Shimeji English Enhanced

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Hello,
this is a submition by :iconrelic-nt: which I find is to be considered and useful.
Especially for people who get tired of explaining to newcomers and customers what the manual of the shimeji says.:

code.google.com/p/shimeji-ee/

Remember Shimeji, that desktop mascot progam? Yeah, I know it's so two months ago. Anyway, I started a branch of the code called Shimeji-ee (Shimeji English Enhanced.) It's Shimeji, but completely in English/Engrish (including the configuration files) with some new enhancements.

I'm mainly here asking people to contribute to the project: programmers, wiki writers, and people to make new Shimeji types.

So far, I have the English translation mostly done (although it could use editing) and I've added support for: multiple Shimeji types at once, better context menus, and the ability to force a Shimeji to perform behaviors. I've pretty much done everything I want with the program and I'm not really intending to do more programming. But I opened up the project at google code so other people can contribute. I'll answer questions people have, okay contributors, and check code changes.

As far as programming goes, the major improvements I can think of are: Better memory usage (Shimeji was a hog and may have a leak), GUI for managing image sets at run time, allowing Shimejis to interact with non-browser windows, Pop Up Error messages, and Now Loading messages. Of course, more error messages and commenting would be nice, but no one wants to do that. I'm sure there are a lot of bugs too, I haven't tested it all that much. And if you programmers don't like the code, don't blame me, most of it was taken from the original Shimeji project.

As far as wiki writing goes, guides to configuring Shimeji-ee would be nice. Shimeji is actually very customizable, but it's not obvious how to do it.

Come and visit the homepage. Don't expect much though, I put this together relatively quickly. If you want to be added as a contributor, please send an e-mail to "relic.nt+Shimeji@gmail.com".

Spread this post around if you can.

If you want to use the current version of Shimeji-ee, here's some info:

Shimeji English Enhanced

Shimeji-ee is a Windows desktop mascot that freely wanders and plays around the screen. Shimeji was originally created by Yuki Yamada of Group Finity (www.group-finity.com/Shimeji/). This branch of the original Shimeji project not only translates the program/source to English, but adds additional enhancements to Shimeji.

==== Homepage (with wiki) ====

Homepage: code.google.com/p/shimeji-ee/
Download: code.google.com/p/shimeji-ee/d…

There are two downloads versions, Calm and Mischievous. The only difference is their configuration files. The Mischievous version will divide itself and toss around non-full screen browser windows. The recommended version is mischevious: shimeji-ee.googlecode.com/file…

==== Requirements ====

Same as the original Shimeji:

1. Windows XP or higher
2. Java 6 or higher, MUST be 32-bit Java

==== How to Start ====

Extract the zip and Double Click the Shimeji-ee icon (Shimeji-ee.exe). Right click the tray icon or the individual Shimeji for options. Left click the tray icon to create another Shimeji.

==== Basic Configuration ====

If you want multiple Shimeji types, you must have multiple image sets. Basically, you put different folders with the correct Shimeji images under the img directory.

You can pretty much take the image folders from existing Shimeji sets, rename them, and put them under Shimeji-ee's img folder.

Here's an example. If you want to add, say, a new Batman Shimeji:

1. Create an img/Batman folder.
2. You must have an image set that mimicks the contents of img/Shimeji. Create and put new versions of shime1.png - shime46.png (with Batman images of course) in the img/Batman folder. The filenames must be the same as the img/Shimeji files. Refer to img/Shimeji for the proper character positions.
3. Start Shimeji-ee. Now Shimeji and Batman will drop. Right click Batman to perform Batman specific options. Adding "Another One!" from the tray icon will randomly create add either Shimeji or Batman.

When Shimeji-ee starts, one Shimeji for every image set in the img folder will be created. If you have too many image sets, a lot of your computer's memory will be used... so be careful. Shimeji-ee can eat up to 60% of your system's free memory. If it tries to use any more, it will crash.

Shimeji-ee will ignore all the image sets that are in the img/unused folder, so you can hide image sets in there. If enough people want it, a future release may add some better capabilities (namely a image set selection tool when Shimeji-ee is run) to managing Shimeji image sets.

Also, read through the configuration files in conf/. Most options are somewhat complicated, but it's not too hard to limit the total number of Shimeji or to turn off certain behaviors (hint: set frequency to 0.)

==== Advanced Configuration ====

All configuration files are located in the in the conf folders. In general, none of these should need to be touched.

The logging.properties file defines how logging errors is done.
The actions.xml file specifies the different actions Shimeji can do. When listing images, only include the file name.
The behaviors.xml file specifies when Shimeji performs each action.

Each type of Shimeji is configured through:

1. An image set. This is located in img/[NAME]. The image set must contain all image files specified in the actions file.
2. An actions file. Unless conf/[NAME]/actions.xml exists, conf/actions.xml will be used.
3. A behaviors file. Unless conf/[NAME]/behaviors.xml exists, conf/behaviors.xml will be used.

==== How to Quit ====

Right-click the tray icon of Shimeji (or an individual Shimeji), Select "Bye Everyone!"

==== How to Uninstall ====

Delete the unzipped folder.

==== Trouble Shooting ====

Shimeji-ee takes a LOT of time to start if you have a lot of image sets, so give it some time. Try moving all but one image set to the img/unused folder.

If Shimeji is running out of memory, try editing Shimeji-ee.bat and change "-Xmx1000m" to a higher number.

If the Shimeji-ee icon appears, but no Shimeji appear:

1. Make sure you only have image set folders in your img directory.
2. Make sure you have 32-bit Java on your system. If you have both 32-bit Java and 64-bit Java installed, try double clicking Shimeji-ee.bat or Shimeji-ee.jar. Shimeji-ee requires 32-bit Windows DLLs so can not work with 64-bit Java.
3. If you're somewhat computer savvy, you can try running Shimeji-ee from the command line. Navigate to the Shimeji-ee directory and run this command: "C:Program Files (x86)Javajre6binjava" -classpath Shimeji-ee.jar -Xmx512m com.group_finity.mascot.Main -Djava.util.logging.config.file=./conf/logging.properties
4. Try checking the logs (ShimejiLogX.log) for errors. If you find a bug (which is very likely), post it up on the Shimeji-ee homepage under the issues section.
© 2010 - 2024 Shimejis
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FamousFazbearFan's avatar
Is there a version for mac?
Coz I'm a poor bitch who can't afford a windows ;-;