I believe I have reached the 2000 entry limit for FLMM. Is there any possible way to have the new 1.4 beta to handle 20000+ entries? My mod is quite large and I don't want to have to go through and convert all of the entries into a DLL.

Solurus Systems MOD

Dude.. at that point you should convert that to a DLL..

Actually, I prefer not to have to do that. I am right at 1956 entries, can you imagine how long that would take? I prefer using FLMM, it makes changing the entries so much easier than using FLED-IDS, what a pain. I would use the one that FLMM creates, but once that is done, I would no longer be able to use the ids_name or ids_info = GENxxx command. I tried it yesterday. FLMM does not set the entry numbers different if new DLLs are added to freelancer.ini. Many items of text in my mod disappeared. Even when using the empty DLL from TLR, it still did the same thing. It appears the ordering is the problem, for example...

works....
[Resources
DLL = InfoCards.dll ; Contains all infocard text resources
DLL = MiscText.dll ; Contains other bulk text resource: rumor, offer, and mission text
DLL = NameResources.dll ; Contains names of things, primarily.
DLL = EquipResources.dll ;Contains names of equipment (in string table) and infocards for equipment (in HTML resources)
DLL = OfferBribeResources.dll ; Contains random mission offers and bribes
DLL = MiscTextInfo2.dll ; Contains MP UI elements as well as other misc. text
*** flmm.dll is added here

doesn't work...
[Resources
DLL = InfoCards.dll ; Contains all infocard text resources
DLL = MiscText.dll ; Contains other bulk text resource: rumor, offer, and mission text
DLL = NameResources.dll ; Contains names of things, primarily.
DLL = EquipResources.dll ;Contains names of equipment (in string table) and infocards for equipment (in HTML resources)
DLL = OfferBribeResources.dll ; Contains random mission offers and bribes
DLL = MiscTextInfo2.dll ; Contains MP UI elements as well as other misc. text
DLL = ssm.dll ; My mod dll
*** flmm.dll is added here

If flmm.dll could be forced to go below the MiscTextInfo2.dll entry, I believe I could get it to work... Can I leave a space and it enter it correctly, or you could use the built-in 'method = "replace"' function to fix this error...

P.S. I am using 1.4 beta for these tests


Solurus Systems MOD

Edited by - Lancer_Solurus on 12/25/2005 3:01:32 PM

I should be able to up that limit; how many XML resources do you also have?

I did find a work-around after playing with the freelancer.ini file for several hours. I found out that it is possible to have more than 1 resource section in the file. I works fine for FL, FLServer and Datastorm. None of the other programs I've downloaded from here could find the new DLLs though. I also found out that VC++ is great for editing the info cards and the HTML entries can be simply put in a string resource, negating the use of HTML files in the DLL resource pool.

Here is the temporary solution to the entry limit.

[Resources
DLL = InfoCards.dll ; Contains all infocard text resources
DLL = MiscText.dll ; Contains other bulk text resource: rumor, offer, and mission text
DLL = NameResources.dll ; Contains names of things, primarily.
DLL = EquipResources.dll ;Contains names of equipment (in string table) and infocards for equipment (in HTML resources)
DLL = OfferBribeResources.dll ; Contains random mission offers and bribes
DLL = MiscTextInfo2.dll ; Contains MP UI elements as well as other misc. text
*** <-- flmm.dll is inserted here as usual

[Resources
DLL = SSM.dll ; Contains Solurus Systems MOD text

This helps but I would rather have a larger limit a real DLL has (65536 entries). I prefer using high level tools instead of the brute force method.

Thanks

P.S. I have hit the 2000 limit 3 times this past weekend (total = StrRes + XML StrRes), I expect anywhere from 7000 to 15000 entries before I am done... The MOD is still in the Alpha stage (stage 1 or 3) after 6 months of work on it. So far it has 137 systems, 99 ships, 30+ new commodites and over a hundred new pieces of equipment. About 160 megs of stuff so far,,,,

Edited by - Lancer_Solurus on 12/27/2005 3:36:00 PM

Hey man - great job. I've been out of modding for a while (school), but I was thrilled when I came back and saw this. This version of FLMM is awesome, but I've noticed something you might want to consider. The way the program currently runs, if a mod overwrites another mod, it does not elminate the original contents. I'm not sure how everyone else uses FLMM while creating mods, but I usually have a folder with all the scripts I'm going to use in it. When I'm ready to test the mod, I zip the folder, add .flmod to the end of it, and double-click on it. Let's say I have a script called myscript.xml in my mod. That file will of course be in the mods folder for FLMM with the name of my mod. If I later get sick of myscript.xml and delete it from my mod's archive, when I re-zip the archive, add the extension to it, and double-click on it, of course it warns me that this will overwrite the last version of the mod I wrote, but after it's unzip, myscript.xml is still there even though I deleted it from the archive. It might be a good idea to have FLMM delete the folder before unzipping it. Sorry if that was long-winded; I couldn't think of a more concise way to put that

Oh, yeah, and one other thing too - I love the error detection, but it might be helpful if it told you which .xml file it came from. For example, I had an error that looked like this:

Error: FLMM has determined that 'Omega Legion mod' won't properly activate.
Error: Unable to find section (1 rep):
[BaseGood
base = Ew06_01_base
in 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\data\equipment\market_misc.ini'

It might be better if at the end of that message it had said something like "from dumbscript.xml". Of course, the messages are still much better now, but that might be a nice improvement.

I have become one with my computer. It is a feeling of ecstasy...the perfect blend of logic and emotion. I have reached...Nerdvana!

Edited by - Overkill on 1/3/2006 5:31:19 PM

Hey Matthew - great program FLMM.

One thought on the XML parsing for your upcoming 1.4 release:
Has anyone created a DTD for the FLMM scripts? (For those of you that don't know what a DTD is - a DTD defines the tags that can be used in an XML document - have a look at the RSS 0.91 DTD if you're curious.)
I think I should also be able to put an XML header at the top of my script (as should be valid in all XML documents) something like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <!DOCTYPE script PUBLIC "-//FLMM//DTD 1.4 Strict//EN"> but FLMM will refuse to parse the document if I do that.

I would really like it if you got FLMM to read and get along with the XML and DOCTYPE declarations and maybe create a DTD for all the mods to reference.

I realise that you might not want to do this as it would probably just annoy everyone who writes mods now and all the mods work just fine now and it would reduce compatibility with earlier versions of FLMM, but after all - script.xml is an XML document and I believe it should work a bit more like a normal XML document.

Cheers,
Jeremy

I beleave I found a bug

Go here for details (it's towards the bottom) Note i'm useing Beta 4

Have you triedWinampif not you don't know what you missing

IGx89, any chance you could send me the source code for FLMM?

Thanks!
grover

IGX89 any chance you could remove all mods from Flmm so idiots don't try to activate them with other mods and crash servers. Just my 2 cents but Flmm should have no mods included with it

if'nn its not too late for feature requests, i'd like to request a new mod parameter to go with Exclusive called Shared, the intent being to allow three non-conflicting mod-modules to be activated together but exclusively to others;

the situation is this:
i have a core mod i've built on Arghs XML toolkit - it will be mostly compiled INI with a couple XML scripts that are serverside weapons tweaks
i have an interface mod that changes the gui colors and textures, but i want it to be optional - i suppose if theres a way to selectively install a folder with options script that will work too, although i wanted to keep the core mod lite
i have a pilot selector mod for clients and a server control mod for sysops, the server mod will use the ability to delete accounts.cfg if its available, to make using the mod simpler & thereby reduce the frequency of the 'nickname taken' error

so i imagine my scripts would be:
<header name="Freelancer Redemption" savesafe="false" exclusive="true" shared="FLR4.2">

<header name="FLR pilot selector" savesafe="true" exclusive="true" shared="FLR4.2">

<header name="FLR server configurer" savesafe="true" exclusive="true" shared="FLR4.2">

<header name="Freelancer Redemption Interface 1" savesafe="true" exclusive="true" shared="FLR4.2">

Edited by - Cold_Void on 3/28/2006 2:18:47 PM

@Matthew,
I'm looking forward to the new FLMM! I heard that it might feature the functionality to add rumors by using script. That would be really appriciated.

There is another issue that, I think, would be useful: would it be possible somehow to have FLMM put the same dll referer in two files? I don't mean a duplicate with the same contents, but the exact ids_info entry number. That would make it possible to add bases by script exclusively, without the need to add a custom dll (and thus would it make possible to create Bases and/or StarSystem addons that wouldn't necessarily conflct with other, similar scripted Bases and StarSystems, at least not with regards to the dll resources.).

This is because a base has 2 ids_info dll entries:

1. one that contains the 'outside' data: what type of planet or base it is, how much inhabitants, etc.
2. one that contains a detailed description of the base, usually with some background info about the local faction, the history of that part of Sirius etc.

Only the first of this is mentioned in the base's section in the StarSystem's ini-file:

---

[Object
nickname = Li01_01
ids_name = 196766
pos = -33270, 0, -33039
rotate = 0, -10, -10
ambient_color = 255, 0, 0
Archetype = planet_earthgrncld_4000
ids_info = 65759 <----------------
spin = 0, 0.001000, 0
atmosphere_range = 4200
burn_color = 160, 222, 245
base = Li01_01_Base
reputation = li_p_grp
visit = 1

---

The second one does not show up until after the player has visited the base. The two dll entries are tied together in data\Interface\InfocardMap.ini :

Map = 65759, 65760

To enable the game to display this second part after the player visited the base, the ids_info refer number needs to be the same in the StarSystem's ini-file and in InfocardMap.ini, otherwise the game would have no clue there even is a sceond part...

Now, it is of course possible to just write the contents of your custom bases into one dll. You will then see the entire ids_info dll if you have been near to it, instead of only after you have actually been there. That would be much of a loss, I think.

But there is more to this dual ids_info construct: in between the contents of this paired set info_cards, the game displays that base's Market info: ships for sale, commodities selling and buying, and equipment for sale. So, by using just one InfoCard entry and not using InfoCardMap.ini, you will lose that feature. Which would make the game less cool


So, that's why I wondered if there's a way to add this functionality to FLMM? It probably should be a variety of the regular GENERATEXMLRES, say GENERATEXMLSET, being followed by two xml entries instead of one (I replaced the < and > with { and } because I'm not sure the < and > will show up):

---

[Object
nickname = Li01_01
ids_name = 0; GENERATESTRRES("Planet Manhattan" )
pos = -33270, 0, -33039
rotate = 0, -10, -10
ambient_color = 255, 0, 0
Archetype = planet_earthgrncld_4000
ids_info = 0; GENERATEXMLSET("{xml}{RDL}{PUSH/}{TEXT}DIAMETER: 12,753 km.{/TEXT}{PARA/}{TEXT}MASS: 5.98 x 10e24 kg.{/TEXT}{PARA/}{TEXT}TERRAIN: Terrestrial{/TEXT}{PARA/}{TEXT}TEMPERATURE: -46°C to 43°C{/TEXT}{PARA/}{TEXT}ESCAPE VELOCITY: 11.27 km/sec{/TEXT}{PARA/}{POP/}{/RDL}{/xml},{xml}{RDL}{PUSH/}{TEXT}Founded in the year 1 AS, Manhattan was the first human colony established in the Sirius Sector. And so on... {/TEXT}{PARA/}{POP/}{/RDL}{/xml}" )
spin = 0, 0.001000, 0
atmosphere_range = 4200
burn_color = 160, 222, 245
base = Li01_01_Base
reputation = li_p_grp
visit = 1

---

Now, the GENERATEXMLSET would, apart from creating the dll entries, also have to automatically write the corresponding InfoCardMap entry:

---

[InfocardMapTable
...
...
Map = 465881, 465882

---

Would it be possible to realize this? Maybe it doesn't seem that interesting at first sight, but I think it would prove useful.





Edited by - Moonhead on 4/12/2006 3:36:37 AM

Does anyone know what the status of this project is? Has anyone had any contact with IGx89 after his last visit?

I don't know anything about programming, but if IGx89 choses (or has chosen) to quit working on the FLMM, it would be nice of him if he'd entrust the further development to someone able & willing to do it.

i'm sure he's just busy, and from what i've heard overall 1.4 beta 4 works so he's probably in no rush

i wouldn't mind seeing the project expanded to a three man team, but handing it off to someone who isn't familiar with its code would be counterproductive - if we could mash together the XML project(utf/xml converter), DirectConnect, FLMM, and make an auto-loading XML based mod manager i think we might see some more robust MP populations, as mods became less of an ordeal for the tech-impaired. a chat interface with a common room for global players could be implemented too, to allow for better communication and consensus on which servers to play on.

of course, if you want to really motivate Matt you could make a small donation or buy something on his Amazon wishlist