Downloadable information utility for GalCiv2

Published on March 7, 2006 By WishX In Galactic Civilizations II

Galactopedia

The Galactopedia is a utility program for Stardock’s excellent space strategy game Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, providing you with exhaustive information on all objects and technologies defined by the game. The information is taken directly from the game’s data files, and therefore always up-to-date.

System Requirements

The Galactopedia requires a Microsoft Windows system capable of running the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. This includes most Windows systems with Internet Explorer 5.01, except for the unsupported Windows 95 and NT 3.x/4.0.

Please use the Windows Update service or visit the .NET Framework home page to acquire the .NET Framework as a free 22.4 MB download, and to learn more about .NET system requirements.

Please see the Galactopedia website for more information, screenshots, download and source code!

http://www.kynosarges.de/Galactopedia.html

Comments (Page 7)

DethAdder

on Dec 06, 2006

Thank you for the update for DA.

I had tried to see if the older Galactipedia would read DA by changing the directory, but all it did was crash. Just though I'd try it though.

Chris Nahr

on Dec 09, 2006

Oops, I didn't see that Dark Avatar has a different save game directory as well. Uploaded Galactopedia 1.6.1 that automatically switches save folders (for user-defined ships)!

Darkspire

on Dec 22, 2006

Darkspire: That "Just in time debugging" message box is a result of your having the .NET SDK installed. Previously, a buggy .NET program might have failed silently, depending on the circumstances; now you get this dialog because the SDK includes a .NET debugger and thinks you're a developer, so you get a chance to fix the bug.

There was one crash bug in Galactopedia 1.5.2 when you tried to print an empty topic that could have triggered such a dialog. That bug is fixed in 1.6.0. Some people in this thread have mentioned other display-related bugs but I couldn't reproduce them.

But you say that your error dialogs are triggered by other programs anyway -- could it be that those are .NET programs, too? I certainly can't imagine how the Galactopedia would interfere with them. They might have been buggy before but failed silently, as outlined above.

That helps a bit

even the GC2 map editor bombs out, ive updated the sdk from an official update but that didnt help, ive used the .net SDK on and off for years, never had this problem before so thats why i asked, is there any way to fix it? oh, by the the way its not a gfx crash, just happens on random programs, Musicmatch, Winamp, ICQ, Irfanview but the one program it doesnt happen to is yours

Thanks

Darkspire

Hollow Man

on Feb 20, 2007

Great work! I do get an error when I try to use it with Dark Avatar though. It tells me:

Galactopedia could not read an XML data file.

File: D:\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\DarkAvatar\Data\English\PlanetImprovements.xml
Details: An XML comment cannot contain '--', and '-' cannot be the last character. Line 1958, position 5.

Keep up the good work,

-HM

Chris Nahr

on Feb 21, 2007

I know. You have to fix the file yourself until Stardock does. Please see this thread where I reported the error: https://forums.galciv2.com/?aid=138468

Hollow Man

on Feb 21, 2007

Much thanks - sorry I didn't see that thread,

-HM

denyasis

on Feb 27, 2007

Hey Quick Question;

I'm am trying to use the Galactopedia to check a mod I am writing.
To do this, I would like to know what diretories and subdirectories the Galactopedia uses to display its info.

What I am trying to do is to create a "Fake" installation and point the Galactopedia toward that. This way I can mess around in my sandbox installation with out having to rename, back up, and move around the my original installation

obviously Data/English is used.
I assume GFX is used also.

However, I've tried using just these, and the program still will crash. What other directories (or specific files) are needed?

Chris Nahr

on Feb 28, 2007

Lots. Galactopedia checks for the presence of Data\English as a safeguard, but individual categories may require basically arbitrary other subdirectories and files.

Also, when you show Dark Avatar data you need to have the original folders AND the Dark Avatar versions of the same folders because DA doesn't duplicate some required data.

Try copying the entire subdirectory tree under Data\English, plus the same tree under Dark Avatar. That might work.

denyasis

on Feb 28, 2007

ok thanks for the advice.

I must say I love your program!

100

unreal_ed

on Mar 13, 2007

So Chris Nahr, is there any chane you could do an update for the galactopedia that is up to speed with DA?

101

Chris Nahr

on May 25, 2007

I was notified of an incompatibility with the current DA release, but I don't really want to work on the Galactopedia anymore... especially since Stardock Central appears to be incompatible, at least where games are concerned, with the 64-bit edition of Windows Vista to which I've migrated.

So I'm afraid the Galactopedia should be considered abandoned. Any .NET programmers reading these forums should feel free to pick up and continue the project. You don't need my permission to do so. Good luck and goodbye!

102

Ankhman

on May 26, 2007

will it answer how to upgrade my ships. I just got the game and can find nothing that tells me how this is done. I can see that the ship allows you to make new ships but how does that work? If i make an upgraded Fury then when I build one on a planet what am I building; the template or the same as all the previous Furys?

103

drrider

on Jun 30, 2007

Are any of the Forum wizards out there going to take Chris up on his release of Galactopaedia, and update it for version 1.61?

I would love to do it but I just don't have the skill set.

drrider

104

kryo

on Jul 02, 2007

Are any of the Forum wizards out there going to take Chris up on his release of Galactopaedia, and update it for version 1.61?

What isn't working about it? AFAIK it reads the game's files directly, so unless there's a change in the layout of the files, it should work accurately with any version.

105

drrider

on Jul 02, 2007

Can't define the specifics of the conflict(s), but it chokes during loading on some data parameter of 1.60 and 1.61. Indicator in the error message (sometimes) that at least one problem may involve the SB Repair Module.

I have found by experimenting with my SDC archives that I could create a working Galactopaedia by restoring the 1.59(

.127 Dark Avatar archive to a separate folder (actually I used my Galactopaedia folder) and pointing the applet to those files.

I blew away a lot of clearly excess files (Exp: all of Tutorials and heightmaps and manual) but I wasn't too sure if G. only read from English.str, so I was consevative about anything that might contain source data. I suspect the whole thing could be reduced down a lot tighter.

drrider

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