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Role of G3DS vs. DLTCEP (Item Checker)


jcompton

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Since DLTCEP, also, was originally conceived as a debugging aid ("Item Checker" was its original name), perhaps it would be helpful for the folks at home to understand which things G3DS does which are new/different/better/whatever than DLTCEP's validation aspects.

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As stated in the Readme,

This suite certainly duplicates some of the error checking from other tools, but I believe it's still beneficial as a standalone suite.

It also stipulates that these tools aren't written with the "player" in mind. That leaves mod writers, or at least people familiar with writing TP2 code. I don't recommend using the G3DS unless you are comfortable with modifying TP2 code, because soon you'll want to be able to check other things and be able to modify the generated reports. I certainly did.

 

Here are some reasons I like using the G3DS as a code base for making my own checkers:

 

1. It can be modified to suit individual purposes. (Bug hunting usually, but not always.)

2. Anything can be checked in any file, limited only by the user's knowledge of IE resource types and data structures.

3. Removes the necessity of having to ask a tool author to implement a check, and then either not having that request fulfilled, or not having it fulfilled in the way you wanted, due to differences of opinion on things like false positives and perceived importance of a particular check.

4. DLTCEP reports many things that are false positives, as does the downloadable version of the G3DS, however G3DS can be modified to report only 'real' errors/issues.

5. NI has limited checking capability and some of its checkers aren't 100% accurate, so I need a reliable alternative.

6. As outlined in the Readme, mod authors who wish to check their files, and who typically use a prefix to give their files unique names, can add a filter to the G3DS so that only their files will be checked. This functionality doesn't exist in DLTCEP.

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