New tool for the mapping community: SMIS

Hello everyone, ive been in the #snarkpit channel on quakenet for a
while now, decided to join the forum community after beta testing a
couple maps (namely, mudanche and dm_intense2).

This post is just a little bit of info (you could call it an advert if
you really wanted to :sad: ) about a mapping-related tool that i've
created, called SMIS which is short for Steam Map Installer Script, and
its a set of script files for NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System)
which let you package your maps in an easy-to-use self-extracting
installer.

Heres the info from my website ( http://game-advance.net ):

SMIS is a NSIS Script to create executable map installers which will
automatically detect and list the account directories available on the
end-users's computer, and allow them to simply select "which account",
and the installer takes care of the rest, and puts everything in the
proper directories.

Features:

- Ability to show a liscense page

- Ability to include the map's source files ( For those that are fans of open source)

- Ability to include an uninstaller option for the map.

- Easy map installation by user.

- Runs on Windows 2000/Server 2003/XP

- Uses LZMA compression to achive an awesome compression ratio (6.22 MB SMIS Installer vs a 9.36MB zip of the same files)

Requires NSIS to compile: http://nsis.sourceforge.nethttp://nsis.sourceforge.net/ (NSIS is Free and Open-Source software)

And finally, here is a link for this tool: http://game-advance.net/download.php?view.8

I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it :smile:

Sounds like a very neat tool, somewhat like the installation tools UT
provides for maps, mods and the like. My only concern would be that
lots of people don't like downloading executable files which might put
folks off, but I suppose you could offer the basic .zip file as well
for those people. Kudos on making something like this though :smile:

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

Sounds handy indeed.

I'll play with this tomorrow, I think I need some sleep right now... :wink:

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

Yeah, I've already gotten some comments about .exe files. My answer is
that if they are that worried, they can scan them to their heart's
desire with whatever they want.

Also, i just updated the documentation for this tool, its more in the
form of a tutorial though, but if you are having trouble using SMIS,
this will probably help:
http://game-advance.net/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.9

The end result doesn't seem much different than the bspzip tool that's available through the Source SDK stuff?

The only big difference I see is that you provide the ability to un-install a map, but that feature seems pretty superfluous anyway. I mean, how often does one really need to un-install a map? I know I never have.

I don't mean to sound incredibly negative, but I just don't see such a tool replacing such things like bspzip.

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Jesse Davis
http://www.trepid.net

this tool has nothing to do with bzpzip... it performs a different
function. you can bspzip the files the map needs, or not. SMIS is not a
replacement for bspzip, its a replacement for distributing your map via
a simple zip file which must be manually installed.

Sounds really good. I will think of it when I release a map.

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer