56 replies to this topic

[the bigg]

I have a relatively simple, but very disk- and computer time- intensive task needed before I can release WeiDU 212 (which, among other bug fixes and new features, reduces the speed of COMPILing D files by two/three orders of magnitude). I need somebody who has lots of spare disk space and computer time to perform a full BWS expert install twice, once using WeiDU 211 stable, and once using WeiDU 211.X beta, and then diff the two resulting folders and grep the *.debug files for WARNING and ERROR.

NB: those tasks are largely automated, so you can easily have them performed at night or while you're away; in particular, a program called WinMerge can do both the diffing and the grepping. If you need more detailed instructions, I can ask cmorgan to provide them.

[Jarno Mikkola]

I need somebody who has lots of spare disk space and computer time to perform a full BWS expert install twice, once using WeiDU 211 stable, and once using WeiDU 211.X beta, and then diff the two resulting folders and grep the *.debug files for WARNING and ERROR.

I would love to help, but the BWS v8.1 is not released yet, and the BWS v8.0.1 doesn't work to completion anymore(or at least I think this is still the fact)... so one can't perform this for now unfortunately. Hopefully it soon can be thought... of course you can download all the mods with it though.

I could make a semi-manual setup of the tactical + some mods, then copy the files to another directory, and use the two to make two installs, and I would not need either of them to work either...

Question, who well and how fast does the new WeiDU.exe(v211beta) update the other WeiDU.exe's? Cause at least last time I just manually updated every single one that needed it.

I hope there is at least one that can get assigned to this cause my computer use might get ... limited.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 25 October 2009 - 08:12 AM.

[the bigg]

Question, who well and how fast does the new WeiDU.exe(v211beta) update the other WeiDU.exe's? Cause at least last time I just manually updated every single one that needed it.

Updating 211.00 -> 211.x is the same thing as updating 210.00 -> 211.00 - you simply overwrite the weidu.exe that BWS creates with 211.x, copy 211.x to setup-anamethatisnotavailable.exe and launch it once.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Updating 211.00 -> 211.x is the same thing as updating 210.00 -> 211.00 - you simply overwrite the weidu.exe that BWS creates with 211.x, copy 211.x to setup-anamethatisnotavailable.exe and launch it once.

Ah, but as the problem lies a little bit in the fact that it takes a quite while to identify and patch the 301 files... as the unpacked files are all different WeiDU.exe versions, and the updating is not always perfect, as you probably know.

[dabus]

The BiG World install.bat will overwrite the weidus with a copy of weidu.exe, anyway.

%IF% WeiDU.exe FOR %%s IN (setup-*.exe) DO copy /Y WeiDU.exe "%%s"

In the worst case, you have to copy 1sylm yourself...

[Miloch]

Ah, but as the problem lies a little bit in the fact that it takes a quite while to identify and patch the 301 files... as the unpacked files are all different WeiDU.exe versions, and the updating is not always perfect, as you probably know.

WeiDU v211.04 auto-updated all the setup-x.exe files without any glitches on my BWP 5.0 install in like a minute or two, which is nothing compared to other tasks. The actual updating probably took even less time than that, but there seems to be a big delay before processing anything WeiDU related on BWP (mod installs, uninstalls, etc.). But I guess that's to be expected when you have every half-baked mod ever invented on one install.

[the bigg]

there seems to be a big delay before processing anything WeiDU related on BWP

I suppose that happens because your dialog.tlk is greater than 16 MB.

Edited by the bigg, 27 October 2009 - 04:23 AM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

I suppose that happens because your dialog.tlk is greater than 16 MB.

Yeah, it became to be 50MB.

Back to business, because the Minions of Evil need to sleep, to gain thoughts about the destruction of those worlds, I have decided that I would upload all the debug files in an archive, which reduces their size by just a little, about 20 times... so if someone wishes to start the diffing and the grepping, they can.
&
Ouh, and I did skip the last NoCD.exe's installation.

[the bigg]

OK, so...

I don't need the actual DEBUG files, just the result of grepping for "ERROR" and WARNING (I did this manually, and thankfully there are no differences in the WARNING/ERRORs printed).
Now, please uninstall generalized_biffing and diff the two installs using WinMerge (there should be an option to print to a file the list of changed files).

[Jarno Mikkola]

I totally f-ed this ...

I uninstalled using a .bat, which does not print the list of changed files, just the results, sorry.

Attached Files

•  Merge.htm   721.42K   137 downloads

[the bigg]

Still useless to me. I'll ask cmorgan to write human-understandable instructions for diffing the installed directories.

[cmorgan]

The quick non-programmer instructions:

1. install vanilla in x:\TEST1\BG2
2. install vanilla in x:\TEST2\BG2
3. diff the two installs to make sure each are identical (using WinDiff)
4. download BWP mods, set up for install, then go through and edit out randomization components (that will reduce false differences).
5. install BWP on x:\TEST1\BG2 using 4. and WeiDU released version - make sure the auto installer does not download and update the mods, or you will undo all the edits (alternatively, let the installer download everything, set up for install, then quit and edit mods, then install).
6. install BWP on x:\TEST2\BG2 using 4. and WeiDU beta version - make sure the auto installer does not download and update the mods, or you will undo all the edits (alternatively, let the installer download everything, set up for install, then quit and edit mods, then install).
7. Run WinDiff, asking it to display all differences and hide all identical files. Begin with the main directory, checking for binary differences, and put the results out using "create patch", and continue from there. Each time a file is different, double-click on it and the difference list will pop up. It is this set of entries that are important, as you want to know that bg1npc vs bg1npc resulted in all identical files except for the X#ITM1.ITM binary and the one file that uses ALTER_TRANS...
8. After the big pile-'o-differences is created, look through those for ERROR, WARNING (case sensitive), or other oddities. Report these to the bigg, preferably after checking the original mods, because this procedure often unearths typos and oddities in other folk's mods that cause the errors, so report 'em just like Leonardo's crew does, so that regular modders can get the benefit of the testing too.
9. For any binary differences, run the WeiDU changelog command to determine which mods are changing stuff there (usually this means there is a section of a mod which is randomizing something that you have accidentally left in, or is an integral part of the mod that cannot be edited out) and report those.

Note on #7 - Alternatively, Tiamon and Wisp and someone else (probably Miloch) were teaching me how to use various command line difference programs. WinDiff is slow, requires manual manipulation and multiple steps. The only good thing about it is that it has a simple GUI and a good help function, so literally anyone can figure it out it just takes time). If you know how to work a command line utility, what you are looking for is a way to create in-context reports; binary files do not need the actual changelog, but everything else needs a report of the actual difference by file and line number.

(My computer is still in the shop, and may not be back for another week - I am out of commission on this set of tests, i am afraid... if something above needs more clarification, I will check back in tonight and see if I can help clarify.)

Edited by cmorgan, 29 October 2009 - 05:15 AM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

The quick non-programmer instructions:
1. install vanilla in x:\TEST1\BG2
2. install vanilla in x:\TEST2\BG2

Well, yeah, it would be nice if that could be done, but it can't, at least without editing the windows registry. Yes, the BG2 uses the Windows InstallShield...

The 5 and 6 is is quite hard to also to do as there is no BWP, only BWS & BWI, that are BiG World Setup.vbs & BiG World Install.bat, which also arises the faults if the BWS is re-updated between the two setups. We'll, OK the BWP is the Project, but it can't be installed...
So it's easier to just copy everything in one spot.

So the correct way to set this all up is;
1. Have a full clean install of BG2 - SoA & ToB game patched to v(2.5.)26498, in a folder that's name is "BGII - SoA" as some of the mods actually won't install without the last part, and BG1+TotSC patched to v(1.3.)5512 .
2. Use the BWS to download and unpack the mods, exit the BiG World Install.bat when it runs itself up, all other mods except the tob_hacks and Generalized Biffing.
3. Copy-paste the whole game folder to x:\TEST2 .
4. Run the BiG World Install.bat in the original folder.(C:\BWP\BGII - SoA)
5. Cut the game folder and put it to x:\TEST1, and then move the other to the original location.
6. Updated the 1sylm.exe with the WeiDU.exe v21108, and run it in the original folder so it updates the other WeiDu.exe's in there, but do not install the mod.
7. Run the BiG World Install.bat again in the original folder.
8. Compare the results.

This is why the above installs refer themselves with being installed into; C:\BWP\BGII - SoA, as they were... but not during the same time.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 23 November 2009 - 08:34 AM.

[the bigg]

Yeah, that looks like it. To remove randomness (#4 in cmorgan's), you need to change RANDOM_SEED whatever to RANDOM_SEED 0 in all *.tp* files (between #2 and #3 in your list).

[Miloch]

To remove randomness (#4 in cmorgan's), you need to change RANDOM_SEED whatever to RANDOM_SEED 0 in all *.tp* files (between #2 and #3 in your list).

On my install, this occurs in setup-bg1ub.tp2, Setup-BGTTweak.tp2, scsII.tph and the main tp2 and about 3 subroutines each for Aurora and iiItemMod. Though there may be other newer mods that use it too. Just right-click on your BGT folder and enter *.tp* in the first field (Search for files named) and RANDOM_SEED in the second (Containing text) field (may need to mess with your settings if you have Vista or some other defective OS).

[Wisp]

Item Randomiser has one RANDOM_SEED at the top of the tp2.

[cmorgan]

Jarno, you are right - my bad - I forgot that I work off of one clean install on a backup drive, and put two test versions (then diff to make sure everything got copied). I also diff the installs before running them out, to make sure they have identical mods and identical edits - you could probably improve on my procedure here. I'll redo the procedure to take that into accont, plus Miloch's and Wisp's stuff.

[the bigg]

Any words on this?

[Miloch]

Yeah Jarno, were you going to finish this or does someone else have to? Disk space and time are in rather short supply on my part, so I'd rather not, but someone should...

[Jarno Mikkola]

Yeah Jarno, were you going to finish this

no