Patch Repatcher

WARNING! If you've used the Save As FS3 options before 12/16/2004, let me know, I've changed the format, rendering the old version unreadable.

Working on making a better help file, I'm not that good at writing complex explainations of what does what, especially when it's such a simple (ha!) program

This program developed from my noticing that the new defaults turned a lot of old patches, err, not useless, but caused them to become larger, or bigger, because the new shapes don't match the old shapes, for example the new portal for Vinca. Because it's different, the old Vinca is now considered a "patched" item. So as a result, a lot of the old patches on the patch archive will add to the size of your dream. If you're actually interesting in the dirty details of what's now probably considered a patched shape from the old patch files, visit here (link removed).

Very nasty set of tables to which if you take them at their word, calls the OLD Item.fsh as having 164 shapes which have possibly been patched, which means that even if you only have one pillow patched in the file, another 164 shapes may go with it as part of the dream.

For example, I got an ITEM patch with 30 changed shapes in it. Now, with the update, 66 shapes are considered patched! Though, according to my program, it should be 174, I'm not sure why the other 108 were NOT uploaded, Furcaida Mystery. Then there's the ITEM2 I got, 70 patched shapes but 88 are being uploaded.

But I complain anyway, that's still 36 & 18 shapes too many in one dream, haven't tested many of my other patches, I can already guess that I'm going to end up with bigger dream uploads.

This program contains a dataset of the values derived from the old patch files, and does a pretty fair job of filtering out everything which should not be included. There is the possibility that a RECOLORED image will not be included, especially if the position and size and such is the same, but what should be different is the checksum, (which isn't shown in the list), but for some reason it checksum's the same as default.

The Things in the Toolbar

Icon	Status	Command	Description
	Disabled	Create a new Patch File	Create a new patch file. Currently disabled until I finish everything which makes this program work the way I want it to.
	Enabled mostly.	Open an existing Patch File	Open an existing file, currently only opens FSH files with a DEFAULT name, does not open ITEME or FLOORE files yet either, again, see above. Does open FS3 files of any name however.
	Works	Save the current File	Saves a file opened in the program, allows you to save, well, create a copy of the patch, either as it is named, or as an "archive" fsh file with a number addition to the name in the form of NAME-YYMMDD-hhmmss.fsh Also saves as an FS3 file, that's a FS2 extended to include the FBJ file inside of it. When I get the format finalized, the file will be able to hold ALL the patches for a dream in a single file, and the program will recreate the patches for use in a dream. Currently only saves a single patch per FS3.
	Disabled	View the selected image.	Will open a window containing the image, yes, this is a priority part of this program, will support several windows, dunno how many, will have to experiment with that. Will also be activatable by double clicking on the shape's number in the list.
	Disabled	Compare selected with default	Will open a dual window, if the shape's already opened for viewing, will convert that window into a dual viewing window. Will also contain both sets properties for the shape.
	Disabled	Open Dynamic Repatcher	This is on the project board, but finally got an idea to where this will open a dual image list and allow you to click and drag stuff in the patch file around to where you want the stuff to be. In new mode, you will be able to drag stuff from the source patch into the new patch file. Will probably provide some type of thing where you can adjust the properties of the items you're including into the patch.
	Works	Include / Exclude	To include or exclude a shape from a patch, can also be achieved by double clicking on the shape's Include?/Replaces cell.
	Works	RePatch the Patch	You're given several options before the program does it's thing, like making a backup of your file, either as one of my FS3's, or as an archive named FSH. Program then takes selected shapes from OLD file and pastes them into a NEW file, using the shapes to fill in the rest of the file from the matching file in the default path.
	Works	Options!	This shows and hides that ugly structure which is just below the toolbar. Very important feature for when I make the program do Dynamic Patching. Going to need that room, ...

The Menu Stuff

Menu stuff is like the toolbar stuff, except there's a non-working help and an about.

I Lie!

New Menu Features, with bugs which I will get around to correcting

• Show/Hide Differences
  • Squashes the List and shows only shapes which will be "patched" or "archived"
• Show/Hide File Locations
  • Show or hide a column which contains the actual file location on the disk, very geeky stuff, may go away in final version, need it for debugging right now, but I figured ya'll get a kick out of it.
• Show/Hide Difference Count
  • Resets the "Shape #" to reflect the actual count of patched elements.

The above menu's are not quite right, nor finalized. For example, toggling the count triggers the hide difference as well, and when you load a fresh file, it should clear the checks, and so on.

Ok, done, next!

Stuff in the upper part of the Window
(Modified This!)

This can now be hidden from view with the Options Toggle.

Top to bottom

• Path to Default Program Patch Files

  • I pick up that value from where Furcadia puts it, this SHOULD be the location of your default patch files, if not, I provide a Browse function so you can locate it, and a Reset which retrieves the value from Furcadia. Currently DOES NOT remember previous state, will always return the what it see's as the Furcadia Default Patch Path.
     

• Reference File

  • "Old Furcadia, Gryffe Edition" is set as default, later on I WILL provide a means for changing the default to "New Furcadia, Squirrel Edition", this is one of the two DAT files which accompanied the program, if the selection is BLANK then the program didn't see the datafiles in the folder it's working from.
     

• Patch File To Be Edited

  • Currently the program does not support pasting a name into the edit box, so you have to Browse for the patch file you want to edit, and currently the program only supports opening and mangling of default named files from the list in the reference file, this means you cannot open a wall_3.fsh while on the Gryffe Edition setting.

The List in the lower Part

Gosh, if you don't realize what the headers of the columns mean,

Anyway, this shows you the list of shapes contained in a patch once you open it up, if you think that there's too much information being presented, ok, I can understand, but the most important part to look at is the Include? column, that indicates which shapes will be included in the RePatch. The program scans the file it opens, and compares the numbers it finds with what is contained in the reference file, if the numbers don't match someplace, it indicates it in this column:

• + in the first position indicates that the shape will be included in the RePatch, this can be toggled by double clicking on the cell. If there's difference indicators, this will change to a -, otherwise it will turn blank
• S means the program found a size difference
• O means the offsets are different
• F means the FBJ is different
• C means that there was a checksum difference.

The checksum is made by adding all the pixels together into a monster number, it's only about a 95% chance of reliability in doing this, the perfect means would be to do a pixel by pixel comparision of each image which does not fail one of the first three checks. It would also be a LONG process to run. And you would need a copy of the old patch files for the program to compare with.

Save File As Options:

The actual dialog does not look quite like this. Certain parts will "gray out" depending on the various selections made by you.
These really do not "save" the file in the FSH settings, what it does it make a copy of the file. Except in the case of FS3, FS3 does create a new file.

• Save as FSH (as is)

  • Brings up the save as dialog and allows you to either save the file as it is named, or with a new name which you give the dialog in the File name field of the dialog.
  • Allows you to browse and put the file in a different folder.
  • Prompts about overwriting.
  • If you check the box labeled "In folder: ...\backup before selecting this option, it will start your trip in that folder, otherwise you start in your patch folder.
  • No need to give the name the proper extension, dialog will do it for you.
     

• Backup as FSH named:

  • No dialog, and if you accept the default name, you will never see it complain about overwriting a previous file, the name is unique build from the current date and time.
  • Will always save into the folder named backup, if the folder doesn't exist, it will create it.
  • You can edit the name given and that will be the name of your file, no need to give it the extension of "FSH", it will add it for you.
     

• Save as FS3 Archive (Single)

  • No dialog, (yet), will prompt about overwriting.
  • Can opt to use the unique date/time name from the Backup selection.
  • Can opt to put the file in the folder named backup, again, if the folder doesn't exist, it will create it for you.
  • Can edit either name, whichever you choose, and program will give it that name.
     

• Ok / Cancel

  • Gee, I gotta explain them too?

RePatcher Options:

Not many options here, but important to consider what you're doing here, for if you allow the program "do it's thing", I cannot guarantee risk free operation 100% of the time, a frog in Bolivia may burp and hang your computer midway through the operation. Hell of a frog BTW.

• Backup will always be placed in the following folder: ...\backup is always going to be it's name, program will create the folder if needed.
   

• Named: / As Is

  • Like the above Save As dialog, this will create a unique filename for use in creating the archive, or you can just tell the dialog to use the default name of the patch file.
  • If you type in your own name, program will use that instead.
  • Does prompt about overwriting if you decide to use the As Is option and the file exists, or your name which you entered exists already.
     

• As FSH / As FS3

  • Offers a choice of formats to save the file in, FSH, which will contain all the shapes in the file, of FS3 which is only the shapes which will be included in the RePatch.
     

• Do It! / Cancel / Do It Without Backing Up

  • Cancel, of course, aborts the operation.
  • Do It does the backing up and overwrites the currently opened patch file in the patch folder, taking the non-patched elements from the file of the same name in default.
  • Do It Without Backing Up just does the RePatch without making a backup first.

What is this FS3? details to come.

Ok now, I'm going to start explaining this dialog now. This is what comes up from the Save button when you have a FS3 Archive file open. There's a lot involved here, may even transfer something of this over to the Save File As options once I get further down the road. There's actually two sets of radio buttons in this, so:

• Group A: FileType
  • Make ITEME from Archive:
    Will create an ITEME patch file from the archive. Hey, what an option, how often do you want to use a patch file, but not as the named patch file? This will also be built into the RePatcher Options when I get around to it for this is a cool idea. Also will not make an ITEME which exceeds Furcadia's limits. Will also have the options available for making a LOCALSPECIES patch and a FLOORE patch. COOL!
    • The checkbox Add To Existing will add onto an existing ITEME / FLOORE if one exists, that way you can build an ITEME from an assortment of shapes. I really don't see a reason to have this enabled for when you decide to create a LOCAL, I mean, huh?
  • Add to a MultiPatch Archive:
    Is part of the process where you can take several patch files and build them into a single patch archive file, for the purpose of transporting a dream from one computer to another. More on this as it develops
  • Make a copy named:
    As the title implies, will make a copy of the FS3 Archive. You can name it whatever you want, the internal name of the patch is part of the archive headers, so if the internal name is ITEM2, and you make a copy called MyPatch37, when you open MyPatch37, the internal name will still be ITEM2.
• Group B: Save Where
  • In Folder:
    Is the folder where the archive was opened from.
  • Below This:
    Is the folder which is just "below" the folder which the archive was opened from.
    Example:
    If the archive was opened in a folder called F:\Furcadia\dreams\artwork3\patch\backup, then the "Below This" folder is F:\Furcadia\dreams\artwork3\patch.
  • Browse For Destination:
    Allows you to browse for the folder where you want the operation to put your file, whether it's an ITEME or a copy of the archive. The browse action gets the name of the file you want to create and tells you if there's one by that name which exists in the selected folder. Canceling this causes the previous settings to be restored, which, by the way, includes the Browsed for folder if you've already run through it once before.