JCivED - a toolbox for Civilization

[darkpanda]

So the only differences between SAV format (CivWin) and SVE/MAP format (CivDOS), are:

• SAV is RLE compressed while SVE is flat and MAP is a PIC image
• SAV contains both game data and map data in 1 file, while in DOS data is split between SVE and MAP
• Leader names, civ names, nationalities and city names are all 32 chars in SAV, while in SVE they range from 11 to 14, depending on version too
• SAV has 2 mysterious initial bytes (version ?) set to FE FF (-2 short little endian)
• ... that's all

And by "that's all" I mean that except those points, SAV is literally a byte-to-byte copy of SVE followed by MAP data in plain format (not PIC-compressed).

So now I'm confronted with something very easy to implement (DOS to WIN and back), but very hard to integrate into JCivED, because JCivED code is so full of itself... What was I thinking ?

I'll keep you posted !

 

[Lord_Hill]

Scalability is always a tricky business, code for one use case and then 9 years later, along comes another one!

Version could be a bit tricky, as there's basically no good patch history for CivWin that I've ever been able to find. 1.2 to appears to be the latest (and possibly only) patch. That's also the version included in Chronicles. The readme for that just says that it's performance tweaks only, no gameplay changes. Doesn't mean that they didn't bump the save version anyway mind you. We just need to find people who actually genuinely have an original 1.0 release to try some saving and see what happens.

EDIT - if you were interested in the contents of the 2.0 patch (which in the game 'about' popup is described as version 1.2), the old Apolyton site hosts it.
Links and Downloads Manager - Patches - Apolyton Civilization Site (archive.org)
It contains 2 files, the EXE itself and the resource file CIVDATA0.RSC. No readme with the patch, just the description on apolyton itself.

 

[darkpanda]

Scalability is always a tricky business, code for one use case and then 9 years later, along comes another one!

Version could be a bit tricky, as there's basically no good patch history for CivWin that I've ever been able to find. 1.2 to appears to be the latest (and possibly only) patch. That's also the version included in Chronicles. The readme for that just says that it's performance tweaks only, no gameplay changes. Doesn't mean that they didn't bump the save version anyway mind you. We just need to find people who actually genuinely have an original 1.0 release to try some saving and see what happens.

EDIT - if you were interested in the contents of the 2.0 patch (which in the game 'about' popup is described as version 1.2), the old Apolyton site hosts it.
Links and Downloads Manager - Patches - Apolyton Civilization Site (archive.org)
It contains 2 files, the EXE itself and the resource file CIVDATA0.RSC. No readme with the patch, just the description on apolyton itself.

Seems the version of I dug out of my old dusty HDDs is indeed 1.2...

I don't even know if it exists in different languages, so I will simly work with 1.2, in english.

 

[Tristan_C]

Ok guys, I just re-uploaded the JCivED 0.0.19a ZIP release, to keep compatibility with Java 7.

Seems ok with a quick test on JDK 1.7u80, let me know if you have any more issues !

Cheers

This worked just fine for me on win 10 java 8

 

[darkpanda]

So the only differences between SAV format (CivWin) and SVE/MAP format (CivDOS), are:

• SAV is RLE compressed while SVE is flat and MAP is a PIC image
• SAV contains both game data and map data in 1 file, while in DOS data is split between SVE and MAP
• Leader names, civ names, nationalities and city names are all 32 chars in SAV, while in SVE they range from 11 to 14, depending on version too
• SAV has 2 mysterious initial bytes (version ?) set to FE FF (-2 short little endian)
• ... that's all

And by "that's all" I mean that except those points, SAV is literally a byte-to-byte copy of SVE followed by MAP data in plain format (not PIC-compressed).

So now I'm confronted with something very easy to implement (DOS to WIN and back), but very hard to integrate into JCivED, because JCivED code is so full of itself... What was I thinking ?

I'll keep you posted !

Apprently I spoke too fast: unit type NAMES are not included in CivWin saves !

I noticed this after successfully loading CivWin saves in JCivED (yay !), but unit names would no display in context menus or unit definitions....

Apprently unit names are not located in Civwin's CIV.EXE either, but I just found some suspicious occurences within CIVDATA0.RSC.

So it would mean unit names cannot be modified through savegame editions for CivWin - does this make sense for any CivWinner lol out there ?

Working on saving back as "SAV" from JCivED...

 

[darkpanda]

I guess we're getting there !

 

[Lord_Hill]

I did notice when @Blake00 converted the Dune scenario to CivWin using the CivCracker editor, the custom unit names didn't carry over. I guess now we know why!

Well done on progressing so quickly

It's here if you're curious January 2017 - DUNE | CivFanatics Forums

 

[Blake00]

I guess we're getting there !

View attachment 620829

Oh wow.. well done mate!

Apprently I spoke too fast: unit type NAMES are not included in CivWin saves !

I noticed this after successfully loading CivWin saves in JCivED (yay !), but unit names would no display in context menus or unit definitions....

I did notice when @Blake00 converted the Dune scenario to CivWin using the CivCracker editor, the custom unit names didn't carry over. I guess now we know why!
Well done on progressing so quickly
It's here if you're curious January 2017 - DUNE | CivFanatics Forums

Ahh yes.. that explains that. As Lord Hill points out I talk about how the custom faction/ruler/city names ported over when I converted the Dune scenario savegame to CivWin format using the CivWin editor but the custom unit names didn't around the 4:16 mark here:
youtu.be/No6ZwjexH_E?t=256

The Dune scenario was the only one I found with custom units but there's probably more out there in the wilderness.

.

 

[darkpanda]

Just to notify that I uploaded versoin 0.0.20a to SourceForge.

Code repo is also updated, as well as main page (1st post of this topic).

It's mainly including the basic CivWin SAV file support.

 

[Blake00]

Just to notify that I uploaded versoin 0.0.20a to SourceForge.

Code repo is also updated, as well as main page (1st post of this topic).

It's mainly including the basic CivWin SAV file support.

YEEEESSSSS.

I've decided to make another bonus Civ1 video due to me discoverig a number of new things since making the main video. I'll have to mention your new version supporting CivWin saves in the new video!!

Oh and a quick heads up mate, you might wanna update your signature now that it's no longer DOS only.

.

 

[darkpanda]

YEEEESSSSS.

I've decided to make another bonus Civ1 video due to me discoverig a number of new things since making the main video. I'll have to mention your new version supporting CivWin saves in the new video!!

Oh and a quick heads up mate, you might wanna update your signature now that it's no longer DOS only.

.

Thanks for the heads up

I will do the update when the support is better... For instance, now you still need to have CivDOS somewhere for the graphics, even when working on CivWin files...

Let me know how this works for you though !

 

[Lord_Hill]

That's exciting, I'll convert a bunch of saves back and forth and report back! Did you manage to figure out Honza's RLE changing the number of bytes in file, in the end? I was surprised it still worked in spite of something like that to be honest.

For any other testers out there, here are some things I noticed about the Windows version that are NOT save bugs (as in, they happen whether you mess with your saves or not, they're just CivWin bugs)
-You can click the minimap beyond the north pole and the game will still scroll up, causing the city labels to move north to the wrong place on the map
-There's something weird going on with the copy protection question, it will often ask me the question again after resuming a save, even though I already got it right before. Not every time, just sometimes.

I am using WineVDM rather than a virtual machine, so maybe that has something to do with it. Just figured I'd try and avoid any false bug reports. Microprose possibly aren't interested about these after 30 years

 

[Vaximillian]

I’m trying to set up starting positions for Garlic Pudding’s Earth map because I’m a precious little snowflake and not using the setter application that is distributed with the map.

How do I get the inputted coordinates to stick? Do I hit “Apply” before “Configure”, or vice versa?

 

[darkpanda]

"Apply" really means to apply the patch to CIV.EXE.
It is present for all patches.

"Customize" really means to configure the patch *before* applying... Only a handful of patches have a Customize UI.

So the order is:
* Customize
* Apply

 

[Vaximillian]

I did exactly that (multiple times) but it just won’t stick. It says that the patch is being applied and is applied successfully but the patch is still listed as not applied in the list (and the entry isn’t coloured green like the other applied patches), and obviously the coordinates stay vanilla:

What might I be doing wrong?

 

[Blake00]

I did exactly that (multiple times) but it just won’t stick. It says that the patch is being applied and is applied successfully but the patch is still listed as not applied in the list (and the entry isn’t coloured green like the other applied patches), and obviously the coordinates stay vanilla:

What might I be doing wrong?

I'm no help with your problem sorry but I notice you're using some cool custom terrain and unit graphics in Civ1?? Where did they come from?? If I'd known about this I would have covered it in my recent big Civ1 tour video series.

.

 

[darkpanda]

I did exactly that (multiple times) but it just won’t stick. It says that the patch is being applied and is applied successfully but the patch is still listed as not applied in the list (and the entry isn’t coloured green like the other applied patches), and obviously the coordinates stay vanilla:

What might I be doing wrong?

Mmmh, interesting... Let me have a look, I'll get back to you.

 

[Vaximillian]

I'm no help with your problem sorry but I notice you're using some cool custom terrain and unit graphics in Civ1?? Where did they come from?? If I'd known about this I would have covered it in my recent big Civ1 tour video series.

Terrain comes from tomekum’s tileset, unit graphics are mine.

Mmmh, interesting... Let me have a look, I'll get back to you.

Should I provide my civ.exe?

 

[darkpanda]

Mmmh, interesting... Let me have a look, I'll get back to you.

It seems the patch custom UI does not re-read starting positions from the EXE, but just from the original default values...

However, after you set your values, the press Apply, the starting positions are indeed modified in CIV.EXE (I just did it myself with no problem).

I will see if I can do anything to improve user experience with this patch, but as I said, it does work.

 

[Vaximillian]

However, after you set your values, the press Apply, the starting positions are indeed modified in CIV.EXE (I just did it myself with no problem).

Well, it doesn’t write for me, I just tried it again. Maybe I changed something in my civ.exe so that it won’t work anymore. You can have it if you want to investigate.