The installer still gives me grief when It asks me for a file update, mainly with unzipping and replacing SomEX.dll. I have to replace it manually, so I wonder if there is something running in the background that prevents this?
The only thing that should prevent the update from the get go is if SOM is already running. Or possibly antivirus software. You can use the Task Manager and go to the Processes tab to see if there is anything that looks like SOM in there and kill it. These days a process being stuck in the background like that is very unlikely though. With antivirus software you should just whitelist SOM_EX.exe or just use the default security stuff that comes with Windows.
Also if you go to the Systray/notification area there is an icon for the SOM_EX program that can be used to Exit everything cleanly from the right-click menu. Windows 7 and maybe Vista too hide these icons by default; a real nuisance if you ask me, since its very easy to hide your own icons, but I don't know if I will go to lengths to prevent the hiding or not. If even possible. If so the Start.bat file would do that.
If you can post a screenshot or use Spy++ to capture the text of the error window that will help. I may have to do a full install from scratch myself and get back to you on this. It's possible that the bootstrapping is not cutting it. Also if you cancel any of the first updates or they don't work then that can be a real problem, because the updater itself may need to be updated as a first step.
Strikeout: I see you explained the problem was in the unzipping/installing step.
I've been considering doing a trial install anyway. If you go to csv.swordofmoonlight.net you can find all the latest versions of each DLL file. That should let you get to work at least.
I installed it through the SVN, so I think I was following the necessary steps, I'll have to try again perhaps.
I see you saw my other post, so: I want to start a new project, BUT! whenever I start it, it seems to direct to the original sword of moonlight toolset and data (C:\Sword of Moonlight\) and not the EX tools and dataset (C:\Sword of Moonlight EX\)
Did you run the Setup.bat and Start.bat files? To use Sword of Moonlight/Ex you need to launch through SOM_EX.exe. I think you must be or you wouldn't have seen the updater. There are two kinds of updates, there is the active SVN update that you do, and the updater (Somversion.dll) that downloads the DLL files when it detects that they are older than the ones listed in the CSV files in the TOOL folder.
So I wonder, should I uninstall Sword of Moonlight and SomEX, and reinstall EX via SVN again?
EDIT: Uninstalling both and just installing EX seemed to have helped a bit in regards to IMAGES.INI.
The release before last made it easier to start a new project with SOM_MAIN by automatically moving a lot of default configuration files into the new project folder, including IMAGES.INI. That file I don't like that it's in the project's top folder, but it's a throwback to years ago that hasn't been worked on since (edited: there is probably an extension for moving it elsewhere, and for standalone games it goes in an out of the way folder by default)
I'm going to mess around with this more.
The way install works in my imagination is a person comes to the site and reads the pages or finds the README/English.txt file first, and so uses a Subversion client to Checkout everything. Then I assume they will see the Setup.bat file, which should also be part of the documentation, and click on it. I assume people still click on Setup files reflexively but you never know.
Then you would think that the Start.bat file starts things, but it actually sets up the Start menu. Then you use the Swordofmoonlight.net folder in the Start menu to run Sword of Moonlight from there on out.
Since the release before last the only hitch is you need to add a language pack to the TEXT folder if you don't want Japanese. And you need to do that before you make a new project (assuming you don't do that in Japanese) to get the English default configuration.
Of course there can always be a bug in the mix. I won't find out until I do a fresh install. I may do that today, but it may be Monday before I get to it.
EDIT2: The Kage issue is fixed now, now I have to deal with the missing files. Where can you get those files anyways? I don't remember them in the original files.
It's because they are not in the original files that the message appears. I can't really search for 113.mdl in the site's database because it doesn't exist so the results will show up empty. I doubt it belongs to a PRF file anyway. Most likely it is part of the Sfx.dat file. So this won't likely get fixed until there is an alternative to the Sfx.dat file system (because PRF files need to be used for "magic" like everything else.)
I think I will just add a 0 sized 113.mdl file to the data/sfx/model folder. But I worry that could break the magic spell because I don't know how this works. I would be safer if I knew what used that spell. And that's hard to tell with the sfx system. If it's one of the player character spells it could be easier to figure out. If so it would be one of the image only spells.
In fact I worry that I may have already broken some spells if I tried this before. I know the Haze spell (purple fog) crashes SOM_PRM if you preview it. It's probably something worth investigating (there's always just so many somethings)
And for the question of the moment: Is there a windowed mode for map testing?
The recommended default configuration files (the same ones that are copied when making a new project) should run games inside a window. When you test a map you just launch the game really. So whatever your project's game settings are is what you'll get.
PS: At some point I do intend to prepare an installer, that will just do the SVN stuff automatically. It won't be the recommended method, but it will be an available option. That will come about sometime between now and Beta, which is just a way to say probably not anytime soon.