A new release of IGA Ad Cache Editor: The “I gotta stop playing Warcraft if I expect to get any development work done” edition. (0.1.5)
What’s new in 0.1.5:
- New abstracted database connection system, “IGADatabaseConnector”. This is a part of the “IGA Common” module. This allows you to write non-WinForms interfaces using the same engine. At the moment there is a GTK# version in some development available from the igaeditor SVN repository.
- The AdPackSupport libraries are now no longer used. The AdPackImportForm and AdPackExportForm are now a part of the main module again, and the AdPack and AdPackEntry classes are now a part of IGACommon. As a result, IGACommon.dll now depends on SharpZipLib.
- Localisable stubs added.
- The “vaccum/shrink database” menu item is now no longer disabled if an unsupported appId is found.
- Mono.Data.SqliteClient is used in favour of System.Data.SQLite, so to allow for cross-platform support.
- DDSReader has undergone a major overhaul, with native .NET DDS reading. As a result, DDSReader no longer depends on DevIL or DevIL.NET. This means that the program, uncompressed, is about 1MB smaller. At the moment, the library only supports DXT1 and DXT3 compression modes. Other decompressors are to be added in future versions. Think of it as a test of “will my image work in the game”… the game doesn’t support the uncompressed images. 
- IGACommon and DDSReader now build under Mono without issues.
- DDSReader is now licensed under the LGPL (it was previously licensed under a BSD license). This is due to the code ported to C# from DevIL.
All of this can be gotten from the igaeditor website…
So, now for a quick rundown on all my development stuff, now it’s the beginning of December. It’s end-of-year assignment and test time, so it’s been rather busy.
* I’ve released DDRHelper 0.9.2. This includes automatic service class generation, which allows you to define new service types with no coding required, as well as Windows 2000 support. You can grab that from the [ddrhelper][] page. I must admit this has been ready for a while, I just needed to do some more testing, and bother to release it…
* ddrgen needs to have some final cleanups done before it’s ready for the next release. The major change is that it includes threaded scanning support, greatly reducing scan times.
* igaeditor (aka: Battlefield 2142 Ad Cache Editor) v0.1.5 is nearing completion for the Windows version. I want to run some more tests on it, and possibly implement a DXT-5 decompressor before releasing it. At the moment, it only has DXT-1 and DXT-3 DDS file support, whereas the older versions supported many more (because it was using an external decompressor). I’ve fixed the major issue of broken file import that was stopping me from releasing it earlier – there was a bug in the old version of the Mono SQLite ADO.NET provider I was using. After updating it to v1.2.1 it works nicely. There’s a really bare GTK#/Linux version at the moment, however I think I will put that on hold. The impatient may wish to [check out the source in SVN][igasvn].
[igasvn]: http://sourceforge.net/svn/?group_id=181663
[ddrhelper]: /projects/ddrgen/ddrhelper/
There’s a new release of [ddrgen][]. It includes numerous improvements:
* An all new configuration file system
* Automatic network detection on Linux
* DNS record generation is now optional
* ddrgen fixes permissions on zone and stats files automatically.
* Fixed BIND record generation
* Improved detection of Ubuntu Linux (includes many pre-release Samba versions)
* Updated generic Samba detection for versions 3.0.0 to 3.0.23
* A new XSL stylesheet for the XML stats
* Fixed a bug that caused XML parse errors while the page was updating
* Temporary files are now handled dynamically by ddrgen (and ddrgen.tmp isn’t used anymore)
The configuration file stuff is the biggest change, and the README file explains the changes.
So go and [yoink the latest version][dl113] of [ddrgen][].
[dl113]: /static/projects/ddrgen/ddrgen-1.1.3.tar.bz2
[ddrgen]: /projects/ddrgen/
I’ve had a bit of a problem with ddrgen lately. That is, with the new ddrhelper stuff there’s a need for protocol handlers to be inserted. Many games don’t do that. While GameSpy Arcade may be the closest thing to what I want it to do, it’s full of adware. So I may start another project: one that will register itself as a URL handler for all those games, and be able to call them appropriately. The URL handler should strip off the protocol cruft from the URL, and just give it a simple server+port.
This project would work in a similar way to DDRHelper: games use dynamically compiled plugins. A thin “layer” seperates the plugin from the actual win32api calls, to try and limit potential damage, and make it so the only thing that the plugin should care about is trying to locate where the game is installed to.
I had the oppertunity to do some preliminary testing of ddrgen with Windows Vista Beta 2, seeing as Microsoft made it a public beta. At the moment, there’s no need for special detection techniques to be employed, as Vista reports a lot more information about itself over NetBIOS. All versions of ddrgen should show Vista’s edition (ie: “Home Basic”, “Home Premium”, “Ultimate”, etc.) and build number. In the case of builds number, Beta 2’s build number is 5384.
Presently, x86\_64 detection of Windows XP is done by the build number only – Windows XP x86\_64 reports as having the same build number as a Windows 2003 SP1 system (3790). Windows XP x86 doesn’t report a build number at all. I haven’t downloaded the x86_64 build of Windows Vista yet, but due to it’s size it’s unlikely I will soon.
I intend to do some further work on it, where I will include the build number to beta version translation. This will also be included for any further betas or release candidates I gain access to, and get around to examining.
Do you have access to Vista or Longhorn betas? Mind doing me a favour?
I’m looking for more information about what all the Vista and Longhorn betas are numbered. I’d love to be able to detect them all. I don’t want you to send me copies of Vista or Longhorn. All you need to do is send me an email with:
- The output of
smbclient -gNL [ip address] from a computer with Samba installed, where the IP address is that of the Vista/Longhorn box. For example: smbclient -gNL 192.168.1.5. Make sure there is at least one folder shared from the Vista/Longhorn system.
- The build number, version number, edition (eg: Starter, Home Premium, Ultimate) and architecture (x86 or x86_64/32-bit or 64-bit) of the installation.
- Any additional information about the build (was it a public beta, or is it a leaked or private beta version?)
Thanks!