Fomenting Mutiny

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               One thing that just occurred to me is the amount of discussion focused on the subject. That in and of itself should be taken as a sign of just how vibrant CEP remains in the eye of the Community. I've also shown this thread to my wife - who has never ventured onto the BioWare forums or into the realm of CC making. She is just a player. She did offer this...

"You folks do realize that you'll still be discussing this the day TAD posts the CEP Update for download."
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tiberius_Morguhn]

               

Pstemarie wrote...

One thing that just occurred to me is the amount of discussion focused on the subject. That in and of itself should be taken as a sign of just how vibrant CEP remains in the eye of the Community. I've also shown this thread to my wife - who has never ventured onto the BioWare forums or into the realm of CC making. She is just a player. She did offer this...

"You folks do realize that you'll still be discussing this the day TAD posts the CEP Update for download."

The age old problem of "management by committee"....'>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tiberius_Morguhn]

               

Tarot Redhand wrote...

@Tiberius_Morguhn I think you may have misunderstood what I was getting at. To be honest I hadn't even thought about duplicate image files. What I am worried about are those image files that are used by more than one model - the old 1 to n problem. Where more than one model uses the same texture. Say someone comes along and quite legitimately, in an effort to improve the placeable or whatever, alters a texture which in turn ruins the look of some other model because both models were using the same texture.

TR

No worries...I was working on both actually.  I've got to export the mdl files and do a quick inventory of the bitmap calls and get them to a text file/something for reference like you want. 
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               

Pstemarie wrote...
...my wife...She did offer this...

"You folks do realize that you'll still be discussing this the day TAD posts the CEP Update for download."

'>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Zarathustra217]

               One thing that for certain won't get more people involved is already priorly making up your mind that they won't.

It's not impossible. NWNx has some central people working on the core, but quite many people have done minor contributions to it.

On the other hand, why the scepticism at all? What's the loss?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               

Zarathustra217 wrote...

One thing that for certain won't get more people involved is already priorly making up your mind that they won't.

It's not impossible. NWNx has some central people working on the core, but quite many people have done minor contributions to it.

On the other hand, why the scepticism at all? What's the loss?

The quote from my wife wasn't put in there to show skepticism. I included it to point out the simple fact that I - like her - have little doubt that TAD has already begun to work on a CEP update. I'm also certain that other people have already started working on the bits and pieces to which they can contribute. I viewed her words as somewhat humerous - because they're probably true - and thought this thread could use a little brevity at the time. My mistake and it certainly won't happen again.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Pstemarie, 24 janvier 2014 - 11:37 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               I think I have identified another 4 tools (or even better a utility that has all my proposed tools included in it) that would be useful for not only maintaining the CEP but also for anyone (such as pw admins) maintaining haks with large numbers of models and textures.

1. A tool that simply goes through all the models placed in a folder and tests each one to see whether they are compiled or not. It should have the ability to move those it identifies as compiled to another folder for decompiling. As a side note, the identification is easy as all that you need to do is to test the 1st byte. If it is nul (i.e. hex 00), it is compiled otherwise not.

2. A tool that goes through a folder containing both models and textures and identifies orphaned (textures that are not used by any model) and missing textures, outputting the result to a report. It is all too easy when creating a hak to leave what I personally call "fossils" (i.e. remnants of earlier builds) in a hak and this particular tool would help to identify such. As a side note, I have already built such a tool for my own use that only outputs to screen called orphanHunter. An improved version of this (but more complicated of course) would also have the ability to identify identical textures with different names. This improved version would have the option to rename some (or maybe all) the textures and the entries for these textures in the models that use them.

3. This next tool is probably the most complex. It would go through a folder containing both models and 2da files in order to identify any orphaned or (even rarer) missing models. The way this would work is that it would need to have as a further input a text file which identified which lines in which 2da files to use to do this test.

4. A simple cataloguing tool that will go through a folder containing 2das, models and textures and produce an sql database of the contents of that folder. An enhanced version of this would include the information of what woks/pwks and textures are associated with which models.

Why do these as tools? Well some degree of automation should reduce the workload of anyone doing the maintenance and hopefully reduce the possibility of errors. Anyway, that is what I think.

TR
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               I gotta stop reading this before I start incorporating these tools into the other tools I am working, before getting those other tools done.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Frith5]

               Nah. Lightheartedness is always preferred, at least to me. '>

I love this community, and all the passion people bring to it. But of course, it has to be fun, right?

-JFK
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Carcerian]

               *Chimes in*

One Suggestion: Add in the missing generic doors for CTP referenced in the 2das, from the CTP doors pack: CTP Generic Doors

Another: change all the "reserved skybox" entries to **** to tidy up the toolset dropdown menu

As far as free cloud storage goes, Dropbox is 2 GB + 500 MB per person who joins dropbox, max 18 GB, Google Drive is 5 GB, and Skybox is 7 GB

(A more detailed comparison can be found here: http://www.hongkiat....drive-skydrive/)
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Carcerian, 24 janvier 2014 - 10:01 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               Wow Skydrive is only 7 GB now. I've got like 40+ GB, but I've been a member since the day it was created.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               I'm having a blast with DropBox personally, and have had nothing but issues with Google Drive. So much so that I removed its program from my computer. I'm also having no issues with Barracuda Network's "Copy"
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               @Carcerian I don't think that was so much missing as put in so that the ctp generic doors could be used in conjunction with the CEP. By that logic I would have to include the CEP into my stuff which I made CEP compatible by using their 2da's as a starting point. I did that to make my stuff compatible with the CEP.

TR
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Bannor Bloodfist]

               

*Chimes in*

One Suggestion: Add in the missing generic doors for CTP referenced in the 2das, from the CTP doors pack: CTP Generic Doors

Ummm... sorry, but there is a specific reason it was done the way it was.  That reason is in the license from CTP regarding those files.  You are allowed to reference them in a given mod etc, but you must use the haks and files as provided by the CTP on that page.  That was done by specific request of specific folks during the time those doors were created.  I can not change the rules on those files as I do not have permission to do so.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               Bannor hypothetical question (ie I don't intend on doing this I'm just curius) do those same rules preclude the possibility of the combination of the ctp generic doors into a community doors project as it were?

TR