38 replies to this topic

[thudo]

Well I have an AI ready to go to test and the stupid bloody BuildMod.bat won't build it. It keeps damn crashing just as its running this in the bat file:

tools\MakeBig.exe -f "%cd%\BuiltMods\mods\%1" -x:*.asset -o:"%cd%\BuiltMods\mods\%1.big"

This is all I want to do: I made some edits to some AI and Faction building-related XML files in the \Mod SDK\CnC3Xml folder and I ONLY want to build the big file around that ONE folder. I don't extra crap like 3d art or sound.

Can someone please explain can this be done.. Gawd.. why the hell are these things encrypted anyway? I can easily create a big file myself in seconds but does the damn game need these xmls encrypted again to work in game? Surely there has to be a "raw folder tree" the game will still ready when inside the .big file. Ugh.. Frustrating as hell.. Thanks everyone!!

[Mighty BOB!]

I thought I read somewhere that someone made a tool that can re-compress files with the refpack compression like 2 months ago.

After looking around this is what I found:
http://www.derelicts...showtopic=15634

Anyways, if a community tool could make refpack compressed files and the game could read them fine it would be awesome. Then we wouldn't need to go through the arduous process of the buildmod.

[Mastermind]

It won't work. The Mod SDK compiles the XML into the bin, relo, imp, and manifest sets that the game needs to load things. There is no way to get the game to load raw XML data.

Thudo, it's rather odd that it's crashing running makebig. Does it give any sort of error before that?

[thudo]

Thanks BOB.. that refpack is also complicated and my brain is NOT up to doing this right now considering I was modding the C&C3 Ai quite well and this stupid crap happens. Ugh... makes Dawn of War modding look like kindergarten class. Bahhh!

Here is a screenshot:

BuildMod BrokyPooz.JPG

It only happens just as its trying to build the big file.

[Mastermind]

Are you actually referencing any files from your mod.xml? It doesn't look like it. Also, if you want, you can send your mod folder to mastermind2004@gmail.com and I can take a look at it.

[thudo]

Actually I am not referencing any files from mod.xml now that you ask. How do I actually get it to point to all the files in my very lightly edited C&C3XML or the ones I edited? I don't need to specify every file I take it on that folder? If I can get this going I'd be quite happy to get custom C&C3 Ai moving forward.

[thudo]

Ugh.. found the problem.. Had to create a second bat file with "BuildMod.bat SampleMod".. All is fine now.. ok.. heading to bed..

[thudo]

Quick question..

If I have hundreds of xml files I need to make the .big file then how the heck do you tell the MakeBig app to archive them? They only archive if I put them in the mod.xml file which is in the \Mod SDK\Mods\SampleMod\data folder.

So lets say I have all the files in \CNC3XML I want to process into the big? how do I do this without having to manually input it in that mod.xml?

WoW.. Why can't someone make their own BIG editor to do all this a lot easier? This seems like the late 90s kind of barbaric needless reprocessing of data. Totally unfriendly and complex.

[Mastermind]

You don't need to include all of the files in cnc3xml. Just include the ones that you edited. You also shouldn't be editing those files directly. They're supposed to be read only, and if you want to edit them, copy them, and then edit them. Move them into a folder in your mod, and add them to your mod.xml. I'd suggest reading the docs if you're having trouble understanding it.

[thudo]

Hmmm. Why would I not edit them directly? They are NOT accessed by the game as the ones I need to edit NEED to be modded. I don't understand your logic.

Further, I have 50+ files to change.. yer telling me I still need to update that mod.xml with links to all those .xml files I edited? Ughhhhhhhhhhh! Bloody cumbersome. There has to be a way for the BIG builder to see a folder with files I have (irregardless whether I edited files in there or not) and it just incorporates that folder of files without the need to manually enter em in the mod.xml. Thats idiotic.

[Mastermind]

That's not how the game pipeline works. If you look through the cnc3xml structure, you'll see that all of the files in there are referenced in some way or another by a particular file. What happens is that your mod is processed via the mod.xml by the BinaryAssetBuilder, which compiles it into the format that the game uses. For it to know what to include, you have to link the files from your mod.xml.

You shouldn't be editing the cnc3xml files directly, since that's the only copy of those files you have. The idea is that any files you want to edit, you copy, and then edit the copy. That's why all of the files in the cnc3xml folder are installed as read only.

So, to create a mod, you need to select the files you want to edit, copy them, put them in your mod data folder (see the docs for the directory structure), reference them from your mod.xml file, and then actually build the mod using the buildmod.bat file.

[thudo]

I did all that but the problem is:

a) What if I have hundreds of files I copied then edited over from the CNC3XML folder? You can't possibility tell me I then need to edit the mod.xml file to reference all those changed xml files I copied somewhere nearby to then have them processed into the big? Thats asinine. This isn't the mid 90s. One should be able to copy a folder(s) of changed data to one location, tell the app its there, and it processes everything where the game's big files are.
This leads me to the next problem..

b) Why the heck when I do edit the mod.xml to reference my changed xmls that the modbuilder errors looking for 3d data like a GDI Tiberium Silo? Any idea where those 3d files are and why they are NOT auto-referenced.

I uninstalled/reinstalled the SDK again thinking it was my tinkering but nope.

[Mastermind]

Have you tried reading the documentation? The 3-D stuff is covered as a known issue that isn't an issue. It's looking for it, but it doesn't matter that it doesn't find it. You could try reusing the stuff in the cnc3xml folder that references everything, but no, there is not an easy way to just point it at a folder or anything.

The Mod SDK is designed to allow you to have the power to change as little or as much as you want, and if you want to change a lot, it's going to take a little bit. The more you modify, the more processing time it takes, so having the SDK be as lazy as possible is helpful for most people. If you want, it's not terribly difficult to create a little helper utility that will allow you to add all the files you want to your mod.xml without too much work.

Literally, all of the files in the cnc3xml directory that are used, were referenced by hand at some point by someone. It's just the way it works, and you're going to have to deal with it. I'd really suggest looking through the documentation, since it actually does answer a lot of questions, and explains exactly how you go about building a mod, and everything like that.

[thudo]

I cannot create the big file with the edited xml I created because its looking for those 3d files. Btw, check your gmail and see if you can make a big file outta those xmls. If you can, I want your babies! :O

[Mastermind]

Mod created and sent back to you. It works fine.

[ambershee]

Sounds like Thudo is starting to learn the joys of command line tools and compiled architecture

You get the hang of it after a bit of mucking around, but it can feel quite cumbersome if you've never used it before.

With a bit of knowhow, you could easily write batch files to do the hard work for you, or implement the compilers in Visual Studio.

[Apollo]

lol, what a whining but in the end i'm sure someone makes a nicer tool to automate it more while main process beneath must be same thus compiled xml into binary files for fast game loads instead of old days parsed ini.

[thudo]

Everything is all good people.. Did not realize it stored mod.* files in the big file rather than actual archived files. Working on AI now ingame.

[Torn]

Wow. Atleast try to understand what's going on before absolutely berating everyone and anything. Well done MM for describing it all though.

[GodSun666]

Making an Application wich ask's what file's/folders you need and then it generates an mod.xml file... wich includes evrything.. might be a little hard work .. but if you can find an Source Code of some simmilair program.. that would be handy !.. but i wish good luck to the one creating it!...