[mod] Stellaris Portrait File Generator

[ModderWhoModsThings]

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Stellaris Portrait File Generator

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Description:

The Stellaris Portrait File Generator (SPFG) is a powerful yet lightweight Java program specifically designed to handle the portrait file code for the mod Vanilla Framework Continued (hence the existence of a hardcoded futa field). Vanilla Framework handles over 6000 portraits spread over dozens of species, so it is not feasible to update the portrait files (the files found under Stellaris/gfx/portraits/portraits that define the images associated with a species) of that mod manually. The design of this program is highly optimized to reduce the amount of work a human user must put into managing large amounts of portraits. While it will take some initial effort to create the species files used by the program, once finished you can update hundreds of species’ codes at once with a few clicks. It uses special files called “species files” to store data about a Stellaris species.

 

Requirements:

The sole requirement for this program is to have Java installed on your device. The program may not run if the Java installation is outdated, so if you have trouble running the executable try updating Java.

 

Compatibility:

This program is only supported for the Windows 10/11 operating systems. I do not know if it will work on other operating systems but I cannot provide any help if you want to try it.

 

Installation:

This program is as portable as it gets, it consists of a single executable file (Stellaris Portrait File Generator.jar). Simply download this executable and put it wherever you want it on your computer. To uninstall, just delete the executable.

 

How It Works:

The tiny 360KB download includes a detailed user manual, so if you are interested it is best to download SPFG and read the included PDF. This section will only go over the basic ideas.

 

The Portrait File Generator is very simple, it reads data from a special species file and uses it to fill out a template. Species files are text documents that store all the necessary data about a set of portraits to make a portrait file. Species files are specific to the SPFG and can be created using the Species File Maker included in the program. Templates are basically the code for a species file, except actual values are replaced with indicators such as NAME or MALES so that the file generator knows where to put the data. There is also support for bulk species files, files that are used to generate many portrait files at once from many different species files, so you can update your entire mod in a few clicks!

 

VF Kit:

The VF Kit contains the templates, species files, and bulk species files used to make Vanilla Framework Continued. They serve as an example of working files and anyone who wants to make their own version of VF is free to use them.

 

The template(s) included in the VF Kit will up to date, however they will usually be labelled for an old version of VF as I rarely need to make changes to the templates when updating the mod.

 

Source Code:

The source code is a copy of the Eclipse project the program was made in.

 

Java Issues:

Any issue preventing you from opening the program in the first place is likely an issue with Java rather than my program itself. While you are welcome to ask for help here, I lack the expertise to help with Java issues, so you will need to troubleshoot the problem yourself. If you look up the error message you receive, you should find several actions you can take to help resolve any possible issues with Java. You can also try opening the source code in Eclipse IDE, and either trying to compile the code into an executable jar file yourself or simply running it inside of Eclipse (It works the same whether launched from an executable or an IDE). I really wish I could help everyone more, but I'm simply not an expert Java troubleshooter, and you are in a better position to resolve your issue than I am.

 

Future additions:

I don't know what kind of demand there is for this sort of thing, so I'd like to get some community feedback to see if it would be worth expanding on. For example, I could add support for custom indicators so you could define groupings of portraits like "female general" or "futanari LV cow" for fancy mods that have different portraits for different jobs. The problem is that it's a pretty solid amount of work for what I expect is a very small potential user base, so if there is a feature you would like to see, comment about it, even if someone else has already requested it. This will help me gauge the level of interest in adding certain features.

 

Ideas:

• Custom indicators allowing for custom portrait groups.
• Showing a summary of the opened species file breaking down the number of portraits and species to help keep track of large mods.

---

• Submitter
  ModderWhoModsThings
• Submitted
  05/27/2024
• Category
  Stellaris
• Requires
  Java

 

[crocamedelian]

👍

[vanas_1111]

source? don't want to run closed source tool like this

[ModderWhoModsThings]

11 hours ago, vanas_1111 said:

source? don't want to run closed source tool like this

understandable, I'll have the source code up in a few minutes.

[cocendic]

I was googling for something like this yesterday! Thank you!

[ModderWhoModsThings]

15 minutes ago, cocendic said:

I was googling for something like this yesterday! Thank you!

You're welcome! I'm surprised that several people have already taken notice of the program, as it is a very specific tool and there's probably only a few dozen portrait mods on the website.

[DairuggerXV]

I'm getting an error: Virtual Machine Launcher: A Java Error has occurred. I have the latest version of Java on my machine, so hopefully that's the right version. I've tried redownloading and rebooting.

[ModderWhoModsThings]

1 hour ago, DairuggerXV said:

I'm getting an error: Virtual Machine Launcher: A Java Error has occurred. I have the latest version of Java on my machine, so hopefully that's the right version. I've tried redownloading and rebooting.

Is this error preventing you from launching the program in the first place? Because if so, there's unfortunately not much I can do to help. I simply not an expert in Java, and I can't figure out how to get the program working on everyone's systems. Supporting standalone programs is a lot harder than supporting a mod, as I have no idea what kind of environment my program will be operating in. You're just going to have to look up your issue and troubleshoot it on your own. I did a quick search and it looks like virtual machine issues in Java aren't uncommon and there are many ways to try and fix them.

 

You could also try downloading the source code, opening it in a code editor such as Eclipse, and compiling an executable jar file yourself to see if you can get a working version. I can explain how to open and compile a project on Eclipse if you have trouble figuring it out. Also, the latest version of Java should always be able to run this program, so Java version isn't likely the issue.

[DairuggerXV]

I can get it to run in Eclipse at the very least. Any attempt to compile seems doomed to failure. Thank you.

 

[megaera]

Keeps crashing/Not starting (A Java Exception Occurred). Windows 11. Java up to date.
 

 

Edited May 30 by megaera

[ModderWhoModsThings]

3 minutes ago, megaera said:

Keeps crashing/Not starting (A Java Exception Occurred). Windows 11. Java up to date.

I don't have the expertise to help with any Java issues. You will have to look up the issue yourself and troubleshoot it, there are usually numerous steps you can take to try resolving Java malfunctions. Alternatively, you can open the source code in Eclipse and try to compile it yourself or simply run it through Eclipse like the other guy did.

[Dragen_Heir]

This 100% is why I despise Java... well that and it's monolithic codebase that tries to do everything but only manages to make a basic Hello World take 12-15 lines of code.

 

For your debugging purposes, here's the output when you run the command: java -jar 'Stellaris Portrait File Generator.jar'

Error: LinkageError occurred while loading main class Program.Program
        java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: Program/Program has been compiled by a more recent version of the Java Runtime (class file version 61.0), this version of the Java Runtime only recognizes class file versions up to 55.0

 

In other words: This jar file was built with the blazing newest Java version that Eclipse could foist on you... something that you have to install because Java likes to keep all it's old versions as standalones... think .NET on steroids.

 

For those who are saying their Java is up-to-date, that probably is the case... for the version of Java you already have installed, however, in my case, as you can see, my Java version supports up to 55, whereas the boilerplate version packaged with Eclipse is 61, if you have a later version of Java, for example 62, or 63 if they even exist right now, they'll be supported, as the versioning is kinda additive, though a lot of older functions from the Sun days have been pruned from what I hear... but I'll not bore you with that gnawed bone.

 

Hold onto your assholes because this is where shit gets even dumber...

 

Alright, so recently (for Java, it happened in 2019), Oracle's gone and started changing the terms of service for Java, and for a long while JRE and JDK files were unified before this ToS change, so afterward, Eclipse has gone and started making their own "Version" of Java due to this schism, one that divides the JRE and JDK files again (users only need the JRE files, developers need the JDK), now I'll be fair here, I did a bunch of test installs and retries using the above command, and it seems I did a foul as Powershell did not update until after I closed it out, so any one of these steps could have solved this problem, but the last one is what probably did it because it changed keywords in windows.

 

1. Forcibly installing Java from the ORACLE website.
   • https://www.java.com/en/download/
2. Forcibly installing the Java JDK for version 17 (the major version tied to 61)
   • https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase/jdk17-archive-downloads.html
3. Installing the JRE for version 21 provided by Eclipse
   • https://adoptium.net/temurin/releases/?os=windows

Now, again, after this whole pile of crap, I have to re-iterate, I loathe this language, hated it in 2005 when I had to learn it, hated it when I tried to use that knowledge to tweak some mods in 2009, and hate it today, and I hope you can see above exactly why this language is a nightmare after I spent five minutes diagnosing the problem, then spent nearly an hour trying to find the solution, it's the Java way.

[ModderWhoModsThings]

On 6/1/2024 at 10:36 AM, Dragen_Heir said:

Now, again, after this whole pile of crap, I have to re-iterate, I loathe this language, hated it in 2005 when I had to learn it, hated it when I tried to use that knowledge to tweak some mods in 2009, and hate it today, and I hope you can see above exactly why this language is a nightmare after I spent five minutes diagnosing the problem, then spent nearly an hour trying to find the solution, it's the Java way.

This is the first thing I've published in Java, and now that I see all the problems people are having I'm probably going to be working in other languages for future projects. Thank you for posting an explanation of where some of the problems originate from, as well as some troubleshooting steps for the error.

[Dragen_Heir]

If you're intending to do future projects like this, I have a couple of suggestions / industry practices for you:

• For standalone apps, it's best to keep a config / memory file to store the last opened folder or operate from the PWD (Present Working Directory), having to directory traverse repeatedly can become tiresome, especially for a power tool.
• Maximize compatibility, don't just use the latest and greatest, make sure that a reasonable amount of your potential userbase can run it without issue.
• This application is somewhat confusing regarding what exactly it's supposed to do, does it upgrade old portrait mods to VF? Does it generate VF portrait mods based on specific rules that are tied to the filename? I get it reads the species files either from the maker or from the templates, but how is it sorting the files like 2122347.dds into a correct slot, how do I sort them in-app, or is it something that has to be done at the file-name level?
  • This point is more on clarity of purpose & description, if the users don't know how to operate the application, they will become frustrated with it quickly, as dismissive as it may sound, you have to treat all users like they're in kindergarten, because otherwise you'll get your head too far in the clouds and talk over the layman without even realizing it.
• I like the idea of separating the templates from the core code, so that you don't have to recompile if VF changes something, but instead of manually loading both the templates and the default species files, why not load them off-the-rip if they're present in the application's folder structure...
  • E.G.

    • SPFG > V1.1 > Lib
      SPFG > V1.1 > Lib > Species
      SPFG > V1.1 > Lib > Templates
      

      This once again ties back to the config file, if they have the "Lib" folder somewhere else, they could point to it, and have it saved with the portable file to read the Species and Template files. Then in the application the user selects which species and template to use for a particular folder in a portrait mod.

• Separate your "Load" and "Run" functions, that way to the user it's clear exactly what they need to do and what they don't, there's a few ways to do this:

  • Left / Right split, all the load buttons on the left, with the "Generate" button on the right of the header with a clear divider / space between them so they don't blend into the load buttons.

  • Top / Bottom split, all the load buttons at the top of the application, and at the bottom the "Generate" button at the bottom-right (the right side is largely important only because that's how we're trained to read, so naturally our brains go to the "End" of a page by gravitating to the bottom right.

  • Color-Code your "Load", "Run", and "Cancel" buttons, this can also be important for the colorblind; however, subtle queues like that can help users understand that at the very least, the left button has a different use to the right button at a glance, giving them a reason to consider those differences.

These are mostly UI / UX suggestions, I can't speak much to the application's function itself because it doesn't quite seem to do what I want it to do (and that is to create VF races from existing portrait packs found on LL) without a lot of manual work that, if any of those portrait packs update, I'm boned on. No fault of the application here, just sayin' I can't speak to the code itself, just the front-end as that's as far as I got after I realized it didn't do what I thought it could do.

[ModderWhoModsThings]

8 hours ago, Dragen_Heir said:

If you're intending to do future projects like this, I have a couple of suggestions / industry practices for you:

Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely be taking all this into consideration if/when I make a new update.

 

8 hours ago, Dragen_Heir said:

These are mostly UI / UX suggestions, I can't speak much to the application's function itself because it doesn't quite seem to do what I want it to do (and that is to create VF races from existing portrait packs found on LL) without a lot of manual work that, if any of those portrait packs update, I'm boned on.

Making the species files is still a somewhat laborious process with this tool. In order to put a portrait (a single image) into a portrait file you need a greeting sound, a filepath, and a name for that portrait. The Species File Maker has you define a directory where you can find all the portraits you are adding to the species, so it automatically generates the filepath, and there is a similar automated process with greeting sounds. You have to manually enter or copy/paste the names of each portrait in a species into the Species File Maker. Other tools automatically find your dds images to define your portraits, while in this one you tell the program what portraits you want in a species and where to find them, allowing for greater control where you don't need to have a specific naming or file structure. Once you have the species files set up, they can easily be modified by loading them into the Species File Maker, or they can be loaded into the Portrait File Generator along with a template file to create a portrait file. The template included in the VF Kit can be used to make VF species that can use LV traits and VF policies to control which genders (including futa) are shown. Users can also create their own templates to create custom species files.

 

I'll look into making this program more clear and user-friendly when I have some extra time, thanks again for the valuable feedback.