New Race Viewer/Profiler (ESP) Utility Released

[ColdSteel]

I've released ESP v.1.0, which is a race profile viewer that generates HTML pages over in the mod forum: http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...&f=50&t=000002
-CS

quote:

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I haven't really done anything serious with SE4 modding since Raynor and I built the component viewer that's on the Gold CD and so I thought I'd build a similar utility that allows viewing of all SE4 races on a PC through generated HTML pages.

This was my "learn Python, learn Tkinter, learn HTMLgen, learn installer" project and I've had a bLast doing it all. Python is an awesome tool and (as open source) completely free. So are the other Python tools mentioned above.

So, here is the initial ESP 1.0 release. I'd appreciate any comments.
1019915131.zip
Download file size is 1.6 MB

-CS

Contents of the readme.txt follow:

SPACE EMPIRES IV GOLD EMPIRE SPECIES PROFILER
ESP VERSION 1.0

ESP is a small utility that builds HTML pages from the SE4 text header files
in the race sub directories. The resulting HTML page generated by ESP
provide an overview of each race, their characteristics and their race styles.

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

1. Create a new directory somewhere on your SE4 install hard drive.
2. Extract the 3 files to the new directory.
3. That's it.

** PLEASE NOTE: **
** This utility creates a index HTML page called "main.html" in your **
** ESP directory which allows access to all the other HTML generated **

The first time you start ESP, it searches the hard drive for your SE4 directory
so it may be a little slow to start up on the initial load. It saves the path
in a file and subsequent loads should be much quicker.

If ESP cannot find a SE4 directory or you wish to set a path to another drive
or folder where you have SE4 Race file directories, use the Change Path command
and select any file in the directory path you want the search to start from.

When the Generate HTML command button is selected, ESP will search for all
the SE4 Race directories on the path and generate HTML pages for each race it
finds. It will also generate an Index page containing a list of all the races
it generated HTML pages.

Links from the "main.html' index page will allow you to view Race's Empire
Profile pages and Race Style Pages.

I hope you find ESP useful and enjoyable.

For comments, suggestions for improvements or bug reports please contact:
[email protected]"

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[ 27 April 2002: Message edited by: ColdSteel ]

[ 27 April 2002: Message edited by: ColdSteel ]

[ 27 April 2002: Message edited by: ColdSteel ]

[ColdSteel]

Also, Here are some small GIF images of some sample HTML pages generated by ESP.exe:
1019943437.gif
1019943578.gif
1019943622.gif

-CS

[Andr�s]

Did you see the javascript/html viewer I had made? IIRC it was included in the gold CD.

[ColdSteel]

Andres,
No, I confess I didn't.


I've just looked at yours and fortunately there appear to be some differences. My utility builds race files for races anywhere on a PC, even in mod folders.

It also builds a pages of race information from the AI_General.txt files as well as race style viewer pages. As an .exe it can be run from any directory.

I'll try to take mine in a somewhat different direction from yours in any future Versions and apologize sincerely if I stepped on any toes.

-CS

[ 28 April 2002: Message edited by: ColdSteel ]

[Andr�s]

On the contrary, I made that viewer because I didn’t find an existing one, more or less the same reason you describe, not to get the credit (because of course I cannot get any money )
I think we should combine efforts and ideas to make the best viewer possible.
If you like any of the features or layout of my viewer, feel free to copy them.
BTW it’s some time since I wrote that viewer and I’m relatively satisfied with it and I’m not planning to make any update soon.

I recall another .exe race style viewer.
Instead of using html, it displayed everything in it's own windows.
A nice feature it had is creating animated explosions and shields.
I don't have a copy now and don't remember the author. Anybody knows where to find it?

BTW I have a bug report.
It doesn't seem to be working ok in my system, it doesn't seem to be creating a main.html although it does create all races profiles (or at least many, I didn't verify if some are missing, I see 3.36MB in 162 html files)
I imagine that that file is generated at the end and that some error occurs before, although I don’t see any error message.
It's probably related to the many race styles and many mods that include extra races, as well as AI only races that use pics under the main races dir.


Brief comparison and ideas:

Some features in my viewer

*It looks faster because it only generates one race at a time, just before displaying it, and take a minimal space since race file is overwritten every time you change race Processing all races at once takes some time.

*Show all stuff in a single page, but I’m not sure if this is better than your two pages system

*List all ships in a logical easy to understand order, also useful to detect missing ship sizes. It would be nice to include neo-standard extra ship sizes (if any).

*Place Mini Pic next to the Portrait Pic

*Hide bitmap file names as part of a whole idea of making it easier to read. So you just see the word "Frigate" beside the Racename_Portrait_Frigate.bmp and the Racename_Mini_Frigate.bmp pics

*Verify the existence and list all existing AI files with links to see them

*Verify the existence and add a link to DesignName file

*Main title of the page is Empire Name + Empire Type (from AI_General), instead of DirName/FileName + "Empire"
("Amon'krie Continuum" sounds much better than "Amonkrie Empire")

*Lists any extra file in the race dir with the appropriate link. In most cases it results to be a readme (just click in the link and read) file or a .emp or a DesignName file that should be moved or copied to the appropriate directory.

Things I like in your viewer, and that mine can’t currently do

*Lists all races, including those in mods and neutrals


Some ideas I’d like to see in a future viewer
(I’m sure some people here will make more suggestions of extra features)

*At some point I had made animated gif previews for explosion and shield pics, but I got tired. How hard would it be to automate creation of animated gifs?

*Replace missing pics with pics from the generic (neutral) shipset. ()

*Your viewer displays racial traits and some extra info mine doesn’t. However it almost looks like reading the AI_general.txt
It would be nice to re arrange it to make it more readable.
Perhaps to look something like this:

Opt 1
Characteristics
1 – Aggressiveness – 110
Advanced Traits
1 - Organic Manipulation

Opt 2
Characteristics
1 – Aggressiveness - 120
2 - Defensiveness - 110
Advanced Traits
Organic Manipulation

Opt 3
ect.

[ColdSteel]

Andres,

Thanks for the nice feedback and ideas.

I've had some very similar ideas to yours (as has Raynor who had some suggestions for me too) but since I was teaching myself how to code in Python and generate the HTML code with the HTLMgen module from scratch, I needed to learn how to crawl before I could walk (so to speak).

Because of the Python learning curve I've kept things fairly simple to start out but do plan to add some more sophisticated stuff in the next Version now that I've pretty much learned the language.

One idea I had that I thought would be really, really cool would be to take each race, and produce HTML pages for each of their ship designs, turning all the cryptic weapon families and other numbers into graphics and text by X-referencing with the components files. That way you could see fairly easily (and graphically) what technologies the race's attack ships, etc. would research and use.

I'll look into the bug you reported, thanks. Yes, the main.html page is generated Last as you surmised. I agree something happened before it got there. I'll need to add in some more error checking and display and maybe an error log file to report them out. That's a lot of files. What was the Last race and file it processed correctly? That might be a good clue.

I'll also look at the output reformat you suggest since I was thinking something similar.

Thanks again.

-CS

[ 29 April 2002: Message edited by: ColdSteel ]

[Andr�s]

The problem does not appear if I remove the DevnullModGold (Last Version) dir.
Check if the program works ok if you install that mod.
Display shows "Generating HTML for Zorian". That seems to be Last race I have currently installed under the main Pictures\Races dir (at least the Last if sorted). Both HTML files for that race seem to be generated ok.
I'll have to confirm this but I suspect it can be related to the fact that I have installed only in that mod.

[ColdSteel]

quote:

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The problem does not appear if I remove the DevnullModGold (Last Version) dir.
Check if the program works ok if you install that mod.
Display shows "Generating HTML for Zorian".

---

Andr�s,

I've confirmed that it does work with the Version of DevnullModGold that's on the CD so I think you're right about the Zorian since they aren't in that Version. They may have an odd number of race files or something that could hose a subscript or something.

I have a new ESP Version now with more error checking in that pops a window with the exception message and the line of source code where it hairballs. Should be able to find it now.

I'll try it with the newer mod to see. Thanks again for the help on this.

-CS

[ColdSteel]

Andr�s,

On second thought...

After installing the most recent DevNullModGold, I don't see any Zorian race in there at all. They must be from some other mod?

Does anyone here know which mod the Zorians belong to?

Thanks.

-CS

[Andr�s]

I don't think that particular race has anything to do. I don't have it installed under any mod, just in a new dir under the main races dir. It seems to process the mods first and the main races dirs later.

If the viewer works ok for you with the DevNullModGold, it can be something only on my system.
Have you uploaded the new esp Version?