New version coming soon?

[diafero]

I just read the thread over there, but since I don't have a GoMa board account (and don't want to register yet another one), I'll reply here to what CWalter said:

In case there's anyone like me for whom the Windows-only-ness of tools like PlasmaShop is a major nuisance, here's the script I'm using to regenerate the checksum file (using facilities from PyPRP). I should have a quickly-and-dirtily ported Python PAKker around somewhere too, if anyone wants it, but haven't used it for Pahts so far.

There is an even easier way to prevent the sum file from getting invalid: Just create a sum file which references only the BultIn file from Pahts (or any other file which rarely changes). All the other files don't have to be mentioned in there, so that changing them doesn't make the sum file invalid, so you don't have to constantly update it anymore. I could upload it here if the board wouldn't give an error while uploading zip files...
Oh, and btw, PlasmaShop works great in wine, I use it all day...

[SeanMc74]

Can you send the file to me in a PM or add a link to it in the Ahra Pahts wiki?

[diafero]

I uploaded it to my webspace at http://diafero.bplaced.net/pahts/Pahts.sum
Now I'm not completely sure that the BultIn page is actually never touched, but if I understood things correctly, it shouldn't. If it does, the sum file could as well point to some completely unrelated file like GUI_District_AdvancedGameSettingsDialog.prp or whatever.

[Christian Walther]

There is an even easier way to prevent the sum file from getting invalid: Just create a sum file which references only the BultIn file from Pahts (or any other file which rarely changes).

Clever idea, I didn't know that that would work. Thanks for the suggestion!

I wonder, if I did that with my own age, would that eliminate the need to relaunch Uru every time I make a (non-trivial) change to the age? (Probably not, but I guess it's worth a try.)

Oh, and btw, PlasmaShop works great in wine, I use it all day...

I admit I've never even tried it.

[diafero]

I wonder, if I did that with my own age, would that eliminate the need to relaunch Uru every time I make a (non-trivial) change to the age? (Probably not, but I guess it's worth a try.)

I would not expect that to work, Uru loads the dictionary (or however you want to call the list of objects which are present in a page) on startup, so it won't reload that if you relink. It will reload the objects themselves though, so I would expect the results to be... crashy On the other hand, trying out can't harm if you backed up everything

[Paradox]

If you edit an Age and update the sum, Uru will pick up the changes upon the next link to the Age. This will not work for global files (since they are loaded into memory at startup), will not affect Python (again, loaded at startup), and probably won't affect SDL files.

Removing pages from the sum file makes life a whole lot easier You will want to make sure that you distribute the Age with a full, valid sum file though, since that is one method of verifying that the content downloaded properly.

[D'Lanor]

What most people do not know is that user ages do not need sum files, since they are not ages that the game "knows about". You can safely delete a user age sum file and the age still works fine. If there is a mismatching sum file the game complains but a missing sum file is no problem.

Only ages installed through Uru's own installer need sum files (or if online installed through the patcher & dataserver).

[Paradox]

What most people do not know is that user ages do not need sum files, since they are not ages that the game "knows about". You can safely delete a user age sum file and the age still works fine. If there is a mismatching sum file the game complains but a missing sum file is no problem.

Only ages installed through Uru's own installer need sum files (or if online installed through the patcher & dataserver).

mmm, I'm pretty sure deleting a sum file will causes errors. Uru always tries to load the .sum file when it loads the .age file. A sum file with no files listed is fine, but a missing one should cause Uru to crash.

[D'Lanor]

The evidence is empirical. I have no idea why this works. I discovered this method when there was a bug in one of the old PyPRP versions that caused it to create corrupted sum files. I still wanted to test my age and it worked this way. I do not know where the "known" Cyan ages and files are stored that do require the sum file though.

[ddb174]

If someone does do another release of Ahra Pahts, please make sure you're including the most recent things: we had to hand-merge some stuff, so that the one on UAM is the current status of the project, so far as is known. I.e. s119BookGui.pyc had to be renamed as s119BookGUI.pyc and shell 232 had to be merged in. (there's an alternative version without it, since some people have a problem with it, but the default should include it.)

If you're uncertain as to what the current status is, please make sure you become certain beforehand. Just let me know if you need some help figuring out if you've got it or not; I don't mind.

(I also won't post over at GoMa; it's too domineering for my tastes.)