Track rescaling program - virtually zero effort

[warrior462]

I've written a program which rescales a track in seconds, all you have to do is run it from in the track folder. I'm hoping this will be very useful to track makers, as even using excel, rescaling a track used to be a pain in the butt. Not anymore. A few notes:
1. Formatting of the text files is key, the track must have been saved in game since any manual editing of text files or you won't get proper results.
2. The program does not get rid of anything from your track folder, only adds new files, your track is untouched until you do some renaming of files.
3. With #2 being said, it's still never a bad idea to back up your track beforehand, just in case, although this has been extensively tested and works.
4. Object size can't be scaled using this method, banners which are perfectly linked before, will overlap if you went smaller, or have gaps if you went bigger, afterwards.
5. The program handles 5 files: terrain.hf, decals, billboards, statues, and timing_gates. It reads them, picks them apart, scales the proper numbers, puts them back together, and creates a new file with a 0 at the end of the name (i.e. decals0). You then rename the files properly, I suggest keeping the old ones, and go try it out, see how you like the new scale.
6. As of now, I left the flaggers file alone, if I get some good suggestions for improvement, maybe I'll throw this in as well, but it's not really a big deal to do by hand anyway.
7. If anyone is interested in the code (C++) just let me know, I don't mind sharing. Just keep in mind that I am a mathematician and not a programmer, so you could find it a bit sloppy, but it does the job.

I can't think of anything else at the moment, if you think you know a way to improve it let me know. I'd like to thank JLV for clarifying a few things about track files for me in this process, and my cousin Nick who is not a part of this community, but is a programmer who helped me here and there with some syntax and code efficiency issues. Here you are, hope you enjoy.

http://www.mediafire.com/?o0gbbbtho15c50k

[warrior462]

Sorry, one last thing that may be helpful to some. The scale of your track is the second number in the terrain.hf file. The program will ask you for your desired new scale. If the scale before is 2 and you want it to be half the size after, your desired new scale is 1. That should be clear enough, I don't know how many people out there do and don't already know this, just thought I'd mention it.

[checkerz]

I guarantee I'll have a use for this soon and if it works as you describe, you will be my new best friend.

[Motoboss]

This has already been done...Someone else made one I forget the name when I was doin JS7... Ive been useing the rescaler ever since ..From what I read sounds like it does the same as yours...and yes it saves craploads of time...Great job though..

[warrior462]

Thanks guys, I had no clue something like this already existed. I mainly did it to brush up on my programming skills. It's been a while since I did it as an undergrad, and it's a very useful skill for actuaries, which I'm looking to become after just passing the second exam. Even if this isn't a huge help to the community, which it could potentially be, it served its purpose of getting me confident to tell hiring managers I can program.

[mxer223]

I can't get it to run. Just says mscvp100D.dll is missing from your computer.

[warrior462]

I've never done this type of thing before, I'm sure there's someone around who can answer this. When you write a program like this, all you have to do is take the .exe application file and upload it, and it should run for anyone, correct? Like I said, I really have no experience in this area, but it ran fine when I copied the application file, and pasted it in the track folder I wanted to change, but I didn't run it on a computer other than the one I programmed it on.

[yzmxer608]

Here's something that looks like it's almost exactly like the problem you're having (information for the programming part of it too warrior): http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/windows/30194/

Try installing that runtime, if not you can always just try downloading the dll by itself.

[warrior462]

http://www.mediafire.com/?dzg1x9adqn0pnsw

Ok, here's a new version with the libraries now linked statically, I have no clue what that means, but it apparently should fix the problem. If someone could please run it and let me know what happens I would really appreciate it. Also, if a mod could either unlock the first post or just switch the links, I don't want people clicking that dead one now, not realizing there is a new one, thanks.