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MaXKilleR
Joined: 07 Jul 2007
Posts: 771
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 Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:17 pm Post subject: GH3 Control Panel - Progress Report (Updated 18/05/2008) |
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Since I don't want to be getting anymore PMs like this:
| Code: | Hi
i just wanted to ask when you will release your GUI-tool ( the one that can do everything ;) )
just excited about it
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I'm report the current status of the GUI here.
I didn't finish the ENTIRE program just yet, but I did finish what I wanted to finish and that is the .chart converter. I tested it briefly and it loads right, but I still need to make sure my logic for some parts (star power & BPM) is correct. Tom is unavailable right now so I had to figure out a lot by myself.
Now I have good news, and then really good news. The code I wrote for the chart converter is not based on Tom's code (I don't understand some of it and Tom isn't around to explain), so unlike his code mine creates instead of edits the tutorial song. This is going to be the same way I'm going to handle the setlists. Now, The reason why I say it's good news because I believe that most of the random errors (and potentially the save file error) will be gone, since this method is more controlled.
The really good news are that not only do I think that I found a way to add tiers (to the bonus setlist as well), but I am 99% sure I found where the downloads setlist is suppose to be. This of course is not the same way Asypr will add downloads, but it is just as good if not better since I'm pretty sure I can create tiers there as well. Btw Tom knew where new tiers are suppose to be and I’m pretty sure that He knew where the downloads setlist is suppose to be, but he didn’t work on how to create them since he’s code only edits stuff with a recursive method and he didn’t code a way to create setlists or tiers.
There are some bad news as well. Until I find a fully working midi library that works with .NET, I’m stuck with the midi 2 chart conversion and importing. Check out my other thread for specs.
Now I have almost all the tools (except midi library) so all that’s left is combining it, so until it’s complete I won’t be releasing anything so please don’t message me or ask when.
This week I have a few midterms and labs so I’ll only be able to work in a good pace again during the weekend.
Thank you for the support and understanding.
Edit:
----------- FEATURES STATUS ----------
SongList Switcher : DONE
GUI : WIP (90%)
Audio Conversion : PC DONE / Console WIP (40%) HALT
Image/Texture Preview/Export/Import : WIP (70%)
Action Request / Execution Structure : WIP (80%)
Song Preview : WIP (10%) HALT
PAK un/packing : PC DONE / Console DONE
QB File 2 Tree : DONE
Chart 2 Mid.QB 2 Chart : DONE
Mid 2 Chart : DONE
Legacy Importer : WIP (90%)
Song/Tier/Setlist Import/Export : WIP (30%)
Setlist editing : WIP (95%)
Multi-Platform Support : WIP (70%) HALT
Full Speed Boost In Game Option : WIP (60%) HALT
Preboot Speed Boost Option : DONE
Mac Support : WIP (50%) HALT
--------------- WORK LOG ---------------
05-18-2008:
Now that I’ve finished the setlist/tier parsing and managing code, I don’t think that even if I spent the entire weekend coding I would have managed to have a proper beta. Unfortunately I had to buy quite a few things and my previously main hard drive acted out again. This time the motor got stuck after I had a power spike. I pretty much spent Sunday trying to get to work and when I was about to give up I just started shaking it all over the place while it was ticking and somehow it’s fully functional again >_>. I still plan to code a lot during my 11h plan ride, but I highly doubt I’ll have any time to do anything for the next week or so. I don’t see any point in rushing it because I’m already going at it at a healthy pace (in terms of quality). It’s took me longer then accepted to finish the setlist/tier code because it every time I add a new feature, I end up improving the previous ones.
You pretty much do everything with the mouse (drag/drop/double left/right click). I also made a manage tiers window (just a list box with ok and cancel buttons) for creating, deleting and reordering them.
05-13-2008:
Another two-day recap. I finished the songlist/setlist/song rebuilding code, the Song Properties code and Song Data code.
This pretty much leaves me with just the setlist/tier GUI code and then it's just coding the action request commands.
I've also optimized all the file parsers and I can see the effect when it parses a qb file instantly instead of taking a sec (most people have a weaker PC then mine so they will appreciate it). I also threaded the midi parsing to not make the Song Data window look like it's frozen (won’t need this when I switch to the new gh midi library I found). Fixed a few bugs in the chart parser and qb to chart code.
I took another shot at overcoming the audio library problem (for mac support) and I actually found everything I need :S
With a few modifications, I can decode ogg/wmv/mp3 to pcm/wav then trim/combine, all natively in C#, and resample and convert to mp3 with lame_enc.dll. Using just one dll I can live (I ran into a 6 dll based incomplete code before and I gave up). This raises the chances for a future mac version by a lot. Just so you guys know I don't like anything apple, I'm only interested in this because I prefer to do everything natively in C# to have a better control of things.
In regards to update V1.3: consider it a blessing. The nice programmers at Asypr only worked on things I have very little (to no) control over. Now that you can lock the camera and with better support for low end system, clearing the models and stage pretty much gives you the maximum boost possible.
In terms of ETA: I plan to have something for GZ and I to alpha test by Tuesday, but I'm not sure how complex the action request code will end up being. If by Sunday I'll still have none functional program, I'll probably postpone it until it's ready. I won't have time to seat in front of my laptop until the 29th of May but after that I'll have a bit more free time to at least finish a beta. I hope it doesn't come to this because I really don't want to think about what's wrong with it during my trip.
05-11-2008:
This is a weekend recap. Well it looks like someone released a C# gh library and everyone missed it -_-'. Well GZ remembered and now this makes my life a lot easier and brings back the hope for people who want to see a future mac release. It’s not that well commented but it’s very well structured (the guy knows his C#). Even though I had to wrestle with it a bit to do what I want (It only worked right once per execution), it’s still a blessing I would have been happy to receive 4 months ago (it also has a mid library which I’ll integrate into my parsers later on).
I'm almost done the Legacy Importer (not PS2 anymore because I'm planning on supporting gh2 360 as well) code. All that's left is for me to import it once and save the properties for injection. Now I really need to finish the setlist editing code and the rest will be easy to test and finish.
05-09-2008:
I finally manned up and took a better look at the arktool source code. I've managed to modify it to do exactly what I need so this frees me from writing the ark/hdr parser and allows me to support gh2 for the 360 (need to get file list from GZ) and rockband extraction for future releases. Almost done with the vgs depacking code, just combining and tagging the decoded channels is left to code.
05-08-2008:
Working on the Data creation GUI and perfecting the code. Finishing things with the song properties and tier/setlist setup. I hope xorloser grants my request for a custom ArkTool version, because I'm giving up on the fof ps2 code (hold that thought until I talk to GZ).
As I said in the last few post, I'm starting to work on rush mode since I'm leaving the country soon and I hope to have something out before then.
05-02-2008:
Looked into file extraction for PS2 Importer; ArkTool doesn't seem to work without extracting the archive to HDD so I guess I'm back to translating the FOF code (I hate python).
The Song/Tier/Setlist Properties GUI is done.
Here is a sneak peek. most of it was done a while ago but now it looks more or less complete so I'm ok with showing it to the public. (UPDATED)
05-01-2008:
Finally finished the parsing code for the Songlist and Setlists/tiers. Needs testing, but it at least compiles.
This happened a while ago, but I got to say it somewhere:
GZ and I finished the specs for the image/texture container (XEN) and save file structure. Maybe a score viewer will make it to the first release...
04-08-2008:
GZ and I are cracking down the last bit of uncontrolled data (scripts). This would allow me to bypass the save revalidation process and potentially add custom menu option in the game.
The code structure and GUI for setlists is almost done, and progression stuff (add progression to all setlists...).
Many minor fixes here and there to insure a stable run.
03-17-2008:
Rewrote the Pak and Pab operator to parse to memory instead of extracting to a folder. Added Wii and PS2 support to the Pak and Pab operator. Now that I got all the data parsed, it's finally time to start working on the setlist operator.
Note: Wii/PS2 data is not as consistent as the 360/PC version (in terms of internal tags and values), which is expected when letting a different company port your game to another platform. This limits the ability to add songs (instead of replacing), since it’s not known yet how to generate some of these tags. GZ is trying to test the game and see if the game still runs without them, but ultimately they need to be cracked...
03-11-2008:
Cleaned Mid 2 Chart code to work faster with Midi library and directly create Parsed Chart structure. Conversion takes less than a second now, but it still takes jordan 10 seconds to parse (1 min for freebird). That's as far as I can cut down time (short of creating my own midi library). Fortunately it only takes a few seconds to parse customs because they don't have extra junk (like originals) for the library to parse.
Fixed some random errors in the QB Tree. I still need to run a final test: compare each/all recompiled qb entry with original (just to make sure).
Tested my downloads setlist theory by copying the bonus setlist to it. Adding tiers, songs and career progression is a possibility to ALL tabs.
Setlist Parsing and GUI is next on my to do list.
03-10-2008:
Got Mid to Chart to work but with the (too) structured library (10-20 seconds to parse and convert jordan -_-), the old library needs to be completely rewritten to fix the problem (to the trashcan it is). Thanks again to Leff for the conversion code; I couldn't have done it as easily without your comments (even added drums and keyboard conversion).
I Might need to find a way to cut done on parsing time.
03-09-2008:
Revised Chart 2 Mid.QB 2 Chart code and fixed QB calculation formula (Tested with GH3 originals and imports in feedback).
Will try again to get the Mid to Chart to work with original GH songs (probably my final try).
03-07-2008:
Chart 2 Mid.QB 2 Chart code works (still needs more testing to find all the anomalies).
03-04-2008:
QB Tree Parser now loads and rebuilds multi-platform (PS2, Wii) files (still needs more testing to find all the anomalies).
03-01-2008:
Have to rewrite the entire QB Tree (Thank you GZ for showing me the light).
02-28-2008:
QB Tree to Parsed Chart converter (needs testing).
02-27-2008:
Parsed Chart tables to .Chart file (Tested).
02-26-2008:
Parsed Chart to QB Tree (Tested without audio sync).
02-25-2008:
.Chart file to Parsed Chart (Tested).
02-23-2008:
QB file to Parsed QB Tree (Tested).
Last edited by MaXKilleR on Mon May 19, 2008 7:44 am; edited 16 times in total |
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Raldios
Joined: 01 Jan 2007
Posts: 344
Location: Sterling Heights
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| Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:44 pm Post subject: |
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Is this GUI tool, which I just now heard about, like an all purpose GHex of sorts for GH3/PC?
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Unsteadycarrot
Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 642
Location: U.K
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:30 am Post subject: |
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what about asking talking to the magician behind GHex? as that all runs in .net and i assume that has a midi library thingymajig.
....i know thats not the technical term xD but this is definately not an area im strong in.
either way im VERY excited about all this....sounds like you ,tom and gamezelda have got just about everything covered! 
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MaXKilleR
Joined: 07 Jul 2007
Posts: 771
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 2:37 am Post subject: |
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Yes, katamakel (Creator of GHex) developed his GUI in C# as well. As much as that would help, I don't really want to bother him since he stopped developing and he had good reasons, many of which I share, for not making GHex open source.
I will PM him because I'm out of options at the moment, but I don't expect a response any time soon since his last post was exactly 3 months ago. |
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Unsteadycarrot
Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 642
Location: U.K
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:03 am Post subject: |
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well im sure theres not going to be a problem with asking him, i guess if you dont ask, you dont get. hopefully he will be more than willing to pass on certain information to you so you can tie up the loose ends.
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Forcemaster
Joined: 18 Sep 2007
Posts: 27
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:06 pm Post subject: |
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Been bothering me for quite a while now, but can you actually say MY PROGRAM instead of MY GUI? If you were to create a GUI people would have just a program with buttons & stuff that don't do nothing clicked, cause it's just the GUI, the GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE.
.... Unless GUI is an acronym from something Guitar Hero related? |
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ModuRaziel
Joined: 03 Nov 2007
Posts: 78
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Forcemaster wrote: | Been bothering me for quite a while now, but can you actually say MY PROGRAM instead of MY GUI? If you were to create a GUI people would have just a program with buttons & stuff that don't do nothing clicked, cause it's just the GUI, the GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE.
.... Unless GUI is an acronym from something Guitar Hero related? |
Technically speaking, we are calling it a GUI because the original method that was introduced to put customs into guitar hero was all done by hand and took a lot of ms-dos'ing. TomPudding's GUI is the current song replacer we use, but it is still a GUI because it is a graphical interface for the song-replacement method.
Now from what I can gather, MaxKiller has a new method for song replacement (or creation, I suppose), but it can still be considered a GUI because without it, we would be fraking around in DOS again.
And in any case, why is it important? It's MaxKiller's app. He can call it whatever he wants. You don't need to nitpick semantics. Nobody likes that. |
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Forcemaster
Joined: 18 Sep 2007
Posts: 27
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:51 pm Post subject: |
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| ModuRaziel wrote: | | Forcemaster wrote: | Been bothering me for quite a while now, but can you actually say MY PROGRAM instead of MY GUI? If you were to create a GUI people would have just a program with buttons & stuff that don't do nothing clicked, cause it's just the GUI, the GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE.
.... Unless GUI is an acronym from something Guitar Hero related? |
Technically speaking, we are calling it a GUI because the original method that was introduced to put customs into guitar hero was all done by hand and took a lot of ms-dos'ing. TomPudding's GUI is the current song replacer we use, but it is still a GUI because it is a graphical interface for the song-replacement method.
Now from what I can gather, MaxKiller has a new method for song replacement (or creation, I suppose), but it can still be considered a GUI because without it, we would be fraking around in DOS again.
And in any case, why is it important? It's MaxKiller's app. He can call it whatever he wants. You don't need to nitpick semantics. Nobody likes that. |
The GUI is only the visible part of the program, it's nothing without underlying code to power it. I could easily make a new program, put loads of buttons on there and call them "edit setlists", "import GH1/2/80's", "Backup Savegame", stuff like that, and I'd have my own GUI, but as I don't have the code (aka the heart of the program), it's useless.
So unless GUI is an acronym for something GH related, Max could be just creating a GUI with buttons that don't do shit to get us all hyped up ;) |
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elitedevx
Joined: 30 Jul 2007
Posts: 5
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MaXKilleR
Joined: 07 Jul 2007
Posts: 771
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 6:44 pm Post subject: |
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I already have a name and an acronym (Guitar Hero Three Control Panel), but the thread title wasn't big enough for both. I didn't really think much about it since it's not important at the moment.
That library I already talked about in the other thread...Too much structure = extremely slow + I can't get the meta event type, and there is no source code to edit.
I extremly doubt that someone will find a compatible midi library I didn't already try. I can't even remember how I found the other one because all the links to it seem to be dead now. |
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kdb424
Joined: 20 Aug 2007
Posts: 595
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| Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:39 am Post subject: |
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| That is fricken sweet. I wouldn't mind using a tool outside it to convert midis, but good luck. Hope it comes soon, and thanks so much! |
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freeqaz
Joined: 13 Dec 2007
Posts: 541
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| Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 7:14 am Post subject: |
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Ok, so Mr. MaXKilleR. You've kept me in suspense for several months now with your now "mythical" GUI.
Would you please release something beta-ish. If it doesn't have a few features it's OK!!! We just need something to replace Tom's aging editor now, and if we have to use something to convert the files outside of the GUI, that's fine. We have to do that with Tom's anyways. That's my 2 cents, just send out a beta, so that we can test and get some *small* feature requests in there. (Everything awesome and big you've already added) So dude, please. You're killing me here.
Talk to you later,
-Free
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Owning a business is hard work. If you need any tech advise, you can reach me at contact@nsgeek.net or check us out on the web at http://nsgeek.net . We specialize in Web Design and Computer Repair. Aloha! |
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MaXKilleR
Joined: 07 Jul 2007
Posts: 771
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| Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:10 am Post subject: |
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Like I said before, currently I have a bunch of features that are useless to anyone since they are only operable through my source...The GUI is not set-up yet. Besides, I remember what happened when tom released the editor at the beginning...people don't understand what a pre-alpha is and what's good for general use and testing (beta) so they spam all over asking for quick fixes and new features.
I prefer to take my time and release something that at least I (the programmer) feel it will be bug free or needs mass testing (by the community).
I finished the QB to Chart exporter today so it's coming along nicely. I'm going to start the setlist editing this weekend and hopefully figure out the midi problem (it's starting to piss me off...) |
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ErikSchierboom
Joined: 13 Aug 2007
Posts: 157
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| Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:46 am Post subject: |
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Good luck with your application, can't wait to see what comes of it.
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freeqaz
Joined: 13 Dec 2007
Posts: 541
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| Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:58 am Post subject: |
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| MaXKilleR wrote: | Like I said before, currently I have a bunch of features that are useless to anyone since they are only operable through my source...The GUI is not set-up yet. Besides, I remember what happened when tom released the editor at the beginning...people don't understand what a pre-alpha is and what's good for general use and testing (beta) so they spam all over asking for quick fixes and new features.
I prefer to take my time and release something that at least I (the programmer) feel it will be bug free or needs mass testing (by the community).
I finished the QB to Chart exporter today so it's coming along nicely. I'm going to start the setlist editing this weekend and hopefully figure out the midi problem (it's starting to piss me off...) |
But... But... But... :S
You're just makin' me crazy waiting. Good job on keeping us in suspense. ^-^
As for the GUI. Can we atleast have a progress log and/or release date possibly. Like on the first message just have something like:
| Code: | | 2-29-2008: Completed work on QB-to-Chart converter. |
It would just be helpful because I (and quite a few others I can think of) are fanboys that can't help our n00bish tendancies of wanting your h4xx0r GUI tool. Just a progress log, doesn't have to be that detailed or anything. Just to skim through the work log, then when another programmer or anyone wants to look back just to see, they can. 
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Owning a business is hard work. If you need any tech advise, you can reach me at contact@nsgeek.net or check us out on the web at http://nsgeek.net . We specialize in Web Design and Computer Repair. Aloha! |
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