Oh, and Java 1.3 is out. It might make Packafied run slightly faster. You can get it here.

I've halted the development of Packafied for a while. I'm working on the table editor instead.

I have had a few regrets moving to Swing. It seems to still be a bit buggy, and it may not look and feel exactly like Windows 95/98. What I mean is that menus will not work totally correctly when the menu is bigger than the Packafied window. This is a limitation of Java itself, and there is nothing I can do about it. I will be releasing the specifications on how to make a package file loader class. It will be way more powerful than what is in place now. The specs will be released when version 1.0 of Packafied is released.

What will the next version of Packafied mean to the end user though? For one thing, the list will update faster. There will be a progress bar showing the progress of all operations, possibly along with an ETA if it is a really long operation. Files that support dates, such as Freespace VP files will show dates. There might even be a batch mode, where multiple operations that will take long can be stringed together and be all performed while you go away from the computer. This might be good for very large ( > 500MB) files.

I can't really put a date on the release of Packafied 1.0. It could be several months, it could be more, it could be less.

Hey, at least it works with the full version of Descent 3. I got my copy a day ago. Absolutely awesome game, and I bet all the level designers out there are licking their lips at what they can do with the new engine.

And since I've got my copy of D3, I might not be doing as much programming as normal for some strange reason! :-)

I've noticed that this page gets slow sometimes. Maybe it's time I look at moving these pages somewhere else. Anyone got a place where these pages can be moved or mirrored??? If you want to put the files for any of my programs on your web page, then go ahead! But it would be nice if you e-mail me first so I can inform you of updates, etc.

So how is PR's OAF Editor working? Can you get it working? I know because it is a Java Application that it be troublesome getting it up and running. If you're having trouble running PR's OAF Editor, e-mail me and I'll guide you through the process.

Still working on stuff. It's been fairly hectic lately, so I haven't done too much more. I'm still tossing up whether to include support for directories in Packafied. But so many different file formats do directories differently... I'm not sure whether it would be worth the effort.

Worked on improving various parts of Packafied. First the bug-fixes:

• Packafied not creating directories properly in the extract dialog.
• If an Action gets cancelled, there is no more trying to delete the temporary file twice.
• The Extract dialog can now be closed with the close button.

• When you use the Save as... command to save to a file name with a different extension than the current one Packafied brings up an error.
• Delete confirmation dialog (this one is badly needed!)
• Most Recently Used file list in the file menu.
• During extraction, ask to create a directory if it doesn't exist.
• Multiple extensions for loaders/HFD files

If you have come to this page and thought it is extremely difficult to install Packafied, it should be easier now. Installation instructions can be found by clicking the Installation link at the top of this page.

Nothing really new has gone into Packafied so far. I think it contains all the features that are needed. If you can think of any good ideas for new stuff, e-mail me .

I've found already one bug in version 0.5. If a program from the Action menu that is running is cancelled before it has finished, an error always comes up about a temporary file not being deleted even though it has been.

It also means you can create Descent 3 Demo HOG files easily. Packafied now can sort all the files in alphabetical order with the rewrite command. I've also included a new version of the OGF editor as a Packafied viewer class, so you can view and edit OGF files without even extracting them from the HOG.

Packafied 0.5 also supports Java 1.2 executable JAR file format. In Windows Explorer, just double-click the file Packafied.jar and Packafied runs. You have to have Sun's Java Runtime Environment installed for this to work.

Viewers can be loaded from JAR files too. That will make everything neater, and the OGF Editor will work with Packafied too.

In case you didn't know, Java 1.2 was released for Solaris and Windows, and much to my relief, Packafied works with it! But the best thing about the new Java version is that is has inbuilt software wavetable music! That means that if you have a lesser quality sound card (like me), music still sounds pretty good. It doesn't sound super-high quality or anything, but better than my sound card by itself. And the best thing is that I've already made a MIDI player class Viewer for Packafied, so you can listen to MIDIs nicely. You'll need Java 1.2 though, and it's only available for Windows 95/98/NT and Solaris at the moment.

I can't tell when the next version of Packafied will be out. It may be a few weeks, it may be longer. I'll have another update soon.

I also made a utility to edit Descent 3 OGF Files. It can't be run as a viewer class from Packafied 0.4, but probably from version 0.5. You can download PR's OGF Editor here .

The Descent 3 Demo HFD file did not work properly :-(
Packafied 0.4 has the new HFD file and supports editing Descent 3 Demo HOG files. Unfortunately, files in Descent 3 HOGs need to be in alphabetical order, and Packafied does not support this. You have to make sure all the files in alphabetical order for the HOG to work! Replacing should work fine though.

Packafied should now work with Microsofts Java VM. You will need the latest version though, not the one that comes with your browser (not even IE4's). I'm currently working on sorting the list of files. Unfortunately this currently takes a few minutes with about 5000 files in the list, because I'm using a very inefficient sorting algorithm. That should change tomorrow.

But most importantly, THE DESCENT 3 DEMO IS OUT! Check out this page for more info . My Pentium-166 just runs it! I've also made up an HFD file for opening the new Descent 3 HOG files in Packafied. This alerted me to another problem in Packafied itself. If you try to open a HOG file, it uses the loader (for Descent II HOGs) instead of the new HFD file. The only way to get it working is to rename or delete the old HOG File loader.

I haven't been working on Packafied over the past week, but I have been playing around with some Loaders. I've got one that loads up ZIP files! It reads and extracts, but it doesn't allow any changes to be written.

I've got exams in about two weeks, so I'm hoping to get version 0.3 out before then. I've still got a few bugs to clear up, as well as the user manual to write. The user manual will be in HTML so that any platform will be able to read it. The hit counter is still extremely low, but I haven't advertised Packafied publicly as of yet. I'll do this when version 1.0 is released, and that will be when all the features on my piece of paper stuck loosely to the wall has ticks all over it! :-)

I realise now that some names for class files that Packafied uses are too long for some platforms. I'll fix that soon.

One thing I have to say. Don't use Microsoft's Java VM with Packafied. It doesn't work! I think that's because Microsoft didn't implement all the features of Sun's JVM, and Packafied uses that extra stuff. So stick to Sun's JDK when running Packafied.

I also installed a counter at the bottom of this page, and it's embarassingly low! I guess we all have to start somewhere.

New stuff I've added to Packafied:

Custom Package File Loaders! This could be really great if used properly. It allows me or anyone else to write a java class to load a certain package file (like HOG files) so Packafied can read them. Think of it like DLLs for Java. That means when I write up new file support that HFDs can't provide, only the new class has to be downloaded, which is only a few K. I've already done one for HOG files. They act just like HFD files, in that they are loaded at run-time, but they are compiled java code instead. And yes, I do have HOG file support fully working!

Configuration is coming along nicely. It is still very basic, partly because Java has absolutely no support for finding out what disk drives someone has! It is absolutely pathetic! You cannot write code to find out whether someone has a G: disk or not! So for now you will have to type the path for temporary files, HFD files and class files, or leave them as the default of the main Packafied directory. I've made the About... dialog look better with a nice gradient effect! I still want to do a ton of stuff, like better file viewing. What I plan on doing is have the file viewing done like the Custom Package File loaders. Have it so if a new game comes out with a new graphic format, I can write a simple file converter/loader and it will be able to be displayed. Currently, only text file viewing is supported. One thing that really bugs me about the Java language is the bugginess. Actual bugs that should not be there, like when a modal dialog box is displayed and closed, a lock-up can occur on Win95 systems. Apart from that it is an excellent language in my opinion, and given a few years of maturity (i.e. bug-fixing) it should become much more dominant. Ahh, had to get that off my chest!

I should have an update available for Packafied soon. Stay tuned! And don't forget to send in bug-reports, especially from platforms other than Win95/NT. Thanks!