[REQ] SHIV Commander?

[doulos05]

I saw a post about this earlier and I was wondering if anybody had an update on this? As referenced in my Crew Rotation's thread I'm working on a program which will do realistic crew rotations. If I do this, it could conflict with what SHIV Commander does. Is anybody working on this at the moment?

If not, I would be willing to take a look at doing a SHIV Commander, but in that case I'd like to know where I can get a copy of the source for SHIII Commander for reference (since much of what I can see that SHIII Commander did was a bit beyond what I know how to do).

So, the short version is:
1) Can someone give me an update on SHIV Commander? Failing that,
2) Can someone direct me to the source code for SHIII Commander?

[skwasjer]

1) I have taken it on some time ago (although the name is different), but haven't had much time to actively work on it due to S3D development. I've worked on it on and off since, only when I had some spare time. Search for 'SH4HQ'
2) There is no source code available but I don't think you should you use it anyway if it was. SH4 works differently in many aspects.

[doulos05]

Originally Posted by skwasjer

1) I have taken it on some time ago (although the name is different), but haven't had much time to actively work on it due to S3D development. I've worked on it on and off since, only when I had some spare time. Search for 'SH4HQ'
2) There is no source code available but I don't think you should you use it anyway if it was. SH4 works differently in many aspects.

Well, for now I'm just going to concern myself with crew rotation. But, from looking through what was possible with SH3 Commander, I'd love to see that for SHIV, no matter who writes it. My programming knowledge is limited to Python and Ruby, and I think I saw that SH4HQ was going to be written in one of the .NET languages so I probably can't help too much, but if you want some help I'd be glad to try.

[skwasjer]

Hey, I'm not stopping you. Do whatever you like, and learn something new while you're at it

It will take a while before I actually release something, and it certainly won't be focused on crew related stuff at first. Anything you try now, may be useful to others, and possibly help me later as well.

[JScones]

Originally Posted by doulos05

If not, I would be willing to take a look at doing a SHIV Commander, but in that case I'd like to know where I can get a copy of the source for SHIII Commander for reference (since much of what I can see that SHIII Commander did was a bit beyond what I know how to do).

So, the short version is:
1) Can someone give me an update on SHIV Commander? Failing that,
2) Can someone direct me to the source code for SHIII Commander?

SH3Cmdr source code contains proprietary code = no public release.

Originally Posted by skwasjer

2) There is no source code available but I don't think you should you use it anyway if it was. SH4 works differently in many aspects.

Hehe, because of the way I code (dynamic), SH3Cmdr could be ported over to SH4 with a minimum of changes. Heck, the randomisation routines require *no* code changes at all; I even had them running when I had SH4 briefly installed just after its release (a sort of "proof of concept" if you will). And the file management system comes from JSGME, so is certainly game neutral. Basically SH3Cmdr consists of a "shell" class of file locations/structures (although dynamic for binary files); set those up correctly and the rest just flows.

The problem though, as skwas alludes, is not the coding itself, but the requirements analysis and planning that needs to be done up front. And using SH3Cmdr as a reference would not help with that.

[tomoose]

Port that sucker over then, LOL!!!

[skwasjer]

Originally Posted by JScones

The problem though, as skwas alludes, is not the coding itself, but the requirements analysis and planning that needs to be done up front. And using SH3Cmdr as a reference would not help with that.

Exactly, I wasn't saying you did a lousy job

[doulos05]

Originally Posted by JScones

SH3Cmdr source code contains proprietary code = no public release.

The problem though, as skwas alludes, is not the coding itself, but the requirements analysis and planning that needs to be done up front. And using SH3Cmdr as a reference would not help with that.

Yeah, I found the post where you said that right after I posted this thread. I'm sorry you had to put up with people who forgot how much they paid for SH3Cmdr. I am curious how you did the randomization of ship tonnage in particular. I know how to do randomization, I'm curious how it hooked into SH3. If this grows beyond simple crew rotation, I may ask you if you can give me the pseudo-code explanation for that portion worked (or maybe even the routines if you can release those individual routines.) I'm doing the research into the save game format right now, looks like SHIV RCR (Realistic Crew Rotations) will be doable without too much stretching for me.

One Technical question I do have is this. The game stores saved games as folders in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\SH4\data\cfg\SaveGames with such helpful foldernames as 000000 or 0000001. Does anybody know where the name that you type into the Save Game interface in the game goes? I'm working my way through each file in the folders, and right now that's my biggest hangup.

[JScones]

Originally Posted by skwasjer

Exactly, I wasn't saying you did a lousy job

Yeah, I know.

Originally Posted by doulos05

I am curious how you did the randomization of ship tonnage in particular. I know how to do randomization, I'm curious how it hooked into SH3. If this grows beyond simple crew rotation, I may ask you if you can give me the pseudo-code explanation for that portion worked (or maybe even the routines if you can release those individual routines.) I'm doing the research into the save game format right now, looks like SHIV RCR (Realistic Crew Rotations) will be doable without too much stretching for me.

I don't have SH4 installed, so I'm not 100% sure, but doesn't it include ship tonnage randomisation by default? I know SH4 includes a number of features by default that SH3Cmdr had to "add" to SH3, but I can't remember now what they all were. Another reason why one shouldn't use SH3Cmdr as a blueprint for SH4.

Originally Posted by doulos05

One Technical question I do have is this. The game stores saved games as folders in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\SH4\data\cfg\SaveGames with such helpful foldernames as 000000 or 0000001. Does anybody know where the name that you type into the Save Game interface in the game goes? I'm working my way through each file in the folders, and right now that's my biggest hangup.

Just relying on SH3 knowledge here, but I'm guessing that folder 000000 (or whatever preceision it is) relates to patrol 1, 000001 relates to patrol 2 and so on. Save games relating to each patrol would be saved in each respective folder. Just my guess though; I really have no idea.

[Sledgehammer427]

well, for me, its a pleasure to see you JScones, as a sh3 commander aficionado (i cant spell very well this time of morning)i just wanna thank you for the work you have done

but in my savegames, where i have only ONE save for each career i have and i overwrite the last save, 000000 is one career save, and 000001 is an entirely different career save, for example, i dive into my 000000 folder, and find it to be my gato campaign, i open up 000001, however, and find it to be my Sargo campaign. look in UserPlayerUnitTypes. upc or something like that...its in there

but as JScones said, some of the stuff that needed to be fixed (like, for instance, Boats, and Boat Names) in sh3 is almsot already done in sh4, you cannot select the name of the sub you command in sh4, but thats fixed easily enough.

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by JScones

I don't have SH4 installed, so I'm not 100% sure, but doesn't it include ship tonnage randomisation by default? I know SH4 includes a number of features by default that SH3Cmdr had to "add" to SH3, but I can't remember now what they all were. Another reason why one shouldn't use SH3Cmdr as a blueprint for SH4.

Yes. That info is now stored in each configuration file for each ship, such as:

Displacement=3645
DisplacementVariation=300

[doulos05]

Originally Posted by LukeFF

Yes. That info is now stored in each configuration file for each ship, such as:

Ah, well that certainly makes the job a bit easier!

well i was wondering about the changes made to the game by 1.5 ????? :hmm:

would that mean you would need one version for 1.4 and another version for 1.5 ?

[tomoose]

JSCones/Skwasjer;
I'll be overseas for the next year and I'd like to use what free time I'll get in a constructive manner (as opposed to just playing shootemups and SHIV on a laptop, LOL). To that end, I'd like to have a crack at something along the lines of SH3 Comd (a very rudimentary version obviously). I do have a programming background (albeit many years ago) so am not starting totally from scratch, but admit I'll have a steep learning curve and will be keeping things very simple for starters.

Without asking you to divulge any programming secrets, my request is;
a. what software would you suggest (i.e. someone on this thread mentioned .NET and I've also seen Delphi suggested), and
b. what specific files within the game do I need to reach into to extract data?

Any advice is appreciated.
thanks,

[skwasjer]

JScones works with Delphi, I work with .NET (C#). The language of choice doesn't really matter as the job can be done with any, and as such you should take what you know from past experiences and find a language that suits you best.

I do have some early code for this project lying around waiting for me to pick up again. It is a modular design allowing for plugins to extend the basic framework. This was my goal, produce a core application and let others and myself extend it (which obviously is easier then coding everything from scratch). I am almost done with S3D so I may consider picking this up again, because it's in an unusable state right now. Working with a couple of coders is always better than one (which was also something holding me back a bit).

As far as files is concerned, it depends on what you want to do. Alot of settings, parameters and options can be found in the cfg/upc files, both in the game directory as well as the My Documents\SH4\... directories. For other more advanced stuff you may have to modify the binary game files, but I can help with that. I have enough experience in this field by now