SC4 Dat Packer

[JaimeCG]

HI!!
FIRST, LET ME JOIN THE LIST OF THANKFULL PEOPLE!
MY PROBLEM IS THAT IM A MAC USER SO I CAN'T RUN THE DATPACKER, ONCE AGAIN WE ARE LEFT BEHIND  , IS THERE A DATPACKER.DMG I'M MISSING OR CAN SOMEONE UPLOAD THE COMPRESSED FILES??
DOESN'T MATTER IF I CAN'T EDIT THEM LATER, JUST WANT TO TRY THIS OUT

THANKS!!

[wouanagaine]

Unfortunately, the code use some python and c++ files that I can't compile under mac

[dragonshardz]

Hey, Jamie CG: could you please not use all caps? It's kinda rude...

[JaimeCG]

No CAPS, No prob!

What a shame this incompatibility problem, but thanks for the response!

[cogeo]

Just a question, is it possible to instruct DatPacker not to pack specific folders, eg by putting in the folders that shouldn't be packed a file named, say, DO_NOT_DatPack_Me.txt (empty contents)? Some plugins may depend on the loading order (eg optional plugins and overrides) and it might be useful to exclude them from datpacking (even though DatPacker may be handling this issue correctly).

Is there required really much work to implement this?

[wouanagaine]

you can still let it pack the folder then leave the original folder in your plugins and delete the packed file

However in that case you'll face the loading order problem

[0rion79]

Hello everybody. Here I am with my almost-2GB-plugin folder in need of datpacker, so thanks for doing it!

I have these questions.

First of all, I would like to know if there is any guide about it, because I have just dowload the program but can't find any readme with it.

And, if I've understand correctly how it does work, I was thinking to "condensate" in one single file all those plugins that I know that I will use, that won't get updated and that I don't want to remove.
So I won't "pack" NAM, CAM and RTMT.
Instead, I'm in doubt for other files.
Eg. There is the a_CAM folder that must be at the top, then the z_CAM folder. BUt what about the CAM folder, that contians the data for growable CAMeLOTs? Also, there is the X-port folder that should not be renamed.
Do you think that I should leave untouched all those files?
Thank you.

[Diggis]

When you run DATpacker, if will create a single DAT file for each of the folders in your plugins root directory.  It will place these in a plugins_compressed folder

[wouanagaine]

And if you update one of your folder, and rerun datpacker, it will repack that folder

[MinGraphics]

What does it mean when it tells me (warning:every entries in walts tomato farm/jbmfarmfieldui.dat were superseed.)  I have many lines in the information area that say files were superseed and I have no idea what that means or what to do about it. Thanks for your help!

[wouanagaine]

it means that the mentionned files are useless because another or some others files defines exactly the same informations

For example the file you mention has likely been included in one of the Farm mega pack

It is not important in fact, it just tells you that if you run SC4 with your uncompress folders, it may take longer to load, that's all

[jerante]

Hi guys,

Hope someone could help me with the Dat Packer.
I recently installed winxp sp2 in my laptop. and I dont't have any apps installed except for sc4, net framework 2,winRAR and adobe.
I installed the dat packer but it doesn't work even if the library zip is extracted.
Am I missing some application requirements?
here is the result of the log file.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "datPacker.py", line 2, in ?
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
  File "datPackerApp.pyo", line 2, in ?
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
  File "wx\__init__.pyo", line 45, in ?
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
  File "wx\_core.pyo", line 4, in ?
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 98, in load_module
ImportError: MemoryLoadLibrary failed loading wx\_core_.pyd
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "datPacker.py", line 2, in ?
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
  File "datPackerApp.pyo", line 2, in ?
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
  File "wx\__init__.pyo", line 45, in ?
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
  File "wx\_core.pyo", line 4, in ?
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 98, in load_module
ImportError: MemoryLoadLibrary failed loading wx\_core_.pyd

This app is really awesome, I've been enjoying this tool since 2007. It's just that my system crashed and I need to make a fresh install of sc4.

Thanks and best regards,

[BarbyW]

I installed the dat packer but it doesn't work even if the library zip is extracted.

The library.zip should never be extracted as it is an internal file used by Python.

[Andreas]

Do not extract the library.zip, it should stay like that. Also, you need to install some external DLLs that are mentioned in the readme/file description; since you have a fresh Windows installation, they might be missing at the moment.

[wouanagaine]

that error is clearly the results of missing DLLs, the link are in the readme.html

[jerante]

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

PROBLEM IS SOLVED. IT'S JUST DLL, 2 MISSING DLL's

-JERANTE

[Pat]

with the new 2008 version I am getting this.....

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "datPackerApp.pyo", line 2701, in OnStart
  File "datPackerApp.pyo", line 2358, in RecurseAllFilesFull
  File "datPackerApp.pyo", line 2450, in BuildIt
  File "datPackerApp.pyo", line 2196, in WriteADat
WindowsError: [Errno 8] Not enough storage is available to process this command

Wouanagaine,
   does that mean I ran out of memory to finish writting the dat file? I installed the all 3 dependencies as per the Readme so to advoid any problems any help is apperciated thanks...

Patrick

[wouanagaine]

Hi Pat

What are you PC specs and OS ?
That is weird because beta testing showed that bug, but it was fixed with beta testers plugins  The fix was to make the resulting dat no more than 400Mb but maybe you do have a very low RAM ?

What is the size of the folder SC4DP is trying to pack when you're giving this error ?

Wouanagaine

[Pat]

I bet you that could be my problem is where I am pushing it to hard as what I was trying to do is repack what was Datpacked before...

OK my specs on the computer are as is:

Emachines T3302
AMD Sempron Processor 3300+
2.0  ghz

HD 160 gb ata

mem 512 ddr sdram

OK the specs on the folders I was trying to DatPack with the 2008 version are:

• Folder One: 276 mb
• Folder Two: 553 mb
• Folder Three: 178 mb
• Folder Four: 621 mb

[TheTeaCat]

When I installed DP2008 (+ required deps) on the first run I got

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "datPackerApp.pyo", line 2701, in OnStart
  File "datPackerApp.pyo", line 2358, in RecurseAllFilesFull
  File "datPackerApp.pyo", line 2450, in BuildIt
  File "datPackerApp.pyo", line 2175, in WriteADat
WindowsError: [Errno 8] Not enough storage is available to process this command

My machine specs are
Intel4 1.8GHz
2 gig ddr memory
2x120 Hdd over 40 gig free on each drive
Running windows XP sp3

At the time the only thing in my plugin folder was all my dependcies recently installed from the LEX DVD.
The program hung once the report appeared and had to use task manager to close.

I then realised I still had the old DP installed so I removed all copies, rebooted and reinstalled DP2008.
It ran fine and packed everything. From 1.8 gig to 1.6 gig. Fired up the game (using only the new packed files) which took 7 mins to get to region view using the new packed files

Thats not right I thought 

Out with the packed and in with the unpacked, time to region view 1.35 mins.
Hmmm. Ok another test packed the rest of the contents of the DVD. (1.24 gig to 1.06gig)

Fire up game with packed dependencies and packed plugins time to region view 11m48s
time to load an empty tile 5m45s

With unpacked dependencies and unpacked plugins  time to region view 5m21s
time to load an empty tile 2m37s

With unpacked dependencies and packed plugins  time to region view 3m11s
time to load an empty tile 1m27s

At the moment I am using the last choice as its the fastest

Just thought you'd like to know

Regards
Derry