3 replies to this topic

[Serp66]

EDIT:
Solved here by making a new asset.dat: https://forums.revor...nger/?p=1107392

Hello,

I'm a bit confused how the HD edition from revora does work. It is a shortcut to a ".big" file with an ".exe" as description. Never saw this before.

Anyway, gameranger only accepts an "exe", so what can I do to make gameranger start the HD edition?

I know T3AOnline is another option to play online, but my friends refuse to sign up anywhere, just to be able to play online, even if it is free.
So maybe you can allow users to play online without forcing them to signup anywhere?

edit:
I found this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= vCFgQ19IwcU&list=PLVMi91M5LvbzZhVWl4zmTDsZ5tXq3fgyO&index=94 for BFME2 referring to a patch for age of the ring: https://www.moddb.co...ameranger-patch
From what I understand is, that this patch includes an lotrbfme2ep1.exe where you can define a flag (-mod...) like it is used in the HD edition shortcut.
Unfortunately this lotrbfme2ep1.exe only works for BFME2 witchking, not for BFME2 itself nor fpr BMFE 1.
So how to create such an exe with flag by myself?

edit2:
ok, found a solution. I made my own batch file and converted it to an exe.
The bat only includes these 2 lines:

SET /P command=<exewithflag.txt
%command%

and in the same directory is a exewithflag.txt file that includes this line:

"D:\Spiele\Die Schlacht um Mittelerde\lotrbfme.exe" -mod "C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Meine Die Schlacht um Mittelerde-Dateien\HDEditionv1.0.big"

starting this bat will start the game with hd mod.

I used this bat to exe converter:
https://web.archive....o.de/en/b2e.php
simply loaded the bat, set "exe-format" to "32bit invisible" (gameranger can only load 32bit) and everything else default (working directory=current directory).
Then hit "convert". Make sure your .bat / exe file is not at the desktop, for some reason this gave me an "could't add resources" error. After putting them somewhere else it worked.

So now you should have your exe and your txt file. Gameranger only accepts the exe, if it is named "lotrbfme.exe" (for BFME1), so we can not put it directly into the installation folder. We could put it anywhere, but I put my into the Roaming folder where the HD files are.
Now simply make sure that the line in exewithflag.txt matches your isntallation and roaming folder.

Starting your new exe should now start the game with HD and you can also add it to gameranger.

edit3:
I attached my bat-exe, so you dont need to convert the bat yourself, simply use the exe. Create the txt file from above and the exe will simply execute whatever batch command is written within this txt file. This works for everything, so also for BFME2 and other games.
 

Attached Files

•  lotrbfme.exe   87KB   102 downloads

Edited by Serp66, 01 April 2020 - 12:54 AM.

[Serp66]

hm. although we have an exe with a flag above, gameranger wont automatically navigate to network game when starting this exe, so I fear this is not the solution.

So I tried instead to merge the HDEdition.big file, with the _patch106.big file (finalBig Editor), but I guess the asset.dat from HDEdition causes problems (is not loaded), cause units are invisible with and without that asset.dat.
I wanted to merge the games asset.dat with the one from HDEdition, but unfortunately neither "Sy's" nor EA's asset builder is working, guess they are simply too old.

Does anyone know how to merge the HDEdition into the game files?

[Serp66]

@Mathijis: @Miraak5:

So my next try was, to merge the HD files with the game files. I used "Sy's Assetbuilder (for whatever reason it worked now) to merge the art folder of HD patch (unpacked with finalbig), with the asset.dat of the game (version 1.06). So this new asset.dat is now within the installation directory and the art folder is within a .big file named with "_z" at beginning, so it is loaded last and also put in installation directory.

But for whatever reason, all units/buildings changed by HD mod, are invisible now ingame.
I'm quite sure I did everything correct. I also tried to put the asset.dat within the big file.
And I tried the same for the edain mod (from bfme1), and there everything worked.
I tried it for the "Dwarf Holds" mod, which is also started via -mod command, but there I could not even start the game, got a crash report.

So my current conclusion is:
the -mod command may merge the arts in asset.dat differently, than the AssetBuilder? Therefore I can recreate/merge edain and other mods, that never used the -mod command, but I can not convert those -mod mods.

Maybe you can clarify why this does not work or how I can convert a -mod with asset.dat to a "normal" mod?

Edited by Serp66, 31 March 2020 - 01:00 PM.

[Serp66]

ok, I found out the differnce between merging asset.dat with art and the -mod command.
The -mod command is properly merging , and solves duplicates, by using the latest one. While merging art with the old asset.dat with help of Sy's Tool, wont merge it correctly, but may contain duplictates, resulting in non properly functional asset.dat. (same for ini files).

So I had to extract all textures/w3d and terrain files from the big files and big files within "apt" folder. Then I can put the new textures (eg from HD mod) and so on into those folders and replace duplicates. With that art file, I need to create a completely new asset.dat, with help of the EA Asset Builder (Sy's tool does not work here for whatever reason). The "missing dll" error of that builder is solved by copying the dll from the game directory to the builder directory.

This new asset.dat replaces the odl one in instalaltion directory. It will not work, if you put it into a .big file. But of course make sure you put the art folder from HD mod back into a big file.

So this is kind of solved
I may attach my new HD mod structure to this post, but first I will test it more, to make sure there are no problems left over.