Introducing: ToEE World Builder .NET2!

Heya fellas,

You probably thought I have been slacking all this time, and that I forgot about the ToEE World Builder? No way! I've been spending tremendous amount of time experimenting with the newly released .NET Framework v2.0, porting my ToEEWB code to it and trying to make use of whatever goodies it has to offer. The results turned out to be ASTONISHING!!!

So, I proudly present you the special release of ToEE World Builder v1.7.5 - the ToEE World Builder .NET2 v1.7.5. This release is functionally identical to ToEEWB v1.7.5 Classic (the one you're all used to), but it is recompiled under .NET 2.0 and optimized to make full use of its facilities.

Now, some cool stuff:

Almost all of the code has been optimized. The time it takes ToEEWB to do things has been significantly cut down. Consider the following comparison table (all tests were made on P4 2.5ghz/512 MB RAM):

Code:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Operation             | Time in ToEEWB Classic | Time in ToEEWB .NET2 (new)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Starting up ToEEWB    | 45.2996 sec            | 1.4883 sec (WOOT!!!)            
Recombining an area   | 57.3982 sec            | 16.8912 sec                        
Splitting an area     | 592.4638 sec           | 507.5011 sec                       
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

An area I used for testing was the Air Node, it's a map that consists of 800 constituents and which is graphics-intensive. As we can see, the time to split an area back still takes a long time, but it takes one and a half minutes less than with the ToEEWB Classic.

The loading time for ToEEWB has been greatly improved - it used to take 40-45 seconds to load the program (on different test PCs), now it takes virtually no time to boot up - less than 1.5 seconds for me, and only 1 second on my friend's PC which is more powerful than mine.

Recombining an area also took 3.5 times less time on .NET2 version than on the Classic, which is a serious improvement.

Interestingly enough, the file size of the executable has also been cut down from 1,265,664 bytes (for v1.7.5 classic) to 720,896 bytes (for v1.7.5 .NET2) without losing any functionality and without using any compression mechanisms. This is not that significant, but nevertheless looks impressive too.

Besides the above-mentioned optimizations which definitely look very impressive, ToEEWB has been updated to make use of Windows Styles and its menu now has a cool Office 2003 look to it, which is a part of the .NET 2.0 menu code. So, the application looks more professional than ever before.

Some features have been provided with extra error prediction code, especially the sector loading and writeout routines. This makes the .NET2 version load sectors a little slower than in ToEEWB classic (5 seconds instead of 3 seconds), but it's not a significant decrease in time, and an error prediction level is a lot higher so there will be less chance of sector data corruption.

A note about further updates to ToEEWB Classic and .NET2: All further updates will be done to both Classic and .NET2 versions of ToEEWB, so functionally these two versions will stay the same for the time being. After approximately half a year (this time is subject to change), I will only keep updating the .NET2 version of ToEEWB and the Classic one will only remain for historical purposes.

This version hasn't yet been extensively tested, so it's released in a separate thread. I would love to hear your feedback! Please help us improve this program! Everyone who will be willing to take his time to download .NET Framework 2.0 if he hasn't done it yet, download ToEEWB .NET2 and give it a try will get a cookie from me!

NOTE: You NEED Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0 Release or newer to run this version of ToEE World Builder. It will NOT run on Microsoft .NET Framework v1.1 or older, nor on any of the v2.0 betas. Get Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0 Release Package here!

NOTE: You NEED ToEE World Builder v1.7.5 Classic installed before installing the .NET2 version! The current installation package of ToEEWB.NET2 includes only the executable. Please extract the executable from the downloaded archive into your ToEEWB folder. None of the original files will be overwritten. Use the file ToEE World Builder NET2.exe to start the .NET2 version, or the standard shortcut to start the Classic version. A full installer package will be created later.

Download ToEE World Builder .NET2 v1.7.5 Build 1174 RC3 Here

- Agetian

 

Agetian, you owe me a cookie, I just tested the .net2.0 version...
I now have 2 Drow to test against! It works great, looks great, and load time are much improved (always an added bonus).

Thanks dude.

 

Here ya go, Allyx, thanks!.. <hands a huge virtual chocolate chip cookie to Allyx, which has a sign ".NET 2.0" on it>

I'm glad that you liked the new edition! Enjoy!

Anyone else to try out the new build?... I still have a bunch of those .NET 2 cookies available

- Agetian

 

Will start using it imminently... as someone who just split the earth node map (and waited forever) I am seriously looking forweard to this

 

@ Kalshane: I'm glad you liked the tool!

@ Shiningted: I hope you're going to enjoy the new ToEEWB! I'll be glad to hear more feedback from you once you try it out

And of course, both of you guys get a famous .NET 2 cookie from me <Hands the thing>

- Agetian

 

UPDATE: Uploaded a new version of ToEEWB.NET2, with added feature of Prototype Search. Now you can use Tools -> Prototype Search (or hit Ctrl+T) to locate prototypes by either part of the name or the number (or part of the number), and then automatically go to this proto in the prototype editor part of ToEEWB. Enjoy!

NOTE: This feature is currently only available in the .NET2 version of ToEEWB.

- Agetian

 

UPDATE: Reuploaded ToEEWB.NET2 - I forgot to enable the function in Protos Search that would allow to either send the result of the search either to the Protos Editor or to the Object Editor part of ToEEWB. Please redownload.

- Agetian

 

UPDATE: Once again did a small update. Made the proto search function context-insensitive, to provide a broader range of search results.
Also, here's a screenshot of the Proto Search function.

- Agetian

 

UPDATE: Fixed a little bug in the proto search function, added a Prototype Editor feature that allows one to clear proto entries with a double click (can be enabled/disabled using a checkbox in the Prototype Editor). Please redownload.

- Agetian