Release Notes for PCGen v5.12.0

Table of Content

What's new for v5.12.0

Once again we have been hard at work on PCGen. Since the 5.10 releases we have included 199 Feature requests (65 code, 51 data, 71 docs, 12 output sheets), 482 Bug fixes (216 code, 125 data, 135 docs, 16 output sheets) and 11 New sources. Here's the highlights, see the Change Log for the details.

Major Changes: New Output Sheets: New Sources: Documentation: Notable New Functions:

For full details of the new changes in 5.12, see the Change Log .

James Dempsey for the PCGEN Team -- 7 July, 2007.

GMGen Known Issue

There is a known issue with GMGen when used on a Macintosh. In the Initiative Tab when running a combat when you select any character other than the one whose turn it is and click the Damage or Heal buttons the character whose turn it is becomes selected and the damage is applied to him instead of the character which had been selected.

A solution has not yet been found but fortunately there is a simple work-around. The problem will only manifest when using the System Look and Feel, you can change the Look and Feel by going to Preferences/Appearance/Look and Feel and changing it to Java before activating GMGen and then it will work as it should.

Installation

Prerequisites

Java 5. PCGEN 5.12.0 is not compatible with Java 1.4.x and it is NOT SUPPORTED. To get the latest version of Java, go to java.com.

Important Warning

If you have custom data created using either the LST Editor, or the my_dataset example files, it is very important that you read the Custom Data Sets section below before installing your new version of PCGen.

Windows Users

We recommend that you use the Windows installer.

Mac Users

We recommend that you use the OS X DMG Mac Installer, it is now working with OS X 10.4 (Tiger). This has been a problem in the past due to a change on Apple’s part in how the menu bar was handled with java 1.4 on Tiger, a packaged java app set to use the main window instead of the application window caused the program to crash at startup. At this point in time the solution is to set the menu bar to appear in application menu.

Also new in this version is the configuration of the program, all the necessary files are now included with the program package. You can still access the files by right clicking the program and choosing Show Package Contents. See the notes included in the installer DMG for all the details.

Others (or advanced) users

Pick the package with the features you want and unzip it. It is highly recommended that you use a new directory for every new release. Once the package is unzipped, see docs\index.html for the full documentation.

Read the doc!

Please make sure you read the docs to familiarize yourself with the changes. You can access it from docs/index.html located in the PCGen directory.

  

Custom Data Sets

PCGen provides two simple ways of adding your own data, these are the inbuilt LST Editors and the starter data set my_dataset. Both of these need some attention when upgrading PCGen.

Migrating Data Created in the LST Editor

If, as is recommended, you install PCGen into a new directory each time you upgrade, you will need to copy over the data created using the LST Editors. To do this follow these steps.

  1. Stop PCGen, if it is currently running. PCGen must not be running when you copy the files, as PCGen writes a new copy of these files on exit.
  2. Copy the data/customsources folder and all of it contents from your old PCGen install directory to the new install directory.
  3. Start the new version of PCGen and verify that your custom data is present.

If you install PCGen in the same directory as your previous install, your LST editor data will still be present in the new version.

Migrating Data Created using the my_dataset files

PCGen ships with an example set of data files ready to go to create you own data. This is in the data/my_dataset folder. As the example files ship with PCGen, it is very important to note that these can be overwritten by a new PCGen install if you have not renamed the data set and install the new version of PCGen in the same location as the old one.

As a result we strongly recommend that when using the my_dataset example files you create a copy in a new folder and work with that copy, rather than editing the example files directly.

If you install PCGen into a new directory each time you upgrade, you may need to copy over the data you have created. If you cannot see your custom data, simply copy over the folder with your custom data to the same location in the new PCGen install. The data should then be visible when you restart PCGen.

If you are installing PCGen into the same directory, backup your custom data first, then make sure it does not use the default my_dataset folder name. Once you are sure you data is safe, then proceed with the upgrade of PCGen.

Want to Help?

PCGen is an open source project. Anyone who wants to contribute whether it is Java programming, data set programming, documentation, helping new users, general cat herding, massage, walking the dogs, etc. is very welcome.

If you want to help drop a mail to Paul W. King (paulking.rhochi@verizon.net) or Karianna (karianna@clear.net.nz), or simply post a message with the title "I Want To Help" in one of the mailing lists (and may the gods have mercy on your soul :-).

  

Useful Links

Change Log for 5.12.0

The following is a complete list of all features added, bugs corrected and new data sources added to PCGen since 5.10. Note that many of the bugs will have only been present in the 5.11 line and have never been in a production release.

Code FREQs

Data FREQs

New Data Source Development

Doc FREQs

OS FREQs

Code Bugs

Data Bugs

Output Sheet Bugs

Doc Bugs