Yathosho

13th October 2010 14:39 UTC

PimpBot 4
over the last two weeks, i have taken the early pimpbot ui concept and added some functionality. the result is the first alpha version of pimpbot 4. it probably would deserve being called a beta instead, as it runs very stable. however, as long as not all of the features are implemented -you can currently only make avs installers- it will remain alpha.

so what's new?
-new ui: more responsive and more intelligent, should help you making any mistakes
-multiple instances will not interfere with each other (not that anybody should need this)
-if compilation fails, you can simply go back and fix your settings without the need to re-open pimpbot
-more apes supported
-more reliable ape detection
-some texer packs were included
-updated installer script

support for other plugins will follow, i also plan to add a completely new script for installers.

requirements:
-nsis 2.42 (or later)
-pimpbot 3.8.3 (only for now - to ensure you have all necessary files installed)

if you run into bugs or want to leave any sorts of feedback, please do so in this thread!

download:
PimpBot 4 α

Yathosho

13th October 2010 15:55 UTC

forgot to mention, that pb4 already supports dropfolders and opening .pimp files (via drag&drop)

for a better impression of the ui changes, have a look at this!

micro.D

13th October 2010 17:58 UTC

cooool!:D

Yathosho

14th October 2010 10:11 UTC

didn't think it'd be so quick, but thanks to QOAL's contribution here comes a new alpha.

whats new?
-replaced ape detection (much faster)
-ui is more responsive
-runs standalone (previous alpha required existing pimpbot version)
-fixed a bug in the installer script

download:
PimpBot 4 α2

Yathosho

21st October 2010 16:35 UTC

PimpBot 4 β1
The first beta basically brings almost full functionality compared to the 3.x versions. You can now create installers for AVS, MilkDrop and SPS presets, open and create .pimp files, use DropFolder and a bunch of other things.

There are still a bunch of minor glitches, but room for improvement is primarily under the hood. PimpBot 4 should make it a lot easier to create installers.

I have only created a very feature limited installer, which uses a different install path than Pimpbot 3.x - so you can have both at the same time.

Download

Yathosho

27th October 2010 21:02 UTC

couldnt post earlier, but shortly after my last post i noticed the dropdown menu for all will remain empty when trying to load a previous pack.

for now you can fix this by unzipping the attached file to your pimpbot beta installation path.

open the file and edit the value for PimpDir - any valid path will do.

Yathosho

28th October 2010 18:44 UTC

i uploaded a new beta, mainly to fix some of the glitches mentioned above. it also has some new features, you can save default data sets into a file called defaults.ini (App Data\PimpBot). all included programs will run in multiuser environment by default (this can be tweaked though).

for future releases, i'm going to review the ape install routines (and channelshift's behaviour). there will also be a cheatsheet option for autocompletion of your website (type http://visbot.net to the url-field to see how it works!)

another thing i have to look into is pimpbot's multi-language option, which is currently the only feature working in the ui that doesn't apply changes to your installer. i might post some language files i need translated, hope you guys can help.

download pimpbot 4 beta2

Yathosho

29th October 2010 18:33 UTC

i'm not numbering the betas anymore, but i have uploaded several new versions since my last post. the new version should install apes correctly and fixes some minor glitches regarding ui consistency. a major update has come to the installer, which now includes a dialog to specify your preferred .pimp file directory. it also integrates fully into an existing dropbox installation.

download pimpbot

Yathosho

2nd November 2010 22:18 UTC

another update! did some housekeeping and brought back some of the commandline switches (pimpbot.exe /? for details.) oh, and there was a bug with texer2 in the .pimp file creation.

as much as i see it, the pimpbot compiler is now feature-complete. next up i'm going to work on the installscript and on the runtime.

in the meantime.. download

Yathosho

10th November 2010 20:26 UTC

PimpBot 4.0.0 Public Beta
<delete me>

Yathosho

11th November 2010 09:28 UTC

my todo list is empty, the only thing missing is localization. so now it's testing, testing, testing!

get the first public beta and start using it!

http://pimpbot.whyeye.org/

Yathosho

29th November 2010 13:47 UTC

PimpBot 3.8.5-2 and PimpBot 4.0 beta 2
if you're sticking to 3.x, please get the all new version at google code. functionality has not changed, but the new installer will make your transition to 4.x easier.

for those who upgraded already, there's a new beta version of 4.x available. most changes will remain invisible: some methods have been changed and some commandline switches have been added. the new version also brings back some of those useful scripts.

up next should be localization and possibly a new install script (maybe i'll keep that on the todo list for 4.1)

Yathosho

4th December 2010 21:21 UTC

if you can help with translations, please use these language files as reference. the english language file has all new and modified strings marked with an asterisk (*)

native speakers of dutch, spanish and french might want to look over the included translations.

thanks!

Yathosho

17th December 2010 18:48 UTC

multi language support and some internal changes. looks pretty good to me, though there are still some known bugs to be improved

PimpBot 4 pre-beta 3

Yathosho

22nd December 2010 17:59 UTC

Get the all new version!

Beta 3 (Changes?)

Yathosho

30th December 2010 15:32 UTC

pre-final gossip
So, the news is that beta4 of PimpBot 4.0 will be the final version! In the last couple of days, I've added more features, improved some code and tested it heavily. The project pages are growing on information, basically putting the manual online.

New features since the last beta?
-added pre-compiler to test interface components for validity
-added a fuzzy-mode for DropFolder, respectively called FuzzyDrop
-added support for alternative UIs
-added new commandline switches
-added chinese translation
-fixed some GUI inconsistencies
-improved install script
-upgraded 3rd party components

What's missing?
-new default UI, will be added in 4.1
-support for other Winamp plugins, will be added in 4.1

How can you help?
Apart from testing all the features thoroughly, you can submit a translation of the installer script

When will it be available?
January 1st, 2011 - watch out here!

Yathosho

1st January 2011 10:43 UTC

Download
PimpBot 4.0 FINAL - Download

Yathosho

3rd January 2011 00:11 UTC

it simply works.. even on linux! :)

Yathosho

7th January 2011 21:16 UTC

PimpBot 4.0.1
bugfixes, support for more texer packs and an improved installer

Download PimpBot 4.0.1

Yathosho

11th March 2011 22:02 UTC

PimpBot 4.1 β
A first beta of PimpBot 4.1 is available now. Supports the creation of installers for any Winamp plugin, has an update check inbuilt and fixes some minor bugs.

Download

Yathosho

31st March 2011 23:09 UTC

PimpBot 4.1
Four months after the initial release of the 4.x-series, here's the first new major version. As promised, it now features the support to create installers for any Winamp plugin. The installers might not be as perfected as those for AVS or MilkDrop, but they should work for most cases.

Whats New?
- update notifications
- support for any Winamp plugin
- more consistent interface
- updated components
- minor bugfixes

Download PimpBot

Already working on 4.2, which should introduce the long-promised new installer interface. As a step towards that, you can already disable the the components selection dialogue in latest release. With the improvements in APE installation over the last couple of releases, I find it unnecessary to present that option to the end-user.

Yathosho

4th April 2011 11:08 UTC

Pimpbot 4.1.4
if you've installed 4.1, you should've gotten an update notification by now. otherwise, let me notify you myself.

added a couple of minor features, some in preparation of the forthcoming 4.2, others improving your workflow. the backup tool and the runtime were also updated.

Get PimpBot 4.1.4

Yathosho

7th April 2011 11:19 UTC

PimpBot 4.1.5 & PimpBot 4.2 beta
Uh-oh, I've noticed a severe bug in the APE detection that slipped in with version 4.0.1 already. It's been fixed in version 4.1.5 alongside another bug in a feature that nobody ever used (classic UI, opposed to the default Modern UI). In any case you should update and if you've used the APE detection recently, you should rebuild your installers using the new version.

Thanks to QOAL's amazing new plugin, PimpBot 4.2 will introduce the detection for resource files (images, videos etc.) - probably the last feature most of you have been missing. I've also refined the update check and I still plan to implement the long-announced new installer interface and an improved (slimmer) setup.

Get the download!

Yathosho

11th April 2011 12:30 UTC

PimpBot 4.2 beta3
IMPORTANT UPDATE

Alright, I'm sure you ran into a comment about your installer being a virus, trojan or any other kind of possible malware. I've investigated a little and found that the Upack header compression is the only reason that produces these false positives. So, I've decided to switch for UPX compression. This means that installers will be slightly bigger (we're talking about 3kb here, so nobody will care), but the problem with false positives should be reduced dramatically.

I've uploaded the same installer with different types of compression to VirusTotal, here are the results for UPX and Upack compression and without any header compression.

In other words: UPGRADE!

There were also a couple of other changes:

 * Compiler: added support for UVS resource files
 * Compiler: improved subfolder detection for preset files
 * Compiler: increased tolerance on missing components
 * Compiler: modified components checker
 * Backup: switched default header compression to UPX
 * modified install script debugger
 * switched default header compression to UPX
 * fixed a bug in uninstaller

Yathosho

14th April 2011 21:47 UTC

PimpBot 4.2 beta4
for the wise of you that have migrated their plugins dir into userspace, installers created with the latest beta no longer require admin privileges - same goes for pimpbot runtime. the majority still using the default avs location will have to live with installers requiring admin rights.

also updated some this & that (tm), refer to the changelog for all changes.

beta 4 is likely the last beta before the final release, grab it here!

Yathosho

23rd April 2011 23:20 UTC

PimpBot 4.2 FINAL
At last, the final version of PimpBot 4.2 is here. It's the first version that feels feature-complete and not only by 4.x standards - the new version has all the features I ever imagined. A big thanks goes once again to QOAL, without whom's help there wouldn't be that new "Magic" button, a scanner for all required files (Texer images, videos, GVM etc.)

The final version also features a working version of that long announced user interface, though that still needs some work in detail.

Another nice feature, is the previously mentioned possibility to run installers in user-mode, though that requires the user to have his Winamp plugin directory in user-space as well. Fortunately, you can use PimpBot's own migrator to do just that for you. This and other tools came with previous version of PimpBot, but for the very first time you can compile them directly from the (new) installer.

For the next versions, I've only got plans for the install script. Mainly I'm trying to make the source more readable and I'm improving some things on the new interface. Until the, have fun with Pimpbot 4.2!

Download PimpBot

QOAL

26th April 2011 14:50 UTC

Okay, I'm confused.

I've just had a little play with 4.2 and it seems to copy every (selected) resource file type in the resource folder, not what avstools (sh|w)ould return, so you get huge pile of files in the installer. :S

Am I doing something wrong? (Or am I missing this 'Magic' button?)


Also for the actual pimpbot installer, the default path for the AVS dir is "C:\Program Files\Winamp\Plugins\avs", which is wrong for me -- does it not auto detect it's location?

Yathosho

2nd May 2011 20:28 UTC

i just got out of hospital and will look into it in the next couple of days

Yathosho

4th May 2011 08:44 UTC

Originally posted by QOAL
Also for the actual pimpbot installer, the default path for the AVS dir is "C:\Program Files\Winamp\Plugins\avs", which is wrong for me -- does it not auto detect it's location?

Yathosho

5th May 2011 09:54 UTC

PimpBot 4.2.2
the update within pimpbot will fail when using 4.2 or 4.2.1, hence it's recommended to manually upgrade to the latest version!

Yathosho

31st May 2011 09:41 UTC

PimpBot 4.2.3
a new version is out now, fixing some bugs with certain characters in filenames. also added more texer resources, improved the new installer ui and the pimpbot installer itself. unfortunately the automatic dropbox detection is no longer working when using the latest version of dropbox, this will hopefully be fixed in the next release. of course you can always specify your dropbox directory manually.

update notification should be working if you at least run pimpbot 4.2.2 (or some 4.1 version), otherwise get the new version below.

download pimpbot

Yathosho

1st June 2011 12:16 UTC

Originally posted by Yathosho
unfortunately the automatic dropbox detection is no longer working when using the latest version of dropbox, this will hopefully be fixed in the next release. of course you can always specify your dropbox directory manually.

Yathosho

3rd June 2011 23:43 UTC

i've used this function since pimpbot 1.0 - turns out things can be sped up notably ;)

speed: 4.2.3 vs 4.2.4

Yathosho

4th June 2011 14:32 UTC

PimpBot 4.2.4
new! faster! better! hands up in the air!

Download PimpBot 4.2.4

Yathosho

17th June 2011 17:37 UTC

PimpBot 4.3
if you using an ssd, you might be interested in using a alternate location for your temporay folder. pimpbot 4.3 allows just that by adjusting the %APPDATA%\PimpBot\settings.ini. it's the only change, but substantial enough to justify the jump to 4.3!

download pimpbot

Yathosho

27th June 2011 13:17 UTC

PimpBot 4.4
quite some substantial changes lead to this new major version of pimpbot 4. the updater has a fallback url, .pimp file has been improved (no more accidental inclusion of unrelated files) and some of the advanced features can now be recreated from their .pimp files. also fixed a bug in the new ui and paved the ground for a new .pimp format (implemented but still disabled.)

this & more in pimpbot 4.4

Yathosho

6th July 2011 16:00 UTC

PimpBot 4.4.4 beta
pimpbot 4.4.4 beta

please test this thorougly!
thanks

Yathosho

12th July 2011 12:10 UTC

PimpBot 4.4.4 beta2
beta 2
* new interface on vista/win7
* no longer requires admin privileges
* bugfixes, many of them

Yathosho

16th July 2011 22:12 UTC

PimpBot 4.4.4 beta3
beta3
-visual improvements
-better font installation
-improved additional tools

probably one more beta before the final version. never tested a new release this thoroughly, but it's worth it!

Yathosho

19th July 2011 12:21 UTC

PimpBot 4.4.4 beta4
beta4
-lots of bugfixes

Yathosho

6th August 2011 10:45 UTC

PimpBot 4.4.4 RC
as i won't be able to work on pimpbot 4.4.4 for the rest of the month, here's a release candidate. it's the most thoroughly tested version of pimpbot to date, which explains the long list of changes. if you experience any problems, please leave a message and i will look into them in late august/early september!

Yathosho

6th August 2011 22:44 UTC

the latest rc allow the creation of an installer entirely from commandline. while this might not be applicable for most people, it allows using pimpbot with an alternative interface. anyhow, the feature is there and i've attached a list of available commands.

example:

pimpbot.exe @script=avs @title="My AVS Installer" @presets="c:\path\to\my\presets" @multilingual=1 @convolution=1 @eeltrans=1

Yathosho

29th August 2011 16:22 UTC

PimpBot 4.4.4 RC2
a new release candidate is available now, mainly bringing updates to the backup and runtime components, as well as improving the installer

Yathosho

12th September 2011 14:28 UTC

PimpBot 4.4.4 RC3
forgot to post the link for 4.4.4rc3

Yathosho

20th September 2011 08:42 UTC

PimpBot 4.4.4 RC4
the fourth final release candidate improves the installer when using windows 7.

give it a try!

Yathosho

11th October 2011 10:00 UTC

PimpBot 4.4.4 FINAL
a lot of work has been put into 4.4.4, considering it's only a minor update (one might argue this should've been version 4.5!) no previous version of pimpbot has been tested this thoroughly and i came across quite some bugs. the full changelog is really long, but i want to highlight some of the changes since 4.4.3:

-much faster rebuilding of installers and improved first time building
-compiler no longer requires admin privileges to build installers
-improved debugging options, added more developer options
-added more translations
-pimpbot setup was reduced in filesize
-many, many bugfixes

i would've loved to offer a unicode version of pimpbot, but at least three of the plugins it's using are only available as ansi version. unicode would've allowed the inclusion of some of the translations i received that i cannot convert to ansi. i was also hoping to fix a bug that was produced by one of the plugins, but i could only reduce its appearance. if pimpbot crashes during compilation, it will work most of the times on a second attempt. this problem appeared since the earliest pimpbot 4 version but it happens so rarely that i haven't noticed it in a long time. it also just happens on windows 7 (and vista i guess).

enough talking. if you're using a recent version of pimpbot 4, you will be reminded to upgrade from within the program. otherwise you can download pimpbot 4.4.4 manually below.

http://pimpbot.whyeye.org/

Yathosho

10th November 2011 23:30 UTC

PimpBot 4.4.4.2
as of this version, pimpbot is avaiable in two versions: ansi and unicode. the later allows the inclusion of a wider range of language, though for now only bulgarian has been added to the unicode build. for now, the ansi build will stay the default version, but on longterm this will be the unicode build.

another change in this version is the replacement of some internal functions, which should lead to greater stability when building, and a new and improved installer. as functionality stays the same, the change of the version number is minor.

download pimpbot

ps: if you go for the unicode build, you might want to remove the ansi build though they co-exist peacefully

Yathosho

12th December 2011 10:18 UTC

PimpBot 4.4.4.3
bugfixes, new translations, updated components

download or update within pimpbot. users of the 4.4.4.2 unicode build have to update manually.

Yathosho

12th January 2012 08:25 UTC

PimpBot 4.4.4.4
pimpbot will turn 9 years old this year, even pimpbot 3 was first released 6 years ago. there are hardly any more avs releases this day, but still i felt motivated to improve the tool over the years and if it was only for my own needs.

today version 4.4.4.4 is out! i'm sure it won't be the last version, but i don't plan to play around with it for some time and focus on new tasks. i think it's also time to recommend changing to the unicode built, even if that means slightly bigger installer sizes (36864 bytes for a "standard" installer). the new version brings more languages, upgraded components and some minor bugfixes. there are a few known bugs, but i doubt anyone will ever run into them.

since the introduction of pimpbot 4, there have been some new features that are worthwhile updating your old installers.

-less virus reports, even if these were false positives (this is worth the update alone!)
-installers only require admin rights when necessary
-more reliable winamp detection, including alternative plugin folders
-improved ape handling

if you kept your old pimp files, an update takes two clicks. right-click on the pimpbot file, choose "rebuild installer" (or "edit" to apply changes). if you, like me, have many installers, you can compile one of pimpbot's helpers: the multitool. you will find this in your the "tools" folder of your pimpbot location and you can compile it by right-clicking and choosing "compile nsis script". more conveniently, you can compile it through pimpot's installer or the entry in your context menu. as the name suggests, multitool allows you to load many pimpbot and to recompile them at one click. if you care about your users, you gotta update!

i know there are many people that don't even keep their pimp files. in that case there's another helper: resourcegrab. you compile it as described above and then drop any of your old installers onto it. this will extract the splash screen, (and if you provide ResHacker.exe in the same dir), the icons and checkboxes. this should make it more pleasant to rebuild your old installers and keeping your old graphics.

that's all i can think of right now. thanks to everyone who helped translating pimpbot or who helped finding bugs and improving the software!

download pimpbot

ps: when updating pimpbot, you better check the "download content" box in the component selection!

Yathosho

25th January 2012 10:11 UTC

Originally posted by Yathosho
ps: when updating pimpbot, you better check the "download content" box in the component selection!

Yathosho

3rd February 2012 23:42 UTC

fun fact
just came across this on wikipedia:

NSIS was created to distribute Winamp. It is based on a previous Nullsoft product, PiMP (plugin Mini Packager), and is also known as SuperPiMP.

i used pimp for my first installer, hence i went for the name "pimpbot", but i dont think i was aware of the meaning of "pimp." :cool:

Yathosho

6th February 2012 22:38 UTC

also, dropbox detection is working again with the latest dropbox beta!