This is a small program for fast extraction of Fishing Simulator 2 JR2 files. It saves the time of loading up Fishsim 2 and restarting it, to import JR2 files. You will have to close Fishsim 2 though if it is running before using the JR2 extractor still. With the latest version, you can now import directly from ZIP files without having to unzip them first.

A zip file can contain more than one JR2 file. In this case, all the JR2 files in the zip will be imported. A note of caution should be made here though, in that if a single zip file contains a venue jr2 file and an update jr2 file for that venue, then the order they will be imported cannot be guaranteed, so this should be avoided. In fact, normally they will be imported in order newest to oldest, which is definately not the desired effect in this case.

New additions since the release version include, correct handling of all valid JR2 files including ones created on older versions of FSUtils. File and folder existance checking now incorporated. File over write warnings added.

To download and import addons from the Internet normally requires that you have a program to "unzip" files. Files available for download on the Internet are commonly "zipped", in English, this means they are "squashed" to make them as small as possible, to reduce download times. You will need a program to unzip these files on your computer after you have downloaded them, Winzip is a good choice here and available for everyone to use.

After downloading an addon you must extract the files to the fishing simulator 2 folder on your computer. This is the place you installed the game to ( probably c:\program files\fishsim2 ), after doing that, when you run fishing simulator, press the Options button on the main menu, then click the Advanced tab, then click the Import addon button. You will then see a list of addons available to import in JR2 files, click on the addon you want to import, then confirm you want to do it, and that's it.

This is a very brief description of downloading and importing addons, however, Derek Shaw has written a more detailed page on the process. Click here to view it

Note : Due to the fact that this addon replaces the jr2ex.exe file, you cannot import this addon using jr2ex itself, it always has to be imported using fishing simulator 2 ( see below ).

After importing this addon, a file called jr2ex.exe will be placed into your fishing simulator 2 folder. Note : After importing the addon, this file should be virus checked before running it. The files hosted on fishsim.net are always checked for viruses using two different checkers, but executable files should always be checked after downloading them.

To import an addon, first you will need to download it from the Internet and save it in your Fishing Simulator 2 folder ( probably c:\program files\fishsim2 ). Add-on's can come in two forms, either with a .zip file extension or a .jr2 file extension, jr2ex will accept both of these types. After you have downloaded the addon, open up the main fishing simulator 2 folder using "my computer" or windows explorer, and double click on the jr2ex file. A black screen will appear and you will be prompted to enter a jr2 or zip file containing an addon. Type in the name of the file you downloaded and press the enter / return key on the keyboard.

Example

If you have downloaded hanley.zip from fishsim.net and saved it to the fishing simulator 2 folder where you installed, after running jr2ex enter the name hanley.zip, this will then import the addon into fishing simulator 2. Addon's only have to be imported once, after that they will always appear in the game and do not need importing again.

The following is more advanced optional information, reading is not required for basic use of jr2ex.

Organising files for use with jr2ex

You can use jr2ex to import addons from a different folder than the main fishing simulator 2 folder, if desired. You can import addon's directly from CDR CD ROM's for example, without having to copy the addon from the CD to the FS2 folder first.

To set this, up you will need to edit the app.ini file in the INF folder of fishsim2 and add the following to the bottom of the file :

[jr2ex]
Dir = d:\

If you're CD ROM drive letter is d, the above example will work, if not you will need to change it accordingly.

This is not restricted to CD ROM's, for example, if you'd prefer to store your addons in a folder off the main hard drive called "addons", the following should be set in the app.ini file :

[jr2ex]
Dir = c:\addons\

Cautionary notes

It is possible for a zip file to contain multiple JR2 files or files which are not addon files ( readme.txt etc. ). Any files that aren't addon files will not be extracted but ignored.

Multiple JR2 files in a single zip file can be a useful feature for backing up addons so that they can all be imported in one go. The order addons are imported is not determined though, so if you use this feature to create backups of addons in a zip file, "fixes" should not be stored alongside the original addon which they fix, as there is a possibility they will be imported before the main addon which required the fix.

Version history

Version 1.3 additions

- Cured problem with earlier versions that didn't not handle modified jr2 files well. This one is now secure and won't corrupt files.

- Added ability to use folder and file existance features if JR2 created with them ( eg promode validation files ).

- Incorporated file overwrite checking, if a file is about to be overwritten a warning is displayed, and the user requested to give guidance ( Y = overwrite the file, N = Don't overwrite the file, A = always overwrite files, V = Never overwrite files ).

Version 1.2 additions

With version 1.2, you can add a line to the APP.INI file, in the inf folder of FS2 as example below :

[jr2ex]
Dir = c:\fishsim2\addons

This will tell jr2ex, not to look in the main fishsim folder for JR2 and ZIP files but in the drive and folder specified ( eg where you download your addons to ).

Version 1.1 instructions ( after update Jan 2003 ).

The instructions for version 1.0 below are still valid, however there is now a faster way of importing addons from ZIP files directly as well !

This has a number of benefits, the first being that it reduces one of the steps in the processof download - unzip - import, the unzip part can now be removed, as addons can be imported directly from the ZIP files.

To use, place the jr2ex.exe file in the Fishsim 2 folder ( where fishsim2.exe is ), then simply double click the jr2ex icon. You will be prompted for a JR2 or ZIP file name to extract from type in the name ( eg myaddon.zip ). and the addon will import. Note, you can still use this version in the same way as the instructions for 1.0 as well.

It is possible for a zip file to contain files that :

1) aren't JR2 files ( eg it's common for readme files to be included ). In this case, these files will be ignored by JR2EX.EXE, it will only acknowledge JR2 files within a zip archive.2) a zip file can contain more than one JR2 file. In this case, all the JR2 files in the zip will be imported. A note of caution should be made here though, in that if a single zip file contains a venue jr2 file and an update jr2 file for that venue, then the order they will be imported cannot be guaranteed, so this should be avoided. In fact, normally they will be imported in order newest to oldest, which is definately not the desired effect in this case. A future version of JR2EX may look into reversing this, by looking at timestamps for files to work out the order they are imported.