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TECHREP #00018

reported by Julien Vida on January 21, 2015

FROM: Tools Commissar
TO: Arma 3 Modders
MATERIEL CATEGORY: Tools
CIRCUMSTANCES: Update 0.82 (TexView, FSMEditor, Samples)
SIZE: ~105 MB

STATUS

Due to the winter break, this update was slightly delayed, but it does bring interesting fixes and some additions as well. You will be happy to know that FSMEditor and TexView are now back in the tools suite. The latter is the same version as the one included in the BI Tools 2.5 package (except for the compiler), whereas FSMEditor has been improved. This affected mainly the User Interface and compilation levels, though it also adds every configuration file needed for Arma 3 FSMs. Please note that this pair of tools is not currently in active development (yet).

On a further note about the introduction of these 'new' tools: previously, mapFolders was creating symbolic links for them. Be aware this is no longer the case and the installer / updater will remove the symbolic references. Afterwards it may force a verification of the local files to fix potential issues due to the previous configuration. Obviously, mapFolders has been consequently updated to reflect the changes.

The issue of binarization taking a potentially infinite amount of time when using Addon Builder has been fixed. It was due to faulty inheritance of the logger, meaning that Addon Builder is now able to build large PBOs. We've also added a -silent parameter and fixed the copying of P3D files.

Arma3Tools.exe is now able to detect whether a tool is missing from the suite (future iterations will be able to detect missing files, based on a static list). It also received some adjustments to make it work more robustly. For example, the method responsible for the start of sub processes has been revised. The startup method specifically has been improved and it starts up to 6 times faster. The other side of the coin is that it's now harder to see which steps of the startup process contain some errors. It will however stop or pause on specific errors. E.g. If the directory for a tool is missing, it will stop and run a verification of the local files via Steam.

Next up are the improved tools. Publisher and Game Updater have been reworked a little to get better performance out of them. Newcomer FuturaToP (introduced in the last update) was also updated; you can now define your own source and destination directories. There were some other improvements concerning various checks and the handling of the lock file.

As we promised in our last TECHREP, modding students will find PSD sources for the Taru helicopter, in order to create new liveries. They will also find a sample of an extension there as a Visual Studio 2013 project. Extensions are advanced ways of extending the game with code written in languages such as C++ or C#. One common example of their usage is communication with databases for persistent multiplayer game modes. A free version of Visual Studio can be retrieved from this website.

On a closing note, we would like to remind you how important your feedback and remarks are for the good of our development in general. They help us to improve our product. Therefore, feel free to share your thoughts on our channels: the Feedback Tracker and the official forums. Even if we don't always reply, we read your notes carefully. Thank you for that!

CHANGELOG

  • FSMEditor
  • TexView 2
    • Added: Release of a legacy version (from BI Tools 2.5) except for the compiler, which has been upgraded
  • Addon Builder
    • Added: -silent parameter for binarize.exe in GUI
    • Changed: Logging for SteamLayer disabled by default because it's quite heavy
    • Tweaked: Better packing task creation, process logger does not inherit appenders from now on
    • Fixed: P3D copying
  • Arma3Tools.exe
    • Added: Now checks if all folders are present
    • Added: Support for FSMEditor and TexView
    • Changed: The startup checks have been improved and cleaned up
    • Changed: Fields relative to mapFolders have been disabled
    • Tweaked: Process handler
    • Tweaked: Improved startup process, it should be faster on most of the computers
    • Tweaked: Method responsible for the launch of the other tools
    • Fixed: It was starting even in case of a faulty installation
    • Fixed: The UI was incorrectly displayed with some specific resolutions
    • Removed: Detection of "third party" installations of FSMEditor and TexView (not considered third-party anymore)
  • Publisher
    • Added: Extended logging of publishing operations
    • Changed: Logging for SteamLayer disabled by default because it's quite heavy
    • Fixed: Changed casing of a "Change notes" heading to title case ("Change Notes"), to be consistent with the other headings
    • Fixed: Remove contributed items from Publisher's published items list
  • Starter
    • Changed: Support for installation / update process (patch for version 0.81.4+)
    • Tweaked: Better performance on startup (starting a tool from it can be faster on some computers)
  • FuturaToP
    • Added: Check if DeOGG is present and installed
    • Added: Full support of Source & Destination folders: FuturaToP.bat "SourceDir" "DestinationDir"
    • Changed: Lock file creation moved to a better place (it will be created as soon as futuraToP will start the operations)
    • Fixed: A false Error 6 was thrown when the destination folder was defined
  • Samples
    • Added: Basic example of an extension (DLL) (Visual Studio 2013 project)
    • Added: PSD source textures to create Taru liveries, including pods (see "Arma 3 Tools folder \Samples_F\HelicoptersDLC_Textures\")
  • GameUpdater
    • Changed: Background color of the log output text box during the update
    • Fixed: On some computers, the UI was "laggy" during the update process (increased refresh interval of the UI)
  • mapfolders
    • Fixed: The title of error messages was incorrect
    • Removed: References to FSMEditor and TexView
    • Removed: Creation of symbolic links for FSMEditor and TexView2
  • WaveToWSS
  • Steam configuration
    • Added: Experimental 'patch' because of previous usage of the FSMEditor folder
    • Changed: Incremented version to reflect the current stage (0.82)

NOTES

  • You can find the tools package in the Steam library (switch the filter to "Tools") - "Arma 3 Tools".
  • You will need to start the primary tool once to add all needed registry entries for the rest of too.
  • If, previously, you were using mapFolders, you may encounter some issues with FSMEditor. In this case, please, run "Arma 3 Tools\patches\version_0.81.4.bat".

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