[REL] RadioStationManager V1.0

[Digital_Trucker]

RadioStationManager
February 15, 2008 : Version 1.2 now available. This version is to squash a bug that caused data in added event entries to be corrupted.


Now available only in the smaller footprint version. Download at Subsim Downloads or at Downunder.net




Purpose : Complete management of the radio station functions of Silent Hunter IV.

It allows the editing/addition/removal of radio stations including scripted events.

Data verification in all fields. This application verifies that the media files specified in the scripted events do exist and therefore eliminates the crash to desktop caused by a missing (or misnamed media file). This app also verifies that all events are in the correct chronological order.

It has a function to work-around the save date/time bug in the scripted events (i.e. no more listening to events that go back to your patrol start date when you restart a game in the middle of a patrol).



Credits

Many thanks to Misfit138 for serving as “guinea pig” and doing testing, and starting the whole process with his idea.

Thanks, too, to JScones for the “real estate” advice and operational advice.

I'd also like to thank the Academy, and all my fans..... oh.. wait... wrong speech

Hi, Mom!


Requirements

Windows XP/Vista?/2000? (not certain about Vista or 2000 and have no way of testing at the moment)
Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0


Limitations

50 Radio Stations
1500 events per station
1 media file per event

Installation


With JSGME : Put the folder RadioStationManager into your MODS folder and enable it with JSGME.
Without JSGME : Place the executable (RadioStationManager.exe) in the same folder as sh4.exe.
Either way, create a shortcut on your desktop for the RadioStationManager.exe file.



If there are any problems, feel free to post here or to email me at the address in the documentation. I hope this app makes your radio experience with SH4 an enjoyable one!

[wovik]

Downloaded and tried this version and it works great.

[chris455]

Looks like a great mod, but I keep getting an error message "Event date/Time out of sequence; please correct"
Everything looks in sequence to me.
Ideas?

[Misfit138]

Originally Posted by chris455

Looks like a great mod, but I keep getting an error message "Event date/Time out of sequence; please correct"
Everything looks in sequence to me.
Ideas?

This could be pretty much anything. An event in a wrong place or two different events set to happen on excatly same date and time

On which station you get this error?

[Digital_Trucker]

When that error is displayed, the line causing the error should appear at the top of the data grid area for the events. If you scroll up at least one line and look at the dates and times of the events, they should be out of chronological order. Don't forget that the dates are in day, month, year order. After looking at the line above the highlighted line, if they are still in order, please zip the events.ini file that is causing the problem up and email it to the address in the ReadMe pdf and give me the date on the line that is highlighted. I'll try to recreate the problem and correct it.

Edit : Hey, Misfit, you snuck in there while I was typing :rotfl:

[chris455]

I think I'm getting it on NBC. I will check it out and submit it for your review if I can't figure it out. Thanks, great mod looking forward to using it

[Misfit138]

Originally Posted by Digital_Trucker

Edit : Hey, Misfit, you snuck in there while I was typing :rotfl:

Hey, what can you do if you have no life :p

I think I'm getting it on NBC

Umm, which one of those NBC stations?

[ReallyDedPoet]

Nice work, great to see this released


RDP

[chris455]

I think I'm getting it on NBC

Umm, which one of those NBC stations?[/quote]

I beleive the download was called "Just40sNBC"

I got the problem figured out, this is a great mod.

[Bill Nichols]

Originally Posted by Digital_Trucker

When that error is displayed, the line causing the error should appear at the top of the data grid area for the events. If you scroll up at least one line and look at the dates and times of the events, they should be out of chronological order. Don't forget that the dates are in day, month, year order. After looking at the line above the highlighted line, if they are still in order, please zip the events.ini file that is causing the problem up and email it to the address in the ReadMe pdf and give me the date on the line that is highlighted. I'll try to recreate the problem and correct it.

Edit : Hey, Misfit, you snuck in there while I was typing :rotfl:

I found that quite a few of my stations had events out of order, file names different from what was in the event list ( like using '-' instead of '_' ), etc. I was able to fix them all and (hopefully) avoid some radio-created crash.

Great mod/utility this

[Gato]

Aloha,this seems like a great mod,but when I try to use it with CBS News I get the media file does not exist message.I select the station,press the apply changes button and get the above message.All the media files are displayed in correct order in the events window,so they ARE in there! I'm pretty confused(not an uncommon situation!) Ideas? Thanks

[swdw]

Start a career and save while in the office view- don't go out to sea yet. Then run RSM.

DT, please correct me if I'm wrong. It seems RSM needs to know what dates you're playing to get everything set up correctly. Since there are different career start dates, you have to have a career ready to go first for it to look at.

[Digital_Trucker]

Originally Posted by Gato

Aloha,this seems like a great mod,but when I try to use it with CBS News I get the media file does not exist message.I select the station,press the apply changes button and get the above message.All the media files are displayed in correct order in the events window,so they ARE in there! I'm pretty confused(not an uncommon situation!) Ideas? Thanks

Slight misconception here. What shows in the window is the name of the media file that SHOULD be played at the event time. When a media file does not exist in the EXACT name that is listed in the window, the program will highlight it and redisplay the section of the events file that is in error (sometimes you have to scroll up one lor two lines to find the offending line, but you will see that it is selected for you. Then press the "Browse" button and you will be offered a list of the media files for the radio station. For the offending entry, you won't find the EXACT name of the media file anywhere in that list, but you may find the one that was originally intended to be played. If so, then select it like you would normally select a file and the program will change the data in the radio station events file to match the media file name and your error will be corrected.

When most of the radio station mods were created, there was no way to automatically check to make sure that the name of the file was correct. If a media file does not exist at the time and date that the event is supposed to occur, a CTD will occur (whether you are listening to that station or not). That is why my program checks to make sure that the exact file exists to be played.

Originally Posted by swdw

Start a career and save while in the office view- don't go out to sea yet. Then run RSM.

DT, please correct me if I'm wrong. It seems RSM needs to know what dates you're playing to get everything set up correctly. Since there are different career start dates, you have to have a career ready to go first for it to look at.

There was (and possibly still is) a problem with the date of a saved game not being correctly recorded. When the radio station would start it's events, it would go back to the date that you last left port and replay all the events between the "port" date and the current in-game date. What I did with the prepare stations button was to accomplish a workaround for that problem. Every time you see a text message in-game (i.e. all stop, torpedo in the water, etc.) the time and date is recorded in one of the save game files. My program reads through that file to the end, determines the correct date/time for a saved game (as of the last message entry) and comments out all events prior to that date/time. In that way, the events don't get replayed. To be honest with you, I don't know of the incorrect save game date/time bug still exists or not. I believe it was supposed to be fixed in the 1.4 patch. If so, then this option isn't necessary any more. If the problem still exists, you only need to run the "prepare" function when you are getting ready to load a saved game that was in mid patrol, or if you are starting a new career.

[Fish40]

DT, I just want to say I enjoy useing your mod. It's great not to have to listen to the same news, over and over and over and over, well you get the picture. Great job

[AVGWarhawk]

DT, trying to figure this out. So I start a career and save? Then go out of game and fire up the manager via the exe?

So far I can bring up the program and see the files, etc. Do I press prepare for game?