EU3View - make magic animated GIFs of your empire! (not actually magic)

[Kurper]

Want to make mega-cool animated GIFs of your empire like these ones? (click for big)





Download EU3View 1.1, based on code from MichaelM's scenario editor at http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/....php?t=323219. Here's a screenshot:



It doesn't do anything to optimize the file size, so I suggest using Gifsicle or something equivalent if you want to post GIFs on forums. Otherwise, they tend to be in the megabyte range.

Features:
View the growth of countries, religions, economies, populations, and slightly more!
Show or hide province borders!
Doesn't crash for me very often!
Has a GUI!
Probably runs on Windows!
Not a virus!
Marginally better-looking than Netbeans!
Only compiles on Netbeans!

http://buttware.com/eu3view/EU3View-1.1.zip

Instructions:
Unzip it somewhere.
Run "run.bat".
Press top "Browse" and find the savegame you want to see a picture of. Wait a few seconds. (If it crashes, try changing the config.txt file.)
Adjust all the various adjustable things.
Press the bottom "Browse" and choose where to put your gif.
Give your gif a name.
Press "Render". Wait quite a few seconds. (I've seen renders take about five minutes.)
Show your GIF to all your friends!


Want to use a mod? Create a file named "config.txt" in the same folder as EU3View containing the following:

moddir = "blahblah"

where the mod's directory is blahblah (i.e. "MagnaMundi Platinum"), and everything should work.

Can EU3View not find your installation of EU3? Create a file named "config.txt" in the same folder as EU3View containing the following:

maindir = "blahblah"

where the EU3 directory is blahblah (i.e. "C:\Program Files\Paradox Interactive\Europa Universalis III"), and everything should work.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: The "Render" button stays greyed out after I select the savegame and the render file location!
A: The problem might just be that it's taking a long time - try opening a small savegame instead, or waiting about 10 minutes after choosing the file just to be sure. If it's still grayed out, try opening the .bat in notepad and adding the line

pause

to the end, then see if any errors come up when you run it again. If it's just something like "Java could not be found", try replacing the file with this:

@setlocal
@if exist %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\java.exe. (
@echo 64-bit detected
@set JavaCommand=%SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\java.exe
) else (
@set JavaCommand=java
)

%JavaCommand% -jar EU3View.jar
pause

and then rerun it. Then if any other errors come up, post them here.

[spl]

Wow, that looks really nice.

[aenariel]

Hi. I'm always getting this error:

" Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" ".

Any tips?

edit: Nevermind. I changed the configuration file and it works now.

[orwell]

Neat, and welcome to the forums.

[Darken]

link was added to the master mod list / utilities.

[comagoosie]

So all I have to do is load one game to get all this information, amazing!

I am super duper impressed.

btw, link followed from orwell's sig...

[Haftetavenscrap]

I can see this getting well used!
Good job!

EDIT: What does the religion view show? Province or State religions?

[CommisarPapadov]

I got an "Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError" when I tried to config

[Kurper]

I can see this getting well used!
Good job!

EDIT: What does the religion view show? Province or State religions?

It currently shows just state religion. The next version is having the same religion view as EU3 does, with stripes if the province and state religions differ.

I got an "Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError" when I tried to config

It sounds like you might not have unzipped the entire archive to the same location. The lib folder contains a library that the viewer needs in order to work properly, and if it's not there then you'll get that exception.

[tombom]

I haven't been able to test it yet, but this looks awesome

[CommisarPapadov]

It sounds like you might not have unzipped the entire archive to the same location. The lib folder contains a library that the viewer needs in order to work properly, and if it's not there then you'll get that exception.

all in the same spot

as illustrated here: http://i38.tinypic.com/14vlit4.png

[Kurper]

all in the same spot

as illustrated here: http://i38.tinypic.com/14vlit4.png

Oh, were you running config.bat? That shouldn't have been included in the .zip, I must have accidentally kept it in from the scenario editor that I based this on. You have to edit the config file by hand.

[aenariel]

Kurper, first of all thanks for your effort on this little program. It's really cool and something I've been looking forward to for a long time. I've been making animations by taking screenshots every 10 years.

Your program is great but it doesn't work well with mods. I suppose you never designed it thinking of mods, but anyway, since mods sometimes don't replace all files (for instance country files and stuff) there's a bunch of errors going on when you try to make a map out of a save game from a mod.
It'd be niceif you could look into this for future versions, although I understand how hard it should be to distinguish "vanilla games" from "modded games". Maybe looking at the configured dir and checking for "/mod" in it, and then if there's some file missing after checking the normal dir, looking in the main game dir?

Well aside from all that, thanks again for your work. Looking forward to future versions.

[CommisarPapadov]

I can't get this bloody thing to work
I'm pointing it in the right direction manually but it refuses to give me satisfaction

[Kurper]

Kurper, first of all thanks for your effort on this little program. It's really cool and something I've been looking forward to for a long time. I've been making animations by taking screenshots every 10 years.

Your program is great but it doesn't work well with mods. I suppose you never designed it thinking of mods, but anyway, since mods sometimes don't replace all files (for instance country files and stuff) there's a bunch of errors going on when you try to make a map out of a save game from a mod.
It'd be niceif you could look into this for future versions, although I understand how hard it should be to distinguish "vanilla games" from "modded games". Maybe looking at the configured dir and checking for "/mod" in it, and then if there's some file missing after checking the normal dir, looking in the main game dir?

Well aside from all that, thanks again for your work. Looking forward to future versions.

It actually does, although it's not documented very well. The functionality's carried over from the scenario editor. In the config file, add the line

moddir = "blahblah"

(where blahblah is the directory the mod's in).

I can't get this bloody thing to work
I'm pointing it in the right direction manually but it refuses to give me satisfaction

The 0.1 config file by default points to "Europa Universalis 3" instead of "Europa Universalis III" (which is what it should have been), are you sure that's not the issue?

At any rate, hopefully later today 0.2 will be out without the need for the config file, by looking in the registry (which is surprisingly convoluted in java).

[aenariel]

Nice Kurper, had no idea. I'll try it out.

[Kurper]

Version 0.2 of EU3View is now out! New features:
Ability to scale in the app itself. (Gifs are still extremely unoptimized, and can reach about a meg. Running them through Gifsicle generally brings them closer to 100kB.
Better interface.
Automatic EU3 directory detection - no more need for a config file! (You still need one if you want to render a mod or run it on Linux, though.)
Better religion view - see both state religion and province religion at the same time, like ingame.

http://buttware.com/eu3view/EU3View-0.2.zip

http://buttware.com/eu3view/

[comagoosie]

Automatic EU3 directory detection - no more need for a config file! (You still need one if you want to render a mod or run it on Linux, though.)

whoa

The holy grail for me! May I ask how?

I tried using the reigstry but it seems not everyone's has the key in the same place.

[Kurper]

whoa

The holy grail for me! May I ask how?

I tried using the reigstry but it seems not everyone's has the key in the same place.

Ooh, I didn't even consider that. Yeah, it uses the registry, although a config file can override it if one is present. Do you happen to know offhand the locations other than HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Paradox Interactive\Europa Universalis III\path that the install path could be in? If it's just a few possibilities then there's always the option of trying them all and seeing which ones exist.

[comagoosie]

Ooh, I didn't even consider that. Yeah, it uses the registry, although a config file can override it if one is present. Do you happen to know offhand the locations other than HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Paradox Interactive\Europa Universalis III\path that the install path could be in? If it's just a few possibilities then there's always the option of trying them all and seeing which ones exist.

Well I tried, IIRC, 4-5 different keys and my test subjects reported back different values, so I took matters into my own command and had the user enter the directory at the first run-time using a folder browse dialog box. Their entry would be marked under my editor's key folder. They only have to enter it in once and they can change it through run-time or by going into the registry.

Well that is my advise, I don't know if you can do it in Java, but I hope so, this is great