Provide Windows 7 backwards compatibility

[Psycho-A]

Describe Your Suggestion

First, VPKEdit is a greatest tool I seen in its class! But please keep in mind that not all modders use 64-bit systems and Windows 10. The Source engine remains old-school engine, and still natively supports 32 bits (and even Windows XP mostly), which means that all native SDK tools may be used on any retro machine of latest 10-15 years.

I know you will tell about "Qt6" - but I don't think it's good that the whole program depends on some framework's compatibility. Qt5 and Qt4 are functional enough to provide required user experience on all VPKEdit features.

[craftablescience]

Honestly I don't think I can make a 32-bit build by this point (exaggeration, the few reasons this is the case are surmountable but it would take a lot of effort for very little gain), but a Windows 7 build is still feasible

[Psycho-A]

Honestly I don't think I can make a 32-bit build by this point (exaggeration, the few reasons this is the case are surmountable but it would take a lot of effort for very little gain), but a Windows 7 build is still feasible

It would be nice even with 64 bits, so I'm really looking forward to this build, and I'll be very grateful, like many others!

[craftablescience]

• CLI now works fine on Win7
• GUI crashes immediately using this version of Qt6 for Win7, and I can't debug it because Win7's windbg is insanely hard to find nowadays. Can you test if https://github.com/i486/VxKex allows this standalone build to work? It doesn't seem to do anything in my VM, but my copy of Win7 is apparently missing a few updates it needs that I can't find online. If that works it would make my life much easier :trollface: and in theory it should support this application since it supports Qt6

[Psycho-A]

@craftablescience I know that Qt5 works just fine on Windows 7. May be is there quick way to backport tool to it? As for "qt6windows7"... This is what I did for myself with the VPKEdit a month ago :) The only thing which made crashes for me, is the function "CreateFile2" which I hex-replaced to regular "CreateFileW" in VpkEdit.exe binary, and tool successfully started to me! Although I don't know how much is it correct and is there no other issues in functionality (but I didn't notice for now).

[craftablescience]

The only thing which made crashes for me, is the function "CreateFile2" which I hex-replaced to regular "CreateFileW" in VpkEdit.exe binary, and tool successfully started to me!

I've replaced that with CreateFileW in the latest version :3 (we love CMake hacks!!)

Unfortunately this tool is pretty dependent on Qt6, I dunno how feasible it would be to backport. Looks like qt6windows7 is the way to go

[Psycho-A]

Unfortunately this tool is pretty dependent on Qt6, I dunno how feasible it would be to backport. Looks like qt6windows7 is the way to go

No worries, I also think that "qt6windows7" is a solution, at least temporarily. If it is possible to link release versions to it, it will be nice! There are also native 32-bit builds for qt6windows7. Maybe this will make it easier to create a 32-bit version of VpkEdit..?

[craftablescience]

Not doing 32-bit builds lol, Windows 7 is enough. There is absolutely no reason to use a 32-bit OS in 2024. I tried looking on the Steam hardware survey to find the usage of 32-bit OSes and they're not even listed anymore, despite Steam being a 32-bit program itself

Too much effort for too little gain imo

[Psycho-A]

Okay.. When can we expect the next release (with this fixes and VTMB VPK support as well)?

[craftablescience]

Sorry, I've been busy improving the base libraries VPKEdit relies on. I wanted to add a few more features to the next build, it should come out by the end of the month at the latest.