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Program a very simple EXE ?

scottb613

scottb613

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Hi Folks,

This is actually for MSTS as I work both sides of the fence... Would any programmers be willing to help me out and make me an extremely simple "exe" file based on a bat file ??? I just don't have the tools (bat to exe compiler) to make an exe myself and since this is a one time deal - I'd rather not spend money on it...

I just need a file to improve a graphics tool to do the following:

Filename: MakeAce.exe

Equivalent "bat" code: "C:\Program Files\Digital-Rails\Mosaic\aceit.exe" %1 %2 -q

*** Instead of a hard coded path - could we drop the path so it will run with the requirement of having "aceit.exe" in the same local directory as "MakeAce.exe" ? That should eliminate any local configuration issues...

*** This would be shared with others who might need it as "Freeware" with full credits in a readme...

Thanks for the consideration...
:)

Regards,
Scott
 
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Not too sure I understand what you are trying to do but why not just edit your bat file to "aceit.exe" %1 %2 -q"?

As long as the batch file and aceit.exe are in the same folder then that will work.
 
I suppose I can do it, but the same question... why not use the bat file with relative route?
 
Hi Folks,

Thanks for the responses...

Yep - that's exactly what I want to do - remove the path so AceIt has to be in the same directory as the program calling it...

Real quick and dirty - MSTS has a third party addon that was abandoned sometime around 2005 - called Mosaic - that uses an MSTS provided utility called MakeAce to generate textures for what we would call Landclass tiles here in MSFS... Mosaic allows us to paint/modify/create photorealistic tiles in large numbers at a time... Problem is the really old MSTS MakeAce utility can only support textures up to 512x512... That Mark guy who made many of the graphics programs we use - such as ConvImX - created a new program called AceIt that will process large files in the same manner - also created years ago... I've tested up to 2048x2048 but I think it does even larger ones...

I'm simply trying to fool Mosaic into calling AceIt so I can process larger files...

MakeAce.exe is hard coded in the Mosaic application so I have to have a program with the same name...

I've already tried (2) of the so called FREE bat to exe converters - while the first one actually works - they want $50.00 to remove the 30 second sleep introduced to force you to buy the program... I don't mind paying for software - but - this is a one time deal for me so it seems a bit steep... I'm processing over a hundred tiles at a time so the sleeps kill me... The second one I tried wouldn't pass the arguments through the code... Basically we have a program - calling a program - calling yet another program...

I'm not a professional programmer but I've written Unix shell scripts for decades - so I understand the basic concepts - I haven't done much with PC's though... I really didn't want to impose - but - I thought this would be an extremely simple exercise for a knowledgeable programmer and would only take a few moments to create... If I thought it would have taken more - I really wouldn't have asked...
;)

Regards,
Scott
 
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basically it should not be too difficult, yes. Makes sense that if the call is hardcoded, you need a "fake" file with the same name. I can do it, but I don't know when - my calendar is too full.
 
Hi Scott:

Hi Scott:

I'm not a programmer or a Train simmer, but perhaps with a bit more clarification of your intended workflow, a simpler solution than an executable might be identified by others here. ;)

What exactly are you wanting to achieve via AceIt and/or its internal graphics utility engine "TGATool2A" ? :scratchch


FYI: :idea:

"AceIt" is written by by Scott M. Miller:

http://www.railserve.com/Computers/MSTS/Utilities/


"TGATool2A" (Included with- and installed by- AceIt) is written by by Martin Wright:

http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/train/train.htm

NOTE: The latter download appears newer than the "TGATool2A" within the above linked "AceIt" package, and now has a HTML Help web page included

[EDITED]
CAVEAT:

"Do not use (the older) TGATools2. Use TGATools2a. That "a" makes a difference. You can get that version by downloading Ace-It. The MSTS default makeace.exe has problems with 1024x1024 textures and larger. Ace-It solves all of those problems and makes better output to boot."

http://www.elvastower.com/forums/index.php?/topic/18169-converting-a-1024x1024-to-ace-format-help/
[END_EDIT]



BTW: "ConvImX" is also by Martin Wright (aka "That Mark guy who made many of the graphics programs we use" :D ):

http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/beta.htm



I'm wondering if batch processing of a folder of files directly with "TGATool2A" might be more readily achieved via a DOS / CMD mode "For - In - Do" routine ?

A discussion with examples of this "batch" function is linked via this thread:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/please-help-me-with-bgl2xml-and-thanks.271787/


Hope this info helps ! :cool:

GaryGB
 
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Hi Gary,

A wealth of information and always a pleasure - sir... Oops - I thought I got AceIt of Martin's MW site - my mistake...

The advantage to Mosaic is that I can copy 100 plus tiles - copy them into in my case PSP - paint them all at the same time - copy this chunk image back into Mosaic and hit process... Mosaic breaks the large image back into tile size chunks - converts them to Aces - and - assigns them to the respective tiles in MSTS... While I guess it could be done outside of Mosaic - it might be a bit difficult...

I feel even funnier asking for any in depth help for a different sim than this board is about... Honestly - it's beyond the scope I initially intended - I've taken enough of everyone's time on an issue that really won't benefit anyone here in this community... We can let this thread die - I'll figure something out...

All of you that have responded - thank you so much...
:)

Regards,
Scott
 
Hi Scott:

No need to "feel funny"... just come back and show us all some nice screenies of your MSTS scenery when you get farther along, and all will be forgiven ! :)

GaryGB
 
Hi Garry,

You've got it ! I have a few MSFS irons in the fire as well... I get burned out with one sim after intensely working on projects for a while then I switch to the other and do the same... It's always just MSFS and MSTS - lol - been doing it for years... MSFS usually gets the lions share though...

Thanks again !

Regards,
Scott
 
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I haven't tested it, but I think this should work. Just run it with your two desired arguments, and it should run aceit.exe with those two arguments, in addition to -q. If you try giving it something other than two arguments, it'll warn you. Likewise, it'll also warn you if you try running it without aceit.exe in the same directory. Requires .NET Framework 4.5 or newer.

Download
 
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