Animal Configuration Checker and Animal Ztd Checker

[Jay]

Animal Configuration Checker

Zookeeper's Lounge

Click site name to download

Author: Jay

Keywords: Utility

Date released: Oct 8, 2004

Updated: April 26, 2022 by Jay to check for 243 more things, to show up to 13 more characteristics, and to add other enhancements and changes.

Updated: July 12, 2022 by Jay to also give a warning if there is no cNameID setting.

Updated: September 28, 2022 by Jay to check for appropriate action and sound settings if the animal can catch prey and to check that behavior sets do not try playing an animation multiple times (fPlayTime) without playing an animation once before and after the multiple times.

Updated October 29, 2022 by Jay. One of the messages was missing the word "no". "***** Error: cNameID is set to 19000, but there is [defaultLCID] section." was changed to "***** Error: cNameID is set to 19000, but there is no [defaultLCID] section."

Note: Unfortunately all ZT's animals and nearly all user made animals will give "No fPlay... type of line" Warnings. But that is the cause of having a zookeeper sometimes repeatedly shoot darts at an escaped animal without the animal turning into a crate. So I felt it was worthwhile to flag, even though the problem rarely occurs for escaped animals. And even when the problem occurs, it is not a big deal, since picking up the escaped animal and putting it back down will cause it to turn into a crate.

uca2post.zip size: 53.0 KB

current uca2post.exe date: October 29, 2022
current uca2post.bat date: July 8, 2022

Compatibility: All Game Versions

Description: All Zoo Tycoon animals have a configuration file inside a ztd file. For most user created animals, this configuration file ends with ".uca". For all Blue Fang animals and some user created animals, this configuration file ends with ".ai". This utility looks in the uca/ai file and does two things. First, it checks the file for problems and inefficiencies. This will help testers and animal creators. Second, this utility will show various characteristics about the animal that can help zoo builders to create better exhibits.

[Jay]

Animal Ztd Checker

Zookeeper's Lounge

Click site name to download

Author: Jay

Keywords: Utility

Date released: July 13, 2022

Updated: August 9, 2022 by Jay. checkpal.exe was updated in checkztd.zip and checkpal.c was updated in checkpal-Source.zip. There was a case where checkpal was giving an '".ani" dir1 setting' Error when it was not actually an error.

checkztd.zip size: 455 KB

current checkztd.bat date: July 12, 2022
current checkpal.exe date: August 9, 2022
current checkztd.exe date: April 21, 2022

Compatibility: All Game Versions

Description: Here is another checker for user made animals. While the above uca2post program checks various settings in ".uca" files, the checkztd program checks a few things in animal ".ztd" files:
1. gives an error if an ".ani" file in the ".ztd" has a dir1 setting that does not refer to a directory in the ".ztd".
2. gives an error if a ZT image file in the ".ztd" refers to a ".pal" file that is not in the ".ztd".
3. gives an error if the ".pal" file path in a ZT image is using a backslash.
4. lists ".pal" files in the ".ztd" that are not being used by any ZT image file in the ".ztd".
5. lists ".txt" files in the ".ztd" that are duplicates.
6. lists ".ani", ".txt", and ".wav" files missing from the ".ztd" that the ".uca" files say they use.
7. lists ".txt" files in the ".uca" files that are using directories that do not contain the internal names of the ".uca" files.
8. lists ".txt" and ".wav" files in the ".ztd" that are not used by the corresponding ".uca" files.

[Jay]

Animal Ztd Checker was updated August 9, 2022 by Jay. checkpal.exe was updated in checkztd.zip and checkpal.c was updated in checkpal-Source.zip. There was a case where checkpal was giving an '".ani" dir1 setting' Error when it was not actually an error.

[Jay]

The uca2post animal configuration checker and suitability guide program was updated October 29, 2022 by Jay. One of the messages was missing the word "no". "***** Error: cNameID is set to 19000, but there is [defaultLCID] section." was changed to "***** Error: cNameID is set to 19000, but there is no [defaultLCID] section."