05-11-2004 07:45									#1
	Skinnydipping Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

A title involving nudity always gets attention.

A month or so ago, Techumseh asked me to come up with a means to change the 'skin' of ToT. By that he meant copy a set of City.bmp, CivWin_Back.bmp, and Dialog.bmp files into either the Original, SciFi, or Fantasy folder. Then he had the nerve to suggest keeping it open ended without hardcoding filenames.

That put it into seriously advanced batch programming or VB territory. Opting for the latter, I cobbled together something using VBA in Excel (yes, it requires Excel at the moment). If there is demand, I'll port it into regular VB.

To use, download CivSkin02.zip and extract all files into the same directory (i.e. must keep the xls and bmp's in the same folder). The xls code should find where ToT is on your PC without your intervention.

From the opening screen:

quote: CivSkin v1.0 This program changes the 'skin' of "Civ2: Test of Time" by copying three files from a storage folder to the appropriate game folder: City.bmp, Dialog.bmp, & Civwin_back.bmp. Skins can be previewed before copying.

quote: Directions 1. Edit path to ToT, if not correct. 2. Click "View and Choose Skins"

That pops up a dialog.

quote: 1. Select a skin set 2. Select game 3. Click "Load" 4. Click "Close" 5. Start ToT

You're done.

This is a beta. Works on two of my PC's. The gfx lack credits at the moment, but they come from Techumseh, Catfish, and myself.

Screenies coming up as soon as I remember how.

Would some brave soul test this for me?

	05-11-2004 07:54									#2
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Opening screen in Excel.


The dialog that does the work.

	05-11-2004 08:52									#3
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Hey, pretty cool man, thanks!

	05-11-2004 09:24									#4
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Attachment: clap.gif
This has been downloaded 146 time(s).

	05-11-2004 13:05									#5
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Excellent work D.

Er.... can you believe that I don't have Excel on my PC at home? Or any other spreadsheet prog. for that matter. 'What a numpty' I hear you cry.

How difficult is it to implement this in regular VB?

	05-11-2004 13:11									#6
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I will try this one out today when I come back from Uni....

	05-11-2004 15:49									#7
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quote: How difficult is it to implement this in regular VB?

Well, numpty , I did finally install VB6 on my PC. Normally, it shouldn't be too hard to shift over to VB, but I haven't programmed in it for almost a decade . Let's first see whether the program is useful enough to put in the effort.

@curt

	05-11-2004 16:24									#8
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Uhm, isn't *.xls an excell file? I don't have that program. Any other way I can change the skins? I really like the MGE city skin better..

	05-11-2004 17:50									#9
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I don't have Excel either, so...
But if you need any help with VB6...

quote: Originally posted by Arthedain I really like the MGE city skin better..

You don't need Boco's program for that. There's an option in one of the menus for that. I think it's "City View" or something in the View menu that toggles between ToT and "pre-ToT", just like the "Map View" thing toggles between ToT screen layout (unit details on top) and pre-ToT screen layout (unit details on the right).

	05-11-2004 18:40									#10
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'Numpty' -

It's good to see the vile chittering speech of the Scots Ned being used here in poly!

Not!

	05-11-2004 18:44									#11
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quote: Originally posted by Boco @curt

You flatter me, I am but a mere tweak freak!

But, wow!
Some rather lovely city screens here!
Especially 'Blood and Iron!'

Top stuff!

	05-11-2004 18:49									#12
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

I have scanned this file, but can Boco assure me there are no viruses in the macros before I proceed further...

PS
The program is a nice bit of work.

	05-11-2004 21:22									#13
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quote: Originally posted by Mercator You don't need Boco's program for that. There's an option in one of the menus for that. I think it's "City View" or something in the View menu that toggles between ToT and "pre-ToT", just like the "Map View" thing toggles between ToT screen layout (unit details on top) and pre-ToT screen layout (unit details on the right).

Thanks Mercator!

	05-11-2004 21:31									#14
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This cool utility has inspired me to create civ-specific city screens for my current project!

	05-11-2004 21:44									#15
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I am happy to report fully working skin changes!

I want to package this utility with my upcoming ToT scenario, to take advantage of the city skins I have prepared!

The choice to personalise your civ to whatever faction or era you are playing is pretty cool!

Grand work, Boco!

	05-11-2004 21:47									#16
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One thing though, it needs to be shown where ToT is - Anyway for a user to encode the default path to his own ToT folder?

Also, users should be sure to make Dialog, Civwin_back, and City files - Otherwise the skin won't be recognised.

	05-11-2004 22:14									#17
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quote: Originally posted by curtsibling 'Numpty' - It's good to see the vile chittering speech of the Scots Ned being used here in poly! Not!

'numpty' reached us south of the border long ago, but what on earth is a 'Ned'?

	06-11-2004 00:27									#18
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Neds are what our English cousins call 'Townies' - Those track-suited scum of the streets...

	06-11-2004 00:33									#19
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quote: One thing though, it needs to be shown where ToT is - Anyway for a user to encode the default path to his own ToT folder?

There's code that should read your registry for the path to Civ2ToT.exe. Specifically, I'm searching for the string "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Civ2TOT.Exe" in your registry. So the cell with a path should update itself with the correct path when the program loads. Although you can enter a value manually in that cell, it shouldn't be necessary.

Is it displaying a wrong path on your machine, Curt?

Merc, I'll flail at it some in VB6. Don't be surprised to see some pm's though.

Btw, IIRC I changed the "MGE" entry to something that credits its creator.

	06-11-2004 01:21									#20
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quote: Is it displaying a wrong path on your machine, Curt?

Yep - It is looking for an MPS folder, when I have a custom named one.

quote: Btw, IIRC I changed the "MGE" entry to something that credits its creator.

I saw that one!

	06-11-2004 02:55									#21
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Curt, what happens if you select the cell containing the Test of Time path, press [Delete] to clear it, and then click the button below it labeled "Read Registry..."?

What actually is the path to ToT on your PC?

Hmmm. Maybe I'm searching for the wrong string in the registry.

	06-11-2004 02:59									#22
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quote: Originally posted by Boco There's code that should read your registry for the path to Civ2ToT.exe. Specifically, I'm searching for the string "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Civ2TOT.Exe" in your registry.

My ToT is simply called civ2.exe (and the entry in the registry is too), so maybe that's the problem.

It doesn't by any chance default to the C:\MPS\Civ2 folder if it can't find the registry key? That would explain what Curt is getting... Maybe with ToT it should default to C:\Program Files\ ... um, whatever that default installation path is again, though that wouldn't solve Curt's problem either.

quote: Merc, I'll flail at it some in VB6. Don't be surprised to see some pm's though.

Sure...

	06-11-2004 03:15									#23
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I just dl'd the cskin02.zip. Deleted the entry for Test of Time Path and saved it. When I opened it again, it started with a blank path, and then automatically entered the correct path.

In the Registry Editor my PC has an entry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> App Paths -> Civ2TOT.Exe. It has a path entry there that points to my Civ2.exe (ToT version). That's the entry CSkin searches for.

Merc, do you have the same registry entry?

I also have MGE and FW loaded on my WinXP PC.

	06-11-2004 05:23									#24
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Hey, all you Neds and numpteys! Could we please use the ENGLISH language around here?

Oh, wait....

	06-11-2004 05:43									#25
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Nope, I don't have the Civ2TOT.Exe key. But there's a slight possibility that I actually edited that a long time ago, I don't remember.

	06-11-2004 05:52									#26
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quote: Originally posted by Boco Curt, what happens if you select the cell containing the Test of Time path, press [Delete] to clear it, and then click the button below it labeled "Read Registry..."? What actually is the path to ToT on your PC? Hmmm. Maybe I'm searching for the wrong string in the registry.

It still gives me the 'not found message'...



It works if I manually paste the folder location in the field though...

	06-11-2004 06:24									#27
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Looks like I need to search for a different registry entry. Stay tuned.

	06-11-2004 06:30									#28
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@Boco:

I also deleted that entry a long time ago when Norton Utilities kept picking it up. It's probably a vestige of a beta version that they forgot to remove. My current entry is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> App Paths -> civ2.exe -> Path -> C:\Program Files\Microprose\Test of Time. The problem is it might get overwritten by other Civ2 installations. Need to verify.

If you make it in VB6 it could become the standard for installing skins. It definitely beats clumsy batch files. Nice work.

You certainly get your jollies out of my various Internet handles, don't you?

	06-11-2004 06:40									#29
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Curt, did you actually perform an install of that ToT version? (rather than just copying the game from the cd) and that you didn't reinstall windows after that?

	06-11-2004 07:42									#30
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Merc, do you have a VB method to find the path to a Civ2.exe?

I've found two other registry keys:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Microsoft -> DirectPlay -> Applications -> The Test of Time -- CurrentDirectory or Path entries
  
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Uninstall -> Test of Time -- UninstallString

Do you have either of these?

[Edit: just saw Catfish's reply]
On my PC, that handle is taken up with my MGE exe. Looks like I may need to nest some if/then's. Porting to VB6 is on the list (so is revamping EA ). One fantasy is to expand and include modified DLL's, though I'm clueless as to how to preview.

And yeah, Catbegong, I'm easily entertained.

Last edited by Boco on 06-11-2004 at 08:08