I was under the impression that it was a general term for a repository of information that could be quickly and easily updated by multiple sources or contributors.

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Visit the (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number;=20&SUBMIT;=Go")Chronicles(/url) today! Be sure to read the short story ' (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/ubb/newsdisplay.cgi?action=topics &number;=20&forum;=*EV/EVO+chronicles&DaysPrune;=100&article;=000262&startpoint;=")Fiery Descent(/url)'!
(url="http://"http://www.zhouj.net/Forum")AP^3(/url)| ||(url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")Sephil Saga(/url)| ||(url="http://"http://www.aznt.com/EVN/EVNEW")EVNEW(/url)

(url="http://"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Community_Portal")http://en.wikipedia....ommunity_Portal(/url)

Wiki means the wikipedia. I've seen it used by two gaming communities so far to store tutorials, tips, and whatever else. I think it would suit the job, though I don't know exactly how it works.

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(url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/search.html")The plug-in search engine!(/url)

Just wondering...

Most of the comments I've read in this post seem to be directed at mac developers ensuring windows compatibility... what about the other way around?

I have a friend who has nova for PC (I have it for mac) and we were going to try to work on a plugin together... is the burden of conversion going to fall on me?

Thanks...

------------------

Quote

Originally posted by brindyblitz:
**Just wondering...

Most of the comments I've read in this post seem to be directed at mac developers ensuring windows compatibility... what about the other way around?

I have a friend who has nova for PC (I have it for mac) and we were going to try to work on a plugin together... is the burden of conversion going to fall on me?

Thanks...**

Zacha has touched on this. Basically, your friend should always .zip any and all files in a folder, keeping them in .rez format. You should always .bin all plug-in/data/sound/ships/titles/graphics files and put any and all files in a folder, then .zip it. If there is only one file, simply .bin it and then .zip it; have your friend just .zip the .rez file. Any readmes should be made in HTML or RTF/RTFD format.

When you release the plug-in, use the same format.

Just out of random curiosity: Why rez? Why not res, or rsc, or evn, or nov, or nva, or nrs, or ndt, or something that makes sense? Where does the z come from?

Other random things: If you use StuffIt 7.5 on Windows, you can easily solve all carriage return/linefeed problems: there is an option to do this in the cross-platform tab. You may wish to include this in the tutorial.

I'm working on a small utility to convert text files to HTML files as Zacha described. The Windows version would be a batch file (for drag-and-drop) calling a Perl2Exe'd Perl script, while the Mac version would be an AppleScript saved as a run-only application. I'll release the source of the applications with the applications themselves in case anybody's interested.

On the submit file dialog, it most certainly can use JavaScript to determine that: it's already been done! The enture dialog is created on the fly using document.write()'s. They could easily use the same way of automatically figuring out the product for determining if it is EVN or not.

Hurray for productive topics!

------------------
The programmer's code of entomology: there's always another bug.
There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who have friends.
Windows users: stop asking for plugins. (url="http://"http://www.aznt.com/EVN/EVNEW/")Make one yourself.(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")Sephil Saga Website(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/search.html")Add-ons Search Engine(/url)

(This message has been edited by orcaloverbri9 (edited 07-01-2004).)

Thanks. I have downloaded every converter possible (including the binandzip package mentioned earlier) , and am all set. It's really great that there's all this free software out there to solve all these problems...

------------------

Quote

Originally posted by brindyblitz:
**Just wondering...

Most of the comments I've read in this post seem to be directed at mac developers ensuring windows compatibility... what about the other way around?

I have a friend who has nova for PC (I have it for mac) and we were going to try to work on a plugin together... is the burden of conversion going to fall on me?

Thanks...

**

In a recent, very technical topic about the format of the data inside the resource fork, I determined that it is utterly impossible to create a binned Mac plug on a PC. It has to be done on a Mac (possibly emulated, but still something that runs the resource manager). That's why a PC guy uploading a plug either uploads something small and we don't ask him to find a Mac guy to convert it, or it's something more important but then he's likely to hang here and ask some Mac guy to convert for him.

------------------
The (url="http://"https://secure.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/store/hazel.cgi?action=serve&item;=breakdown.html&BREAKDOWN;_SKUID=1480")Ambrosia Mac CD(/url) with other registrations - 5$. Paying for (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/")EV Nova(/url) as it's such a great game - 30$.
The (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/tshirts.html")1337 EV Nova T-shirt(/url)(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum25/HTML/000003.html#ZachaPedro05-18-200409:42AM") (/url) - 22$. The (url="http://"http://w00tware.ev-nova.net/")NovaTools(/url) by wOOtWare to tinker with your Nova - FREE!
The feeling you're a Nova geek - priceless.
There are things money can't buy or that are free, for everything else, there's indeed Mastercard.

Ack! mrxak, I completely forgot to say: tell not even to think about directly using Panther's built-in zip compression on plugs. The resulting archive will work with Panther, but that's about it, really. Earlier Xes will only make it work if equipped with the latest Stuffit expander (and my experience tells me that it's not often spontaneously updated). As for Classic and Windows users, that won't work at all for them.

------------------
The (url="http://"https://secure.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/store/hazel.cgi?action=serve&item;=breakdown.html&BREAKDOWN;_SKUID=1480")Ambrosia Mac CD(/url) with other registrations - 5$. Paying for (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/")EV Nova(/url) as it's such a great game - 30$.
The (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/tshirts.html")1337 EV Nova T-shirt(/url)(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum25/HTML/000003.html#ZachaPedro05-18-200409:42AM") (/url) - 22$. The (url="http://"http://w00tware.ev-nova.net/")NovaTools(/url) by wOOtWare to tinker with your Nova - FREE!
The feeling you're a Nova geek - priceless.
There are things money can't buy or that are free, for everything else, there's indeed Mastercard.

Quote

Originally posted by Zacha Pedro:
**In a recent, very technical topic about the format of the data inside the resource fork, I determined that it is utterly impossible to create a binned Mac plug on a PC. It has to be done on a Mac (possibly emulated, but still something that runs the resource manager). That's why a PC guy uploading a plug either uploads something small and we don't ask him to find a Mac guy to convert it, or it's something more important but then he's likely to hang here and ask some Mac guy to convert for him.

**

Not entirely true... Creating a macbinary file on a pc is only a matter of knowing how both the resource fork and binary format are handled. This was actually the method I planned on using for a Nova editor for PC... It was to save all plugins as a .bin macintosh plugin file. It got a bit too complicated for the average user, seeing as they would need to run it through the converter to use their own plugin, but it is certainly not impossible.

mrxak, if you want to link to that package I set up, feel free... It would be even better if you can get the package hosted on Ambrosia servers... My EVula site may not exist forever, but as long as Ambrosia is making games, their server should still be around.

As for the "Open-Source" bible, I kinda planned to do that with my 'guide.

~ SpacePirate

------------------
Fear the SpacePirate,
He made a (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/search.html")plug-in search page(/url)...
And he'll board your ship! -mrxak
*** (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/")InfernoStudios(/url) was last updated 06 June, 2004. ***

(This message has been edited by SpacePirate (edited 07-13-2004).)

Quote

Originally posted by SpacePirate:
**Not entirely true... Creating a macbinary file on a pc is only a matter of knowing how both the resource fork and binary format are handled. This was actually the method I planned on using for a Nova editor for PC... It was to save all plugins as a .bin macintosh plugin file. It got a bit too complicated for the average user, seeing as they would need to run it through the converter to use their own plugin, but it is certainly not impossible.

mrxak, if you want to link to that package I set up, feel free... It would be even better if you can get the package hosted on Ambrosia servers... My EVula site may not exist forever, but as long as Ambrosia is making games, their server should still be around.

As for the "Open-Source" bible, I kinda planned to do that with my 'guide.

~ SpacePirate

**

Oh? I could swear there was enough undocumented things in the resource file format to make building one from scratch impossible. Are you sure the bin works on a Mac once unbinned? The converter may not make as many checks as the resource manager does.

Well, you can submit it as an utility (make sure pipeline, now in charge of Nova addons, puts it there).

Space Pirate, (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/postdisplay.cgi?forum=Forum9&topic;=005474")this(/url) may be of interest to you... But, now you're back, could you please upload the introduction I wrote? I think that's a necessary starting point as it logically introduces the concepts of plugins loaded on top of data files, resources, IDs, etc..., which are pretty mandatory to make anything else. Plus, it will make enough material for your site to begin to be useful, so people can be confident in submitting content to you (I'm doing so spontaneously as I would love to make one such guide myself, I even have the webspace, but I need someone to double-check my English and maintain everything as I'm not good at that).

------------------
The (url="http://"https://secure.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/store/hazel.cgi?action=serve&item;=breakdown.html&BREAKDOWN;_SKUID=1480")Ambrosia Mac CD(/url) with other registrations - 5$. Paying for (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/")EV Nova(/url) as it's such a great game - 30$.
The (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/tshirts.html")1337 EV Nova T-shirt(/url)(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum25/HTML/000003.html#ZachaPedro05-18-200409:42AM") (/url) - 22$. The (url="http://"http://w00tware.ev-nova.net/")NovaTools(/url) by wOOtWare to tinker with your Nova - FREE!
The feeling you're a Nova geek - priceless.
There are things money can't buy or that are free, for everything else, there's indeed Mastercard.

(This message has been edited by Zacha Pedro (edited 07-13-2004).)

Quote

Originally posted by Zacha Pedro:
**Oh? I could swear there was enough undocumented things in the resource file format to make building one from scratch impossible. Are you sure the bin works on a Mac once unbinned? The converter may not make as many checks as the resource manager does.

Well, you can submit it as an utility (make sure pipeline, now in charge of Nova addons, puts it there).

Space Pirate, this may be of interest to you... But, now you're back, could you please upload the introduction I wrote? I think that's a necessary starting point as it logically introduces the concepts of plugins loaded on top of data files, resources, IDs, etc..., which are pretty mandatory to make anything else. Plus, it will make enough material for your site to begin to be useful, so people can be confident in submitting content to you (I'm doing so spontaneously as I would love to make one such guide myself, I even have the webspace, but I need someone to double-check my English and maintain everything as I'm not good at that).

**

Yeah, the .bin format is, if I recall, simply the header telling the byte index of where the resource fork and data fork started, and afterwards, just the data fork and the resource fork as normal data. But as I said, I never actually finished this. But it should work in theory...

But yeah, I got that bookmarked, and I believe I already asked Max if I could use his portion, and I'll look over yours soon. I'll get on finishing the intro and getting you accredited as soon as I have more free time, I've been very busy at work lately, but it should be pretty much over after this week.

~ SpacePirate

------------------
Fear the SpacePirate,
He made a (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/search.html")plug-in search page(/url)...
And he'll board your ship! -mrxak
*** (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/")InfernoStudios(/url) was last updated 06 June, 2004. ***

(This message has been edited by SpacePirate (edited 07-18-2004).)

Here's one problem about Mac to PC conversion made with RezConv: my plug-in add ships which you can buy and use on mac but not on pc When you buy one, the game crashes. Unfortunately, I cannot see any fault in the ship resource (even after already changing a few things).
Are they any plug-ins where the same problem occured? If so, was it ever fixed?

------------------
Pace
(haldora)
M.D.U.

Do you have the LATEST version of resConv? I recall there was a problem with an earlier build, that has since been remedied... You can get it from (url="http://"http://ariossoftware.com/products/freeware.php")http://ariossoftware...ts/freeware.php(/url) . Download another build, and try again. If that fails, and you don't mind letting us look at the plugin, I could host it for download for a while, and we could all go over it.

~ SP

------------------
Fear the SpacePirate,
He made a (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/search.html")plug-in search page(/url)...
And he'll board your ship! -mrxak
*** (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/")InfernoStudios(/url) was last updated 06 June, 2004. ***

Yes I do have the latest version of RezConv (downloaded it 3-4 days ago in fact).

Here's a link to the download page of the plug-in (in .rez format):
(url="http://"http://www.trustclip.com/C4PM6LO4KISLKe5Q4JE3DKU6H34")Arpia for windows(/url)
If too many downloads have already been made (it's one of those free hosting websites), send me a mail at pacehaldora@hotmail.com , or ask a new link here.

And here's the link to the current topic:
(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum9/HTML/005538.html#")Arpia plug-in conversion for windows(/url)

And it's still not working, even after changing and trying a few things (like getting rid of the intf resource because it was maybe the source of the problem, which it isn't, I might add). :frown:

------------------
Pace
(haldora)
M.D.U.

That link was outdated, but I got the latest from your topic. I'll look into it.

~ SP

------------------
Fear the SpacePirate,
He made a (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/search.html")plug-in search page(/url)...
And he'll board your ship! -mrxak
*** (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/")InfernoStudios(/url) was last updated 06 June, 2004. ***

So, the problem has been found: on mac, an intf with an image size 194x768 works even though the normal size is 194x767. But that doesn't work on PC: when buying a ship with an intf of 194x768, the game crashes. Now why on earth doesn't it work with one more pixel? Does this mean the windows version is less flexible?ż?ż

------------------
Pace
(haldora)
M.D.U.

Yes. On a mac, in a DITL, an image is resized to fit into the bounds given. If the image is too small, it is either scaled up, or filled with black to make up the difference. On windows, I'd suspect that it is writing outside of a specified boundary, specifically, an "out of bounds" error. It could be fixed fairly easily, if the Contraband guys felt like doing so.

~ SpacePirate

------------------
Fear the SpacePirate,
He made a (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/search.html")plug-in search page(/url)...
And he'll board your ship! -mrxak
*** (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/")InfernoStudios(/url) was last updated 06 June, 2004. ***

Wow, this topic is pretty old now. But the same issues have been bothering me of late and as far as I can see the outcome so far has been nil. There's still no centralised information source - though there have been a couple of attempts they died out pretty quickly. Read Mes, compression, filenames, and all that of plug-ins these days are still pretty much random. And another platform problem I've been wondering about: Gamma. Is this an issue? Do PICTs from a mac plug look darker than they should on a PC? 1.0.9 is fast approaching so it's too late to request a change but I'd really like to see the death of rle8s. These are weighing plugs down - win Nova still uses the rleDs when running 8-bit, why can't mac do the same?

Well enough complaining, for starters what I suggest is a pinned topic something like "Read Me Before Uploading!" where it will outline everything you must do to ensure compatibility, what problems you might have and how to solve them. For instance, what's the file size limitation on Ambrosia's servers? What do you do if your plug exceeds it? And more importantly, mac users must bin and zip. Yes, sit and sitx are nice and easy for you and can be used on a PC once they have finally got StuffIt all setup and know what they're doing but it is not easy for newbies. How many conversion help topics have we seen on the Nova board in the past weeks? I could probably write the contents of such a topic as long as we can all agree on what it says (er, that is if Zacha doesn't want to do it).

And if you think there's too many pinned topics already then there probably is. Are the "Beta Testers" and "Unemployed" threads actually achieving anything? Sure, there's millions of sign-ups but most of them are probably no longer valid and who actually goes there for help anyway? Maybe they do, I dunno, but I don't think so.

The unemployment thread seems to me to just be for bragging...

Guy, on Oct 27 2005, 02:33 AM, said:

win Nova still uses the rleDs when running 8-bit, why can't mac do the same?View Post

I think that most macs do use the rleDs. There was documentation somewhere that the rle8s are only needed in a very specific circumstance...hang on, I'll try to find it...

Edit: To the best of my knowledge, Nova only uses the rle8s when the computer is physically incapable of running in more than 8 bit. I don't know what would happen if you set your mac to run in 8-bit and then tried to run Nova, but I can say that my Battle Arena plugin, which only has rleDs, has so far had no complaints about the missing rle8s.

This post has been edited by GutlessWonder : 27 October 2005 - 03:15 PM

Nope, just tested and it wants the rle8s whenever I switch to 256 colours. But your right, most macs do use rle8s. Seriously, how many people are actually running in 256 colours? Probably about the same number that can't view rtf files.

This post has been edited by Guy : 28 October 2005 - 10:13 PM