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Zelda Classic Manager


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#1 LinktheMaster

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Posted 12 August 2012 - 09:18 PM

Zelda Classic Manager

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Hey everyone. :) I’m announcing something that I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks: Zelda Classic Manager. In what is pretty much a spiritual successor to Nick’s Zelda Classic Catapult, ZCM is basically a launcher for ZC with some organizational tools and that brought into the RC3-era.

So why should you switch?

It’s true that there is a launcher prepackaged with the ZC (for the Windows and Linux versions), the launcher is very outdated and doesn’t utilize all of ZC’s newer features. So, I’m going to highlight some of the features ZCM includes.

Resolution Detection
Do you use a large screen and are tired of a small ZC window? Or, do you have a widescreen monitor and hate how full screen Zelda Classic always appears stretched? Well, ZCM solves those problems with the option to automatically detect the resolution it should use.

Organization Functions
Tired of your ZC folder being a huge clutter? Tired of your ZC and ZQ screenshots being lumped together? ZCM can help clean all of that up for you. You can specify four directories: one for Zelda Classic, one for quests, one for saves, and one for screenshots. Once you set those, just let ZCM handle the rest. There’s also built in screenshot organization functionality that can sort your screenshots while ZC and ZQ are running too. It can also rename those screenshots based off the date and it can even resize ZC screenshots (Note: Resized ZC screenshots won’t be able to be ripped from.). So, you can say goodbye to that evil clutter in your ZC folder!

organization.pngscreenshots.png

Portable Mode
Ever want to take ZC with you on the go? Have multiple computers you’d like to play quests between? Peace of cake, then! Just put ZCM and ZC on a flash drive and enable portable mode.

Multiple Save Files
Sometimes save files can get cluttered too. So ZCM will let you create multiple save files. Have one for your quest development. Have one for playing other games. However you want to use them, ZCM will let you have as many save files as you want.

saves.png

Other Features
  • A simpler, cleaner interface for quick launching.
  • The ability to have other applications be started alongside ZC and ZQuest (such as a script editor).
  • Add other command line arguments to ZC and ZQuest.
  • Have key bindings for ZCM to both launch ZC/ZQ as well as terminate them should they crash and burn.
  • The ability to disable Windows Aero for if ZC/ZQ lag too much in windowed mode.
  • It has a cucco for the icon! What more do you need?
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Downloads

ZCM requires at least Java Runtime Environment 1.5 or above. Go here if you don’t have Java installed. If you’ve ever used the IRC chat through PZC’s site, then you should be able to run it.

Version 0.9.4 (Changelog)
Windows (213kb)
Linux (148kb) – Make sure to set the script as executable.
Both (Java Jar File) (163kb)

For the Future

ZCM certainly isn’t done yet. :) But, the nature of how it progresses is in everyone’s hands. If Java doesn’t seem to be a problem, then I’ll stick by it. However, please let me know if you have issues. If there are problems with Java, then I may make it using C++ or something. Either way, some things I plan on doing are adding a tab to customize the controls for ZC as well as make a Mac port. If anyone has any other ideas, please let me know. :)

#2 Russ

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Posted 12 August 2012 - 09:26 PM

This looks pretty cool. But, to be brutally honest, it's not something I'd really use. The only things it really has over ZLaunch is portable mode, organization, and auto-resolution, none of which I'm really too keen on having handled for me automatically. So it's really cool, and will probably help a lot of people, but it's not really for me.

#3 Saffith

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Posted 12 August 2012 - 09:46 PM

The bash script isn't working for me - invalid or corrupt jar file, it says. The jar version works, but it's reporting errors reading ag.cfg and saving zcm.cfg. I don't see anything wrong in either file, though.

QUOTE(Russ @ Aug 12 2012, 10:26 PM) View Post
The only things it really has over ZLaunch is portable mode, organization, and auto-resolution, none of which I'm really too keen on having handled for me automatically.

Plus, it's still being developed. ZCL is getting only minimal updates anymore.

#4 LinktheMaster

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Posted 12 August 2012 - 09:48 PM

QUOTE(Saffith @ Aug 12 2012, 09:46 PM) View Post

The bash script isn't working for me - invalid or corrupt jar file, it says. The jar version works, but it's reporting errors reading ag.cfg and saving zcm.cfg. I don't see anything wrong in either file, though.
Plus, it's still being developed. ZCL is getting only minimal updates anymore.

What distro of Linux are you running on?

#5 Saffith

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Posted 12 August 2012 - 09:50 PM

Linux Mint Debian Edition, x86-64.


$ bash -version
GNU bash, version 4.2.20(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright © 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

This is free software; you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_24"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea6 1.11.1) (6b24-1.11.1-3)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.0-b12, mixed mode)

#6 LinktheMaster

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Posted 12 August 2012 - 09:56 PM

QUOTE(Saffith @ Aug 12 2012, 09:50 PM) View Post

Linux Mint Debian Edition, x86-64.
$ bash -version
GNU bash, version 4.2.20(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright © 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

This is free software; you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_24"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea6 1.11.1) (6b24-1.11.1-3)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.0-b12, mixed mode)

Ah. I had tested this out with a version of Ubuntu. I'm not too surprised the bash script version isn't working, though I'm not sure why the jar version isn't. icon_confused2.gif Some of the errors you speak of are expected (due to some old debugging prints, it'll state it's having errors opening ag.cfg and stuff when there just isn't one in its directory). But it's not launching ZC or ZQ? Is it saving settings appropriately?

#7 trudatman

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Posted 12 August 2012 - 10:05 PM

cool! it is good to know that folks are still working to better the applications, files and the uses of such. thank you.

#8 Saffith

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Posted 12 August 2012 - 10:08 PM

QUOTE(LinktheMaster @ Aug 12 2012, 10:56 PM) View Post
Ah. I had tested this out with a version of Ubuntu. I'm not too surprised the bash script version isn't working, though I'm not sure why the jar version isn't. icon_confused2.gif Some of the errors you speak of are expected (due to some old debugging prints, it'll state it's having errors opening ag.cfg and stuff when there just isn't one in its directory). But it's not launching ZC or ZQ? Is it saving settings appropriately?

No, no, it's working fine, I just wasn't sure about the error messages. As far as I can tell, everything's working correctly.

#9 LinktheMaster

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Posted 12 August 2012 - 10:17 PM

QUOTE(Saffith @ Aug 12 2012, 10:08 PM) View Post
No, no, it's working fine, I just wasn't sure about the error messages. As far as I can tell, everything's working correctly.
Ah, good to hear it. icon_smile.gif I should probably try to get ZCM to make more... useful errors (and maybe even have it output errors to a log file), but I wanted to go ahead and get this out with basic functionality. icon_smile.gif

One thing I'll be working on over the next few days is to try to clean everything up, so I might take care of that while I'm at it.

#10 aaa2

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Posted 13 August 2012 - 06:33 AM

Have as many save files as you like? How did you implement it by an std::vector or by a pointer with a size int variable(just curious)? (I hope that this is not off-topic)
edit: oops sorry i just saw you used java. that makes the question useless.

Edited by aaa2, 13 August 2012 - 06:35 AM.


#11 LinktheMaster

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Posted 13 August 2012 - 06:39 AM

QUOTE(aaa2 @ Aug 13 2012, 06:33 AM) View Post
Have as many save files as you like? How did you implement it by an std::vector or by a pointer with a size int variable(just curious)? (I hope that this is not off-topic)
edit: oops sorry i just saw you used java. that makes the question useless.
I actually did it with... save files. icon_blah.gif All it does is scan for save files. If you add a new one, it actually just tells ZC to create one. It does have the slight issue of if you add one in ZCM, close ZCM, and open it back up, the one you just created won't be there since ZC hasn't created it yet. However, this does detect when you delete the actual save files in Windows explorer or whatever, so it has its pros and cons. I'll probably try to come up with a solution that works for both, but unfortunately ZC doesn't like me creating empty files as save file placeholders.

#12 LinktheMaster

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Posted 13 August 2012 - 10:49 PM

QUOTE(Russ @ Aug 12 2012, 09:26 PM) View Post
This looks pretty cool. But, to be brutally honest, it's not something I'd really use. The only things it really has over ZLaunch is portable mode, organization, and auto-resolution, none of which I'm really too keen on having handled for me automatically. So it's really cool, and will probably help a lot of people, but it's not really for me.
Well, have you honestly given this (or Nick’s ZCC) a try? Just because this doesn’t have a plethora of other features that you need, would it be too much to ask to give it a chance? You’re basically saying “It’s different, so I don’t like it.” If you give it a fair shot, you might grow to like it for other reasons. If you don’t, then I at least appreciate the effort. icon_shrug.gif

Anyway, I wanted to try focus on some of ZCM’s features that I might not have focused too much time on before.

The Save Manager

IPB Image

Zelda Classic by default only comes with 15 save files. While this may sound like a lot, I’m sure a lot of you have either ran out of space or have gotten annoyed with having to juggle save slots for the development of your own quest while playing other quests too. I know I personally like the main quest I’m developing to be the first in the list since I’ll probably be opening it up a bunch. But if I delete that save slot, then everything gets pushed up. It’s really annoying.

ZCM’s save manager can help solve those problems. Use up all 15 slots? Simple. Create another save file. Tired of having your quest development saves along with saves of quests you’re playing? Easy, have one save file for development and another for playing quests. For a while there I had multiple copies of ZC: one to play quests on, one to develop quests with. With ZCM, you no longer have to do anything like that.

Screenshot Organization

IPB Image

I already went into detail about this before, but I wanted to go a bit more in depth with screenshot organization. I’m sure I’m not the only one that sometimes takes a lot of screenshots. Sometimes it’ll be over several days, and sometimes I’ll get a backlog of 100 screenshots or more if I’m writing a review or something. What makes things a bit more annoying is that ZQuest screenshots are cluttered in with Zelda Classic screenshots. So if I’m looking for a screenshot of a quest in ZC, I have to sift through ZQuest screenshots as well.

ZCM has an option to help you organize your screenshots to tidy up your Zelda Classic directory. You can even have the screenshots go to another directory if you want so you don’t have to scroll past all of ZC’s files just to get to your screenshots. You can divide up your screenshots into ZC and ZQuest screenshot folders so that the two types of screenshots don’t get lumped together, and you can have the date in the filename so that you can easily go back and find screenshots that you might have taken a week or two ago without guessing in a long list of zelda### images.

Keybindings

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You may want to quickly start ZC or ZQuest after launching ZCM. For that, you can assign key bindings to start either application. For example, I like having 1 start ZC and 2 start ZQuest. But almost more importantly is that there are key bindings to force ZC or ZQuest to quit. For any scripters out there, you might have accidentally coded an infinite loop that freezes ZC. Usually the fix is to open the task manager and kill the process. With ZCM, you can set a key binding to kill ZC quickly so that you can get back to development quickly. For those that don’t write scripts, well, I’m sure you all have still experienced ZC crash every so often.

Better Fullscreen Support

Do you have a wide screen monitor? Have you ever tried to launch ZC in full screen mode? If your computer is like mine, it looks like this:

IPB Image

It’s stretched and looks absolutely horrible. Well, with ZCM’s automatic resolution detection, it’ll set the resolution to your actual monitor size. This causes ZC instead to become letterboxed (with black bars on the side) to make sure that ZC preserves the correct aspect ratio. To put it simply, it’ll look like this:

IPB Image

That looks a lot better, at least in my opinion.

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Again, if there are any features or suggestions that people have for stuff in the future, I’d love to hear them. Like I said before, I ask that everyone at least give this a fair chance and see what you think.


#13 King Harkinian

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Posted 13 August 2012 - 11:04 PM

The only problem I have with ZCM is that when I run Zelda Classic or ZQuest through it, I get the weird color problems. Normally I have to use the ZC Color Fix bat file to run everything correctly. If you added an option to set what file each launch button runs (allowing bat files), this would be perfect. icon_smile.gif

#14 LinktheMaster

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Posted 13 August 2012 - 11:23 PM

QUOTE(King Harkinian @ Aug 13 2012, 11:04 PM) View Post
The only problem I have with ZCM is that when I run Zelda Classic or ZQuest through it, I get the weird color problems. Normally I have to use the ZC Color Fix bat file to run everything correctly. If you added an option to set what file each launch button runs (allowing bat files), this would be perfect. icon_smile.gif
I take it you're running an old version of ZC?

Assuming you're running on an old version of ZC, I probably won't be doing what you suggest, unfortunately. I just don't see it entirely as a practical thing to add since my primary focus is on ZC 2.5. And, to be honest, 90% of the settings won't work in older versions of ZC. I will say, though, that the screenshot organization will still work if you wanted to use that. You'd just need to leave ZCM running while ZC is up. icon_shrug.gif

Though, the batch file could possibly be modified and used as an external application. You'd just need to swap out the line to launch ZC with "pause", then press enter in the batch file when ZC is finished. That might be worth more trouble than it's worth, though.

#15 King Harkinian

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Posted 13 August 2012 - 11:30 PM

QUOTE(LinktheMaster @ Aug 14 2012, 12:23 AM) View Post

I take it you're running an old version of ZC?

Assuming you're running on an old version of ZC, I probably won't be doing what you suggest, unfortunately. I just don't see it entirely as a practical thing to add since my primary focus is on ZC 2.5. And, to be honest, 90% of the settings won't work in older versions of ZC. I will say, though, that the screenshot organization will still work if you wanted to use that. You'd just need to leave ZCM running while ZC is up. icon_shrug.gif

Though, the batch file could possibly be modified and used as an external application. You'd just need to swap out the line to launch ZC with "pause", then press enter in the batch file when ZC is finished. That might be worth more trouble than it's worth, though.

I'm running RC3 on Windows 7. If there is a newer release of RC3 I'm not aware of, that might be the problem, but if not, wasn't this bug fixed already?


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