Things You must know about Geditor

Dear EvoMod Community

Geditor is one of the key-Programs for Modding in GTL and GTR2 and i think in a few mor Racing Sims. It can open the Graphic Packages (.GTL/.GTR-Files and others) but it isnt a Profesional distributed Program. It was programmed from a User like you and me and its for free. I dont know who made it, so please can somebody post his name for his well-deserved credit.
There are a few issues Geditor.

1) Error Messages:

There are a lot of error Messages popping up while working with Geditor. Click them away. They doesnt matter.

2) Export Issues

Somtimes if you open a File with Geditor, you cant export or remove any File. The Buttons are grey, not coloured and they dont work. In this case you must import a graphic-file. After that the Buttons are coloured and works. I usually impo rt a Car Icon .tga-File and save it, so regularly the issue doesnt appear again for this File.

3) Open Multible Files with Geditor-Issue

If you had open a File with Geditor and you open another one. The first opened File doesnt work anymore, and if you save the first opened File. Sometimes you KILL this File and you must do all the work again. (You dont really Kill this File, but it is filled with the Stuff from the Second file you opened.)

So, that are my experience with Geditor. Tell us if you think theres more to say.

Greetings
Muddie

Sure,
I can add a few things to support and clarify (and hopefully not muddy) what Muddie7272 said.

To avoid the error when initially opening a .GMT ONLY .GTR/.GTL file, include a small graphic file that has a filename that will ALWAYS appear at the top. I use 1_dummy.dds which is just a 4x4 pixel black square with filesize 168 bytes - it's tiny !!
The reason for this is that Geditor *selects* the first file it finds in the .GTR/.GTL archive file and if it is a .gmt it will throw a decode error because it doesn't actually understand how to open the .gmt file. If it is a graphic file it is quite happy to open it and show a preview in it's main window area.

If you have ever downloaded any mods I have done and open up the <carname>_OBJ.GTR/.GTL file you will see this little graphic file at the top of the list, nicely doing it's job of keeping those nasty errors at bay.

Now, IF you do open a .GTR/.GTL file and get the decode error followed by the access violation error, Geditor WILL NOT be able to export any of the files held in the .GTR/.GTL archive file. The export button will be greyed out. To get around this, you can temporarily import any supported file (actually doesn't have to be a graphic file, a .gmt will do just as well), and magically, the export button is available again, allowing you to export to your heart's content.

Do remember though NOT TO SAVE your .GTR/.GTL file UNLESS you want that temporary file you just imported to be included.

When Geditor opens a .GTR/.GTL file it copies the contents to a temporary area on your harddrive.
C:\Users\<user profilename>\AppData\Local\Temp\$GTR$ (providing your windows system drive is C:). I am using Windows 7 but will assume that it is the same place in later Windows versions.
If you open another .GTR/.GTL file then this folder gets overwritten with the contents of the newly opened .GTR/.GTL file.
This is why you should finish dealing with and close one .GTR/.GTL file before opening another.

What I was trying to say in the above sentence is, you should only run one instance of Geditor at a time as Geditor always writes to the same temp area, otherwise you run the risk of either saving the wrong files or saving an empty .GTR/.GTL file losing the original contents !

You could even go straight to this folder to get access to the files held in the open .GTR/.GTL file.

To open a .GTL file, simply run Geditor, select "open GTR file" (click on button or select from file menu), and once the file open requester has appeared, type *.* in the filename: edit box and hit enter. Now the program will be able to see .GTL files. Select the .GTL file you wish to open.



Loose Ether

+100 there Terry! Thanks! I know you've told me this a bunch of times but it never quite sticks. Joys of old tech brainware 1.0 when brainware 8 is today's standard.

All good Phil.
I just re-iterated what Muddie7272 said giving some reasons behind Geditor's behaviour.

The guy who wrote the tool did a great job but just forgot to include some error checking.
Modding life would be that much harder without it.

Thinking about your brainware analogy made me think of an analogy of my own. Versions of windows.
Damn, that's where it breaks !! lol
7 is awesome but it has been all downhill since then

If somebody needs to get files from GTL or GTR packs, it is easier to use QuickBMS

Loose Ether wrote:

All good Phil.
The guy who wrote the tool did a great job but just forgot to include some error checking.

Remember that you are using this tool for the wrong game. Once I opened a gtr file made for another game (f1challenge?) and it worked perfectly! I was able to see the 3d model of the car. We are using a tool developed for another game that uses the same gtl/gtr2 packing algorithm.

interesting! That would explain it for sure!

So which clever person can make changes to make it work... or not

kk08 wrote:

Loose Ether wrote:

All good Phil.
The guy who wrote the tool did a great job but just forgot to include some error checking.

Remember that you are using this tool for the wrong game. Once I opened a gtr file made for another game (f1challenge?) and it worked perfectly! I was able to see the 3d model of the car. We are using a tool developed for another game that uses the same gtl/gtr2 packing algorithm.

I never forgot that
I think you'll find it was written for a game (GTR) that uses a previous version of the Gmotor game engine which f1challenge also uses.
Still, it seems the programmer didn't include error-checking to handle exceptions to the .gmt format.
You don't have to know about future files to provide error checking/handling.

GeeDee wrote:

So which clever person can make changes to make it work... or not

No need Gee as it works fine, just remember the caveats when using it.