Newbie blorb frustration

Authoring Inform 6
1

the plan was to compile to glulx, add some graphics and wrap everything up into a blorb file.

i have my graphic resources, my compiled .glx file, and my blorb spec file all ready to go.

but getting everything into a functioning blorb file seems like medieval dentistry.

i’ve tried simon baldwin’s ‘gblorb’ tool, but it doesn’t seem to work (i type ‘load’ to load in my spec file and get a dialog box that doesn’t actually open anything). i’m not good enough at inform to poke around in the code and try to figure out what the heck it wants.

i tried iblorbs, the ancient MSDOS stuff but that won’t work anymore.

i’ve tried python scripts from zarf and perl scripts from someone else i can’t remember. i get error messages with the scripts that mean nothing to me and none of this stuff is documented in any way.

i’ve seen mention of using the inform 10 tools but can’t seem to find any documentation on that either.

so is this not possible to do without a level of expertise far beyond mine?

2

The trick to using gblorb is:

  1. Create a working directory.
  2. Put the gblorb executable, your .blorb specification file, and copies of all resources into the working directory.
  3. Open gblorb.
  4. >LOAD the specification file
  5. >CREATE the blorbed output (giving it an appropriate suffix like .zblorb or .gblorb)

In gblorb, the >ABOUT command gives a pretty good overview.

I just ran a test to ensure that it works and had no trouble. Where is the process going wrong for you? Are you able to >LOAD the specification file? If so, what is the output?

For the test, I used a few files hanging around, with the following specification file:

0	tokyo.z5
10	example1.png
11	example2.png

This is the gblorb transcript.

> LOAD
Loading the resources table from a specification file...
Successfully loaded 3 resources into the table.

The resources table contains the following entries:

  Usage  Resource  Type     Length  Filename
  -----  --------  ----     ------  --------
  EXEC          0  ZCOD     107520  tokyo.z5
  PICT         10  PNG       58244  example1.png
  PICT         11  PNG       33203  example2.png

> CREATE
Writing the Blorb output file...
Successfully wrote 199052 bytes to the output Blorb file.

I gave an output filename of tokyo.zblorb and it launched without issue. Note that it’s up to you to specify the resource numbers correctly, based on what you did in your game code. (For the test I just chose 10 and 11 as resource numbers at random.)

3

Yes. I never understood why blorbs were needed and why it all couldn’t just be a zip file.

4

yup, i’ve done that in many combinations but i always get this:

Loading the resources table from a specification file...
    Error: unable to open file, at line 1: 0 fat_bear.z5
    Error: unable to open file, at line 2: 10 bear_pic.jpg
No resources were loaded into the table. There were errors in 2 entries.

these files are all within the same directory, including the gblorb.ulx file.

have also, just for kicks, tried multiple interpreters but it doesn’t make any difference.

5

It looks like the specification file is being read, but for whatever reason gblorb can’t find the resource files that are being specified.

Are you sure that capitalization is the same between resource filenames and the specification file? Are you sure that the working directory is being set correctly? What OS are you using?

6

yes, i’ve triple-checked the filenames and they match. using macos, have tried with spatterlight and gargoyle.

not sure what you mean by ‘setting the working directory’. i have all the files in the same folder along with the gblorb executable - not sure how else to make glorb find them.

7

I can’t provide much guidance for MacOS problems.

The idea of a working directory is that it’s like the default directory for a running program. I know the concept applies to Windows and Linux. I get the impression from the documentation that gblorb looks for resource files only in the current working directory, regardless of where it reads the specification file.

Hopefully someone who has successfully used gblorb on a Mac will come along with some advice for you.

8

just tried on windows as well. same result. glblorb can’t find the resource files even though they’re right there in the same directory.

i give up. thx for your help.

9

Because the ZIP format is a mess, quite complex, not intended for quickly finding and extracting one resource, and it’s not free (owned by PKWARE).

10

The interpreter may be looking for files in a separate save directory. Where does it save if you type “save” in a game?

11

I feel your pain. Medieval dentistry is far more advanced than the creation of gblorb files.

I use the Blorb Resource Compiler version 0.4b by L Ross Raszewski. I think this is downloadable from the IFArchive, but it’s Windows only and I have no idea if it works on Windows 10 or 11.

I have it automated to run from within my editor, so I’ve forgotten the details, but it’s essentially a three-step process.

  1. Create and compile the blorb resources using bres.exe.
  2. Compile your ulx file as usual.
  3. Compile the gblorb file using blc.exe.

You only need to do the first step once, unless you change the resources. You need to do the 2nd and 3rd step every time you change the code in your game.

I’m not sure if this helps or hinders, but it works for me. Send me a PM if you need further details. (I’m only saying that because I would need to check a bunch of stuff before making it public.)

12

gargoyle wants to save to a ‘plugin’ folder. but moving everything there doesn’t seem to make any difference either.

13

Oh come on, all patents expired years ago.

14

Glulx was introduced 25 years ago.

15

PKZip, announced in 1989, “The ZIP file format is given freely into the public domain and can be claimed neither legally nor morally by any individual, entity or company.”

2 Likes
16

thx, i did get the iblorb stuff working on windows. after playing around with it, though, the whole process is quite byzantine and currently doesn’t seem to be worth the time (versus the relatively limited plans i had in mind).

if that time/effort ratio flips down the road i’ll take you up on your offer of more specific instructions.