Is it time for a new PyPRP release?

[D'Lanor]

(One detail: D'Lanor, your "multiple footstep sounds not appended conform specs" explanation feels a bit out of place on the Miscellaneous New Features page, but I wasn't sure what to do with it. Should it be left there, or removed altogether, or moved somewhere else?)

Yeah, just remove it. It was something I tried and which did not work. I kept it because the code it replaced did not do anything either (not even what it said it did).

I also vote for v.1.6 (I thought that was already decided some time ago).

[Christian Walther]

I have now committed (r426) an addition to the PyPRP Wizards along the lines of what I sketched above. It doesn't check and convert all of the points on the compatibility list, but only those that I'm more or less familiar with and that seemed useful. Developers, what do you think? Additions are welcome, e.g. if it would be considered useful to check and possibly convert the QuickScript stuff too. It has only been lightly tested. D'Lanor, perhaps you could run Prad through this and see if it converts correctly now?

[D'Lanor]

D'Lanor, perhaps you could run Prad through this and see if it converts correctly now?

Yes, this restores the textures perfectly.

Additions are welcome, e.g. if it would be considered useful to check and possibly convert the QuickScript stuff too.

QuickScript (or any AlcScript for that matter) does not convert well. PyPRP's rarely used AlcScript.Write function needs a revision first. For some reason it applies sorting which makes the output look horrible. The 0.5 to 1.x properties upgrade wizard only got away with it because there was no existing AlcScript yet.
In a past attempt to use AlcScript.Write I already had to disable sorting for pythonfilemods since the original order matters there. I am not sure though if this sorting could be removed altogether.

Another useful addition would be Nadnerb's antiShadow script, although that was related to the previous update. I will try to add it to the wizards.

I think it should also be made clear that Upgrade Book and Upgrade properties are for 0.5 to 1.x conversion.

[Christian Walther]

Another useful addition would be Nadnerb's antiShadow script, although that was related to the previous update. I will try to add it to the wizards.

Sounds useful. It removes real-time shadows from all materials, I suppose?

I think it should also be made clear that Upgrade Book and Upgrade properties are for 0.5 to 1.x conversion.

Oh yes, I agree. I wasn't sure to which version upgrade these belonged so I left them alone, but labeling them clearly seems important. Related to this - I recently discovered the Updating Ages wiki page. Is that for the 0.5 -> 1.0 transition too? That page should be equipped with version numbers too, and perhaps cross-linked with What's New in PyPRP 1.6.

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I have spent some time today investigating how to include offline-viewable wiki documentation with the release, as suggested by Lontahv earlier in this thread. I found two ways of exporting MediaWiki content, but in the end wasn't satisfied by either. There is a built-in HTML dump script in MediaWiki, but in the old version I tested it with (1.6.8), it was completely unusable as it missed both images and style sheets. I don't know if it works better in the version used by the GoW wiki (1.11.0). Then there is an external Python script named wm2html which preserves style and images, but there is no way to control what is downloaded - it just recursively makes its way through the whole wiki, also including external files like the PyPRP release ZIPs and on the other hand missing pages that are not reachable by links from the main page (as currently What's New in PyPRP 1.6). Both ways have the problem that they are made for mirroring an entire wiki, and I found that we have a lot of content in our wiki that is not directly related to PyPRP, so including all that in a PyPRP release seems to make little sense.

Instead, I opted for including only a few pages directly pertaining to this release, specifically Installing PyPRP and What's New in PyPRP 1.6 and all the new documentation linked from there. I fetched these using some hand-tweaked wget calls (will check the script somewhere into SVN) and ended up with this. Any thoughts?

The Installing PyPRP page still needs to be updated for the new installation procedure, and I need to add a description of how to use the conversion wizard scripts somewhere, but after that I think we are ready for a beta release. Or can anyone think of anything we're still missing?

[D'Lanor]

Another useful addition would be Nadnerb's antiShadow script, although that was related to the previous update. I will try to add it to the wizards.

Sounds useful. It removes real-time shadows from all materials, I suppose?

I think it should also be made clear that Upgrade Book and Upgrade properties are for 0.5 to 1.x conversion.

Oh yes, I agree. I wasn't sure to which version upgrade these belonged so I left them alone, but labeling them clearly seems important. Related to this - I recently discovered the Updating Ages wiki page. Is that for the 0.5 -> 1.0 transition too? That page should be equipped with version numbers too, and perhaps cross-linked with What's New in PyPRP 1.6.

Done and added to my contrib folder as well as the updated menus for old upgrades. Yes, the antiShadow script removes the real time object shadows which cause so much lag.

That is correct. Updating Ages is for the 0.5 to 1.x upgrade. There is also a section about lightgroups there which I think should be elsewhere in the wiki.

[Christian Walther]

Whew, we're getting somewhere!

PyPRP 1.6 beta 1 is out

I have looked up the authors of all ages released on the UAM who are registered on this forum and am going to send them a PM inviting them to beta test.

[Lontahv]

I think for this version we should offer an optional installer included in the zip.

I made one a while ago with Python using its built-in TK and it seemed to be fairly good. However, since a) it looked really quite crumby because of TK and b) you need Python which you may not have (the installer should tell you about this but not cease to work altogether), I don't think mine should be used. Also, graphical installers have their problems.

The main thing any sort of PyPRP installer should do is actively seek out the scripts directory based on existing dirs and logical places it might be. Also, it could be useful if it alerted you if it finds you don't have the needed dependencies installed.

Although you're probably imagining a graphical installer (as my PyTK one was), a batch and shell script would be easier and possibly more useful (click the thing called Install.bat under Windows and Install.sh under anything else).

I want to get a nice graphical installer set up at some point but I think what people need right now is just something simple to spit their files into the correct place.

[Christian Walther]

You have 3 weeks left. (Or about two if you want it to be beta-tested.)

[Lontahv]

You have 3 weeks left. (Or about two if you want it to be beta-tested.)

Ok. I'm really busy right now. Also, I don't have much experience with batch or shell code. If anyone is interested in making a little installer in batch code, go for it. Otherwise, it can wait until I have more time.

[Grogyan]

I don't think there is any point in me testing it, as i've been on another project which consumes my time, so I suspect all my old work will still be compatible, as they are only basic Ages.

i'll test it out in the next week or two, pretty busy right now