ANNOUNCE: Addon-checker tool for server admins

[sbsmac]

I've just created a new tool to help server admins figure out which missions are likely to give their users problems and to help mission makers check which addons they might need to specify.

Features
* Drag-and drop operation for pbos, mission-folders, or folders containing sets of pbo'd missions.
* Identifies missions requiring A2, OA and Combined-Ops content as well as those which are incorrectly flagged as A2 or OA only.
* Checks scripts for additional classes which may cause 'missing-addon' errors during the mission.
* "Force CO" feature modifies pbos and mission folders in-place so that they explicitly required both A2 and OA content. This prevents users joining the mission and then being kicked off after it starts.
* Click on an addon-name or class-name to view the files referencing that item.

Installation and use

Please refer to the main project-page


Example screenshot...



Hope you like it - any questions just ask them here.

[Foxhound]

Thanks for informing us about your new release


Release frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

Addon-checker tool

[Mosh]

Thanks, I've used it a few times already. I've been trying to isolate OA from a CO install to make it standalone (finally did it) and this tool helps verify no Arma II content is in mission a lot quicker than testing between 3 different servers...

[Terox]

Hi SbSMac, thanks ever so much for taking the time to create this tool. I was looking forward to its filtering capabilities.
However I have a bug to report

I loaded a combined ops mission into it, the same mission, I used to test the CO/OA standalone issue and it returned as OA, whereas it should have returned CO



The actual mission

http://zeus-community.net/temp/bug_mission.zip



Class: "BMP2_CDF"
Addon dependancy: "CATracked" ArmA2 content

Mission.sqm as follows

version=11;
class Mission
{
	addOns[]=
	{
		"cacharacters_e",
		"CATracked",
		"desert_e"
	};
	addOnsAuto[]=
	{
		"cacharacters_e",
		"CATracked",
		"desert_e"
	};
	randomSeed=1180125;
	class Intel
	{
		startWeather=0.30000001;
		forecastWeather=0.30000001;
		year=2012;
		month=6;
		day=24;
	};
	class Groups
	{
		items=1;
		class Item0
		{
			side="WEST";
			class Vehicles
			{
				items=3;
				class Item0
				{
					position[]={1317.4917,42.760551,1333.3591};
					special="NONE";
					id=0;
					side="WEST";
					vehicle="US_Delta_Force_Undercover_Takistani06_EP1";
					player="PLAYER COMMANDER";
					leader=1;
					skill=0.60000002;
				};
				class Item1
				{
					position[]={1331.366,42.573521,1336.8037};
					special="NONE";
					id=1;
					side="WEST";
					vehicle="US_Delta_Force_Undercover_Takistani06_EP1";
					player="PLAY CDG";
					skill=0.60000002;
				};
				class Item2
				{
					position[]={1341.4628,42.746643,1333.8442};
					special="NONE";
					id=2;
					side="WEST";
					vehicle="US_Delta_Force_Undercover_Takistani06_EP1";
					player="PLAY CDG";
					skill=0.60000002;
				};
			};
		};
	};
	class Vehicles
	{
		items=1;
		class Item0
		{
			position[]={1329.1509,42.152397,1352.0128};
			azimut=250;
			id=3;
			side="EMPTY";
			vehicle="BMP2_CDF";
			skill=0.60000002;
		};
	};
};
class Intro
{
	addOns[]=
	{
		"desert_e"
	};
	addOnsAuto[]=
	{
		"desert_e"
	};
	randomSeed=7125972;
	class Intel
	{
		startWeather=0.30000001;
		forecastWeather=0.30000001;
		year=2012;
		month=6;
		day=24;
	};
};
class OutroWin
{
	addOns[]=
	{
		"desert_e"
	};
	addOnsAuto[]=
	{
		"desert_e"
	};
	randomSeed=8225385;
	class Intel
	{
		startWeather=0.30000001;
		forecastWeather=0.30000001;
		year=2012;
		month=6;
		day=24;
	};
};
class OutroLoose
{
	addOns[]=
	{
		"desert_e"
	};
	addOnsAuto[]=
	{
		"desert_e"
	};
	randomSeed=12187450;
	class Intel
	{
		startWeather=0.30000001;
		forecastWeather=0.30000001;
		year=2012;
		month=6;
		day=24;
	};
};

[sbsmac]

Hmm - actually the problem looks like it may be with the way OA has arranged it's addons.

In my Combined-Operations installation I have a

Arma 2/Addons/tracked.pbo (for A2)
and
Arma 2/Common/tracked.pbo (for OA)

class CfgPatches in the A2 version contains...

class CATracked
{
units[]={"BMP2_CDF","BMP2_Ambul_CDF","BMP2_HQ_CDF","T72_C DF","ZSU_CDF","BMP2_INS","BMP2_Ambul_INS","BMP2_HQ _INS","T72_INS","T72_RU","ZSU_INS","BMP2_Gue","T72 _Gue","M1A1","M1A2_TUSK_MG"};
weapons[]={};
requiredVersion=0.1;
requiredAddons[]={"CAData","CACharacters","CACharacters2","CAWeapo ns","CASounds"};
};

whereas the common (OA) version contains...

class CATracked
{
units[]={};
weapons[]={};
requiredVersion=1.02;
requiredAddons[]={"CAData","CACharacters","CACharacters2","CAWeapo ns","CASounds"};
};

I had assumed that the OA 'common' addons would have to be the same as the A2 ones but comparing the two config.bins the following classes are missing from the OA version...

class BMP2_INS:BMP2_Base
class BMP2_Ambul_INS:BMP2_Ambul_Base
class BMP2_HQ_INS:BMP2_HQ_Base
class T72_INS:T72_Base
class T72_RU:T72_Base
class ZSU_INS:ZSU_Base
class BMP2_CDF:BMP2_Base
class BMP2_Ambul_CDF:BMP2_Ambul_Base
class BMP2_HQ_CDF:BMP2_HQ_Base
class T72_CDF:T72_Base
class ZSU_CDF:ZSU_Base
class BMP2_Gue:BMP2_Base
class T72_Gue:T72_Base

The AddonChecker (and, I suspect, ArmA/OA) only look at the names of the classes in CfgPatches (ie, "CATracked") which may be why you are seeing the strange results you are getting when people join the server- OA just can't tell that BMP2_CDF is missing.

So, the root of the problem seems to be that BIS have published two different versions of the same addons with different contents - there isn't any way for the user of a mission to tell that Addons/tracked.pbo was required rather than Common/tracked.pbo.

In the meantime I'll think about extending the check to an even deeper level (ie, checking for units mentioned in the mission.sqm rather than just looking at the names of required addons).

---------- Post added at 09:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:45 PM ----------

For the moment, here is a list of classes which will cause problems. These are classes which appear in either Arma2/Addons or Arma2/Common but not both.

---------- Post added at 10:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:43 PM ----------

Ok, I've now updated the tool to take account of vehicles/units specified in mission.sqm and it correctly identifies your test mission as requiring CO. The tool will auto-update when you restart it.

[sbsmac]

You can now double-click on a selected mission to get details about what addons or vehicles might be causing the CO dependency. Here you can see that the problem is the mixture of vehicles from OA and A2 even though the named addons don't clash (CATracked is available in both A2 and OA).



*Edit* Now with colour-coding. Colours are inspired by the BIS colour-scheme:-
Dark-green for A2
Sandy for OA
Red indicates a CO mission or 'common' addon which is normally a sign of potential problems.

To update, start the application, shut it down, then restart.

[Terox]

Thanks for the bug fix SbSMac, havent been able to break it, kudos to you and thanks for your efforts

[sbsmac]

Np :-) Should be another update coming soon which scans all script files in the pbo to protect against dynamically created content as well.

---------- Post added at 07:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:21 PM ----------

The tool can now scan all scripts in mission.sqm, sqf and sqs files within a mission, looking for likely class-names. It has three levels of checking - I recommend leaving it on 'paranoid' unless you are getting false positives.

---------- Post added at 08:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:19 PM ----------

Now updated to allow you to drag and drop an unpbo'd folder into the tool as well as raw pbos.

[Terox]

You're working faster than i can keep up m8, and not spamming your own thread when adding content to the tool doesnt inform folks that changes have occured. So, I'll bump it for ya :-)

Another idea that you might want to think about implementing, is the ability to batch file check, for example scan the MP Missions folder on a server to check all the pbo's in a directory. Maybe a little browse window type feature, selecting a folder

[sbsmac]

You know you can already batch check by dropping multiple files simultaneously into the tool ? Ie, open your MPmissions folder, select all the pbo files and drag them all at once