Clean Installer
 

Now that I have the source code for the Clean Installer V1.6, I thought that I'd move discussion, requests, etc here with the other tools. Note that I have also received permission to publish the source code under GPL2, but I want to get it compiled and tested before that.

So far, I haven't been able to get the project to build.

Missing resources:
FormNew.resx
WinForm.resx

Missing projects:
FileTypes
S2PCISE
SimsDirectories

If Karol can't supply these, then I believe that they can be recreated from scratch.

Status Update
 

I received the missing projects, found one of the missing forms, and recreated the other from scratch. Everything is now compiling and running, but has not been tested.

I won't have much time for testing this month. If anyone would like to help me by testing this in the interim, please let me know.

Just be aware that I have no idea how much testing phervers did before giving me the source code (she probably doesn't even remember, herself) and I haven't done extensive testing either. There is a possibility of major bugs; you should expect to backup before using and be prepared for problems.

Sims2Pack Clean Installer To-Do List
 

Please note: The new To-Do List starts at post #35:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthre...849#post4015849


As with all of my programs, my first priority is fixing bugs. I am also interested in restoring functionality which was in a previous version of S2PCI, but is missing in the 1.6.x source code. Finally, I'll work on implementing new features.

To Do List:

Bugs:

- "Install All" should be renamed to something which mentions The Sims 2.

- Remove Administrator requirement: S2PCI currently uses HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. That should probably be changed to HKEY_CURRENT_USER. As well, I believe that it always expects write permission, although it probably only requires read access.

- Investigate the (fairly rare) issue: "A previous version of Sims2pack Clean Installer. You have to uninstall the old version first! Do you want to do this now?" Why do some of the registry entries remain after the program is uninstalled? Are people doing something wrong during uninstall, such as running the uninstall from a non-administrative account? Is this an issue with NSI? Can it be resolved by removing all existing registry entries before installing?

Missing Features:

- More work on the new recognition algorithm: better recognition of existing types, more types, better text names.

Installation of S2PCI

- Allow user to force an install even if the previous uninstall failed.
- Add a "features / options" screen to the install process, so that people could decide whether they want a Desktop shortcut, a Start Menu shortcut, or the "Install all" ability.
- Do not setup the "Install all" ability on systems which cannot support it (64-bit?).

New Features:

- Try to resolve problems created by incorrect usage. Specifically, removing individual sims will cause neighborhood corruption; perhaps the user should only be able to remove all sims included with a lot or none of them. Later, unchecking a sim could remove all memories, relationships, and family ties with that sim, or change them to point to the "mystery sim".

Ref: (please note that these threads are recommending a technique which will cause neighborhood corruption)
http://www.flyingacres.com/Neighbor...ead.php?tid=780
http://www.flyingacres.com/Neighbor...ead.php?tid=868

- Add filename as a column in the listbox. [Done]
- Give people the ability to rename files. [Done]
- Give people the ability to copy the file name and / or text name to the clipboard.
- Allow the user to specify a different The Sims 2 directory; make program work correctly with AnyGameStarter. [in process]
- Allow people to specify subdirectories within the default Downloads location.
- Now that MTS supports 7Zip files, it would be nice if the Clean Installer would support them.
- Would be nice to have an "Install All Sims 2" context menu for ZIP, RAR, and 7Z files, since these compressed files are functionally equivalent to directories.
- Install package files by moving to correct location; only if double click on package file?
- Get working on the MAC. [in process - no install version currently has problems determining location of save games]
- Update GUI?
- Save preview pictures with a right-click.
- Multi-install should have a window displayed during processing:
. - Cancel button to stop processing. Display what we have so far? [Done]
. - Display directory and / or filename currently being processed.
. - Progress bar. Note: difficult to estimate the amount of work to be done until it has been done.
. - Check for low memory condition and stop before it becomes a major issue.
. - Process Sims2Packs one at a time, rather than all at once. [Done]

Done:

- Resolve a problem where removing some CC and saving the Sims2Pack with a new name results in all empty packages.
Ref: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=371687
Status: Fixed in V1.6.1

- Resolve the problem where people are attempting to install nothing. Error or warning message if there is nothing to install. Grey out Install button. Alternative: if attempt to install .package, move to correct directory.
Ref: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=392071
Status: Fixed in V1.6.2, although we still might want to consider the alternative.

- Allow overwrite Sims2Pack by creating temporary file during write (another "empty package" issue).
Status: Fixed in V1.6.2

- Get multi-install working again.
Ref: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=118017
Status: Fixed in V1.6.3

- If path is too long, give user some indication of which file has the error.
Ref: http://www.modthesims.info/download...499#post3231499
(Post #18 in the download thread)
Status: Fixed in V1.6.4

- Blank name displayed for some CC.
Ref: http://www.modthesims.info/download...469#post3232469
(Post #36 in the download thread)
Status: Fixed in V1.6.5

- Get tooltips working properly.
Ref: http://www.modthesims.info/download...862#post3235862
(Post #50 in the download thread)
Note: The tooltips stopped working during the transition from .NET 1 to .NET 2. Filename tooltips are conflicting with standard listbox behavior, which displays full column contents for truncated columns. Therefore, only the checkbox will have the filename tooltip.
Status: Partially fixed in V1.6.5

- Resolve thread safety issues with -n, -m, and other command line options.
Status: Fixed 1.6.7

- Sounds like there is a problem when installing lots which contain non-alphanumeric characters:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=458002
Status: Fixed 1.6.16

Status Report
 

Status of project:

- Code is compiling; missing forms have been recreated.
- Installation executable created correctly using NSIS.
- Installation of the Clean Installer works correctly, except:
- - Website is still Sims2Pack.ModTheSims2.com
- - Update check is incorrect
- - It's very annoying that my explorer windows disappear during uninstall.

Note: I will either have to get control of the website, create a new website, or remove the website update feature.

Unfortunately, I have received the source code for V1.6, rather than V1.5.1.4. As far as I can tell, this source code has not received very thorough testing; likely, the code wasn't yet complete. Problems found to date:

- First lot that I tried to install (AngelF's CSH #1) had an unhandled exception

- Found many places where "&" (bitwise AND) is incorrectly used; should be "&&" (logical AND)

- Return code -1 (not found) from STRL.Languages.IndexOfCode is not handled correctly, resulting in invalid array access.

- Incorrect calls across threads; unsafe.

- New recognition algorithm appears to be incomplete. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the old recognition algorithm.

I'm working through these problems to get a stable build that I can release for general testing.

Status of project:
- Asked Delphy to take over the web site.
- Version 1.6 (basically the source code that I was given, except that it's now working) is in the acceptance queue.
- Fix for empty package issue with non-ascii file names is on my machine and being tested. If my upload is accepted, I'll update fairly soon with this fix.
- More work on the recognition algorithms.
- Better algorithms for pictures and text.
- Added "Occupied Lot", ie a lot with a FAMI record.

Looks like you've done a good job updating it.

Do you need a new logo for the app? I can do a remake of the current one.
Edit:

Actually, this is a much better place to discuss development, since my inbox is nearly full...

I'm not really a visual person, so I have no opinion about having a new logo. Do you think we need one?

Right now, I'm focusing on the recognition algorithms, which are still in a pretty rough state. At the very least, I'd like S2PCI to be able to recognize the relatively small amount of CC that I have on my machine; this means that I'm primarily changing just one file.

I'd also like to grey out the Install button if there's nothing to install; that one seems to trip up a number of people. Plus, it's cleaner.

Is there a particular area that you'd like to focus on? If not, would you like to see what you could do about allowing installation to AnyGameStarter folders? This seems to be a common request.

Some other things that people can do, if anyone wants to help:
1) Let us know about any outstanding issues that you have with version 1.5.4. Bug fixes are always the highest priority.
2) Go through the Clean Installer help forum and see whether there are other outstanding issues (like the empty packages issue) which need to be addressed.
3) Testing. If people can please use the new version and let us know about any issues that they find. Karol had a number of people to do testing and we could certainly use feedback.

Oops, sent a PM before reading that. As I said, I need to research the package format so maybe I should work on other things such as compatibility with AnyGameStarter and whatnot. I think the logo and GUI in 1.5.4 looks a little old compared to many programs these days and could be touched up. I work well with Blender and Photoshop so I could start by updating the GUI without making it bloated. Compatibility with mono is also another thing I'd like to do.

These all sound like excellent ideas. My strong point is internals like the package formats, rather than UI, so it sounds like we might work well together.

I'm also wondering whether we should add a new field to the list, so that people can see both the file name and the internal name when browsing downloads, the lot bin, etc. The list box already contains the directory name.

Looks like it got approved, I'll download the source now.

Edit:
Updated the NSIS setup:

Attached updated files, just need to extract. I also noticed that your source for 1.6.1 doesn't match the binaries for 1.6.1, care to update?

That's very odd. I did a clean recompile. Which Visual Studio version are you using? How can you tell that they don't match?

I grabbed your changes, so you can delete the attachment, if you'd like.

Turned out I still had the 1.6.0 sources, my bad. I found a major bug, Clean Installer will not run on 64-bit systems when you build with Any CPU, it must be changed to x86. You might want to discard my last upload as it was for 1.6.0. I'm attaching another version that fixes 64-bit compatibility and updates some minor GUI elements.

Also we need a better way of communicating, could you PM me with your IM info?

OK, that makes sense. I'll download your latest changes. I noticed the 64-bit problem just before uploading, but wanted to upload my fixes as soon as possible, since the initial recognition algorithm was a real problem.

I do not have instant messaging installed.

For security reasons, my development machine is not connected to the internet, so a source control system is not feasible. Plus, you are using VS 2008 and I am using VS 2005, so I'll have to be selective about which of your changes to add to my machine.

Guess we'll have to stick to these forums then, not the most convenient option. I'll try and keep the project files working with VS2005. 2008 project files will work in 2005 and vice-versa, just need to make sure the solution file is unchanged. I'll work on some of your suggestions tomorrow, hope we can manage to keep versions in sync.

Unfortunately, not true. Most Visual Studio versions are backwards compatible, but not forwards compatible.

Can you download VS 2008 C# Express? I don't think there's a way to downgrade csproj files.

I'm not sure that I want to upgrade at this time.

The move from VS 2005 Pro to VC# 2008 Express isn't necessarily an upgrade. I'd lose easy access to some useful tools.

We won't be able to share code if we're using different versions of VS. Any ideas?

I agree with your assessment. It doesn't look like we are in a position to collaborate. I intend to continue to do development and release the code.

TEST Version 1.6.17.1
 

[Update:] New version available; removed obsolete version.

This is a TEST Version of the Clean Installer. DO NOT download unless you intend to test and provide feedback.

CAS (Bodyshop) Packages which do not contain a Binary Index will be marked in BLUE.

I need to know that only invalid CAS packages are being marked. The one exception is creaturefixes.package from MATY.

Tested this on my Projects folder and all 85 projects were correctly highlighted blue except for one beard file. I don't know why that would be, but I've included the package file in case you want to see it. Hair and eyebrow projects were correctly highlighted blue. (Yeah I have a LOT of half-started projects.)

Also checked out my downloads, saved sims, and teleport folders.

Creaturefixes was highlighted blue as you expected.

Unfinished clothing and eye downloads were correctly identified with the blue highlight - they were files I've certainly never seen in game, and I double-checked them in SimPE too - sure enough, the BINX was missing. It did not highlight anything else - just the unfinished bodyshop files and creaturefixes. I tested my whole downloads folder which includes build, buy, bodyshop, sim, and hack files, so it was a fairly thorough test. So far it seems to work very well!

Looks like the problem is that the beard has a mesh overlay, but no texture overlay. The Clean Installer is relying on the texture overlay XML.

I can't find any documentation for the mesh overlay XML; is it reasonable to assume that:

1) If a package has a Mesh Overlay XML, then it is a CAS package

2) The Mesh Overlay XML has similar properties to the Texture Overlay XML?

I can certainly duplicate the Texture Overlay XML logic for the Mesh Overlay XML.

Well I ran this on my downloads folder and got some blue files. I have something like 20,000 files in my downloads so this is just a random sampling.

Some are custom career outfits. I tried to have a varied sample. Not sure if these should be marked or not but hope this helps.

Yes, the Mesh Overlay in this beard seems to be the equivalent of the Texture Overlay in other facial hair files. I suppose it's because this beard actually has a mesh, whereas most other facial hair applies the texture directly to the face mesh. I looked at some custom glasses/accessories and they seem to work the same way - they have a Mesh Overlay instead of a Texture Overlay.

So it seems Bodyshop files will have either a Mesh Overlay, a Texture Overlay, or a Property Set - all 3 being basically the same thing.

thetigerking83: Do the files you posted actually show up in your game? If they don't show up then they should be highlighted. If they DO show up, then they shouldn't be highlighted. Although I'm not quite sure how custom career outfits work. Can you tell us which ones are the custom career outfits, and if those custom career outfits work properly in your game?

OK, I've updated the CAS package recognition algorithm to include the Mesh Overlay XML; it was already checking the Texture Overlay XML and Property Sets.

I am now prepending the string "Incomplete CAS Project:" when a CAS package doesn't contain a BINX record. This should make it sortable. If you have wording that you prefer, please let me know.

If an incomplete CAS project contains global BHAVs, I'm marking it as a behavior mod, rather than a CAS package. This fixes the problem with CreatureFixes, but should not affect a normal CAS package.

I've made a few other smaller changes and will have a new test version available soon.

thetigerking83, thanks for your testing. Packages marked in blue should be incomplete CAS projects which will never show up in your game. Because of this, I really need to know whether these packages are being incorrectly marked in blue. If a CAS package is marked in blue, but shows up in your game, then I'll have to rework the logic.

That sounds fabulous, Mootilda. Regarding the wording, I believe "CAS" projects is more of a TS3 term - in Sims 2, sim content (clothes, hair, etc) is actually made with the "Bodyshop" tool that came with the game - so really they're Bodyshop Projects. TS2 -does- have a CAS, but it's just the screen where you put the sim together to be placed in your game.

I'm examining these more closely now in bodyshop. So far the Nightcrawler skin doesn't show, the Eclipse layerable mouth corners don't show (though I seem to remember deleting that in bodyshop at one point), skez_cthlcoat doesn't show... I can't verify the career outfits in BS but those are the ones with hollywood or mafia in the name.

I'm beginning to wonder how many files I have that actually aren't even working....

There were easily better than thirty files highlighted blue after the full scan. I might have to take another look and report back.

TEST Version 1.6.17.2
 

[Update:] New version released; removed obsolete version.

This is a TEST Version of the Clean Installer. DO NOT download unless you intend to test and provide feedback.

CAS (Bodyshop) Packages which do not contain a Binary Index will be marked in Light Blue. The type will be "Incomplete CAS Project"; this will be changed to "Incomplete BodyShop Project" before release.

I need to know that only invalid BodyShop packages are being marked. CreatureFixes.package from MATY should no longer be marked.

I ran the previous test version again, and inspected more of the results and this appears to be working. One file worth mentioning though is "Phaenoh_DEFAULT_SocialBunniesRedefined" From here, http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=356595. If I confirm any of the other detections to be working files that shouldn't be marked I'll let you know.

This has been pretty helpful to me, actually, when I had intended to try helping you.

I'll try to do a scan with the new version tomorrow.

Yes, that download seems to break the rule.

fanseelamb, can you see anything in this package that makes the lack of a Binary Index acceptable for this download? The Clean Installer is recognizing it as clothing because of the material definition and property set. Is it using the default EA Binary Index? Is there some way that the Clean Installer can tell that this package is valid?

Hi Mootilda!

I tried this on several Sims2 storage folders and nothing turned up [flagged] (other than red mods) until I sampled my project folder. It found the incomplete packages. see screenshot.



I had created those packages myself and they are not complete, so it did flag them correctly.

Yeah. This is a default-replacement file, so it's different from a normal clothing file. Most default-replacement files only include the small bit being altered. Then the game picks up the other bits from the original EA files. So a texture replacement would only include the texture image. A mod to change the age or category of an outfit would only include the property set. They wouldn't need a BINX or material definitions or anything other than the part being changed.

I suppose this particular default-replacement needed to change the material definition and property set along with a bunch of other things, but not the BINX. So basically it would be an exception to the rule.

OK, if there's no way to distinguish between incomplete bodyshop projects and some default replacements, I guess that I'll just have to warn people not to delete these packages without checking them first.

Thanks to everyone for the testing. I'll try to upload the final version today.

The final version works brilliantly. Thank you SO much, Mootilda! You're amazing.

Sims2Pack Clean Installer To-Do List (Part 1)
 

MTS insists that my original To-Do list requires a Captcha to change. Since this is incredibly annoying, I'm starting a new to-do list:

As with all of my programs, my first priority is fixing bugs. I am also interested in restoring functionality which was in a previous version of S2PCI, but is missing in the 1.6.x source code. Finally, I'll work on implementing new features.

To Do List:

Bugs:

- "Install All" should be renamed to something which mentions The Sims 2.

- Remove Administrator requirement: S2PCI currently uses HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. That should probably be changed to HKEY_CURRENT_USER. As well, I believe that it always expects write permission, although it probably only requires read access.

- Investigate the (fairly rare) issue: "A previous version of Sims2pack Clean Installer. You have to uninstall the old version first! Do you want to do this now?" Why do some of the registry entries remain after the program is uninstalled? Are people doing something wrong during uninstall, such as running the uninstall from a non-administrative account? Is this an issue with NSI? Can it be resolved by removing all existing registry entries before installing?

Missing Features:

- More work on the new recognition algorithm: better recognition of existing types, more types, better text names.

Installation of S2PCI

- Allow user to force an install even if the previous uninstall failed.
- Add a "features / options" screen to the install process, so that people could decide whether they want a Desktop shortcut, a Start Menu shortcut, or the "Install all" ability.
- Do not setup the "Install all" ability on systems which cannot support it (64-bit?).

Sims2Pack Clean Installer To-Do List (Part 2)
 

To Do List (continued):

New Features:

- Try to resolve problems created by incorrect usage. Specifically, removing individual sims will cause neighborhood corruption; perhaps the user should only be able to remove all sims included with a lot or none of them. Later, unchecking a sim could remove all memories, relationships, and family ties with that sim, or change them to point to the "mystery sim".

Ref: (please note that these threads are recommending a technique which will cause neighborhood corruption)
http://www.flyingacres.com/Neighbor...ead.php?tid=780
http://www.flyingacres.com/Neighbor...ead.php?tid=868

- For lots: Check currently installed EPs. Compare with game engine required for lot. Warn user if lot is likely to crash game.
- Display the in-game categories where available. This would allow people to see all objects added to a particular category. Ref: http://www.modthesims.info/download...192#post4029192
- Give people the ability to copy the file name and / or text name to the clipboard.
- Allow the user to specify a different The Sims 2 directory; make program work correctly with AnyGameStarter. [in process]
- Allow people to specify subdirectories within the default Downloads location.
- Now that MTS supports 7Zip files, it would be nice if the Clean Installer would support them.
- Would be nice to have an "Install All Sims 2" context menu for ZIP, RAR, and 7Z files, since these compressed files are functionally equivalent to directories.
- Install package files by moving to correct location; only if double click on package file?
- Get working on the MAC. [in process - no install version currently has problems determining location of save games]
- Update GUI?
- Save preview pictures with a right-click.
- Multi-install should have a window displayed during processing:
. - Display directory and / or filename currently being processed.
. - Progress bar. Note: difficult to estimate the amount of work to be done until it has been done.
. - Check for low memory condition and stop before it becomes a major issue.

Sims2Pack Clean Installer To-Do List (Part 3)
 

Looks like the problem is that the post is too long, so let's give ourselves some leaway.

Sims2Pack Clean Installer To-Do List (Part 4)
 

One more should do it.

Mootilda, with the Clean Installer I can't preview any textures that were imported with DXT5, is there anything I can change from my end that might resolve this? Also, your "to do list" above mentions "Update GUI" - would you consider allowing re-ordered sort columns to retain their positioning between program sessions, please? Thanks for all your hard work on Clean Installer.

I don't know why the DXT5 textures wouldn't display. As far as I remember, the Clean Installer is just using standard image processing.

Keeping the order of columns sounds like a good idea.

Thanks for your reply, Mootilda!