PiC: The Pediaicons Checker

[IbnSina]

This is a small program for W2k/XP (and now Win95/98/Me) that is designed to check the existence of all of the graphical objects in any scenario.biq/bix or pediaicons.txt file that you specify. It should check the following things:

* existence of all plain graphics files named in pediaicons.txt;
* existence of unit directories;
* existence and proper naming of unit .ini files;
* existence of all graphics and sound files named inside the unit .ini files.
* existence of labels referred to in the .biq file
* unit upgrade paths

There is a readme file in the archive file that gives brief instructions.

This is version 0.1. That means it has been improved from version 0.0 to the point where it may no longer work at all. Please help me identify bugs and improve the code. Good luck!

Pediaicons Checker v. 0.1

 

[Ozymandias]

Sounds great -- but the link's not working ....

 

[IbnSina]

Sorry - the entire process seems to have rendered me twitterpated. I meant to put this in the utility programs forum as well, but evidently became completely confused about my whereabouts. Not a good sign. In any case, I think the link should work now.

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

This sounds *GREAT*

Can we get a moderator to move this to the Utilities forum?

 

[Luddi VII]

Finally!! This shall be useful, and I hope you come with other versions.

 

[Goldflash]

heh.. you said. .twitterspattered....

Oh, this utill looks really usefull. Can't wait to get home to try it.

 

[Mr. Do]

I asked for something like this recently, so hurrah!

 

[MaisseArsouye]

I'm gonna try it immediatly

 

[LouLong]

Could be extremely handy !
Now what would be really great is if it could show a preview of the icons at the same time... Hint ! Hint !

 

[IbnSina]

@Mr. Do: Yes, it was your thread that provided the idea for this. It's all your fault

@LouLong: As an avid thief of ideas as well as signatures, I say: hmmm... It's not completely clear to me what would happen here, but perhaps the program should check for large and small icons? If found, the small one could be displayed next to the list of any problems for the .ini file? Or are you thinking that all units should be listed, even if there is not a problem? Hmmm... why not? We could always close that section if we got tired of looking at it...

 

[Turner]

Moderator Action: Thread moved.

 

[ainwood]

You got it finished! Excellent!

Any plans to extend it to buildings, races etc?

 

[IbnSina]

Well, buildings and races were what I meant by "plain graphics files". They seem pretty easy to track down, with simple paths given directly in the pediaicons file. By contrast, the units were trickier, and I'm not certain that I have them right yet. They seem to be scattered about the entire Civ distribution, sometimes in several default directories, none of which has a direct path in pediaicons. Still, I think it already checks buildings and races and happy/angry leaderhead faces and such.

 

[Dease]

any chance it will support win98?

EDIT: it workson win98 perfectly too

 

[ToJo_1]

Awesome! This is very useful. It won't wear out will it? Because it will get alot of use here!

 

[IbnSina]

any chance it will support win98?

Um... sure. I think it will do the search part of its job right now, but the double-click bits won't work. I should be able to make it a little bit smarter about identifying the OS, so it can compensate.

 

[embryodead]

It's a little but awesome program! Saves lots of time and frustration.

 

[hIdDeN_eViL]

mad
this will help heaps

 

[Mr. Do]

@Mr. Do: Yes, it was your thread that provided the idea for this. It's all your fault

And it works great too, many thanks!

 

[IbnSina]

Well, the first thing that happened to me when I used this program after posting was that my game crashed because I had put the wrong PRTO... in the .biq file. PiC didn't do enough... Thus, I had to update the program. It now looks in the scenario .biq or .bix file and tracks the actual unit labels to the pediaicons file. It also seemed useful to me to track unit upgrade paths. Since I belong to the "bucket o' units" class of modders, I always have trouble remembering and tracking where each unit fits into its respective chain. This might help with that.

I was going to wait to post this until the program seemed a little less dodgy to me, but last night I found that it helped enormously in some changes I made, so I thought I had better share it now. You can see where it is going - eventually it may show various details about units along with their snapshots. At that point, it will be time for Civ IV to render this obsolete.

As always, please help me find bugs and other problems. Thank you.

Changelog to v. 0.1
-------------------
* Added double-click functionality for Win95/98/Me
* Removed one bug that sometimes resulted in duplicate searches of one art directory
* Added ability to look inside scenario files
* Added ability to display upgrade paths

The program now uses the savexpnd.exe utility (I think this is due to Gramphos - thanks!), and thus must be installed in a specific place. I included a little install script (we don't need no stinkin' installshield), but there are instructions about where things must go, in case all else fails. Enjoy!