NXPatcher - Create your own pre-patcher & list of Maple FTPs

Version 1.5:

This is an unstable build. Not all components have been tested.

- Fixed an error in subdirectory creation (previously did not detect both '\\' and '/' characters, only one of them)
- Greatly reduced code complexity and increased maintainability
- The "write" command now allows the user to use his own specified base and notice files.
- NXPatcher can now be used as its own base file using the "write" command.
- Added patch hijacking to the NXPatcher menu
- Removed Linux support

http://www.sendspace.com/file/xnzh2b

The "write" command - Creating pre-patchers

The basic command is still the same:

NXPatcher write XXXXXtoYYYYY.patch

However, now the program intelligently looks for a base or notice file that you want to be used in the created prepatcher.

The program looks for a base file in the following priority:
1. XXXXXtoYYYYY.base
2. ManualPatch.base

In other words, if the program has a choice, it will choose XXXXXtoYYYYY.base over ManualPatch.base. If and only if the program cannot find XXXXXtoYYYYY.base will it utilize the ManualPatch.base file. If the program cannot find either of these files, NXPatcher will default to using its own default file.

The program looks for a notice file in the following priority:
1. XXXXXtoYYYYY.txt
2. ManualPatch.txt

In other words, if the program has a choice, it will choose XXXXXtoYYYYY.txt over ManualPatch.txt. If and only if the program cannot find XXXXXtoYYYYY.txt will it utilize the ManualPatch.txt file. If the program cannot find either of these files, NXPatcher will default to using its own default notice ("Created by Fiel - www.southperry.net").

As an option, you can also choose to have NXPatcher be the base file. Create a copy of NXPatcher.exe, then rename the copy to "ManualPatch.base". Use the write command to create the prepatcher. Simply double click on the new prepatcher made to start the patching process. Make sure to have the prepatcher in the desired Maplestory directory.

For fun, I tried a new method of patch reading. Instead of constantly seeking and reading from the patched file every time I wanted to grab a few bytes from it, I just read the entire file into memory. Then I tried to apply a 28 MB patch. The numbers speak for themselves:

ENTIRE FILE NOT IN MEMORY: 6m 52s
ENTIRE FILE IN MEMORY: 1m 35s

Reading the file in the memory results in 85% faster patch reading - a truly spectacular increase. However, it also means that extremely large files, such as Map.wz and Sound.wz, are read into memory at once. Not everyone has 500 - 700MB of RAM to utilize for this.

So... what do you guys think? Should I read the entire file into memory and get the speed advantage, or is the current way just fine?

If your computer can handle it, sure go for the faster one.

I would test it on a larger patch than that though. Just to see what happens. (might i suggest the 200 MB patch we just had?)

I tried it on a larger patch:

GMS 0.73 --> 0.78 (228MB)

I tried out a new method that would hopefully get a middle ground between reading everything in memory and not. I figured that much of the slowdown is also caused by consistently freeing and malloc'ing memory. So instead of doing that, I used a cached memory and just read into that. If I needed more, I allocated more, but I kept the same memory throughout. This means that the memory usage is nowhere near as high as the fastest alternative, but it's still relatively low. I think it's a good balance between the two.

ENTIRE FILE NOT READ INTO MEMORY: 3m 35s
ENTIRE FILE READ INTO MEMORY: 2m 10s

A lot of the slowdown here was from unpacking the patch data, though, which took up 40s on both of these trials. I think increasing the cache utilized for zlib unpacking will make it quicker without utilizing much more memory.

Just to round out the ftp list to have them all!?...
thaiMS

And apparently vMS doesn't use a single patch file, or at least it didn't auto-update with one. It used a change file for each wz and a file with the actual changes, or at least that's what I think it did.

Nope. They made you redownload the entire game, pretty much. The only difference is that the file is compressed. The patcher then decompresses the file. It's anti-patch, really, and I don't understand why they do it that way when their patcher system is already extremely efficient.

Version 1.6:

This is a final, stable release build. There are no new features planned. The only future releases will be in maintenance patches if any are required.

- Runs about twice as fast as any previous version when applying patch files due to better memory management. This also means that my patcher is way faster than Nexon's. Boo ya.
- When some errors occur, troubleshooting solutions are provided
- An exception is thrown when the "write" command is used if NXPatcher is part of a pre-patcher solution.

I just want to say that this is awesome. Thanks Fiel.

I get a "file not found" error when viewing the eMS Patch directory. :[

I get a "file not found" error when viewing the eMS Patch directory. :[

The directory is just forbidden from viewing. All of the files are still there.

The licensing used for NXPatcher has changed. All users of NXPatcher are encouraged to read the new terms.

Just making sure i am doing it right, once i prepatch once, if I try to prepatch again it will hang on base.wz (is this correct). So lets say nexon changed the patch between the time i prepatch and i run the game (resulting in the game crashing) and i need to patch to the most current version of the patch i already patched to?

i prepatched the aran patch and then nexon did some last min changes so i ended up just redown loading the entire version since nexons manual patcher would hang up, if i ran maplestory i would dc once in game after like 2 seconds, and the prepatcher would hang also. This time i backed up my nexon folder first so i will just restore to .81 if that happens and download the newest patch file from nexon and i assume that will work?

Yup. You did the correct thing.

I'm also working on the next version of NXPatcher, and it's going to have a lot of new features:

New Features:

1. Drag & Drop - NXPatcher will now support dragging and dropping files on "NXPatcher.exe" without having to edit any BAT files. The BAT files will be entirely optional in the next version.

2. Customization - There will now be an INI file so you can customize exactly how you want NXPatcher to work for you. As an example, you can choose to have the *.patch file removed after you've successfully patched the game. Or you can alter the "version" command to check the versions of all of your WZ files so you can see everything at a glance instead of checking each WZ file one by one. I'd love to hear any suggestions you guys have for possible options I can include for you!

3. Automatic Backup - After successfully reading a patch file, NXPatcher will backup all of your important files for you. Of course, there's an option to turn this on and off!

4. More speed - The new version includes a feature which will increase patching speed by 200 - 300%.

5. Bug fixes - As always, these pesky little bugs come to haunt us.

I'm very excited about developing the next version of NXPatcher. Can't wait to show it to you guys.

just tried this again and it's stuck on 3/3 applying: maplestory.exe.

just tried this again and it's stuck on 3/3 applying: maplestory.exe.

I know these are dumb questions, but just humor me:

1. Is Maplestory.exe set to read-only?

2. Do you have proper permissions to overwrite Maplestory.exe?

I know these are dumb questions, but just humor me:

1. Is Maplestory.exe set to read-only?

2. Do you have proper permissions to overwrite Maplestory.exe?

1. nope

2. i'm an admin on my computer if that's what you mean. should i kill the patcher and run it as adminisitrator? :f6:

edit: restarting it as admin worked.

Having an admin account does not mean you run everything as administrator. You still run everything as a user. However, being on an admin account gives you the ability to "run as administrator" whereas a normal user would not have that option.

Having an admin account does not mean you run everything as administrator. You still run everything as a user. However, being on an admin account gives you the ability to "run as administrator" whereas a normal user would not have that option.

i see.

thanks for trying to help though. much appreciated.

Mhm, I haven't seen the TaiwanMS location in the main file so here it is:

TwMS:
-- Patch

It's an FTP link so you'll be able to browse since the directory isn't forbidden.

Mhm, I haven't seen the TaiwanMS location in the main file so here it is:

[B]TwMS:
-- Patch

It's an FTP link so you'll be able to browse since the directory isn't forbidden.

Thank you. Added. [/b]