Hi Guru's

I've seen this has been asked before, but couldn't find a Final or definite answer.

Is there a way to search through the entities in Game Guru?

Or anyone with a Add-On Program doing something like that.

I'm new to GameGuru, and it take me ages browsing all the entities.
Could be nice to do a search for *man* or something..

Even a Sort options could also help alot

Thanks
Danie

Nope, this hasn't been implemented but has been brought up several times! For now you have to kind of work backwards, use Windows' File explorer and search your GameGuru entity bank folder (.\Steam\steamapps\common\Game Guru\Files\entitybank\). The folder the entity is in will correspond to what you see in the entity tree in GG.

Really wish the UI could be overhauled, it's been a gripe of mine (with GG) for years.

I will most likely end up writing something but got my plate full at the moment. There's always (and not necessarily the greatest) but try doing a search via windows explorer and point to the entitybank folder and type in the search box e.g. *building*.fpe or *man* or something close to what your searching for. Then you can right-mouse click and select "open file location". See pic below:

HI
Since the time I post this question, upto now, I've quickly done a smaal program (Still work in progress)
Really a rush job, busy adding a search function now
Display Bitmap Thumbnail, and also X/fpe in a Ascii Viewer
Might put on the groups if someone find it usefull

Cheers
Danie

This feature has been requested since Game Guru (FPSC Reloaded) was in alpha lol

To be honest though any search may be unworkable ( probably why it hasn't been done )
How can you categorise module sections like " LW 35 " or walls called W1_stone, W2_ Brick, W3, cement etc unless you rename every asset and put walls with walls … pipes with pipes …. buildings with buildings .. and so on
A viewer maybe the best we could get but that's not much different that what we have anyway via clicking the folder.

This isnt bad though by Ratall
https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/218328
GGOD … An external database but I remember it worked pretty good

If it was to be implemented inside GameGuru, probably the easiest way to do it would be to add a "category =" and "tag1 = tag2 = tag3 = etc."entry to the FPE structure, with the search engine reading those entries to index them, granted it would take some time to update all the existing media, but it might be worth it, we could probable even have fixed categories in the entity picker where you could drag the entities into the categories and it would update the fpe category entry. Wish i could code, i have rhe ideas, but i don't have the ability.

No stock asset could ever be renamed though within the retail version
There are around 6 gig of assets and thousands of users with maps who would hit the roof if their maps suddenly stopped loading their assets because they had been moved, renamed etc for the save of a search feature…

I don't think Belidos means to rename, I think he means to add fields to the .FPE file i.e my Bus Shelter FPE could be..



note the top 6 lines, so a search could be any of those lines


Personally I think it may be a good idea and I am certain a 'batch' process could be used to add the lines to the current FPE's

As GraPhix said, nothing would actually be physically moved, it would just be an entry in the fpe defining the tags and categories, and the part where i said about dragging onto the categories, i didn't mean they would move to those categories physically, i meant you drag an entity onto a category icon and it updates the fpe to that category for you.

No it was an off the wall remark not specific to any comment.
I was just saying

tags would be a nice and simple solution indeed, maybe one day we'll get search and copy and paste for us lazy users

The store assets are searchable by labels. Though this label information is not within the engine and only the online store. We technically should have an FPE entry for labels/tags at the very least the "category".

For GG to update all the FPE files with labels, it wouldn't be that difficult with batch processing. This may actually be the first engine (apart and FPSC) that has absolutely no way for you to search your entity library and no way to search for an entity placed on your map (a whole other feature). Which Unity solves with a system like this.

When using Unreal, it becomes the most handy tool i find, as you just type in the field what you are looking for from your library and its BAM right there instead of searching folders upon folders and sub folders. I'm assuming this was not added to GG due to the amount of work involved. I have no understanding of C++ really or the interface stuff.. so i have no way of knowing whats involved.

This is something I also wanted for a while. Having tags for each entity would be the way to go me thinks.

Guys, I may have an intermediate solution for you, until such time when BOTR will find some time for this.
[Edit: moved the following remark to the top
Oh, just one little thing: 32-Bit users, please go away, there's nothing to be found for you, here.

* It is not really pretty, "lean and mean" is the better term.
* It's a helper, not a do-er. You'll still have to go down the path to the entity in your GG workspace manually
* But this little thingy WILL allow you to search (by arbitrary partial entity name ), select ( by visual inspection of the entity's icon ) an entity and see its exact path down the entity tree of GG.

* It also defies anyone who thinks that "categorizing by fields to be maintained manually" is worth the labour involed, here. =;-]

It is derived from a bigger package I had in mind way back in time; I found it coincidentally on my harddisk when this thread was created.

* There's two upshots:
1. I definitely will put no more work into it
2. Of all the the virus detectors on virus total, only JianMing has complaints about it (see 2nd attached pic)
I personally compiled it today with a fresh compiler install, so I am pretty sure JianMing is wrong.

What I'm not sure of is whether this standalone is sufficient for you. It was intended to sort of access GG's windows in the background,
but, as Lucius Fox once had it : "We never got the damn bridge to work , but this baby works just fine"

PM me if you are interested.
Regards
Y.

Hi Guys.

This is my attemp in a Small Program to search the EntityBank for specific Files/names.
(Actually you can search any folder for any file if needed)
Personally I think it is super fast.
( I don;t use any database, so everytime it will be freshly loaded)
Steps 1.
Select you game Guru EntityBank folder, Click refresh
There is 2 Tabs (One - Tree) and one with Full Paths
Double click on any path will list all files (Or you can use the search button)
When selecting bmp, jpg, gif you can open the thumbnail viewer
All other files will open with your default application to use for that extension name.
Enjoy... hope someone can find it usefull

** Known issues
** Only drill down maximum 9 folders from the entitybank folder

Leave you comments/suggestions
Cherio
Danie

will have a look at this, thanks DannyD

Hi Danie
it IS very fast, even taken into account that you don't seem to bother to show icons, congrats.
Whished I knew how to achieve that speed .
You may whish to check what happens if someone presses the refresh button twice or more on the same root directory
Best regards
Y.

fast, very fast.. Only issue at the moment is that pressing F5 several times, adds in duplicate folders, see pic:
Maybe I'm missing something but the "records" list box doesn't tell me where I can find the actual files. If I double click on a file in the "records" list box I get a message saying it can't find the file, see 2nd pic:

[edit-ah ok in the thumbnail bit]

Hi Guys
yrkoon:
I don't use Databases or any writing to HDD to file, and use memory to create a queue in memory and use memory/cpu speed to get the
listbox filled. a(Very Handy future in the programming language I'm using). Only when you click on the name, I load the image from HDD and display.

ERROR:
Thanks guys, see the error now in the tree list, keep duplicating but the FullPath listbox show correct.

@Bored of the Rings
I try to duplicate your error... can you maybe do a step by step what you did when the message popup.
Maybe just try to restart the program, and see if it happens again?

Thanks guys

no longer adds duplicate folders in tree. good stuff

May I ask what P/L you are using, Donie ?
I was somehow expecting that you sort of create a private copy of the MFT in memory and have some clever routines available to scan that, but I think that usually, antivirus programs interfere if one does that.
The use of queues to de-couple the reading of directories from further processing is obviously a very good concept.
Thanks for the inspiration
Y.

hm, it seems to do, here (re-downloaded after seeing above statement, retried then).
One more thing, after executing an F2 search, entries in the right window respond with an error popup. (e.g., bmp selection)

Hi yrkoon

It is Softvelocity Clarion. Been using Clarion from the Early Dos 6.1 days (Clarion 2.00) wayback in 1992.
Since then Clarion, and Visual Studio C++

This program is done in Clarion Developer 6.1. Is an old APP I had, and just did some revamp for this purpose....

I'll have a look at the error codes

Cheers
Danie

Looks good, but I have never ever heard of Clarion before. I presume the prices called on their website are in US$ ?

But, on the other hand: I took this as an impetus to see how I can implement messaging into the p/l I am using.
I already got a very basic simple message processing prog up and running this afternoon, with almost non-existent prior knowledge on the matter.
Cheers
Y.

Hi yrkoon
Yeah, it's in USD. Pretty expensive.
We are only a handfull of clarion developers accross the world.
cheers
Danie

Hi Guys
Original Post update with version 1.4
https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219902#msg2603913

Fixed:
* No more unwanted Image not found messages
* No more duplicates in relation tree when doing a refresh (Checking for duplicate file paths)

Optimized/changed:
* search results sort A > Z
* thumbnail viewer only available when bmp/jpg/gif selected
* nicer looking thumbnails
* Code cleanup - even more speed improvement.

TIP:
1. Quick way to find the total number of files in entitybank -
Enter a "." DOT in the search file and do a Search (Total Records/Files Shown in top Right of the Window)
The same for other file formats eg: found total .x files, enter ".x" in search field (Without the quotes)



Please post any comments/suggestions...

Enjoy
Danie

Hi Danie.
Gave 1.4 a short run. Seems to be working alright ( I did not really test everything down to the most absurd input constellations.)

Suggestions:
* If selection is set to ".fpe", it is perfectly ok to open a selected file in the editor on LEFT_CLICK ,
but I think, it could be a good idea to show the corresponding BMP icon (which per standard has the same basename as the fpe)
on RIGHT_CLICK, so the user can make sure that he'll really be working on the intended .fpe
( basically, that is what I do to "identify" an entity: it needs to have a bmp and an fpe with the same basename to "qualify" as an entity
* What I also had in mind when I devised my program was a check for double entries (mainly triggered from the case of Oldpman
when he first issued his REALLY big package at less than bargain price and the users found that GG couldn't handle > 1000 entitis or so in one directory, and he then re-isssued his pack neatly organized in a subdirectory structure, but everbody still had the main dir filled with 1000s of files also in the subdir structure
A rough first check program I devised show a potential of surpassing the gigabyte barrier of space wasted on doublettes on my installation.

* an option to order entries by filedate descending (default with my prog) could help the user to quickly identfy his most recently acquired items.
* I also thought of one - as I think - HIGHLY useful function :
identification and backing up of freebies and non-store entities
because, on a re-install from scratch, they won't come done again from the store. THAT is the only point where I would agree to some sort of categorizing being useful. I was pondering the problem a lot, but couldn't think of a solution other than read- accessing the store online and querying it.
Just about when I had finished a basic routine for that, the store guys cracked down drastically on some other guy accessing the store by his program, calling it a violation of terms (which it probably was), so, I didn't pursue the matter and generally put the whole thing on ice until you opened this here thread; that's also why I never talked to them on the matter - which one really should do first - , so, I'm unsure whether they are willing to agree, even, if the respective program code is made visible to them.
Maybe, Clarion also has provisions for that kind of thing ?


keep up the good work
Y.

Hi Guys
Original Post update with version 1.5 (Beta)
https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219902#msg2603913

Additions
* Display associates BMP file when selecting a FPE file - SUGGESTED BY: yrkoon
* Add Mouse Right Click option to Files menu for Sorting options/File Info/ Date/Time sort - SUGGESTED BY: yrkoon
* Add History Menu option.

NEW (Beta)
'* First release of a Duplicate File SEARCH
Not to bad for "speed" I think, but can take a while if find dupliucate is set to *.* (Wildcards), Pretty fast when only select Extension, eg ".fpe"

Suggestions and comment welcome
Cherio
Danie

Hi Danie
Well done, and still impressively fast.
I wouldn't worry too much about the "slowdown" on the search of duplicates.
It is important that "daily operations" stay as fast as they are.
Checking for duplicates to me is NOT a daily operation, I'd do it every once in a while, probably months apart. And, usually, if one executes a search for duplicates, one probably is inclined to remove duplicates not needed, so, results will becom fewer and fewer.
Thus :

New Suggestion #1:
Add an option to remove a duplicate

New Suggestion #2:
Please have a look at the attached pic. Not sure how this comes to happen, but a secure way of finding real duplicates even with differing names, or telling files with like names and other attributes apart that aren't really duplicates, is to use checksums (like MD5) on a significant enough part of the files (that's what I do, and 10k per file seems more than enough and yields tolerable response times in my heretofore "sequential" proceedings with your - shall I call it : - decoupled approach, the checksum calculation can possibly be done in background in advance while the user is sorting out his thoughts what he wants to do in the first place.

Sorting your internal files table in memory on an additional checksum attribute field would then neatly reveal duplicates, because every duplicate will directly follow the "original" in position in the list or array you probably are using.
I've thought this out early - one of the reasons why I'm using a database approach - and found lately that it is useful on the byway because some authors seem to have renamed quite a few entities in the store.

best regards
Y.

Howdy

Yes, the delete of a duplicate will be implemented.

Currently I just to a filename/date/size comparision, I know, not the best practice.
Was thinkinh about MD5/SHA1/SHA2 for duplicate found, but will do that algorithm at a later stage.
I've already spend to much time these past few days, . Just want to catchup on my daily programs.
Will surely release a new version within the next week.
I just need to findout if the guys will really use the proggie.
If it's only useful for 1 or 2, then time spend might not be worth it
Anyway, thanks for the suggestions
Cheers
Danie

And one little more suggestion:
New suggestion #3
on initial scan, create an internal list of filetypes i.e. file extension, and count how many files fall into the slots,
like this example from my installation (format is: <filecount>:<filename extension part>
13460: dds
7878: bmp
7850: fpe
7436: x
4055: txt
992: png
915: wav
421: lua
303: dbo
118: cci
105: jpg
70: fpm
62: fx
57: blob
55: ogg
18: ter
16: fbx
11: dat
8: fnt
7: pfb
6: tga
5: dll
4: ini
2: cfg
2: exe
1: txp
1: ico
1: bin
1: xlsx
1: json
1: ebe
1: pdf
1: ele
1: ent
1: way
1: mp4
1: ogv
then change the filetype list to be composed of these ( possibly/optionally omitting entries w. less than 10 occurences),
thus automatically taking provisions that in future, other file types may occur "in masses" . Maybe, it is easier to have the list as a drop down selection rather than radio buttons.

New suggestion #4
Make a "Pro " version:
The radio button space could still be used for "advanced/convenience" searches, (if the drop down list for simple searches is chosen)
such as
* "real entities" ( only fpe files that have correspondingly named .bmp files ;
in my real example, it shows that for some reason,
I'm having 28 more bmp files than .fpe files; "inverting" this search would even show the 28 "aliens" alone, so one can go easily after where they are coming from - and whether they are needed at all).
* find which entities are possibly missing usually required filetypes, like NormalMaps etc.

* find which image filetypes have false types (way back in time, I regularly detected some files which were passed as other types by just having their file extension changed instead of really being converted ( .dds that were .jpg files, technically, if I remember correctly).

* even more "convenience" could be implemented by inspecting fpe s and find inconsistencies or non-canonical file uses ( an fpe ABC.fpe internally assigns files named XYZ.dds ; things like that.

Yes, that 's starting to read like the design of a "GG Suisse Army Knife" I know, but ....

Version 1.5 Have the quantity per file extension available

Cherio
Danie

Great achievement , Danie.

Would be interesting to learn what others think
Best regards
Y.

yet to test the 1.5 beta, maybe later after work. Well done on this

will try it right away, thanks Danny D good job . .

Intel Pentium CPU G3220 3.000 GHz , 8 GB Ram , NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745 2GB , Windows 10 64-bit.
GameGuru , S2Engine HD , Shoot EM Up , CopperCube 5 , Clicteam Fusion 2.5 , Platfinity .

Thank you for taking the time to make this, it is very good and has helped me remove 3.7 GB of duplicates thank you

Your Welcome GraPhiX

Hi Guru's

Hi Guys
Original Post update with version 1.6 (Beta)
This is I think the most complete version yet, but I still keep it BETA for testing
https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219902#msg2603913

Changes:
I've decided to change the name from "getentities" to "Super Fast File Scanner" as of today.

Additions:
Add droplist at the path search to save previous search paths.
More accurate duplicate file searching using MD5/SHA1/SHA256 Algorithms
Added menu options "Utilities"
1. MD5 Algorithm Tested (Just for fun)
You can create MD5/SHA/SHA256 for Filenames and/or Strings
2. File Count
Search the folders, and count files according to the file name extension

Enjoy!!!!

Danie

A really nice logo you created.

This is a problem I have encountered.

See Image #1
If I call for a search "fpe" using "arrow" as a search value, I do get all the files that contain that parameter. However, when I double click on the file of choice I get an error message as shown. You will note that it is trying to look in subfolder "_markers" in which that file is not there. In fact every single one I click on tries to look in that directory.

See Image #2
If I go directly to the subfolder this particular object resides I will first get the info about this object.

See Image #3
When I double click on the file, it will do what it's supposed to do and load the fpe file into my editor for that particular file.

Bottom line the program points to the wrong directory for searched objects. At least for "fpe" files. I hadn't tested the other types of objects as yet.

Suggestion

When we click on the Count File option of Utilities, make a button/option to cancel.

Hi Guru's

Original Post update with version 1.6 .3(Beta)
https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219902#msg2603913
Very important BUG fix - Thanks Flatlander for pointing it out.

Remove a Nasty File message box error, when selecting .fpe files...

Add F3 cancel button to File Counts.

This version is pretty stable, so please test and reply with what ever issue might arrises.
This will also be the last version (Excluding fixes) available for download here... (Except the final Version with Fixes) but no new additions
will be added.
We busy implementing a bunch of new and exciting futures available soon.
Thanks to everyone participated with idees and testing.... you'll be remember with the final version....
Special Thanks to yrkoon for the (behind the scenes) idees/suggestions and chats.

Enjoy
Danie

Thank you, Danie. It was a joy exchanging ideas with you, and you created a little gem in software.
You deserve praise for it.
Best regards
Y.

I don't agree, most of existing assets have a correct name, and even if some could have strange names, you can remember them and search them.
Inteface overhaul is still really needed imo.

Yes, and that is why Danie's program is a BIG improvement, albeit not being integrated into the editor .


True. But one has to accept that GG's editor is no stranger to memory problems, and adding the search internally is almost guaranteed to make them worse, given the number of models most of us are keeping in our entitybanks.
.
The best would be to keep this search as an external program with its own address space,
and have its final results communicate to the editor by means of interprogram communication.
And while one is at it, create a "user program" menu branch in the editor, to let people run Danie's program from the menu,
alongside, say, the "lua editor" of choice and maybe, "Weapon Welder", things like that,

Hey DannyD's program is awesome …
But Sorry .. I will bet you cant remember half the names of all your assets names in GameGuru ... Im not buying that for a second
for example I looked for a Hut yesterday I had used and could not find it via the search so I did the old fashioned way .
I eventually found it and it turned out to be called " Out Building " If you have an idea of the name its great but usually if I remember the name and model I remember its location anyway ..

But thats just me ..

I think this program is really good. If your not happy with the FPE/model names etc, you can rename them so that they make more sense to you so "outside building" , just rename to "hut" or whatever. But I agree , it 's a matter of personal taste, there's no right or wrong as such.

Don't get me wrong … I agree the program is fantastic.. My original point was because of obscure names, Module packs with weird names etc.... People are quoting my posts that were referring to a built in search and NOT an external one like DannyD's …

I have around 50 maps with experiments, tests and things I want to keep as do many of you .. Renaming assets is not an option even for an official search engine in GG .. Im pretty sure you would all flip out if you loaded your maps and all the assets were missing because they had all been neatly renamed and categorised

And your suggested solution approach for that exact - and may I say : rare - problem - disregarding internal or external program - is like ... what ?

Also: A search for "build" in Danie's proggie would have brought you close to your target - not too far a jump, is it ? Trying to use the program by full exact filenames is not the most efficient approach.

I wouldn't exactly call it a rare issue, if you buy from the store there are a lot that are named like that, for example of the stuff I've downloaded from wizardofid alone there's over 100 entities named things like b-1c etc.

Maybe a way could be added to list the items that couldn't be categorized and an option to categorize them yourself (not a psychical change just inside the search engine) so then future searches would bring those items up and show you where they are.