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TECHREP #00017

reported by Julien Vida on December 3, 2014

FROM: Tools Commissar
TO: Arma 3 Modders
MATERIEL CATEGORY: Tools
CIRCUMSTANCES: Version 0.80 (Addon Builder, Publisher, Game Updater, FuturaToP, Samples)
SIZE: ~77 MB

STATUS

The analysis from the last update has paid off! We were able to determine some lines of work and this update represents the first results. First of all, almost all programs and libraries have been recompiled with some trivial improvements that will help the tools to work robustly.

"Mod" has been set as the default tag for new Publisher entries. This change may look trivial at first glance, but actually, it's the entry point of a major upcoming change. Briefly, the way how files are stored on the Steam Workshop is about to change. To go deeper, Jiří Zlatohlávek posted a nice thread explaining what will happen and why we're doing it. Aside from this, we've made some adjustments to improve the ease of use of this tool (see the change log below for details).

3D artists will be happy to know that binarized models are now correctly copied by Addon Builder, regardless of your white-list option (*.P3D). Like Publisher, this tool has also received improvements, such as support for screens with higher DPI and a moved requirements check.

Game Updater was not spared in this update. The merge of the Steam manifests, which provide basic information about the installation, are now correctly handled (appManifest.acf - in the directory of your Arma 3 development installation). It now also disconnects at the end of the process. In some cases, it can help your Steam client to get back online (your Steam client will lose connection during the update process). More fixes and usage enhancements were made; the change log will tell you more.

Based on popular demand, newcomer FuturaToP will help you to prepare your work-space for Terrain Builder by unpacking all data from your Arma 3 installation to your P drive. This new tool is based on Arma3P and has been prepared in cooperation with Mikero. Please note that it requires some third-party tools to be installed. For more information, we invite you to have a look at the readme (futuraToP.txt).

Next up are new toys for modding students. First, the helicopter sample configuration was enriched with a well-commented example of the pilot camera. It should allow you to learn how to easily implement this nice feature! On the topic of Helicopters, many of you asked for access to the texture files of the Huron and the Taru to be able to create your own liveries. You'll be pleased to find Huron PSDs prepared by Senior Artist Oldřich Kříž. We'd like to also provide this for the Taru soon. Last but not least, scenario designers will be able to study a MP Support mission sample prepared by designers Václav Oliva and Jiří Wainar.

Finally, don't be surprised if a console with a white background shows up. We've changed the default layout of our batch scripts. They are larger now, with a white background and blue text (to make them more readable).

A note to WAVToWSS users from Audio Lead Ján Dušek: it converts mono and stereo files correctly but in order to use delta compression (should be 16bit-int (-d8), 8bit-int (-d4) respectively to store the sample) with a stereo sample, parameter '-stereo' is required. Until we update the interface, we invite you to use the console tool to convert such files. Also, take note that WSSDecoder does not support stereo sound files.

We hope you will enjoy this update and invite you to share your ideas, suggestions and report issues on our official channels: Feedback Tracker & the forums.

CHANGELOG

  • Addon Builder
    • Added: OK / Cancel dialog buttons to the options dialog
    • Added: An error message preventing the user from packing if the source or destination directory doesn't exist
    • Added: Authorship support for packed addons only
    • Added: Support for screens with higher DPI
    • Added: Requirements check for Visual C++ runtime
    • Changed: Requirements check moved to a more appropriate place just before main window initialization
    • Fixed: Binarized P3Ds were overwritten by P3D sources if *.P3D was present in the whitelist option
    • Fixed: Default window size
    • Fixed: Copyright mention in the assembly
    • Fixed: Addon temp folder was not created if the source path equaled the project path
    • Fixed: The message that appeared in case the Source directory was not a sub-folder of the Project directory was incorrect
  • Publisher
    • Added: "Mod" as default tag for new items (see this thread for more details)
    • Added: Requirements check for Visual C++ runtime
    • Changed: Requirements check moved to a more appropriate place just before main window initialization
    • Fixed: Changed notes still showing up after update
    • Fixed: Reading addon info only from packed addon
    • Fixed: Packed-only PBO config values reading
    • Fixed: Copyright mention in the assembly
    • Fixed: Available space in Steam Cloud storage was not counted correctly
  • Arma3Tools.exe
    • Added: New update mode from the DevP window
    • Added: Shortcut to FuturaToP
    • Changed: Icon of the license agreement window
    • Changed: Rebuilt the tab index
    • Changed: Updated dependencies
    • Fixed: DevP window position
    • Fixed: The splash screen title was not displayed in the task bar
    • Fixed: The splash screen icon was not defined
    • Fixed: The license key was incorrect for some applications
    • Fixed: The maximum value of the progress bar (splash screen) was too low
    • Fixed: Some links to the external tools were not working
  • FuturaToP
    • Added: First iteration
  • Game Updater
    • Added: Basic controls of the Steam credentials before starting the update process
    • Added: Exit code of the update process is now logged (if it's not equal to 0x0 or 0x103, it means an error occurred)
    • Added: Informative message on loss of connection to the Internet (you may have to restart the process to resume the update)
    • Added: Descriptive errors if it fails to update the game
    • Added: Logging available hard drives on startup (to keep track in case of errors)
    • Changed: New method to handle the forms display (in order to prevent exceptions on some OS)
    • Changed: Updated dependencies
    • Changed: The generation of the data file is no longer handled by Steam, in order to avoid the need to re-enter the Steam credentials after each update
    • Changed: Improved CrossThread operations
    • Changed: Improved installation process
    • Changed: Updated "Steam configuration"
    • Changed: Better handling of exceptions
    • Changed: Log level is now "INFO" (instead of "DEBUG")
    • Changed: Updated dependencies
    • Fixed: The installation was not asking for Steam credentials before the installation
    • Fixed: Various icons were missing
    • Fixed: The merge of the application manifests now works as expected (installDir\appManifest.acf)
    • Fixed: Steam logging out when the process is done
    • Fixed: Missing strings at the beginning of the update
    • Removed: Unnecessary files
  • Common Libraries
    • Changed: Better error handling
    • Changed: Optimization of some methods
  • Binarize
    • Fixed: Removed references to GameSpy
  • Steam configuration
    • Changed: Incremented version to reflect the current stage (0.80)
  • Diagnostics script
    • Added: Tree generation is now supported for Windows 10 (tech preview)
    • Added: Version displayed on startup
    • Added: Window parameters (color & size)
  • Steam dumpAccountInfo
    • Added: Support for Arma 3 Helicopters DLC
  • DevP
    • Added: New mode to perform an update of Buldozer (devp.bat -update)
    • Added: Window parameters (color & size)
  • MapDisk
    • Added: Window parameters (color & size)
  • MapFolders
    • Added: Window parameters (color & size)
  • Samples
    • Added: Example Support MP scenario
    • Added: PSD source textures to create Huron liveries (see Arma 3 Tools folder \Samples_F\HelicoptersDLC_Textures\)
    • Added: Pilot camera to sample of helicopter
    • Fixed: String badly formatted in the configuration of the Helicopter sample
    • Fixed: "No token" error in the config file of the Tank sample
    • Fixed: "No token" error in the config file of the Weapon sample
  • BankRev
    • Added: New EXE icon
    • Changed: Assembly information updated
  • cfgConvert
    • Added: New EXE icon
    • Changed: Assembly information updated
  • DSCreateKey
    • Added: New EXE icon
    • Changed: Assembly information updated
  • DSSignFile
    • Added: New EXE icon
    • Changed: Assembly information updated
  • FileBank
    • Added: New EXE icon
    • Changed: Assembly information updated
  • FontToTGA
    • Added: New EXE icon
    • Changed: Improved base code
    • Changed: Assembly information updated
  • ImageToPAA
    • Added: New EXE icon
    • Changed: Assembly information updated
  • WaveToWSS
    • Added: New EXE icon
    • Changed: Assembly information updated
  • WaveToLIP
    • Added: New EXE icon
    • Changed: Assembly information updated
  • WSSDecoder
    • Added: New EXE icon
    • Changed: Assembly information updated
  • FileAssoc
    • Added: New EXE icon
    • Changed: Assembly information updated
  • Starter
    • Changed: New build

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 tools.

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