1153 replies to this topic

[Roxanne]

Can you elaborate? The Save type field is still present in current NI releases (at offset 0x40 in EFF resources).

May sound foolish - but it happened to me once - I just had my window with NI sized too small...anyone can be an idiot at times and just hope it does not stick (best if nobody is looking at that moment).

[Argent77]

Major update: NearInfinity v2.0-20160406

Important: This Near Infinity release warrants a new major version number as the core of Near Infinity has been greatly revised (and redesigned to some extent). Some of these changes are breaking compatibility with older releases. For example, global Near Infinity settings are stored at a different location since the last development snapshot. Your current NI settings will be automatically imported when you start this release for the first time, so you shouldn't see any difference. Subsequent starts of this release will only affect settings for this and future releases, however. Settings changed in older releases of NI won't affect this and future releases anymore.

For the more technically inclined: The relevant registry key on Windows is now "HKCU\Software\JavaSoft\Prefs\org\infinity". The filenames or preferences keys on Mac OS X and Linux systems should have changed in similar fashion.

Furthermore, Near Infinity requires Java 8 or higher to run.

Since Near Infinity's code based has been modified to a great extent you'll most likely encounter the occasional bug. Feel free to post about anything that works differently, doesn't work correctly (or not at all). Some changes are intentional, but since I don't have the time to test everything thoroughly, some bugs might still be present.

Changes:

• Upgraded code base to be compatible with Java 8. NI won't start with Java 7 or older anymore.
• Added full Siege of Dragonspear support.
• Support of savegame folders "sodsave" and "mpsodsave" (retrieved dynamically from CAMPAIGN.2DA if available).
• An internal design change breaks compatibility with older releases. As stated above it should not be visible to the user. However, changing global options in older releases won't be recognized in this and future releases anymore and vice versa.
• Added support for DLCs in the form of zip archives for Enhanced Edition games. DLC content will be automatically integrated in correct search order. NI can handle multiple DLCs from all supported DLC search directories correctly. Resources from zip archives are read-only. Modified game resources are saved in the game's default override folder. Saving archived versions of the dialog.tlk doesn't work. You can decide to save it somewhere else instead.
• Added list of detected DLC archives in the "Game Properties" dialog if available.
• The Near Infinity Wiki can be opened from the "About Near Infinity" dialog and from a separate Help menu entry (or via shortcut "F1").
• BCS syntax highlighter loads IDS symbols dynamically based on references found in ACTION.IDS and TRIGGER.IDS.
• Improved DLG Tree Viewer: Added syntax highlighting and resref links to triggers and actions.
• BAM Converter: Added GIF import support, which includes static and animated GIFs.
• Improved effect opcode 78 (Disease) for Enhanced Edition games.
• Improved effect opcode 233 (Modify proficiencies) for Enhanced Edition games.
• Edit->BIFF Editor and Tools->Keyfile Cleanup have been disabled because of unsolved issues caused by the internal design change. (I don't know yet how to fix it short of writing a new BIFF Editor.)
• Added option "Include extra folders" to Mass Exporter which exports resources from "Characters", "Portraits" and other extra folders. (Enabled by default.)
• Mass Exporter takes "Ignore Overrides" option into account when exporting resources.
• Restricted "Find selected attribute" option found in structured resources so it doesn't match fields of same name but different meaning anymore.
• Fixed drawing of wall polygons in the Area Viewer that are flagged as "hovering walls".
• Fixed duplicate entries in resource tree if resource of same name exists is extra folder of same name but different location.
• Fixed a bug in the BAM Converter's session export and import routines if the configuration includes a "Replace colors" filter.
• Fixed a bug of missing "ANYONE" entries in IDS target fields in non-Enhanced games.
• Many internal fixes and optimizations.
• And all the changes introduced in the previous development snapshot.

[Argent77]

Update: NearInfinity v2.0-20160407

Changes:

• Added support for language-specific BIFF files in Enhanced Edition games.
• "Find selected attribute" function handles numeric search values correctly.
• Update check dialog: Text in Changelog tab will not automatically be scrolled down anymore.
• Fixed a regression which placed resources into the Override folder even when "??? Folders" option was active.
• Various internal optimizations and fixes.

[Argent77]

Update: NearInfinity v2.0-20160408

Changes:

• Fixed a regression which causes read errors when trying to open resources from BIFF files available in main game and zipped SoD archive.
• Fixed a bug of not adding the "Save Type" field to version 1 effect structures in non-Enhanced BG2 installations when TobEx has been detected.
• Fixed a regression of incorrect number detection in attribute search routine.
• Fixed an incorrect field name in ITM resources.
• Slightly improved loading times when opening new games.

[Argent77]

Update: NearInfinity v2.0-20160501

Changes:

• Added bits 22 and 23 to CRE flags.
• An asterisk denotes the selected weapon in View mode (Items/Spells tab) of CRE resources.
• AddMapNote() and AddMapNoteColor() will display note string as comment in script editor.
• The quick search of the navigation tree now includes resources from extra directories (Movies, Sounds, etc.).
• Fixed a bug which skipped a number of extra directories when searching for resources.
• Fixed a bug in dec/hex/bin array datatypes (as used by the "Unknown" fields or selectable via popup menu) which didn't update modified values.
• Fixed a bug which failed to determine the correct BIFF folders under specific conditions in non-Enhanced games.
• SoD provided as zipped archive will be detected properly even if the game's home folder does not yet exist.
• Several internal optimizations.

[Argent77]

Update: NearInfinity v2.0-20160502

Changes:

• Fixed a regression which prevented resources from override folders to be loaded into the resource tree.

[Argent77]

Update: NearInfinity v2.0-20160521

Changes:

• Added option to hide unsupported or unknown resource types and invalid filenames (see Options -> Show Unknown Resource Types).
• List controls in View tabs of various resources will now jump to the first matching entry when typing while the control has focus.
• Updated fields and flag descriptions of various resource structures (which includes several ARE, GAM and PRO structures).
• View tabs of CRE resources can now also display custom portraits from the "Portraits" folder of the game.
• View tabs of CRE resource will display portraits in BAM format, which is used by PST.
• Improved game detection check for SoD.
• Removed Raw tabs from TOH and TOT resources because of internal issues.
• Fixed option "Show Override Files -> In ??? Folders (CRE, SPL, ...)".
• Fixed a bug which prevented result windows from check or search operations to close.
• Fixed a condition which triggered a "Overwrite file" dialog for TIS->PNG conversion even if no files was there to overwrite.
• Fixed filters in Extended Search -> ITM -> Item Ability section not finding matches.
• Some internal test routines and fixes (thanks drakir).

[Argent77]

Update: NearInfinity v2.0-20160616

Changes:

• Added LUA type to text search.
• Added "Find references..." option to 2DA resources.
• Allow unknown or unrecognized game types to be bookmarked.
• Reverted improved SoD game detection because of unintended side effects.
• Fixed a bug in Area Viewer which derived mini maps from ARE filenames instead of WED filenames.
• Fixed search order of DLC archives in EE games (in case you installed more than one DLC).
• Fixed a bug which prevented a number of game resources to load when multiple DLC archives were detected in EE games.
• More internal test routines and fixes (thanks drakir).

[K4thos]

some minor things that could be improved:

- Worldmap viewer prints area names below icons if they cover the box with area name. http://imgur.com/a/HBT8b

- I think showing decimal number for CRE animation is not really practical when both animate.ids and INI files uses HEX numbers.

Edited by K4thos, 10 August 2016 - 11:06 AM.

[Argent77]

The covered icon labels issue can be fixed (although text labels may still cover each other). I could also show map names in addition to area codes in the world map viewer.

I'd rather not add hex number support that way as it would require to reimplement large portions of low level functionality. It's just too much work. I could add a new option "Edit as hex number" to the field's context menu instead.
 

[K4thos]

The covered icon labels issue can be fixed (although text labels may still cover each other). I could also show map names in addition to area codes in the world map viewer.

That second option sounds amazing!

 

    I'd rather not add hex number support that way as it would require to reimplement large portions of low level functionality. It's just too much work. I could add a new option "Edit as hex number" to the field's context menu instead.

understandable. The problem with animations I have is how long it takes to find what exactly I'm looking at - comparing names with IDS file to get the HEX value (or converting it on the fly) and than looking for corresponding INI name to get more data, bam names etc. Button like this that automatically converts decimal to hex in order to find out if INI file is available is also out of the question, right? http://imgur.com/a/3OL3P

[Argent77]

I'll see if I can do something about such a button.

[Argent77]

Update: NearInfinity v2.0-20160812

Changes:

• Added "Edit as hex number" to context menu for numeric fields in structured resources.
• Added new ITM flag "EE: Adamantine".
• Display map names in addition to area codes in worldmap viewer and labels won't be covered by icons anymore.
• Updated datatype for CRE's "Animation" field: You can open the INI or 2DA resource associated with the selected animation slot if available.
• Updated various fields for effect opcodes 12, 178, 179, 301, 341, 361 and 362.
• Fixed a bug that added Windows-style linebreaks instead of UNIX-style linebreaks to BCS files in certain situations.
• Fixed datatype for setting color ranges to use unsigned numbers (e.g. used for creature colors).
• Fixed decoding of MoveContainerContents() script action.
• Several minor fixes.

[Fiann of the Silver Hand]

Updates are like re-watching a favorite comedy show and it seems funnier. Thanks.

[K4thos]

Fantastic update, Argent. Very useful new features.

[K4thos]

While messing with WMP file today I found one thing that is rather inconvenient for me in NI. When you view links between areas only index of destination area is shown (which is expected considering that's how the file is constructed), so you need to spend time analysing which area uses which index each time you view new link. How about presenting the area file name in links window like this?:

 

[Argent77]

While messing with WMP file today I found one thing that is rather inconvenient for me in NI. When you view links between areas only index of destination area is shown (which is expected considering that's how the file is constructed), so you need to spend time analysing which area uses which index each time you view new link.

I should probably overhaul the whole WMP viewer. The WMP format is one of the more complicated formats to map into table entries. That's the reason why I had to remove the ability to add and remove substructures some time ago. I will take a closer look at it when I can find the time, but it may take a while.

Edited by Argent77, 11 September 2016 - 01:44 AM.

[Roxanne]

While messing with WMP file today I found one thing that is rather inconvenient for me in NI. When you view links between areas only index of destination area is shown (which is expected considering that's how the file is constructed), so you need to spend time analysing which area uses which index each time you view new link.

I should probably overhaul the whole WMP viewer. The WMP format is one of the more complicated formats to map into table entries. That's the reason why I had to remove the ability to add and remove substructures some time ago. I will take a closer look at it when I can find the time, but it may take a while.

As a workaround, this view option in current NI might help you

 

[Sam.]

Is it possible to manually edit the "Game Properties" for an unknown/unrecognized game?  If not than that ability would be useful when many of the "identifier" files from a game directory have been deleted, and for ensuring forward compatibility.  Alternatively, is it possible to "force" an install to be recognized as a particular game?

 

TIA,

Sam.

[The Imp]

... is it possible to "force" an install to be recognized as a particular game?

Well generally, you just pop in a file that the system you use to identify the games sort. And it doesn't have to be the original... just renamed empty text file should do fine.