[ilive]

Thanks to use “Ilives Reader : requests” for … requests ?


So…After 6 years without updates, the « iLive Reader » comes back.


This project is compiled under Visual 2008 and so it requires some extra dll (Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package) to be run even if you are using Windows 7. This package can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=A5C84275-3B97-4AB7-A40D-3802B2AF5FC2&displaylang=en

iLive Reader can be downloaded at http://sourceforge.net/projects/ilive-reader/
From version 1.4, the Reader uses a setup file (thanks to swamp_ig). Sources are available through SVN on sourceforge.net.

The latest version is 1.4.

Don't hesitate to report any troubles and thanks to report bugs in this thead.

Reader v1.4.
Welcome to swamp_ig as a new developer on the Reader 

• Bug fixed
  • Crash if 'reload last file' is checked
  • Crash if 'disable preview' is checked
  • Col:0,Col:1... fields coming from new_properties.xml file was not properly initialized. Incorrect labels may appear in Exemplar preview pane
  • Crash when resizing UI elements
  • Fixed filter by type in exemplar browser

• Features added or improved
  • Add TGI fields filter in filter box
  • Add Autosize columns option (if checked, columns in the entry list are autosized ; unchecked the option to speed up the list)
  • 3DS preview pane / Verts tab :
    
    • add remapping function for u,v ( u,v MODULO 1)
    • add flip x/y , x/z, y/z functions
  • Improved defaulting of options
  • Improved interaction with the file system
  • Add installer

Reader v1.3a

• Bug fixed
  • Crash if an empty dat is in plugins directory
  • Crash when clicking on Navigator button in some cases

• Features added or improved
  • Add Flip Vert. and Flip Horz. options for FSH preview files

Reader v1.3

• Bug fixed
  • Sorting doesn't work in the main list

• Features added or improved
  • Integrate UI editor

Here is the new UI preview pane


the toolbar includes following functions:
-save, undo, redo, show code, import UI, copy, paste, cut
-select, delete selected items, change level (up) the selected item, change level (down) the selected item, up the selected item , down the selected item
-align lefts, align rights, align top, align bottom, make same width, make same heigth, make same size
You can select multiple items by pressing the CTRL button and click on items

the "items" pane displays UI items in a tree
the "property" pane displays properties of the selected item. You can change values of the selected property in the pane or use the property dialog box


Reader v1.2

Thanks to use new_properties.xml instead of other xml properties files.

• Bug fixed
        
  • S3D : search FSH having the same S3D group
  • Extended filter in Exemplar analyser
  • "no ini detected" message may appear each time
  
  
  • Features added or improved
    
    • Increase number of most recently used files to 10
    • Add "export as PNG" button in img preview pane
    • Add Find/Replace functions in edit preview pane (RUL...)
    • Display inherited properties in exemplar property pane
    • When it's possible, display available values in exemplar properties pane 
    • Display available values for properties in Properties Manager
    • Add Copy icon in exemplar analyser to copy exemplars (they have to be pasted in entries list)
    • Convert feature in the Exemplar Analyser to convert exemplar to another one
    • French langage support
    • Add clipboard pane to paste properties/entries already copied in clipboard

The clipboard pane is showed when you click on the small button located in the clipboard ribbon

When you click on an entry, it is copied in the entries list
When you click on a property, it is copied in the opened property preview form

The language can be changed in the option panel.

English language uses res.dll ; french language uses resFR.dll

The convert ribbon is available in the Exemplar analyser


this feature uses new_properties.xml file and settings.ini file delivered with sc4pim. These files are available in the the reader_1.2.rar (sc4pim subdirectory) but may not be up-to-dated.



To use the convert feature, you have to select an item in the convert list, then select an exemplar and click on one of the 2 first buttons : the first one modifies the selected exemplar, the second creates a new exemplar (using data coming from the selected exemplar).
Warning : the convert feature is only to help you to modify properties of an exemplar. There is no guarantee that the exemplar is valid ( instead of SC4PIM, you can convert any exemplar even one that should not be modified !)
A  0x27812812 property may also be created. It contains the selected item of the convert list.

The TGI group allows to modify Type/Group/Instance of the selected exemplar
The Filling degree allows you to modify the filling degree property of an already converted exemplars and to recompute dependencies.  To be able to use it, the exemplar must have filling degree property and 0x27812812 property.





Reader v1.1

• Bug fixed
        
  • 'Find in file' was not able to find file with hex pattern.
  
  
  • Features added or improved
    
    • Add script support (check the script thread)
    • Add option to define the search order (current dat/simcity dat/plugins dat) when looking for entry by T/G/I
    • Copy Entry ID/Paste Entry ID use clipboard to store data (format is 0x12345678,0x123456789,0x12345679)
    • Property editor : add a 'Display as' option to display data as default/hex/integer/float
    • Add Ctrl-C (copy), Ctrl-V (paste), Ctrl-X (cut), Ctrl-Z (undo), Ctrl-Y (redo) support in LTxt pane
    • Add Alpha threshold property in S3D/Material tab

Reader v1.0.1b

the 'b' subversion fixes the link to a debug dll
the 'a' subversion fixes the 'no tab' bug

• -Fixes bugs :
  
  • new DAT was not possible
  • you can't use arrows to navigate in the main list
  • ctrl-c/ctrl-v was not working in edit preview
  • ...
• option screen is at the same place as the customize screen
• no more use ini file to store settings (data are stored under 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\iLive\Reader key')
• a new tab is no more created when you select a new entry. The entry is displayed in the first tab (preview tab). To display the entry in a new tab, you have to press the Alt key and to select to the entry.
• tabs are saved/restored when you close/open DAT file

Reader v1.0.0 Beta

What’s new on this version?

a new user interface



This UI allows more customization than the previous versions. You can reach customization screen through the first toolbar and choosing “more commands”.


This dialog box allows you to insert and remove shortcuts in the toolbar. It also allows you to set your keyboard shortcuts to quickly use internal commands.

a MDI support

MDI allows you to open multiple DAT file (and even multiple views of the same DAT file). At the moment, multiple views are not handled and should not be used. The previous version allowed opening multiple DAT but you had to switch between files. In this version, different DAT can be viewed at the same time


a tabbed view
Entries in a DAT file are opened in their respective tab.

What else?
You should use the new_properties.xml file coming from PIM-X tools. This xml file enables the extended filter of the Exemplar Analyser. This file can is located at : http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2265

How to reset my settings?
Most of UI settings are stored in the registry under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\iLive\Reader. So delete this key and everything comes back to default settings.



A special thanks for all SC4 users , modders and staff members from SC4Devotion board and Simtropolis board.

[Travis]

This is excellent news, iLive! The reader is IMO the base tool for anyone interested in modding. What this community has done since the reader's original release could not have been accomplished without it. Hats are off to you.

I'm eager to try this new version- downloading now.

[ScottFTL]

I am running the 64-bit version of Windows 7, but I still had to install the Visual C++ 2008 package.  I don't think the runtime is installed on Windows 7 by default.  Prior to that, I received the following error at startup:

Reader.exe - Ordinal Not Found
The ordinal 9340 could not be located in the dynamic link library mfc90.dll.

I just wanted to post this in case anyone else sees the same error.  The new version of Reader starts fine once the Visual C++ 2008 package is installed.

Now I'm off to play... 

EDIT:  Another quick report... I had to Run as Administrator in order to save the reader.ini file.  I have installed to \Program Files (x86)\iLive, which is a protected area under Vista and Windows 7.  I did not see a UAC prompt - the process of saving reader.ini just failed.

[Jonathan]

Very nice  , especially the MDI thing.

But While I think the ribbon is good, I would hardly ever use the DAT tab, I think that the more commonly used features is the Entries, and then second would be the Tools.
So could you allow for customization of the ribbon?

Jonathan

[ilive]

@ScottFTL : thanks for your report. I will modify the code to fully use registry instead of ini file in the next release

@Jonathan : I will try to add extra customization (at least tab order)

[Andreas]

I had a very quick look at the new version, and it has some nice features indeed. It loads SimCity_1.dat a whole lot faster, and it's easier to switch between various files. The tabs for the individual file are a nice idea, however, the labeling isn't that useful - maybe you could try to label at least the exemplar files, according to their type (lot exemplar, building exemplar, ...). Also, you misspelled it as "Examplar". But maybe there's a way to turn off this feature, or make it optional/configurable, as it could get a bit confusing with many subfiles open (if you'd click on a row of them for checking stuff, you might end up with loads of tabs that you have to close manually if you want to reduce the number of tabs to the ones you actually need)?

I agree with Jonathan that the ribbon should be configurable as well, as it is not really useful right now (really, I hate the design of this kind of interface that Microsoft invented...). You don't need half of the options in there anyway, as you'd use the right-click menu for copying or inserting files most of the time anyway (at least I do), and switching back and forth between several "ribbon tabs" is somewhat inconvenient, esp. if you only need half of the options from one tab and another half from the other one. I do love the interface that was originally introduced by Macromedia - context-sensitive toolbars that change with the type of element you're editing (i. e. providing text-formatting tools when editing text, and color pickers etc. when you edit graphical stuff). The ribbon interface tries to provide a similar approach, but I think it doesn't work as smoothly as the Macromedia approach.

Anyway, bach to the Reader itself. I can confirm what ScottFTL says, you need to install the Visual C++ redistributable even on Win7 (64 Bit), otherwise you'll get an error message when trying to start the program. Personally, I switched off UAC, as it is constantly interfering with things I am well aware of (what to do and what not in the Program Files folder etc.), so it created the reader.ini without any problem. I still got a strange error message (can't remember the content, unfortuantely) while editing the options), but it turned out to work as intended. I didn't have a chance to edit a file, so I cannot tell if that's working properly.

One other thing I noticed: Whenever you open another file, the column with the TGI etc. is opened in a default width. You can adjust that width and the program remembers it for the session, but for each new file, you get the default width again, which is very annoying, since you cannot see the important stuff (I set mine to show the TGI first, and the file size etc. only when scrolling to the right). Also, when opening exemplars and such in the tabs on the right, the view often seems to "jump" a bit, this is probably because some files need a scrollbar (I need to check this again).

When I have more time, I will have another look at the interface, there are a few things that should be changed from the old Reader as well. Esp. properties with many REPs are displayed pretty inconveniently, so you need a lot of scrolling to see everything. Also, I would like to see an option to switch between HEX and decimal view for the properties, making it easier to edit values. Another example would be the transit switch properties, which as displayed as plain text in the exemplar file view, but only as HEX values in the edit dialogue - pretty inconvenient to change those that way, esp. since you have to scroll around a lot (that's one of the reasons why SC4Tool contains a TE Editor).

And the final question for now: Is it possible to offer a multilingual UI? I'd certainly volunteer for a German translation.

[Bobbi]

Bonjour ilive,
I think Reader need to support Unicode.

When I open a ltext entry which is in Chinese, it doesn't show that characters correctly.
And the customize menu doesn't show French characters correctly either.


And the option dialog can be merged in the option dialog of ribbon menu.

[ilive]

thanks for your report...

About the ribbon, don't forget you can add commands in the toolbar ; once done, you can minimize the ribbon (there is an option in the customization screen)

[Rayden]

And the final question for now: Is it possible to offer a multilingual UI? I'd certainly volunteer for a German translation.

Bonjour ilive,
I think Reader need to support Unicode.

When I open a ltext entry which is in Chinese, it doesn't show that characters correctly.
And the customize menu doesn't show French characters correctly either.


And the option dialog can be merged in the option dialog of ribbon menu.

Me too, I would like to have a nice UI Editor on the Reader, and compatibility with other languages characters. I've tested last night and apart from what have been said, I didn't find any problems. It run at first, but I think I had the VS runtime installed previously, and no odd messages.

[ilive]

@ScottFTL : using the registry instead of ini file is done
@Bobbi : I put the option screen in the customize part. I also removed the options button, the outlook bar check box and the disabled preview button (I put them in the option screen).
@Andreas : I added code to remember the width of main list columns. so no need to change them when you open a new file or if you launch again the Reader.
About property with a lot a REP do you have an exemple (just to avoid to check all simcity properties ) ?
About tab for entries, I need to find a more intuitive way to use it...

[ScottFTL]

I did notice one annoyance when using the new version of the Reader.  In the previous version, I would open the file then scroll through the list in the left pane to find the specific one that I would like to work with.  In the new version, pressing the arrow down button does not move down the list in the left pane - rather it moves to the right pane.  The only way to move down the list is to click these items, but every click opens that particular file as a new tab in the right pane.

I'd want to hear what others think, but perhaps a highlight or single click would display the contents in the right pane, but a double click would open as a new tab.  I do like the tab feature for working with different parts of a dat file, but the default behavior makes it difficult for me to work as it is right now.

I hope my explanation makes sense.  Please let me know if I need to clarify.

[RippleJet]

About property with a lot a REP do you have an exemple (just to avoid to check all simcity properties ) ?

Any prop with a Resource Key Type 4,
eg. 0x6534284a, 0xc977c536, 0x2a590000 (Streetlight1x1x11_$$$Streetlight_2B29),
or  0x6534284a, 0xc977c536, 0x69ae0000 (Streetlight_GoldenGate_69ae0000)

Worst case would probably be the Flora property kSC4FloraPreferencesProperty, having 256 reps...

[nerdly_dood]

I'm personally quite content with version 0.93, so I'll probably upgrade to 1.x when all the bugs with 1.0.0β are worked out.

My main reason is that I know how to use 0.93 pretty well and, for the most part, it does what I need it to do.

What I'd really like to do is have a batch thing to reskin multiple automata at once, possibly saving each one with its own IID within my range (0xE44-----) so multiple instances of the same model but with different skins could be used. It would involve modifying multiple sub-files within the DAT as well as changing the sub-file IIDs due to the way the exemplars and S3D models work.

[Blue Lightning]

Mine seems to crash upon startup, after I had set the options for the first time. I have the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package. Seems like the INI is causing the problem.

EDIT: Fixed the issue, apparently it inserted 2 \ marks instead of 1 in a directory.

Also I liked the 0.93 look better, but I can handle the new one.

[gizmo28]

Hi, Im trying out this beta version, but i seem to be having a issue when try to make a new dat, when i click the new icon, it doesnt seem to do anything for me, is this feature is diabled or am I doing something wrong. In the older version it created a blank.dat in the loaded dat section, doesnt seem to do this in new version.

[dedgren]

I'm using Windows 7 (64 bit) on a solid, but nothing special HP laptop and the performance has been flawless.  The new layout takes some getting used to, but it is intuitive after using it for a bit, and I haven't yet found anything that I could do with 0.93 that I can't do just fine with the new beta.  No crashes or freezes yet- but I had a pretty hard time doing that with 0.93- maybe I'm just not pushing the envelope hard enough.

Scott (ScottFTL) does have a good point about scrolling- it does slow down an "eyeball" search to have to do all that clicking.

I'd still like to see an easy way to find, say, all the exemplars containing a particular property- for instance, RKT4.  A routine that would insert a blank (i.e. empty) LTEXT file that could be then immediately edited would be great, too.  Other than that, I just can't wait to see what coming down the pike in terms of added functionality.

An incredible job, and done so quickly.  Hat's off to you, ilive!


David

[Jonathan]

David,

] A routine that would insert a blank (i.e. empty) LTEXT file that could be then immediately edited would be great, too. 

This can already be done by using the Insert Template feature, atm only Exemplar and Cohort templates come with reader, but I "made" templates for SC4Path and LTexts, and they are attached to one of my posts on SC4D, which one I'm not sure, so that's not really useful.

[Shadow Assassin]

Very nice!

One request though: middle-clicking on a tab should close an opened tab in the document view, like what happens in many other programs. It would save a lot of effort. :p

And that request about the 'preview' is seconded... I don't want a new tab opening every time I want to check an exemplar, I'd like to just preview that if possible. Double-clicking could allow it to be edited in a new tab or something.


Alternatively...

Middle-clicking on the exemplar would open it in a new tab. Simply clicking on it would just open it in the current tab. How about that? Perhaps that's a simpler way of doing it.

[ilive]

@Shadow Assassin : I changed the way to use the tab in the DAT... by default, the Reader doesn't open a new tab when an entry is selected ; it displays the content in the first tab (the preview tab). But if you click an entry and you press Alt at the same time, it opens the entry in a new tab (I will try the middle click open/close things).
Tabs are also saved in registry ; so if you open again the same Dat file, tabs are restored.

[ScottFTL]

I've installed version 1.0.1, and I can confirm that the initial configuration works properly now.  However, I'm having another problem.

When I open a file, I see the entries but nothing appears in the preview when I highlight any particular entry.  I also tried double-clicking on an entry, but that crashed the program.  I receive the error "Application MFC Reader has stopped working."  I know that probably doesn't tell you much, so I also tracked down the error recorded in the Windows Application log:

Event 1000, Application Error
Faulting application name: Reader.exe, version: 1.0.0.1, time stamp: 0x4ba66b0c
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 6.1.7600.16385, time stamp: 0x4a5bdb3b
Exception code: 0xc015000f
Fault offset: 0x00084401
Faulting process id: 0x6c
Faulting application start time: 0x01cac9363848ccd5
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\iLive\Reader 1.0\Reader.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ntdll.dll
Report Id: e75746db-3529-11df-95b5-001d092da580

Please let me know if there is any other information I can provide to assist you with troubleshooting.