NFO Editor Problems

[Zhe Toralf]

Hi I'm Zhe Toralf from Germany, so my english could be a little bad.
Well, I just got some stuff to create own .grf files, including the NFO Editor
(http://www.divxland.org/ttd/).

I've decoded some grf files to learn how this all works, but there's a Problem with the NFO Editor. When I open a NFO file, the editor tries to create a preview .bmp file from the .pcx file which belongs to the nfo.

But I can only view pseudo sprites, because when the Editor tries to create a preview for real sprites, the progress reaches 100% but right after that, theres an Alert "Failed to ceate file <file>.bmp. The NFO file will be closed now, but it is recommended to restart the program now."

I restarted the program and my system (windows XP with service pack 2)
several times, but there's no difference.

Anybody got a suggestion?

[PikkaBird]

Anybody got a suggestion?

Yes. Don't use NFO editor.

It's by no means a required program for making grf files - in fact, I've never heard of anyone using it.

[Zhe Toralf]

SO what else should I use?

I tried to open the nfo files with Notepad2 (http://www.editoren.net/text/notepad2.htm), which can read a lot of files, but when I view an NFO file with it, i have some characters which are shown as some symbols you can't read, depending on file, how many of them appear.

[PikkaBird]

That's very peculiar. An NFO shouldn't include any too outlandish characters. Although the decoding parser for text strings is not perfect and will occasionally convert bits it shouldn't, resulting in sprites like:

1045 * 47 00 03 01 29 00 0E 1F "+8ä" 8B "cm«´Üâ" 7F "fYÊÆu" 87 A2 87 "¯<PJ2H%-¢" 16 3F 94 "N©`+" 13 "-'" 13 1C

I personally use ConTEXT for editing NFO files.

Incidentally, decoding grf files is probably not the best way to learn to write NFO. Your best bet is to start from scratch, read slowly through the tutorial on the wiki, and then come and post in the graphics forum when you get stuck.

[Zhe Toralf]

With conTEXT, it doesn't look different. It really seems to be an decoding problem.
Well if I have such a NFO file, with strange charakters, will the grf file be correct, if I encode this file again?

[XeryusTC]

Incidentally, decoding grf files is probably not the best way to learn to write NFO. Your best bet is to start from scratch, read slowly through the tutorial on the wiki, and then come and post in the graphics forum when you get stuck.

I don't agree with you here, I used decoded GRFs to help me understand what was explained at the wiki. It helped me make my first (working) newstations GRF today .

[Zhe Toralf]

Wait, if you don't decode the grf's, how do youd edit them? AFAIK, you need a .pcx file and a .nfo file to create a .grf with the grf codec, or is there another way?

[PikkaBird]

AFAIK, you need a .pcx file and a .nfo file to create a .grf with the grf codec, or is there another way?

Yes. You can make a pcx and nfo file from scratch, you don't need to decode a grf to get them.

[DaleStan]

Yes. Don't use NFO editor.

Seconded.
Or, if you do use it, read the notes and warnings first, and obey them.

Well if I have such a NFO file, with strange charakters, will the grf file be correct, if I encode this file again?

Yes. GRFCodec is guaranteed to produce output it can read, and barring requested palette changes, output that will generate a functionally equivalent grf file.

NFORenum's @@BEAUTIFY command is pretty good at converting NFO from GRFCodec's often-flawed guesses to something that's pretty close to correct. If you don't like the output, check the readme; it details several settings that you can adjust to tailor the output to your liking.

[Wile E. Coyote]

As DaleStan said.
NFO Editor is totally outdated, it don't support text strings too, etc. If you aren't familliar with NFO editing, you can PM Szappy for GRF Maker (altough it has its own limitations too).