GRFCodec 6.0.3

[Rubidium]

Due to time constraints and loss of interest patchman and DaleStan could not work on GRFCodec and NFORenum anymore. This resulted in the slow decay of both GRFCodec and NFORenum. Since GRFCodec 5.0.0 both GRFCodec and the NFORenum can be found in the GRFCodec package.

The current stable release of GRFCodec (including NFORenum) is 6.0.3. The source repository and issue tracker can be found on http://dev.openttdcoop.org/projects/grfcodec and as such bug reports and feature requests for GRFCodec and NFORenum should go to there.

Issues with GRFCodec or feature requests can go here to determine whether it is actually a bug or whether the feature request is feasible, but ultimately we would like them to be reported at the tracker.

In any case, we would like to thank patchman and DaleStan for initially developing and maintaining GRFCodec and NFORenum.

[wallyweb]

I've downloaded this and will certainly give it a good workout over the next several weeks.
A question ... I find NFORenum is quite handy although yes, it is in need of a couple of updates. Will NFORenum be picked up as well?

[Rubidium]

Will NFORenum be picked up as well?

Get the topic number of this topic, add one and there's a very similar topic about NFORenum, i.e. see http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=49612

[wallyweb]

Fantastic! Thank you for this. I'm headed next door for a look as we speak!

[frosch]

While updating the wiki... operator 10 (store in persistent storage) is the only operator which has no escape sequence by default. IMO default escapes are useful to improve readability of foreign nfo. (Though I am not aware of anyone using custom escapes either).

Someone has a good opinion about which escape to use? \2ps \2psto \2pers ?

[planetmaker]

\2psto sounds ok. I'd advise against \2pers as I'd associate that rather with personal than persistent

[Lord Aro]

...we revive GRFCodec in the hope to keep it useful and usable for as long as it's neeeded.

wait.
if GRFCodec becomes unusable for one reason or another, what would GRF devs use? (apart from windows users who have GRFMaker)

EDIT: but GRFMaker isn't that stable either is it?

[FooBar]

I'm sure GRFCodec doesn't become unusable.
"As long as it's needed" means something like "as long as no better alternative pops up".

[Eddi]

such an alternative could be the nml compiler getting an nfo frontend...

[Gremnon]

For those using Arch Linux, there are now packages in the AUR to install GRFCodec, maintained by me.
You can find it here: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=40247

[Rubidium]

Today we released a new stable of GRFCodec (version 5.0.0) which from now on includes NFORenum as well.

The most visible changes in this release are further silencing options to both GRFCodec and NFORenum's output. This should make it easier to spot errors. Furthermore cropping is now supported for big-endian architectures.

[Lakie]

Just a note, for those who have not noticed, as of r785 (nightlies) there should be the ability to encode and decode with PNG formatted spritesheets.
To encode just use the standard filenames in the NFO file, (obviously ending with ".png" not ".pcx").
To decode use the command-line argument "-o png", (note that writing PNG files is slower than writing PCX files).

~ Lakie

[Rubidium]

Today GRFCodec 5.1.0 was released which features Lakie's PNG support.

[zhargon]

Having returned to playing with OTTD after a while, I note that GRFCodec 5.1.1 has been released. All well and good, except that the new version unfortunately produces .PNG files rather than the PCX files I prefer.

The accompanying GRFCODEC documentation in the zip file is mostly Josefs I remember from a decade or so ago, though the file is dated 19th March 2011, and refers to PCX files exclusively.

It is suggested that a line or two be inserted at the top of the GRFCODEC.txt file to reflect that the PNG format is now the default, and that the PCX file can still be obtained using the -o PCX argument.

[Emperor Jake]

Hi,
Could the NFORenum and GRFCodec packages on the Ubuntu repositories be updated please? I recently installed them, and then ran into problems when trying to compile the 2CC set because the NFORenum version was so old, it didn't recognise PNG files. I subsequently installed the latest builds manually, but I'm sure many would appreciate it if the latest versions were easily accessible from the repositories.

Thanks,
Jake

[Alberth]

You should ask that at some ubuntu forum.
People here just write the program, they do not control updating of the software at 3rd-party repositories

[wallyweb]

but I'm sure many would appreciate it if the latest versions were easily accessible from the repositories.

The drop down window at http://www.openttd.org/en/download-grfcodec/5.1.1 shows an option to select grfcodec-5.1.1-linux which brings up your choice of 32 or 64 bit generic binaries. Why go to Ubuntu when the latest and greatest is so readily accessible right here?

[Emperor Jake]

but I'm sure many would appreciate it if the latest versions were easily accessible from the repositories.

The drop down window at http://www.openttd.org/en/download-grfcodec/5.1.1 shows an option to select grfcodec-5.1.1-linux which brings up your choice of 32 or 64 bit generic binaries. Why go to Ubuntu when the latest and greatest is so readily accessible right here?

That is what I ended up doing; however I originally installed the Ubuntu provided binaries because it's quite a bit more difficult to install those binaries from the website than it is to simply get it from the repositories, where it will automatically install so that the grfcodec commands are accessible from anywhere, without having to move your files to the grfcodec's location or typing in the program's location in the command line. The makefile command also needs it to be properly installed or it complains that it can't find grfcodec/nforenum. I originally used the Ubuntu repository because I wanted to save the trouble of installing it manually.

[stevenh]

Guys,

Just for clarification... when did the MinGW libraries become a requirement and what's the easiest way to install them on Windows?
I'm currently getting a "Could not find libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll" when attempting to run the EXE.

I've installed MinGW on my other machine to get around this, but thought it would nearly be nicer to bundle this to allow people to just run grfcodec?

Steven.

[Edd.Dragon]

I've installed MinGW on my other machine to get around this

You just need to copy this dll to folder there exe placed. Installing of mingw not needed.

Project (GRFCodec) must be builded with static libraries to eliminate this requirement. Required code will be placed inside exe.