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TECHREP #00015

reported by Julien Vida on October 14, 2014

FROM: Tools Commissar
TO: Arma 3 Modders
MATERIEL CATEGORY: Tools
CIRCUMSTANCES: Version 0.76 (Major fixes, Addon Builder, Publisher, Game Updater, “Arma3GU”)
SIZE: ~145 MB / ~709 MB

STATUS

We are still working hard to improve our tools for Arma 3 and “today, it’s patch day”. Before moving to the heart of things, we made little changes to the change log structure. Arma3GU now has its own change log, and we've renamed the change log of the “InstallScript” to “Steam configuration”, to make things more readable.

To simplify documentation access, we’ve added a new folder named “Docs”, containing links to the official manuals and tool pages. By the way, more documentation will arrive soon. Regarding Steam, we have reworked and restored the ability to mount your P-drive directly from the Steam menu. However, before proceeding, we urge you to check your parameters. Those who had troubles with Publisher and their firewall will be happy to know we should have fixed that.

Addon Builder has received important fixes. It now correctly copies the P3Ds from the temp folder to the packed destination file (PBO). Also addressed were the issues with the exclusion list, and the ability to sign binarized PBOs has been restored.

Publisher was occasionally sending and receiving corrupted data from Steam while updating / uploading a Steam Workshop entry – This is history.

Then, according to your feedback, Arma3GU (part of Game Updater) has been totally re-designed to meet your needs and expectations. The most noticeable change is the detection method. In its previous iterations, it started the Arma 3 installation registered from Game Updater. This meant that you were only able to run the copy installed with Game Updater. This new iteration brings a new detection method and changes its behavior a little: if, in the current directory of Arma3GU, arma3.exe is present, it will run Arma 3 from the latter. Otherwise, it will work as before, running the Arma 3 copy installed with Game Updater. It also creates a log file that you can check in case of failure (or out of curiosity).

Modding students have new stuff to play with. The helicopter sample has been updated to demonstrate how to implement the upcoming new FFV feature (Firing from Vehicles). An example of the Advanced Flight Model (including its XML) was also added. Last but not least, Thomas Ryan and Jaroslav Kašný from our Playable Content department have added an example of a campaign addon.

We hope you will enjoy this update and as per usual, we invite you to report issues and suggestions on our channels: Feedback tracker & the official forums.

CHANGELOG

  • Addon Builder

    • Changed: Variety of visual tweaks related to a font update (the new Purista font has different metrics)

    • Fixed: P3D move via fixing temp path

    • Fixed: Exclude LST in packing

    • Fixed: Issues with P3Ds

    • Fixed: Addon Builder failed to sign binarized PBOs

    • Fixed: Addon destination file name

  • Arma3Tools.exe

    • Added: NativeMethods.dll to improve security and compatibility

    • Added: Checks more dependencies on startup (Visual Runtime 2010 and 2012)

    • Added: Log files handled by Arma 3 Tools\logger.xml are created on startup

    • Added: Tooltip on moving over "Game Updater"
      Added: Main menu item "View" containing links to important directories

    • Added: About box

    • Added: New application parameter to mount P on startup ("Preferences" >> "Mount P drive on startup")

    • Changed: Native methods rewritten

    • Changed: Now mainly uses Log4Net instead of common.dll

    • Changed: Mount P-Drive method (bypassing UAC) (no change to mapDisk)

    • Changed: Updated Application manifest

    • Changed: Removed menu item "File" >> "Show License" because it was a duplicate

    • Changed: Removed menu item "Misc" >> "Buldozer Configurator" (it's reachable from "Preferences")

    • Changed: Removed menu item "Help" >> "Launcher"

    • Changed: Removed directory links from menu item "File"

    • Changed: Version convention (<Arma 3 Tools Version>.<Release Number>)

    • Fixed: The "Cannot find registry.xml" error was often displayed on installation

    • Fixed: Tools log file size warning was incorrect (digits after the comma) (http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=20805)

    • Fixed: Icon of the menu item "Preferences" >> "Settings" was missing

    • Fixed: An empty message box was displayed on startup of some tools

    • Fixed: Mikero tools menu item in the notification context menu

    • Fixed: Deletion of the text clipboard while mounting substitute drive P

    • Fixed: Application parameters were not correctly set on startup

  • Publisher

    • Added: Publisher now has descriptive log dump

    • Changed: Variety of visual tweaks related to the font update (the new Purista font has different metrics)

    • Fixed: Texts sent and received from Steam service were sometimes corrupted

    • Fixed: Maximized window is slightly cropped by screen boundaries
    • Fixed: Maximized main window overlaps system taskbar
    • Added: Updated placement & look of caption buttons in windows
    • Fixed: Publisher crashed when adding a PBO file via the browse button
    • Changed: Description instead of change notes in summary window
    • Added: Better PBO loading handling (parse exception thrown if loading fails)
  • Game Updater

    • Added: It copies Arma3GU.exe to the installation directory

    • Added: Control method for installed or updated copy of Arma 3

    • Changed: A log per day instead of a log per start-up

    • Changed: Usage of Log4Net instead of common.dll

    • Changed: Verbose logs

    • Fixed: An irrelevant additional log file was created

    • Fixed: In some cases, Game Updater was unable to finish the installation process after the download

    • Known issue: GameUpdater can crash your Steam client
  • Arma3GU (part of Game Updater)

    • Added: Now uses the current directory as "Moddir" if it contains arma3.exe (first choice)

    • Added: Detection method of the Arma 3 installation to start

    • Added: Log file (Arma3GU.log, in the Arma3GU.exe directory)

    • Changed: Improved detection method of the GU installation directory

    • Changed: Extended output in the GUI

    • Changed: Relevant data have been added to the read me (Arma3GU.txt)

    • Changed: Improved closing methods

    • Changed: Order of detection methods

    • Fixed: It was not closing after a fatal error

    • Fixed: False positive "Unable to determine Arma 3 GU path" error

  • Samples

    • Added: Sample plant

    • Added: Advanced Flight Model in the helicopter sample (including XML)

    • Added: Example campaign from our Playable Content department

    • Added: Firing From Vehicles functionality in the helicopter sample

    • Fixed: Class "AnimationSources" in the Tank sample (http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=20457)

  • ImageToPAA

    • Changed: Now uses .NET Framework 4.5.1 (instead of 4.0)

    • Changed: Updated dependencies

  • Documentation

    • Added: Shortcuts to online documentation

    • Added: Manuals folder with links to online manuals

    • Added: License of "protobuf-net"

    • Changed: License file names have been changed for consistency

    • Changed: Cleaned folders (licenses)

    • Fixed: The GDAT license was incorrect

  • Starter

    • Added: Ability to mount P drive

    • Changed: Uses its own log file (Logs\Starter.rpt)

    • Changed: Improved log (relevance & readability)

    • Changed: Improved base code

    • Changed: Versioning convention

    • Changed: Now uses Log4Net instead of common.dll

    • Changed: Reads only the 3 first parameters instead of throwing an error if more than 3 startup parameters are parsed

  • WAVToLIP

    • Changed: Now uses .NET Framework 4.5.1 (instead of 4.0)

    • Changed: Updated dependencies

  • WAVToWSS

    • Changed: Now uses .NET Framework 4.5.1 (instead of 4.0)

    • Changed: Updated dependencies

  • WSSDecoder

    • Changed: Now uses .NET Framework 4.5.1 (instead of 4.0)

    • Changed: Updated dependencies

  • Steam dumpAccountInfo

    • Added: Now returns if Arma 3 content has been marked as corrupted by Steam

    • Added: Errors are now stored in Steam_dumpAccountInfo.log

    • Changed: Now uses Log4Net instead of common.dll

  • Steam configuration

    • Added: Firewall rule for Publisher

    • Added: "Mount P drive" directly from the Steam menu

    • Changed: Incremented version to reflect the current stage (main branch, 0.76)

    • Fixed: Starting "Arma 3 Tools" directly from Steam with additional Steam parameters (e.g. -config=server.cfg) could cause some of them to have an error on startup
  • Updated: Stand-alone Windows Dedicated Server (1.32)
  • Updated: Stand-alone Linux Dedicated Server (1.32)
    • Known issue: Steam client modifies the steam_appid.txt file incorrectly. In case of issues, verify its content is: 107410
    • Known issue: Sometimes the add-ons are loaded from the wrong installation (e.g. main game)
      • Try adding -mod=curator;kart;dlcbundle to your arma3server.exe shortcut

NOTES

  • You can find the tools package in the Steam library (switch the filter to "Tools") - "Arma 3 Tools"
  • You can find the servers in the Steam tools library - "Arma 3 Server" (based on your OS, it will download the Windows or Linux version)
    • Administrators can also use the command-line SteamCMD utility. The app ID is to be 233780.

    • Physics simulation powered by NVIDIA® PhysX™. NVIDIA® and PhysX™ are trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation and are used under license.

  • You will need to start the primary tool once to add all needed registry entries for the rest of tools.

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