Reality Factory 2 IniReader Alpha 1

Post by **AndyCR** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 7:19 pm

I am releasing a public alpha test of RF2's inireader component. Don't expect much except for a window and a dialog box. Simply unzip somewhere temporary and run realityfactory.exe. If it works, replace realityfactory.ini with another one that works with RF1, then try it again. If you encounter an error, please reply with the offending realityfactory.ini attached.

NOTE: It DOES NOT parse ALL fields, it only parses those which are critical to creating the main window and the Menu and BitmapDirectory fields. As such it wont throw errors about others.

Thanks in advance. Enjoy!

Note: DO NOT write over your RF1 installation with it.

(COPY AND PASTE URL!!)

http://www.freewebs.com/andycr/Reality% ... ha%201.zip

MakerOfGames · Post by **MakerOfGames** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 4:40 am

The inireader worked fine on my pc. Both the new ini that you gave and the one from 075 worked without any errors.

Would an ini from the old physics demo count as one that works with RF1? I tried it just for the heck of it (it was still sitting on my hard drive) and got the following error.

"Fatal Error!"
Invalid driver 'd3d16' specified in 'realityfactory.ini'. If this INI worked in RF1, please post in RF2 beta topic, attaching the INI file used.

Post by **AndyCR** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 1:11 pm

Yes it would!!

Great find, thanks! Implimenting...

Edit: Implimented. I won't do a Windows build and upload it though, my idea is 5 or more bugs and they get fixed and it's re-uploaded. My hope is I don't have 5, and I don't think I will. I was rather surprised at the silence in this topic, but I think thats a good thing, since it probably means there aren't many bugs.

I'll probably have the community do this with the menu when it's done as well. After that it'll start getting into 3D stuff I don't want anyone to see and it'll probably be private alphas.

ardentcrest · Post by **ardentcrest** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 9:14 pm

sorry but "SILENCE IS GOLDEN" But I cant wait for the menu release.

keep it gomg and no errors be pn you.

Post by **AndyCR** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 9:29 pm

well, if you cant wait, you can always change GameName in rf075 to RealityFactory2 Demo and play around with the menu for a few hours, convincing yourself it's rf2...

im reimplimenting readnumberedfield from the inireader. after thats done i can finish the about 300 lines that is the menu item loading code, after thats done rf2 with error handling will be back to the same point of old, unstable rf2. at that point i can continue work on the menu pages. That;s the big secret and the reason nothings been updated much, rf2 has been partially rewritten to acommodate the new error handling system and bring the stability up above that of rf1.

MakerOfGames · Post by **MakerOfGames** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:20 pm

I tested as many ini's as I had at hand and here is the full report:
(including the ones I have already posted about above)

ini's tested:
RF2's
075
072
072a (patched version)
072a (newest version that doesnt need patched)
physics demo ini(072(a?) mod)

ini's that work:
RF2's
075
072
072a (patched version)
072a (newest version that doesnt need patched)

inis with errors:
physics demo ini(072(a?) mod)
The physics demo ini with the error is uploaded in my post from last night.

Post by **AndyCR** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:38 pm

Wow. Great job!!! Thank you so much for testing it so thouroughly!!

The problem with d3d16 is now fixed, so the physics ini works perfectly now aswell, I tested it.

FInished a utility function and the ReadNumberedField method, now onwards to the menu item loading code...

Post by **AndyCR** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:11 pm

Finished the LoadBackground method, though it's the simplest of them all by far.

it's kind of interesting, heres some quotes from the rf1 manual:

...For example:
background=0 background.bmp
background=3 rf.bmp
It is important that no extra spaces be included in the lines. There should be no space between the = and the background# and only one space between the background# and the bitmapname....

...For example:
titles=0 titles.bmp a_titles.bmp
titles=1 newtitles.bmp a_newtitles.bmp
Again, it is important that no extra spaces be included in the line....

...Again, it is important that no extra spaces be included in the line....

None of these limitations exist in RF2. Perfectly valid:

Code: Select all

titles=0 titles.bmp
titles = 0 titles.bmp
titles =0 titles.bmp
titles= 0 titles.bmp
titles = 0                                       titles.bmp

RF2 automatically removes extra spaces, but is not "dumb", ie if you have this:

Code: Select all

GameName=     -=     Chronicles     =-

It will not chop the extra spaces, because it can tell the difference between a game name and a title definition, ie what should and should not have the whitespace removed. NOTE: In the example above, it WILL chop one of the spaces off the beginning of the value, because it thinks you want to do this:

GameName = Test Game

The only way I can think of to solve this is to only remove the second space if the first space exists, ie only erase the space between = and T if there is a space between e and = in the example above... That could lead to problems if a user prefers the style:

Gamename= Gamenamehere

So I think I'll just leave it as is.

All in all, quite useful, since it allows you to do almost anything you want with ini entries as long as they follow the standard loosely.

EDIT: Wow, the method LoadTitle is already updated. On to the last, LoadButton! After that, all that remains before RF2 is back to it's former glory is to add the main menu page loading code, which is comparitively quite short.

Post by **AndyCR** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 12:02 am

LoadButton complete! That's over 400 lines of code updated today!

On to the main page loading code!

Post by **AndyCR** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 1:32 am

Main page loading code complete.

RF2 with error handling is, I believe, now back up to the same level as RF2 without.