Patching extra functionality into <gamemd.exe>

[Marshall]

This post is mainly for pd's benefit and has little to do with the patch content, so my apologies.

I should be able to send the latest patcher program within a few hours of you sending the patch to me. However, I am going away on Friday afternoon and won't be back until Thursday. You've got 2 1/2 days until I'm away for 6 days.

Additionally, my work on the YRCRP and related projects has forced me to limit valid version number formats.

The Rock Patch (and the TX) must, from now on, have a version number format of "X.YY"
Where X is anything from 1 to infinity and YY is any 2-digit number (E.G. 00, 01, 10)
In short, the format "1.07" is fine but "1.07b" won't work.
"9024353463.00" would also be okay.
"9024353463.001" would not be okay.

The reason for this is that a version control ini file will keep a record of component versions and my latest project (yet to be revealed) will check for versions that are 'equal to or higher than' the minimum version. This check works on an integer. The Rock Patch version '1.07' would be stored as "RP=107"
The same system applies for the TX.




Regarding the patcher program, I have rewritten it to improve performance and have less risks:

1. A backup of gamemd.exe is no longer made.

2. gamemd.exe is automatically unpatched when you run the program.
Obviously, the program can't unpatch a non-Rock Patch gamemd.exe

3. You can then choose whether or not to keep the original gamemd, or patch to the latest version of the Rock Patch

4. gamemd.ini is no longer used. Instead, yrcrp.ini is used, which will also be used by the YRCRP

I have made 'unpatches' for versions 1.04 onwards and the program is still only 55KB.


I hope that that information was useful to more than just pd.
My apologies if not, for going off topic.