File: ReadMe.txt

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This file is part of Juggler, A Simplistic Replacement Managing Tool, Oblivion Plants, 2nd Edition.

Juggler is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

Juggler is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with Foobar. If not, see .

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Compile your own flora texture replacer from a number of
repositories. You click on pretty buttons, the Juggler takes care of
the normal maps and meshes.

I am a bit reluctant, really, to send this little hack into the wild
(-- "And with good reason!" -- Yes, thank you, I know.). But it served
me well for quite some time now, and perhaps someone of you finds it
useful, too.

It qualifies as simplistic, because it does only do the texture
selection thing well. It is you, who does the setup and configuration
by hand. No graphical user interface (GUI) holding your hand there
(apart from file manager and editor).

You need to install some software before you can run this program, see
'Requirements' below.

New information for users of the previous version: (thanks to all
three of you :-))

** The configuration is now done by means of a MS Windows style INI
file. No TCL/TK code editing ;-). So you can really paste your
directory path from the Explorer address bar and copy it into the
INI file.

** The 'Requirements' have changed: Additionally, you need tcllib (see
below).

** Automatic archiving (configurable).

** Old thumbnails are being reused (greatly speeds up program start).

** The '_empty_' repo looks prettier in the GUI.


REQUIREMENTS
==============================

1) Tcl/Tk ("tickle-tee-kay") is a scripting language in the world for
25 years now. Get yourself a copy of the free "Community Edition" from
ActiveState, URL = http://www.activestate.com/activetcl. See that the
programs "tclsh" and "wish" are accessible from your Windows path
(it's probably done automatically by the ActiveState installation
process, but I am not sure about this ...).

2) Get yourself a copy of the free Open Source library Tcllib, version
1.15, from SourceForge, URL =
http://sourceforge.net/projects/tcllib/files/tcllib/1.15/. Choose the
zip version. Unzip it somewhere. There's a file called 'installer.tcl'
in it. A double-click should to the trick (please kindly note the
poetry). Or do right-click, choose "Open with...|Wish Application".

3) The graphic viewer IrfanView, URL = http://www.irfanview.com/. It's
free (for non-commercial use), and a beautiful program, too.

4) The Juggler needs the flora texture replacers you want it to use
_uncompressed_. So you need a few gigabyte free space on your disk
(rule of thumb: 500MB per archive, give or take).

6) Not necessary, but recommended: Wrye Bash for (de)installing your
archives.

--- coming from the Nexus Description page? continue here ---


INTRODUCTION
==============================

When collecting files for a flora texture replacer, I repeatedly got
driven mad when trying to keep track of the normal maps and meshes
that go with most textures. And that's the point of this program:

In the graphical user interface, you tell the Juggler which model you
want to use for which plant. When satisfied you press the 'ok' or
'apply' button. That's it.

The Juggler does never actually copy game data files around. It rather
writes a MS Windows batch file which then can be executed. And this
batch file does all the work (if you like it makes an compressed
archive). This has the advantage that you do not need to keep all your
replacer compilations around forever. Just execute the batch file
again, and you have your replacer back (as long as you have the source
repositories around).

INSTALLATION
==============================

To install the Juggler, simply extract the archive in a directory of
its own. Copy the juggler directory to a place where you have a few
gigabyte free space. The Juggler itself doesn't need much, but the
flora replacers you are about to create, they do.

Of course it is possible to have several Juggler installations (in
different directories) in place and running at the same time .

PREPARATION
==============================

In the file 'juggler.ini', look for the options 'irfanview' and
'archive command', under the sections '[IrfanView]' and '[Archive]',
respectively. Set them to valid values.

Extract the flora replacer archives you want to use somewhere. Let's
refer to such an extracted archive as 'repository', or 'repo' for
short.

In the file 'juggler.ini', look for the section
'[Repositories]'. Replace the repos given there as examples with your
own. Keep the names short since they appear in the GUI.
NOTE: The directory you insert there must be the immediate parent to
the 'textures' and 'meshes' directories.

In the file 'juggler.ini', look for the section '[Include]'. Only
repos set to 1 there will appear in the program. There must be one,
and only one, key 'default'. Its value will be the, guess what,
default repository. That means, that any replacer you do not alter in
the GUI will come from the 'default' repository.

There are some other parts of the 'juggler.ini' which I will not
handle here. Should you ever need them, they are commented, and kind
of obvious, anyway.

The '_empty_' repository
------------------------

There's a MS Windows batch file called 'make-empty-repo.bat'. It scans
through all the repos activated (that is, set to 1) in '[Include]'
while building a repository filled with placeholders for each plant it
finds. You can then use this as your 'default' repository.

GUI
==============================

Start the program by double-clicking on 'juggler.bat'. The first run
my take quite some time until the GUI pops up. (10 seconds per repo or
so, really depends on your computer. When in Task Manager the process
i_view32.exe seems active, just be patient.)

The GUI, from left to right: The first column is your default repo, it
may serve as the 'undo' option, sort-of . The second column is the
TARGET repo you want to build. Then come the source repos.

First activate the plant you want to change in the TARGET by clicking
on it. Then click on some plant in a source repo you want ot replace
it with. Observe the change in the TARGET: image and label.

The process can be sped up with using the keyboard: Click an an image
in the TARGET. Click an an image in the sources (not the label, labels
snatch the keyboard focus from TARGET). Press up/down keys to browse
the plants in the TARGET, while happily clicking image buttons in the
sources for replacement.

When you are satisfied, click 'Apply'. The Juggler will write a MS
Windows batch file (find it in directory "batchstore", or whatever you
have set in the INI file).

Oh, and if you right-click on an image (not in the TARGET, I'm sorry,
I have forgotten to implement this, please use the 'default' repo for
that), where was I, oh, right, if you right-click on an
image, then an IrfanView window will pop up, showing the texture in
its full glory. IrfanView supports nice settings like "View|Display
options (Window mode)|Fit images to window", and "Options|Always on
Top", and more.


BATCH FILE
==============================

Now go and find your freshly written batch file. Open it with your
editor and see whether you can trust it.

Whenever it wants to do destructive stuff (deleting directories), it
asks you twice.

Whenever an error occurs, it stops execution.

When everything goes fine, it will create a new repository and a
compressed archive of it (configureable, see INI file). It then asks
if you want to delete the repositoy. Say no, when you want to use it
later, as a repository in Juggler (or, indeed, as a new 'default',
perhaps?)

Now take your freshly created archive and drop it into the Wrye Bash
installers tab. Install it.

Test it in the game. -- "Urgh! Looks horrible!" -- Yes, this may
happen. Take notes of what doesn't fit well together, and change it in
the Juggler. -- "Ooooh! That's beautiful!" -- See? It probably doesn't
make much sense to replace a slim fern with a broad groundcover...

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Ideas for later versions:
-------------------------

It shouldn't be too hard to expand this program for other
repostitories than just "plants" (essentially replace "plants" with,
say, "architecture" or "damn\damp\dungeons" or "whatever", and a bit
tweaking of the INI file). The TARGET can only be of plain structure
"texture/whatever/*.dds" "texture/whatever/*_N.dds"
"meshes/whatever/*.nif". (Perhaps *.spt, or others, too).

More than that would be out of the scope of this little hack. It is
already starting to resemble ... a bowl of pasta.