as something simple like csv I could have a go at the weekend. It would need to have the archive filename because NewDarkLoader "translates" archive names to FM names (by replacing certain characters that the FM system can't cope with).
Clock on 26/10/2016 at 18:27
Quote Posted by R Soul
I could make an import tool but I don't have as much free time as I used to, so that rules out me figuring out how to access an Access database. If you can export the details as something simple like csv I could have a go at the weekend. It would need to have the archive filename because NewDarkLoader "translates" archive names to FM names (by replacing certain characters that the FM system can't cope with).
I really can't expect you to produce an import tool to meet my particular problem. There must be just a handful of us Garrettloader people out there and it's not worth the effort. I can manually copy the data and be done in probably an hour. I just thought there might be a sneaky way to accomplish it faster like with the allsaves.
Many thanks for the offer, though. I look forward to using your program.
Dahenjo on 26/10/2016 at 18:37
Quote Posted by WretchedIntruder
I've done everything with the info I've collected from these posts. I've yet to get the NDL setup window. When I click my exe icon, it starts the Running Interference mission from the original game. If I want my FMs to work, I have to add the ; back the FM line. Then it starts with FM Selector.
Be sure to follow the installation directions in the readme.html that comes with NewDarkLoader. You need to copy some files into your Thief folder as well as editing the cam_mod.ini.
Clock on 27/10/2016 at 18:09
I noticed when you right click on a fan mission, you get an edit box for filling in details. One of the options is to edit the "Title". Now I'm kinda OCD when it comes to sorting data, so I like it when the Archive name and the Title name are the same thing, or close enough. While inputting my own data to the other fields, I took the time to tweak the Title name so that it more closely resembled the zip file name. BUT, when I chose "Re-scan this FM" in order to make sure the extra data I put in didn't disappear, the Title reverted back to the original. This concerns me. I'm afraid to try "scan all FM's" in that I will lose all the data I manually put in, even though it didn't disappear when I re-scanned. The edit window seems to be following rules I'm not familiar with.
Question About Deleting FM's
There is no way I can see to delete a Fan Mission from the table. Is there a file that I need to go to in order to get rid of fan missions ? I don't want to lose all the work I did to input manually into the table, so I'm very cautious about doing something that has far reaching repercussions.
Question About Inserting a Save Game.
I found an old save game that I want to replace. Can I just do a swap and NewDarkLoader will pick that info up, or do I have to use the Import DarkLoader Saves button, which would probably scan the entire folder.
Old Save file = Forgottenforest1_saves.zip contents of which are empty except for Quicksave
Replace with = Forgottenforest1_saves.zip with 15 saves plus quicksave.
ticky on 27/10/2016 at 19:35
I discovered that the loading time hugely depends on which mission was last played (or is installed).
With "Stowaway" (very old, small sized simple mission), the cold start of version 1.3.5 is like 2-3 seconds,
with "Unknown Treasure", the above lasts for 5 seconds,
and with the brand new Morbid Curiosity (400 mb or so) its 37, I mean thirty-seven seconds.
My system is core i5 3,3 ghz pcu, 8GB ram, Windows 7, and huge free space also.
Are there any suggestions regarding this loading time problem?
Dahenjo on 27/10/2016 at 21:32
I have somewhat similar specs (with SSDs and R9 380 graphics which you don't mention, and Win10) and with the same three FMs after installing/playing, quitting the game, then closing NDL for each, NDL takes only 2-3 seconds to open. Stowaway (2 MB) is noticeably faster though (about 1 sec) than Morbid Curiosity (460 MB) with Unknown Treasure (182) somewhere in-between, lending credence to the idea that FM size affects NDL's start time, but for me it's negligible and I think for you some other factor must be in play. I'm using the latest 1.4.3 version though, so you might try that.
R Soul on 27/10/2016 at 22:09
Quote Posted by Clock
I noticed when you right click on a fan mission, you get an edit box for filling in details. One of the options is to edit the "Title". Now I'm kinda OCD when it comes to sorting data, so I like it when the Archive name and the Title name are the same thing, or close enough. While inputting my own data to the other fields, I took the time to tweak the Title name so that it more closely resembled the zip file name. BUT, when I chose "Re-scan this FM" in order to make sure the extra data I put in didn't disappear, the Title reverted back to the original. This concerns me. I'm afraid to try "scan all FM's" in that I will lose all the data I manually put in, even though it didn't disappear when I re-scanned.
The point of scanning is to look in the archive for the information. This is the process:
Look for fm.ini, and if it exists, try to get the title, readme filename (in case there are other text files too) release date, and tags.
If any of them are missing, it then digs around the other files, but since fm.ini is so convenient, there's no need to get into the other methods.
You can create your own which just says NiceName=yourtitle and then add it to the zip. Or you can find and copy the data from NewDarkLoader.ini
If you've already done a lot of title editing, there's also another way to save some effort.
If you run NDL from Dromed, there's an feature that generates fm.ini from the existing data. If you don't have Dromed, you can trick NDL by renaming thief2.exe to dromed.exe, and then running it. Right click on an FM and select Generate FM.ini. If the FM is currently installed it'll want to put it in the installation folder, but that's because this feature is aimed at people making FMs. Wherever it gets saved to, you can add it to the original FM zip file. Remember to rename the exe back to thief2 when you've finished. The advantage of this method is that scanning might get the wrong release date, but you can override it with this generated fm.ini.
Quote:
Question About Deleting FM's
There is no way I can see to delete a Fan Mission from the table. Is there a file that I need to go to in order to get rid of fan missions ? I don't want to lose all the work I did to input manually into the table, so I'm very cautious about doing something that has far reaching repercussions.
I presume deleting the zip file is out of the question? NDL won't remove the entries stored in its ini file, so the data are safe, b there is another option. The filter bar at the top, and/or tags. You can use the checkbox to hide finished FMs (where you've selected a difficulty level), or you could give the FM a custom tag, e.g. called hidden, and then use the tag filter to add 'hidden' to the Exclude list.
Quote:
Question About Inserting a Save Game.I found an old save game that I want to replace. Can I just do a swap and NewDarkLoader will pick that info up, or do I have to use the Import DarkLoader Saves button, which would probably scan the entire folder.
Old Save file = Forgottenforest1_saves.zip contents of which are empty except for Quicksave
Replace with = Forgottenforest1_saves.zip with 15 saves plus quicksave.
The save import tool goes through everything it finds in allsaves. If allsaves only contains Forgottenforest1_saves.zip, all other FMs' saves will remain untouched. The yes/no box that appears in this process is shown if it finds a Darkloader saves zip, and a NewDarkLoader saves zip already exists.
The other way is to install the FM, then extract the savegames into it (Thief2\FMs\Forgottenforest1\saves\ by default), and then uninstall. NDL will ask if you want to back up the current savegames. Select Yes.
Quote Posted by ticky
I discovered that the loading time hugely depends on which mission was last played (or is installed).
With "Stowaway" (very old, small sized simple mission), the cold start of version 1.3.5 is like 2-3 seconds,
with "Unknown Treasure", the above lasts for 5 seconds,
and with the brand new Morbid Curiosity (400 mb or so) its 37, I mean thirty-seven seconds.
My system is core i5 3,3 ghz pcu, 8GB ram, Windows 7, and huge free space also.
Are there any suggestions regarding this loading time problem?
Your PC specs are perfectly good (you already know this), but mine is similar and it only takes a couple of seconds. The main thing is to ensure you're using an external version of 7zip (7zG.exe in particular), which you point to in Setup, although use of the 'internal' version doesn't explain the long delay. Large .7z files will take a long time to access unless the readme, and a few other text files, were added separately. There aren't many FMs in 7z format though. A couple of people have reported long startup times, but that's been for the program itself, possibly caused by a problem with their installation of the .net framework.
Clock on 28/10/2016 at 02:20
Quote Posted by R Soul
The point of scanning is to look in the archive for the information. This is the process:
Look for fm.ini, and if it exists, try to get the title, readme filename (in case there are other text files too) release date, and tags.
If any of them are missing, it then digs around the other files, but since fm.ini is so convenient, there's no need to get into the other methods.
You can create your own which just says NiceName=yourtitle and then add it to the zip. Or you can find and copy the data from NewDarkLoader.ini
If you've already done a lot of title editing, there's also another way to save some effort.
If you run NDL from Dromed, there's an feature that generates fm.ini from the existing data. If you don't have Dromed, you can trick NDL by renaming thief2.exe to dromed.exe, and then running it. Right click on an FM and select Generate FM.ini. If the FM is currently installed it'll want to put it in the installation folder, but that's because this feature is aimed at people making FMs. Wherever it gets saved to, you can add it to the original FM zip file. Remember to rename the exe back to thief2 when you've finished. The advantage of this method is that scanning might get the wrong release date, but you can override it with this generated fm.ini.
That sounds like a lot of work just to micromanage a Title name. For the time being I'll leave that alone.
I presume deleting the zip file is out of the question? NDL won't remove the entries stored in its ini file, so the data are safe, b there is another option. The filter bar at the top, and/or tags. You can use the checkbox to hide finished FMs (where you've selected a difficulty level), or you could give the FM a custom tag, e.g. called hidden, and then use the tag filter to add 'hidden' to the Exclude list.
I have to slap myself on this one. I just deleted the zip file to get rid of it like you suggested. I had some duplication for some reason. So that is solved !
The save import tool goes through everything it finds in allsaves. If allsaves only contains Forgottenforest1_saves.zip, all other FMs' saves will remain untouched. The yes/no box that appears in this process is shown if it finds a Darkloader saves zip, and a NewDarkLoader saves zip already exists.
The other way is to install the FM, then extract the savegames into it (Thief2\FMs\Forgottenforest1\saves\ by default), and then uninstall. NDL will ask if you want to back up the current savegames. Select Yes.
That didn't work, and I noticed something else. There are other FM's that contain saves, but are not registering in NewDarkLoader. I haven't gone through the entire list, but it looks like not everything has been copied over. Some FM's have the complete list of saves available while a few (so far) have nothing.
What I did with Forgottenforest1_saves.zip was simply overwrite the one with the other, which was empty. So now the file in the allsaves folder has the saves in it. Then I performed the import saves again. When I installed and played the mission, the saves were still not there.
I may have done things out of sequence here. Not sure.
But this doesn't explain the at least 2 other FM's that already had saves but are not registering when I install the game and play it.
UpdateI went through all my fan missions and found 16 that had no saves in them. 14/16 had a range of saves in the BAK file and in 2/16 there was no BAK file at all. So NewDarkLoader had found and recorded saves in 14 instances, but didn't offer them up when the fan mission was installed while in 2 FM's, it didn't recognize any save files where it should have ( I confirmed the save files existed).
Here's a question. When you click on the "import DarkLoader Saves" button, it doesn't ask where that folder is located. Does it search for a folder called allsaves and the first one it finds it uses ? Because when I started this, I copied my allsaves folder to the desktop as security. Also, I have an "Old Thief 2 Folder" from years ago that probably has its own allsaves folder. I will pursue this later.
R Soul on 29/10/2016 at 14:54
Here's the process for importing saves:
NDL looks at which program called it, and takes that program's location and then looks for "location\allsaves".
It then gets a list of all the files in allsaves.
With the exception of "original_saves.zip", it then goes through each file:
The new filename is set by taking the current one and replacing "_saves" with ".FMSelBak"
It then creates a new zip file (something.FMSelBak.zip) in your temp folder.
It then looks for the original fm .zip file (also .7z or .rar but I'll ignore those ones in further descriptions) in your FM Archive path to find out where it is (it supports subfolders).
If there isn't already an "FMSelBak" file for this FM, it moves the new one into the FM's location without fuss (or, it should do).
The first time it finds an existing FMSelBak file, it shows a message box asking if you want to overwrite it: Yes, Yes to All, No and No to All.
Either of the 'to All' options will be remembered for the next time it finds an existing file (until you close the DL Tools window).
Selecting Yes or No will cause the message box to be shown for each existing file.
The file in 'temp' is then deleted because it's no longer needed.
I can see that there's no need to create the backup file until the program knows that moving it is necessary, but apart from that it looks like it works properly. Hopefully the description will help you work out why your files aren't being created as expected.
Clock on 29/10/2016 at 15:59
Quote Posted by R Soul
Here's the process for importing saves:
NDL looks at which program called it, and takes that program's location and then looks for "location\allsaves".
It then gets a list of all the files in allsaves.
With the exception of "original_saves.zip", it then goes through each file:
The new filename is set by taking the current one and replacing "_saves" with ".FMSelBak"
It then creates a new zip file (something.FMSelBak.zip) in your temp folder.
It then looks for the original fm .zip file (also .7z or .rar but I'll ignore those ones in further descriptions) in your FM Archive path to find out where it is (it supports subfolders).
If there isn't already an "FMSelBak" file for this FM, it moves the new one into the FM's location without fuss (or, it should do).
The first time it finds an existing FMSelBak file, it shows a message box asking if you want to overwrite it: Yes, Yes to All, No and No to All.
Either of the 'to All' options will be remembered for the next time it finds an existing file (until you close the DL Tools window).
Selecting Yes or No will cause the message box to be shown for each existing file.
The file in 'temp' is then deleted because it's no longer needed.
I can see that there's no need to create the backup file until the program knows that moving it is necessary, but apart from that it looks like it works properly.
Hopefully the description will help you work out why your files aren't being created as expected.
Some are, some aren't. I'm in the process of trying to find a common denominator to explain why , for example,
rebellion_of_the_builder_v_1_1F.FMSelBak.zip which has 16 saves in the saves folder, has 16 empty save slots when I play the mission.
This must be an issue unique to me, otherwise you would have heard from others by now. So I'll probe a little deeper to try to find a reason for this. It's not the end of the world if I lost all my saves for these few particular FM's. I haven't deleted Garrettloader yet so I can use that, though I'll have to have a separate saves folder using Garrettloader formats.
UpdateThat's not going to work because when I initiate a mission from Garrettloader, it goes to the Thief2.exe which is now internally programmed to run NDL. Oh well. I use the saves to mark important moments or objectives for each mission. Not critical stuff :)
Thanks for taking the time to assist me, R Soul. If I figure this out, I'll pass the information around for others who may encounter the same problem in the future.
