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POTUS is offline POTUS
Prince
How could I possibly not have a Mozambican flag, I mean, what other country has an AK-47 on their flag?
Jul 2003
time: 21:31
  Old Post 31-10-2003 05:25
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Mac Conversion Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Does anyone know how to convert *.scn, *net, or *.sav, files so that they work on a mac?

Justinianum is offline Justinianum
Chieftain
Milan
Apr 2003
time: 06:31
  Old Post 31-10-2003 21:10 Visit Justinianum's homepage!
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Re: Mac Conversion Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

quote:
Originally posted by POTUS
Does anyone know how to convert *.scn, *net, or *.sav, files so that they work on a mac?


I use an excellent programm: Civ II Scenario Converter. If you can't find it, I'll email it to you. Beware that the programm does not convert bmp files; you have to convert them to gif first.

Henrik is offline Henrik
Emperor
The European Union, Sweden, Lund
Dec 2000
time: 06:31
  Old Post 31-10-2003 22:20 Visit Henrik's homepage!
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Scn, net and save files are really usable as they are.
The only thing civ converter does is to change the filetype, I usualy do this manually instead (civ converter is excelent for quickly converting the gif files to picts and wave files to aiff though). The program also doesn't do anything with the text files.

Insane is offline Insane
Chieftain
Silicon Valley, CA, USA
Jan 2001
time: 21:31
  Old Post 31-10-2003 22:27
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Re: Re: Mac Conversion Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote:
Originally posted by Justinianum
I use an excellent programm: Civ II Scenario Converter. If you can't find it, I'll email it to you. Beware that the programm does not convert bmp files; you have to convert them to gif first.


Are you referring to the application available from the Apolyton website here ?

Wow! I didn't realize anyone was using it. How has it been working for you? Would you like a newer version?

POTUS is offline POTUS
Prince
How could I possibly not have a Mozambican flag, I mean, what other country has an AK-47 on their flag?
Jul 2003
time: 21:31
  Old Post 01-11-2003 05:42
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The net files work for you Henrik? They don't work for me. Civ II Scenario Converter works well. However, it doesn't change *.sav and *.net files which are the problem.

Insane is offline Insane
Chieftain
Silicon Valley, CA, USA
Jan 2001
time: 21:31
  Old Post 06-11-2003 21:41
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Re: Re: Mac Conversion Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

quote:
Originally posted by Justinianum
Beware that the programm does not convert bmp files; you have to convert them to gif first.


Actually, there was an update (ver .91) which does convert .bmp files as well. Unfortunately it was completed around the time our former moderator "MacUser" went offline for good. Thus, it was never posted to Apolyton, and never gained wide distribution.

POTUS, which specific scenario are you having problems with? Can you post a link to it?

Justinianum is offline Justinianum
Chieftain
Milan
Apr 2003
time: 06:31
  Old Post 07-11-2003 00:19 Visit Justinianum's homepage!
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Re: Re: Re: Mac Conversion Inflate your Upload Space

quote:
Originally posted by Insane


Are you referring to the application available from the Apolyton website here ?

Wow! I didn't realize anyone was using it. How has it been working for you?


Are you the author? Thanks a lot man: this app was invaluable for solving some pixel problems with image files.

quote:
Would you like a newer version?


Yeees

POTUS is offline POTUS
Prince
How could I possibly not have a Mozambican flag, I mean, what other country has an AK-47 on their flag?
Jul 2003
time: 21:31
  Old Post 08-11-2003 10:58
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#8 Report this post to a moderator
Got spare money?

The problems are not specifically with it, but that it doesn't convert save-game files. Also, can you post the new version?

Insane is offline Insane
Chieftain
Silicon Valley, CA, USA
Jan 2001
time: 21:31
  Old Post 19-11-2003 01:51
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Boy, I really need to stop working these 75+ hour weeks...

quote:
Originally posted by Justinianum

Are you the author?


Guilty.

quote:
Originally posted by POTUS
The problems are not specifically with it, but that it doesn't convert save-game files.


Hmm, never seen anyone request that before... I don't think I've ever seen a scenario that needed a saved game file.

quote:
Also, can you post the new version?


Let me hunt down a moderator and see what I can arrange.

Henrik is offline Henrik
Emperor
The European Union, Sweden, Lund
Dec 2000
time: 06:31
  Old Post 19-11-2003 03:45 Visit Henrik's homepage!
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An updated version would indeed be nice. Especially on that converts .net files as well. It's so tedious to do it manually and it's required to play pbems...

POTUS is offline POTUS
Prince
How could I possibly not have a Mozambican flag, I mean, what other country has an AK-47 on their flag?
Jul 2003
time: 21:31
  Old Post 19-11-2003 12:35
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Inflate your Upload Space

The scenarios themselves don't need the save-gam files, but for PBEMs, Democracy Games, and just regular games i.e. comparision games that I download.

Insane is offline Insane
Chieftain
Silicon Valley, CA, USA
Jan 2001
time: 21:31
  Old Post 20-11-2003 02:59
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Hmm, I'm sensing a trend here...

So, in a pbem game, wouldn't you need to convert it back to PC to send in on to the next (presumably PC) player?

What exactly is the .net file, and what exactly needs to be done to it... manual, repetitive tasks generally can easily be coded. Tasks which require intelligence or decision making are more problematic.

Also, pointers to sample PC scenarios containing these items would be helpful. It's much easier to do this sort of thing with test cases.

Insane is offline Insane
Chieftain
Silicon Valley, CA, USA
Jan 2001
time: 21:31
  Old Post 28-01-2004 00:55
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quote:
Let me hunt down a moderator and see what I can arrange.


Ok, well this hasn't worked out too well.

If you'd like a copy, PM me with your email address and I'll send you a copy (it's only 56K stuffed.)

I have located a PC scenario that has a saved game, so I'll look into adding translation for that in my copious free time.

I still haven't found any .net files, and I'm not sure what to do with them anyway. So don't expect that any time soon.

Henrik is offline Henrik
Emperor
The European Union, Sweden, Lund
Dec 2000
time: 06:31
  Old Post 28-01-2004 01:45 Visit Henrik's homepage!
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All that needs to be done on .net files is to change type and creator for civ to recognice them.
Check the civ 2 pbem forum for loads and loads of them to examine (it's the save format used for online games and therefore also for PBEMs).

The filetype code for a .net file should be "Cv2N" and the creator code should be: "Civ2"

This is needed for civ to recognice the file. I've written this in res edit so many times I know those codes very well by now. I used to have a program which allowed me to automate the filetype/creator change via ctrl clicking them in the finder but unfortunatly I havent been able to find something similar for OS X.

quote:

If you'd like a copy, PM me with your email address and I'll send you a copy (it's only 56K stuffed.)


Send to henrik@strategyinformer.com

Last edited by Henrik on 28-01-2004 at 01:52

Insane is offline Insane
Chieftain
Silicon Valley, CA, USA
Jan 2001
time: 21:31
  Old Post 29-01-2004 04:00
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Tired of ads?

Oh, well if that's all that is needed... I can add that tonight.

Hmm... as I read back I see that you noted this, in a manner that was a bit to subtle for me, in the third message.

Insane is offline Insane
Chieftain
Silicon Valley, CA, USA
Jan 2001
time: 21:31
  Old Post 29-01-2004 21:13
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Suffering from ads?

So, after a quick scan, and some partial testing I added file type identification support for single player, email, hot seat, and network games. I also added the same for the French and German text files (.fre, .ger).

Henrik, you have mail.

Insane is offline Insane
Chieftain
Silicon Valley, CA, USA
Jan 2001
time: 21:31
  Old Post 29-01-2004 21:44
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Just to see if this will actually work, I have made a zip archive and will a try to attach it to this message.

Attachment: civ_2_mac_converter.sit.zip
This has been downloaded 4 time(s).

POTUS is offline POTUS
Prince
How could I possibly not have a Mozambican flag, I mean, what other country has an AK-47 on their flag?
Jul 2003
time: 21:31
  Old Post 30-01-2004 10:39
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Looks good so far.

Henrik is offline Henrik
Emperor
The European Union, Sweden, Lund
Dec 2000
time: 06:31
  Old Post 30-01-2004 15:45 Visit Henrik's homepage!
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#19 Report this post to a moderator
Put an end to popups!

quote:
Originally posted by Insane
So, after a quick scan, and some partial testing I added file type identification support for single player, email, hot seat, and network games. I also added the same for the French and German text files (.fre, .ger).


Seems to be working perfectly

I had no idea there was an email game filetype in the game. As of now people are using the tcp/ip game type to play email games as PBEM was never fully implemented. While interesting the .eml files are not loadable by civ it would seem (you cannot select load email game in game and if you double click the file you only get the normal game setup screen.)

Thanks a lot for the new version of the program

I do have another request though, would it be possible to allways substitute the rows after @REALLYQUIT in the game.txt file with these lines:

code:
@REALLYQUIT @width=280 @title=Confirmation @button=Quit @button=Cancel @button=Save Game Do you really want to quit?
?
This is the only change this file needs to be usable. While other differences between the PC and mac versions exists, this is the difference that causes the game to crash (and it only happens when you try to quit the game so you may infact launch the scenario without realising that the game.txt isn't working).

Some scenario creators like to do fancy things with these files (ie they change the text on the buttons or change the width of the box for instance). Therefore these lines won't allways look the same in all files (but it'll naturaly allways start with @REALLYQUIT). Often when I convert manually I transfer these things for flavor but it's not necesary to do so. Therefore this automated program wouldn't need to look at the content that at all but rather just replace the entire dialogue box with the lines above.

The standard PC version looks like this:
code:
@REALLYQUIT @width=320 @title=Confirmation Do you really want to quit? No Yes


The difference is really that the Mac version uses buttons and has a save option while the PC version has checkboxes and lacks the save option.

Insane is offline Insane
Chieftain
Silicon Valley, CA, USA
Jan 2001
time: 21:31
  Old Post 31-01-2004 01:42
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quote:
I had no idea there was an email game filetype in the game. As of now people are using the tcp/ip game type to play email games as PBEM was never fully implemented.


And I had no idea that it wasn't fully implemented. The filetype existed, so I converted it... Oh well, it doesn't hurt anything.

quote:
I do have another request though, would it be possible to allways substitute the rows after @REALLYQUIT in the game.txt file with these lines:


In theory, anything is possible.

Is this at the end of the file or do I have to parse the description block out of the middle of the file?

The optimal scenario involve trying to be somewhat intelligent about the contents. This might result in a better overall conversion experience.

Are the Yes, and No (Quit, Cancel) buttons ever removed?

Are they always the first two buttons?

Are there order dependencies (i.e. Quit, Cancel and No, Yes implies that the order of these buttons is reversed on the Mac)?

What do these scenario makers do with the checkboxes? Somehow I don't imagine you can substitute the checkboxes with buttons.

Is the difference between the dialog sizes a constant or a ratio? Knowing this, we could make a reasonable attempt at sizing the dialog.

I don't necessarily expect you to have answers to these questions, but knowing the answers would be helpful.

POTUS is offline POTUS
Prince
How could I possibly not have a Mozambican flag, I mean, what other country has an AK-47 on their flag?
Jul 2003
time: 21:31
  Old Post 31-01-2004 06:08
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#21 Report this post to a moderator
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On Macs, compared to PCs, "retire" and "no" are switched, so in a modpack or scenario, if I press "no", it will cause me to retire.

Henrik is offline Henrik
Emperor
The European Union, Sweden, Lund
Dec 2000
time: 06:31
  Old Post 31-01-2004 18:46 Visit Henrik's homepage!
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quote:
Originally posted by Insane
In theory, anything is possible.

Is this at the end of the file or do I have to parse the description block out of the middle of the file?



It's in the middle of the file. Though I think what the game looks for is the line @reallyquit which could just as well be situated at the bottom of the file. I haven't actually tried moving it though.

quote:

Are the Yes, and No (Quit, Cancel) buttons ever removed?

Are they always the first two buttons?


They haven't been in any scenarios I have played. Though if an author wanted to he could remove them... That'd probably cause irritation though, as it would mean he would be prohibiting people from quiting his scenario. They are allways in the same order (the game doesn't have any other way of telling them apart).

quote:

Are there order dependencies (i.e. Quit, Cancel and No, Yes implies that the order of these buttons is reversed on the Mac)?


Correct, in a the PC version of the game.txt no/cancel comes first and quit second, on the mac the opposite is true.

quote:

What do these scenario makers do with the checkboxes? Somehow I don't imagine you can substitute the checkboxes with buttons.


Ah, checkbox is probably not the correct term... What do you call those little dots that you can click to signify your choice?
They are used here on apolyton when selecting what icon should be displayed next to a post or thread title. That's what is used in the PC version, the PC version also adds an ok button to this dialouge automatically (and the mac version doesn't which is why it crashes if you launch with a PC game.txt when the quiting dialogue is brought up. With the mac version there would be no way to close the quit dialoge.)

This is what a customized PC dialogue might look like (this particular one is from Age of War by Phenix Benton) :

code:
@REALLYQUIT @width=320 @title=Confirmation Do you really want to quit? No, today Europe, tomorrow, THE WORLD! Yes, the wife/girlfriend/significant other is glaring at me ominously.


This is what I did to keep his version of the dialouge:

code:
@REALLYQUIT @width=320 @title=Confirmation @button=Yes, the wife/girlfriend/significant other is glaring at me ominously. @button=No, today Europe, tomorrow, THE WORLD! @button=Save Game Do you really want to quit?


Mind you this will get you some rather long buttons which might look a bit wierd to some. As I said an automated program needn't handle this unless you want it to (though if you do it would obviously be a plus)

quote:

Is the difference between the dialog sizes a constant or a ratio? Knowing this, we could make a reasonable attempt at sizing the dialog.


Civ automatically adds to the length of the box should the text not fit in one row. All that the width does is tell the program how long one row is.

quote:

I don't necessarily expect you to have answers to these questions, but knowing the answers would be helpful.


Well I tried to do my best. Hope it's helpfull

quote:

On Macs, compared to PCs, "retire" and "no" are switched, so in a modpack or scenario, if I press "no", it will cause me to retire.


Actually this is once again a difference between the PC and mac version, for some reason mac Civ will add a cancel and an quit button to this dialouge but the no/yes dots won't do a thing for you as the mac version relies on those two buttons instead.
Quit is the one you get when you press enter (even if the dot that's selected says "no"). As you'll notice you'll still retire if you select yes and then hit enter though (I haven't tested though but this would be the logical thing to assume).
The only way to say no is to push cancel.

The programers have not been consequent in their use of buttons/dots in the game when porting civ for the mac. In most cases the PC and mac version both use dots though (for instance in the diplomacy dialouge).

Btw I've been using the new version of the program to change the filetype/creator for .net files since I last posted and I'd like to request a new feature.
Would it be possible to replace the original file when converting .net files instead of creating a duplicate in the converted folder?
Saves need to be in the same folder as the scenario (well really the mod files) they bellong to, and it gets kind of tedious to move them back all the time (when I download my email turns I save them in the apropriate scenario folder imidietly to avoid confusion).

Insane is offline Insane
Chieftain
Silicon Valley, CA, USA
Jan 2001
time: 21:31
  Old Post 02-02-2004 02:00
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Ah, ok, so this won't be trivial then.

If the dialog can be anywhere then the file needs to be parsed, edited, and written back out.

I misunderstood regarding the (radio) buttons. I thought you had said they added new ones, not just changed the titles. That helps because they will always be in the same order, they would just need to be reversed (and save added).

quote:
Civ automatically adds to the length of the box should the text not fit in one row. All that the width does is tell the program how long one row is.


I'm not sure how to read this. Does this mean I can always set the width to 280 and Civ will adjust the width as needed? Or does it mean that if I don't calculate the correct width Civ will add height to the dialog and wrap to a scond line?

Regarding the "Retire" dialog... it sounds like the correct thing to do is to just strip the radio buttons out and let the Quit/Cancel buttons work in their default mode?

quote:
The programers have not been consequent in their use of buttons/dots in the game when porting civ for the mac.


I expect they were trying to achieve a consistent "Mac Interface" (rightmost button is always the "safe" one) across all the dialogs... the original PC programmers were under no such constraints.

quote:
Would it be possible to replace the original file when converting .net files instead of creating a duplicate in the converted folder?


The tool was written with the mindset of "Do no damage", thus everything is copied to a new folder, in a known location. I suppose it might be possible to special case a run against a single game file (as opposed to an entire scenario). But the lack of a consistent resultant location might confuse some users. Maybe a better answer would be a tool that simply does in place conversions of game files? But multiple toos is also confusing in its own way.

Henrik is offline Henrik
Emperor
The European Union, Sweden, Lund
Dec 2000
time: 06:31
Thumbs up  Old Post 02-02-2004 02:42 Visit Henrik's homepage!
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quote:
Originally posted by Insane
I'm not sure how to read this. Does this mean I can always set the width to 280 and Civ will adjust the width as needed? Or does it mean that if I don't calculate the correct width Civ will add height to the dialog and wrap to a scond line?


Civ will do the second of those things.

quote:

Regarding the "Retire" dialog... it sounds like the correct thing to do is to just strip the radio buttons out and let the Quit/Cancel buttons work in their default mode?


Yes. In the mac original files (in the support folder) this is what that dialoge looks like.

quote:

I expect they were trying to achieve a consistent "Mac Interface" (rightmost button is always the "safe" one) across all the dialogs... the original PC programmers were under no such constraints.


I suppose so. They've also generally increased the width suposedly to make things look better.

quote:

The tool was written with the mindset of "Do no damage", thus everything is copied to a new folder, in a known location. I suppose it might be possible to special case a run against a single game file (as opposed to an entire scenario). But the lack of a consistent resultant location might confuse some users. Maybe a better answer would be a tool that simply does in place conversions of game files? But multiple toos is also confusing in its own way.


A separate version for just converting savefiles might be the way to go if you ask me. It'd be of great help to us PBEM players.

Insane is offline Insane
Chieftain
Silicon Valley, CA, USA
Jan 2001
time: 21:31
  Old Post 15-02-2004 04:19
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quote:
Originally posted by Henrik

A separate version for just converting savefiles might be the way to go if you ask me. It'd be of great help to us PBEM players.


Ok, last weekend was playtime for me... this weekend, something for Henrik.

Attachment: civ ii file typer.sit.zip
This has been downloaded 1 time(s).

FlameFlash is offline FlameFlash
Emperor
Minnesota, USA
Dec 2001
time: 23:31
  Old Post 02-03-2004 00:37 Visit FlameFlash's homepage!
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* FlameFlash makes mental note to download when he gets home.

Good work Insane!

Justinianum is offline Justinianum
Chieftain
Milan
Apr 2003
time: 06:31
  Old Post 02-03-2004 14:24 Visit Justinianum's homepage!
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quote:
Originally posted by Insane
Just to see if this will actually work, I have made a zip archive and will a try to attach it to this message.


It works. And now no more Photoshop .bmp manual converting

Thanks a lot man

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