The Sins Map Packer

I have written a small application to try and solve the problem of distributing maps for Sins.

For those who are not familiar with the problem: the need to manualy place map files in the correct folders serves as a severe impedement for distributing maps for sins, and as a result for authoring them. I have witnessed this frustration first hand through my clan members WHIPperSNAPper and P5yy.

So I tried to help.

The Sins Map Packer is actually two applications: an editor and an installer.

Most useres should download the installer. This will turn .snmp files into recognizeable files by windows, and allow users to install them into the correct sins folders by simply double clicking them.

For map authors - download the editor. The editor installation package also installs the map pack installer, so there is no need to install both. The editor is a little GUI that provides an easy way for creating map packs of .galaxy and .tga files, including drag & drop and all the usual bells and whistles. The composed map packs can then be saved into .snmp files, distributed and installed easily by any user who has the installer installed.

I hope folks out there will find this useful.

Please try it out and report back any bugs you find here. I'm very keen on getting feedback.

The Sins Map Packer was written using C# and is distributed under the GPL (although as of writing this post I am yet to post the source online). If you are interested in helping me please review the list below. Also I could use a couple of pointers from the devs regarding the correct way to determine the locations of the sins files. Currently I'm using HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Stardock\Drengin.net\sins\Path.

Things it doesn't do, known issues, TODO list and Help Needed

• Although I've tried to make the two installer packages play nice together, they may not. I recommend uninstalling one before installing the other.
• There may be an issue with the shell icons taking time to appear.
• I have put a lot of effort into trying to create a one-click installer that installs the require .NET runtime prior to installing The Sins Map Packer. However I haven't tested it since I don't want to uninstall and reinstall the .NET runtime from my machine. Please let me know if it worked.
• The Sins Map Packer does not provide an uninstall facility. This is because a one-way installation is far simpler than a two-way one, which requires maintaining a manifest. I may add this in a future version.
• Currently I have used Sins normal icons with a very basic photoshopping on top (actually I used paint..). I hope this isn't going to upset anyone, and I plan to change that soon. Anyone with any photoshopping skills who would like to help please contact me. I can offer the most lucrative compensation of your name appearing in the about box...
• There is no Help yet.
• There is no "Recent Files" menu item.
• There is no README or otherwise a place for specifying properties. I hope to change this soon too.

That's all I can think of right now.

Feel free to post your impressions.