Happy Birthday David Boutwell

[RockinHarry]

actually one day late. Happy birthday David![:)] seems the latests hacker attacks resetted our forum profiles.[:(] well..."1966" just rocks![8D][:D][:D]

[Sergio Castaldi]

Happy birthday David !

Tribute to builder of SP:CW

Sergio

[Goblin]

Happy Birthday DB!!

Goblin

[DBoutwell]

A very delayed thank you, guys! I haven't been around the site for quite a while. Yes, I'm now 21, if my math skills serve me correctly.....I'm still steaming full speed ahead as fast as I can, Sergio. I just came up against a wall this week that has me a little concerned, and I am glad that I found you here, Harry. During the course of creating the SPCW mod. I have changed the names of some of the files (the SPWAW.exe file to SPCW.exe, for example, just to prevent confusion. I have also done a major overhaul to over ten terrain files, so far, and some of the shp icons can only be accessed through WAWMap. I can create maps in the game using the traditional shp icon numbers, no problem. I can also make maps in WAWMap, no problem. It is when I open up a map in the game that has been created in WAWMap, and then save it, then open it again in WAWMap that I hit the wall. When I try to load a map like this, I get a "This is not a SPWAW map file!" error message. Not good. I can still make maps in the game, but I can't create maps in WAWMap, if I can't fix this. Do I need to go back and change all of the file names to their old SPWAW names so that WAWMap recognizes the aparently hard-coded file pathway??

Your feedback would be greatly appreciated, Harry!


Regards,

David Boutwell

[RockinHarry]

ORIGINAL: DBoutwell

A very delayed thank you, guys! I haven't been around the site for quite a while. Yes, I'm now 21, if my math skills serve me correctly.....I'm still steaming full speed ahead as fast as I can, Sergio. I just came up against a wall this week that has me a little concerned, and I am glad that I found you here, Harry. During the course of creating the SPCW mod. I have changed the names of some of the files (the SPWAW.exe file to SPCW.exe, for example, just to prevent confusion. I have also done a major overhaul to over ten terrain files, so far, and some of the shp icons can only be accessed through WAWMap. I can create maps in the game using the traditional shp icon numbers, no problem. I can also make maps in WAWMap, no problem. It is when I open up a map in the game that has been created in WAWMap, and then save it, then open it again in WAWMap that I hit the wall. When I try to load a map like this, I get a "This is not a SPWAW map file!" error message. Not good. I can still make maps in the game, but I can't create maps in WAWMap, if I can't fix this. Do I need to go back and change all of the file names to their old SPWAW names so that WAWMap recognizes the aparently hard-coded file pathway??

Your feedback would be greatly appreciated, Harry!


Regards,

David Boutwell

Hm...don´t quite know if I understand correctly.[&:] So the load error occurs AFTER renaming of what files exactly?? The shape files? ..or the map files? Both?[&:]
The only problem I know of when using largely extended shape files, is that WaWMap can´t load the shape files for "shape transfer". The ingame editor still handles oversized shape files without any problems.
Me also thinks you might have used "new" shape file numbers, like Ter093.shp for example. I noticed some time ago, while WaWMap can load these, the game can´t! I believe there´s some hardcoding of file names involved for sure.

[DBoutwell]

Harry,

"Hm...don´t quite know if I understand correctly. So the load error occurs AFTER renaming of what files exactly?? The shape files? ..or the map files? Both?
The only problem I know of when using largely extended shape files, is that WaWMap can´t load the shape files for "shape transfer". The ingame editor still handles oversized shape files without any problems.
Me also thinks you might have used "new" shape file numbers, like Ter093.shp for example. I noticed some time ago, while WaWMap can load these, the game can´t! I believe there´s some hardcoding of file names involved for sure."



The load error occurs after I have:
1. first, created a map in WAWMap
2. saved it
3. closed
4. then, opened the same file and edited it with the game editor
5. saved it
6. then reopened it in WAWMap.

I changed the file name of the copy of SPWAW that I made to modify into SPCW. It is now titled "SPCW". I wonder if, when the game saves a map file, it also tags it with a file path to it (SPCW-Shp-map#, for example). If this is the case, and WAWMAP is programmed to only recognize the pathway SPWAW-Shp-map#, for example, this might be the problem. However, I think that I made another copy and left it as SPWAW, and got the same result. So, it may be a bigger problem than it seems. I'll keep experimenting with it. I hope it isn't an XP thing!

I've successfuly extended the ter 24 shp file to over 130 without an error in WAWMAP. AND, I can use them all in WAWMAP. The trick is, every time you add on another icon, you have to reload the bignew shp file. If you just try to click up from the previous icon to the new highest-numbered one without reloading, you will almost certainly get an error message, and that file will be rendered unreadable by WAWMAP. However it doesn't do much good if you can't use WAWMAP to access and use the new files after you have jumped back and forth between the game editor and WAWMAP once.

The joys of amateur game designing and programming!

I look forward to your comments,

David Boutwell

[DBoutwell]

I think that I have discovered why WAWMAp does not like maps that have been created or edited in the game. Maybe someone can help with a solution. I looked at the files in the map folder and noticed that the .cmt files are being saved by the game as "Realone Recordings". I can't find the guilty program that is causing this (I hope that I don't have to remove all windows media player stuff in order to prevent this. I've already removed Real Player, which was trial software that came with the computer, but I fear that I've missed something. I recently bought a new Dell and had the materials from my old harddrive transferred. I only recently tried to work on a map between the game and WAWMap, which is when I discovered the problem. The problem seems to lie with the software on my new computer. Do any of you computer guys have any ideas??

I can still build maps in the game, but, for now, I can't use WAWMap to edit them and add new icons that are outside the scope of those used in the game. I can also use WAWMap to edit older maps from other copies of SPWAW that have not been saved on this computer, but I'd have to build the whole map in WAWMAp. It could then be used in the game, but no corrections could be made and saved, which is a pain in the butt.

Hopefully, someone will have a quick and easy solution. Anyone who reads this, who thinks of someone else who might have a solution, please send them this way. The title of the thread kind-of masks the seriousness of the subject matter. Maybe this problem is isolated to my computer, but I don't want to be releasing a game that has known problems, anymore than can be helped! And stuff like this is what really bogs me down. I spend so much time problem-solving when I do come up against an issue like this, because I don't have the experience in programming.

The fortunate thing is that, living in Northern Virginia, all I have to do to be reinspired to keep plugging away at SPCW is to drive around the countryside. Heck, I was looking at a map of the location of the Union Corps in Norhtern VA at the beginning of the Gettysburg campaign, and realized that a whole corps (I forget which one) was plopped down right in my neighborhood. And that is just one instance among many. Hell, Richard Ewell was born and raised down the road from me, and John Mosby hid out all over Bull Run Mountain, which is where I live. The other day, I was out near the Blue Ridge at Sky Meadows State Park, near Paris VA. The night before 1st Manassas, Stonewall Jackson's brigade was camped in a valley between the park and the village of Paris. The valley was spread before me, and I could imagine the campfires lighting that valley that night. The next day, they hopped a train at Philomont, VA, a few miles away, where my wife stopped and looked at antiques in the old train depot. Here, Jackson's men loaded onto a train to Manassas Junction, the first movement of men by train into combat in history. I drug my daughters, both of whom were born in Manassas VA, all over Manassas Battlefield in a wagon today. Just help me out a bit, and I will give you your SPCW....

Regards,

David Boutwell

[DBoutwell]

Actually, it isn't the .cmt file. It is the file that is normally opened with notepad (the file for scenario name and text). Whichever type of file that is, some program that is on my computer is making it save as a REALONE RECORDING.

[Voriax]

David, when you have explorer window open goto tools -> folder options and 'file types'. What has happened is that Real Player associated those extensions with itself. And they did not unassociate when you removed the program. Browse that filelist until you find the correct extension and just delete it. After that the extension should be 'free' again, not linked to some particular program.
At least thats what I'd do, with my less that perfect computing skills. [;)]

Voriax

[KG Erwin]

David, belated happy birthday. I don't really know you, but I'm a big Civil War fan, and it must be fascinating to live in an area that has so much history associated with it. I'm a West Virginian, and we still have echoes of this war alive here, too, but to be in the midst of sacred ground , where great men once stood, is a reminder of where we came from.

[DBoutwell]

Voriax,

Thanks for the help, first of all! I have been doing more snooping, and have found out that all of my other versions of SPWAW work fine when switching back and forth between the editor and WAWMAp, so it seems that the problem lies specifically with the interaction between WAWMap and the executable files in SPCW, and apparently not with the compute software. (Nonetheless, I followed your instructions, but could not find a "Realone Recording" in the file types folder, unfortunately). The .exe files have been modified, but the modifications are in things like terrain identification and leader names, so I don't know why anything that I have done would affect how map files are saved. My next approach is going to be to put my current mech.exe and the SPCW (SPWAW) .exe in a temp file and bring in original copies of these and see which one. if either is the guilty party. Also Fred Chlanda, of all people, wants me to send him a copy to take a look at.

Fortunately, I can still work on maps in both programs, and can even access maps in SPCW that have been edited in WAWMap, just not the other direction.

KG,

You are right. It is pretty incredible. The sad thing is that since I have lived in Northern VA, I have been so into SPWAW that, without a Civil War game into which to channel all of my research energies, I have, until the last year, pretty much neglected what was all around me.

I've got a cool story for you about a West Virginia soldier in McClellan's Army of The Potomac in Northern VA in 1862. It is related to grafitti and a signature in an old, still-standing warehouse along the railroad tracks at a location outside of Warrenton, VA, where McCellan's HQ was when Lincoln fired him. But, I'll have to include it in another installment, as I have to relinquish my wife's computer right now.

Best Regards,

David Boutwell

[RockinHarry]

Hi David,

I think the new association to Real player has absolutely nothing to do with the file load issue. It´s just marked by Windoze (explorer) to be opened with a certain application, but beside that the internal data structure keeps unchanged, no matter what Windows tells you...fortunately.[:-] I have a couple of that bad associations too, but usually I don´t care about them, as I normally know what files I work with and what they are.

I think you´re absolutely right assuming that the renamed executables cause the trouble. I don´t have an idea what it could be else. If you like you could send me the "trouble" file and I´ll check it with a hex editor to find out where the particular info is stored.

I know it´s very thrilling to live near a famous battlefield![8D] Just have the Hurtgenwald, Bridgehead Wesel and a couple of middle age battlefields in my backyard and I explored them intensively.

[DBoutwell]

Harry,

I have, for the moment, solved the problem. After I exchanged my current mech exe for a copy of the original, I found that the problem did not occur. So, I basically had to reedit everything that I had done previously, which didn't really take that long. Even with the editing, the problem has not occurred again, so it must have been cause by an isolated editing error. So, I'm back in business. Now back to terrain icon editing. Thanks to everyone for your input! I'm sure that it helped in some way.

Harry, I'd like to switch locations with you for a few weeks, so that I could tour all of the battlefields in Europe that I've always wanted to see. Growing up in Texas, I can remember how distant all of the major Civil War battlefields seemed to be, and actually were, and how magical they were when I visited them for the first time in high school. It would be the same if I were to walk the battlefields of Europe in the future.

Now, KG back to your story. A couple of years ago, my dad and I were touring around the valley east of the Blue Ridge in Northern VA, and we stopped by an old railroad Junction town named Rectortown, or Rector's Crossroads. Rectortown is famous in the area for being the site of one of Colonel John Mosby's headquarters. It was here that, in retaliation for the execution of seven his partisan rangers by George Custer, Mosby ordered the same for an equal number of Federal prisoners. He ordered a lottery to choose among the 27 prisoners. Three were eventually hanged, including one who took the place of a drummer boy who had "won" the lottery. My dad and I were reading the marker that related this story outside of an old farm equipment warehouse. The marker also said that the warehouse was also full of Civil War period grafitti. Out of curiousity, I walked across the street to an old gentleman who was working on a tractor, and asked him if he knew what kind of grafitti was in the building. He said that he was the owner, and that he would let me go inside. SCORE! He said that some of the grafitti was put there by Union prisoners of Mosby, which matches the historical accounts. But we found some other stuff that was not related. One piece could be made out to read (I can't remember the guy's first name, as my dad has all of the documents on this guy) ----Chambers, 1st VA Infantry, Shields Division (some date that I can't remember) 1862. After doing some research, I found that in 1862, there was a Union 1st VA Infantry Regiment, and it became the 1st West VA Regiment when Western Virginia joined the Union, I would suppose, and it was under General Shields. And, the 1st VA did, in fact pass through, and camp at, Rectortown, possibly on more than one occasion, but definitely, according to official records, on May 29, 1862. The regiment rested at Recortown from 2 PM until 5 PM on May 29th after marching from Haymarket, VA toward Front Royal, VA during Jackson's Valley Campaign. Heck that was cool enough just to correlate the signature on the wall of a building with a historical event in that units' official records. But to top it off, my dad went about locating this guy's records and where he was from, as well as where his descendents live! How would you like to get a package in the mail one day from a total stranger, with a photograph of your ancestor's signature off of a wall in a 150 year-old building???

Regards,

David Boutwell