Mtgdb.Gui: search MTG cards, build decks, manage collection

[hidalgo]

I accidently broke the links to MEGA storage used in Mtgdb.Downloader.exe. Sorry for that guys.
To keep downloading apply the patch to v.1.3.2.

Meanwhile the life goes on and since my last release there was one more change worth mentioning:
in v1.3.2 the forge pictures replacer will crop the images, as Forge draws the frame itself. Double frame wasn't pretty at all.

[hidalgo]

The information below only matters for those who consider using Mtgdb.Gui image downloader.

Next update is coming ~this weekend +/-. It will be mostly about speeding up image downloading with Mtgdb.Downloader.exe
Downloaded image sizes will be exactly as shown in Mtgdb.Gui - 2 sizes - normal - zoomed. And diveded into 3 consecutive bunches:

1. Small images will be 31k files, ~800MB. These are shown in search result - the main part of Mtgdb.Gui screen.
2. Zoomed images will come in two bunches. First zoomed bunch 31k files totalling 2.7 GB
3. Second zoomed bunch will be image variants of card. For instance most sets have ~4 different images of each basic land. 2nd-4rd variants will be in this bunch.

This way the total download volume is dramatically reduced from ~19GB to ~4GB without loosing perceived image quality in Mtgdb.Gui
As a side effect, using the new images improves scrolling smoothnes, because non-zoomed image is dowloaded from 50KB file instead of 500KB.

There is a possibility to further significantly improve image downloder speed by switching to torrent.
The idea is to ship mtgdb.gui with Deluge insntaller. Deluge is a very pretty cross-patform torrent client supporting command line inerface (CLI) besides normal windowed user interface. Using CLI Mtgdb.Downloader.exe can tell Deluge what torrent to dowload and where to.

Now guys I'd like to get some feedback from you:
Would you like to use automatic image downloading via torrent?
Or would it be ok to keep download from MEGA at 300 KB/sec and/or
download a torrent manually specifying correct destination directory?

[hidalgo]

First of all compact image packages still in progress.
The program directory structure was reorganized, so this time no patch, only full version.

Changed image directory location. To use already downloaded images for previous version

| Open

• Either move \Resources\Images from previous version to \images of v1.3.3
• Or edit etc\Mtgdb.Gui.xml to point it to your images from previous version.

New features:

• Most important: Added a filter by mana color in card text . Without it it was absolute disaster finding the lands producing types of mana you want. Now you can check the filter by card type "Land" and then narrow down the search by color in card's text as it is almost allways the color of produced mana. There is a limitation however. Basic mana cards have no text, so still you have to spot them manually. Not a huge issue since finding basic lands is easy.
  
  As a side effect you can also search by mana colors in the cost of card's abilities because they are also mana symbols in card's text.
  
• Context menu in zoomed card.
  
  • Allows you to restrict the list of cards you cycle through with scrolling on zoomed image.
  • Opens the viewed image in windows explorer or your default jpg viewer. This way you can quickly see the image even bigger than zoomed in mtgdb.Gui. Or maybe, who knows draw something on it and enjoy your art every time when seeing this card again in Mtgdb.Gui...
• Possiblity to stop hiding card duplicates in search result. It was allways enabled since namesakes can be confusing when creating a deck or builing some statistics.
  But sometimes you want to put into your deck a specific version of a beautiful island. Now you check Show duplicates button and can select any variant of card image to put to your deck.
• Tooltips on most available controls. Useful to begin, but honestly annoying. So they come in bundle with a button to disable them.
• Some visual improvements
• Realy a whole lot of bugfixes, mostly about intellisence in search text input, some about filtering. For instance one serious bug was that having black mana button disabled with black phyrexian enabled you weren't able to find any card with black phyrexian mana, because the regular black mana pattern was 'B' instead of '{B}' which led to prohibiting any type of black mana like {B/P}, {B/U} and etc., instead of only standard one

UPDATE: v1.3.3.1
Fixed corrupted all-sets-x.json. All card variant with different images were shown with the same one.
Fixed not restoring filters after restarting program

[aidscoi168]

I'm so happy, all the ideas that i suggested ( re-order cards in deckzone,app for download images, show duplicate card from other set with different artworks ) are added and working perfectly. When all the main features is done and stable i think we just need a button to check new json file for updating resources. Thanks you for your hardworking on this Hidalgo

[hidalgo]

You are most welcome aidscoi168.
I am currently working on installer and updater. Eventually you will have an updater that will
show and update datafiles(json with cards and xml with translations), images and the program itself.

Changing directory structure in v1.3.3 was a part of this effort.

[aidscoi168]

I still confusing about LQ and MQ folder in Mtgdb.Pictures folder, did i need to keep the 3 XLHQ folder inside images folder ? after make back up of ect folder, i try to move 3 XLHQ folders to another place for testing LQ and MQ affect scroll and load speed, try to remove folder path in xml file but look like the app just load image from XLHQ folder, without 3 folders app won't show card image in search result as it should

[hidalgo]

If you copied the etc directory like this:

games\Mtgdb.Gui.xml\etc\ to
games\etc

Then the program is using settings from games\etc
And only those settings it cannot find in games\etc will be applied from games\Mtgdb.Gui\etc\Mtgdb.Gui.xml

So to recap the sequence to test mq/lq:
1. copy games\Mtgdb.Gui\etc\Mtgdb.Gui.xml to games\etc
2. edit games\etc\Mtgdb.Gui.xml to set path for your downloaded images

for instance my personal config is like this:

| Open

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<WatchFile Mode="Auto" />

<ImageLocations>

<Directory Path="D:\Distrib\games\mtg\Mtgdb.Pictures\LQ\Default" />
<Directory Path="D:\Distrib\games\mtg\Mtgdb.Pictures\LQ\Variants" />
<Directory Path="D:\Distrib\games\mtg\Mtgdb.Pictures\MQ\Default" Zoom="True" />
<Directory Path="D:\Distrib\games\mtg\Mtgdb.Pictures\MQ\Variants" Zoom="True" />

</ImageLocations>

<ImageCache CacheCapacity ="30000" />
<DatafilesPostprocessing HumanReadableSetsFile="False" />

</configuration>

Be aware that I did'not get HQ, MQ ready for the current release. It is because I found some quality issues in my postrpocessing. Now they are all fixed, but it takes long time to upload all the new images to MEGA storage again.

Also, you probably do not want MQ. LQ is good because it makes your scrolling fast.
MQ is intended as a faster download to get pretty zoom for those who don't have HQ. In zoomed image inside Mtgdb.Gui you will not see the difference between MQ and HQ.

[hidalgo]

• Image downloader now targets compact image package consisting of LQ and MQ (for zoom) images
• Added Energy , any amount , tap , untap {Q} to mana filters
• Added mixed costs like {2/W}, {W/U} to filter by cost
• Right clicking the button on mana filter is doing simple check/uncheck rather than applying complicated usability logic
• 7+ button in cmc filter auto-unchecks like all others in cmc filter buttons
• Added possibility to reveal prohibited values zone in button filters. It allows you to explicitly prohibit some values bu checking on prohibit button rather than unchecking allowed button
• Made sorting undo/redo- able, as a consequence it persists through restarting program
• Fixed sorting by power and thoughness: was sorted as text, not as number
• Zoom no more closes when mouse leaves zoomed card. It closes only when you click something else.
• Displaying new fields:
  
  • legality and rulings texts
  • artist
  • set code
  • set release date
• Legality values added to search text intellisense
• Increased tooltip delay to 2.5 seconds
• Showing tooltips on card image and text fields (remember, you can turn off tooltips).
• Not counting sideboard when importing Forge deck. Presently Mtgdb.Gui does not support sideboard.
• Fixed Ctrl+Backspace behaviour in search string, now removes only current word.

[aidscoi168]

Hi, can the downloader recognize the differences of images have same name on the local disk ( some image have quality issues as you said from MQ folders ) and the one from mega ? I've downloaded the MQ version from Mega myself but not sure the tool can update newest version of images with better quality.

[hidalgo]

Hi! You need to replace all hq/mq, they are all different from previous versions. The downloader will get the images to
\Mtgdb.Gui\images\Mtgdb.Pictures\LQ
\Mtgdb.Gui\images\Mtgdb.Pictures\MQ

Make sure these directories are empty as downloader will not replace any existing files.
Then, if you have some configuration edits that point Mtgdb.Gui to some other locations, remember to remove them.

For example, if directories locations is the only thing you've changed with configuration, then you can just remove your custom config and the program will use the default one from Mtgdb.Gui\etc\Mtgdb.Gui.xml

[aidscoi168]

Hi, i'm tested the downloader and the function of checking missing images form mtgbd.gui. After remove 2 folders name 2ED from both LQ and MQ and restart mtgdb.gui, the program not suggest to use imagesdownloader as it should. The downloader itself working but slow in start ( i think because of megatool ) and have to check over 76000 images from local disk and mega folder.

[hidalgo]

Hi! I made the program to suggest downloader only if you are missing more than 50% images. Maybe I should change this rule.

The downloading startup is slow indeed. It depends on the amount of files in Mega directory. Currently both direcories have 36 000 files so megatools spends long time getting files list from MEGA before actually downloading them.

When I add the next portion of images, it will be like 400 images for some new set. I will make sure to make a separate folder in MEGA for them, so that the downloader pre-download delay would be small.

[hidalgo]

• Showing symbols of mana, tap/untap and energy in text
• Using drag-n-drop from and to search result to add/remove cards from deck, Ctrl+drag-n-drop to add/remove 4 copies
• Showing cards that almost fit the window to make small window more effective
• Fixed printing not using zoomed image variant
• Fixed not refreshing statistics diagram after customizing statistics table

[aidscoi168]

Hi, we already have card count feature ( at first it just for magic duels i guess ) but honestly i think we can make it's easier and visually
for user to use by adding option for counting copy of cards in your collection from right click ( after zoomed ) same as " show in explorer ", maybe " x copy in your collection ".. also i think we can add a check box for " My collection " so the program just find cards in this collection, so it help user faster to build they deck form real card pool of their collection. We can leave the current card count for magic duels as it a game we supported from start. Me as example used to buy a booster box of new set, so it easier for me if first i search by set name then set number of copy for each card after open the packs.

Ps : do you think we can add feature that can update value of cards from trade market ?

[aidscoi168]

Forget to report that the symbol of rarelity is wrong, the red one is mythic rare and the yellow is rare.