Writing a Pakrat replacement

Terr

Terr

Cranky Coder
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Jul 31, 2009
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megawac said:
The remove selected button does not work.
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:blink: I'll look into it.

Only packs vmt for sprites and not the vtf.
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Ah, it seems there's a particular step where it is no longer checking if the "sprite" value is actually an .spr or a .vmt, so it's treating both cases like it would .spr files, adding them without analyzing them.

Corrupted a custom model once which resulted in the game crashing on the map (something about the models bounds I think I forgot to record the exact error).
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This shouldn't really be possible. The actual packing is done by Valve's bspzip... PackBsp itself doesn't do any writing to game files except for renaming/moving things when you try to save over the same map.

Sometimes packed unnecessary files for props (i.e. an unused skin or an unused .phy file). Not a big problem as I was expecting it...
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Yeah, in 2.0.3 I realized my strategy for avoiding unused skins only worked on simple models and then failed on complex ones. (Still working on getting that feature back for 2.0.4 or 2.0.5, once I figure out more of the MDL file format.)

My understanding for the .PHY files is that you almost always need them included unless your prop has collisions set to non-solid/bounding-box. Even then, if the prop isn't also static, some run-time code could alter the collision settings back to vphysics (the default setting) which AFAIK requires the data in the PHY file.

but not the locked material
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Huh, what entity property was that specified on? 95% of the entity-related dependencies rely on the mod's FGD files.

and a sound called by point_client command
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I don't have any plans to support this. There's simply so much that can be done by console commands, and they vary by mod-to-mod. If it becomes a big issue, I might make some sort of configuration file so that people can specify a regular-expression to search client-commands with.
 
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A Boojum Snark

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
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Nov 2, 2007
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I think I've found an error with your model reader. The material directory in a QC can have a leading slash (e.g. $cdmaterials "\models\props_reactor\") and both the compiler and engine handle it properly. However when it is read by your parser the packing list ends up with a double slash (e.g. models//props_reactor/reactor_top.vmt) and then BSPZIP fails to work. So I guess you'll want to trim any leading slashes off after reading the directory from the model.
 
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Draco18s

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Sep 19, 2009
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You may also want to test your program on the swamp pack props. There are a few (the ferns and the trees) that like to pack without their textures (the trees show up entirely purple checkered, the ferns only have their stems checkered).

I would use Pakrat on my artpass map, except that there's a cyclic error that Pakrat can't handle and is unable to finish packing. Your program catches it pretty gracefully.
 
Terr

Terr

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Jul 31, 2009
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Whoah, it's art-pass time already? I'd better hustle some fixes out the door before the 25th!
 
Terr

Terr

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Jul 31, 2009
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I'm planning to release bugfix-only 2.0.4 tomorrow or Friday, possibly along with some sort of tutorial (which would include how to test things packed correctly) for art-pass contestants.

megawac said:
The remove selected button does not work. When clicked it seems to delete a random file close to the selected file, so to delete files I had to remove the data source instead.
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I was unable to reproduce this problem. Can anyone else get it to happen?

Only packs vmt for sprites and not the vtf.
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Fixed in 2.0.4.

Very small problem :rolleyes:, the dependancy scan missed files for custom control point hud materials (packed the unlocked material but not the locked material)
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I see the problem, but I might let it slide for now rather than scramble to get it in 2.0.4.

The problem is that TF2 looks at the various HUD icons on team_control_point, and silently/automatically looks for *_locked.vmt versions when you run your map.

Since there is no way for me to know a mod will do this in advance, I will need to create some sort of configurable module that handles these special cases (similar to the map-includes) and that seems like too much to squeeze in right now.

A Boojum Snark said:
I think I've found an error with your model reader.
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Fixed in 2.0.4, thanks.
 
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Draco18s

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Oh, just some "feature wishlist" things:

1) Remember where my steam directory is. I shouldn't need to browse to it every time.
2) Add multiple files at once (ctrl-click in the file browser window).
 
Beetle

Beetle

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Aug 17, 2008
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Terr, I was also having the "not being able to delete" (or randomly deleting a file that definitely wasn't selected) problem. It would work a few times, but after a few deletes it would either not delete or delete another file I didn't select - I'm not sure which. Maybe you can reproduce it if you delete a bunch of things.

Also, I used a vtf/vmt for a sprite instead of a .spr, and since it was not used anywhere else I had to manually add it since I guess when checking for sprites it doesn't think to look for vtfs also.
 
Terr

Terr

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Jul 31, 2009
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†Blade† said:
/emailed instead
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That's very weird. According to the log it couldn't find conf\map_includes.xml... (In the "conf" directory adjacent the packbsp.exe.) It is there, right? Maybe some bizarro "what is my current directory anyway" issue? :eek:hmy:

Draco18s said:
1) Remember where my steam directory is.
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So much for mac-compatibility. Aw, who am I kidding, I don't have one to test on anyway.

There should be some third-party libraries I can pull in that will let me query the windows registry.

Add multiple files at once (ctrl-click in the file browser window).
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Noted, but low-priority. I'm working under the principle that if someone needs to add a lot of files, that means I need to make it automatic instead ;)

Beetle said:
Terr, I was also having the "not being able to delete" (or randomly deleting a file that definitely wasn't selected) problem.
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Hmm. Will keep plugging at it then.

Also, I used a vtf/vmt for a sprite instead of a .spr, and since it was not used anywhere else I had to manually add it since I guess when checking for sprites it doesn't think to look for vtfs also.
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This is fixed in 2.0.4.
 
Drexer

Drexer

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Jun 23, 2009
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Terr said:
There should be some third-party libraries I can pull in that will let me query the windows registry.
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Do not forget to do this instead of just assuming that the installation is under the C folder. Please.

Apparently nowadays only 10% of developers take the care to do that properly.
 
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Draco18s

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Sep 19, 2009
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Terr said:
So much for mac-compatibility. Aw, who am I kidding, I don't have one to test on anyway.
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I don't mind having to tell it once, it could just save the path to a config file. That would work on Mac, PC, and Linux.

Drexer said:
Do not forget to do this instead of just assuming that the installation is under the C folder. Please.
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Oh god, yes. I wish I could tell Windows "please make the default installation drive drive E."
 
Drexer

Drexer

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Jun 23, 2009
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Draco18s said:
Oh god, yes. I wish I could tell Windows "please make the default installation drive drive E."
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You can do it by easily editing the registry. The problem is that many software developers instead of checking its value just assume it's drive C. Heck, the only program I installed which wasn't open source and that checked my registry install directory was Steam.
 
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Draco18s

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Sep 19, 2009
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Drexer said:
You can do it by easily editing the registry. The problem is that many software developers instead of checking its value just assume it's drive C. Heck, the only program I installed which wasn't open source and that checked my registry install directory was Steam.
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Also true.
 
Terr

Terr

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Jul 31, 2009
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Okiedoke, registry-reading mumbo-jumbo is present in 2.0.4.

While I do want some eventual mac-compatibility, in order to get there I'd need to either learn some more C or rope in someone to build some mac-compatible hllib binaries.
 
Terr

Terr

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Jul 31, 2009
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2.0.4 released.

I've posted the changelog as well, and hopefully everyone having trouble will see something on there that addresses their problem.

This release also fixes a minor logic issue where identical swamp-pack materials in the game directory would be unnecessarily packed. In the process I notice valve changed a trophy_head.mdl file, and PackBSP will complain at you if you try to "override" Valve's version of swamp pack items with your own, differing version.
 
Terr

Terr

Cranky Coder
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Jul 31, 2009
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OK, I will have some time to work on 2.0.5 coming up, and I'm trying to figure out what to prioritize among some of the big looming issues:

Ideas (some very large):
  • Ability to manually control the file search paths, so you can have PackBSP "pretend" that certain files from another spot are in the game directory. (Allows certain workflows.)
  • A ways to create mod-specific "plugins" for edge-cases like TF2's control point *_locked.vmt images.
  • New code to read PCF files to find materials/textures/sprites that particles rely on.
  • Deeper MDL parsing to determine what skins are actually "in use" for a skin family setting. (The "simple way" isn't reliable enough.)
  • Support for L4D or Alien Swarm.
  • Rewrite the app to have a graphical interface of the dependencies that you can edit manually and iteratively scan. (Rough idea.)
 
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J4CK8

J4CK8

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untitled.JPG


Nothing downloading or running...

And the debug log, incase it's of any use :)

And...no preference from me :p
 
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