Tools for Modding

[Dita0]

In addition to the notepad++ editor already mentioned, would also like to add Gimp as a possible image editor. With a plugin can save as DDS files, with an added bonus that its free.

Anyone with other suggestions please table them. I highlight this one only due to that I`ve come across it before, oh, and its free!

What other tools (preferably free and legal) could people suggest/recommend?

Gimp found at http://www.gimp.org/

[pipfromslitherine]

Good call! I also meant to add Open Office as a good tool for editing the squads file CSV.

Cheers

Pip

[Sleet]

Open office is great, and gimp is a great idea. Look forward to trying it out for the game.

Another good FREE text editor is PSPad
http://www.pspad.com/

[pipfromslitherine]

We use Notepad++ here because its C syntax colouring works really well on the scripts.

Cheers

Pip

[Sleet]

Ahh good to know. Will just go install that right now.
Thanks Pip

[collegeprof86]

Hi.... just to let you know, the PDF Modders Map Editor Guide

http://www.slithdata.net/files/bbc_ba/m ... _Guide.pdf

When you click on it
a pop up comes up

with
"an error occurred with loading an image... the document may not display properly".

I opened a second browser, and went to the link, and it opened fine, no problems
both were google chrome browsers

so maybe the doc might intermittently have an issue, or it was on my end... just thought i'd help out!

Oh, and I love modders corner... what a great concept and I hope to post some of my own scenarios sometime!

Thanks again for letting me test!

[pipfromslitherine]

The formatting is a little off for me too - might be a PDF versioning issue, as I think I use something other than Acrobat on this machine.

Given how much interest there was just from the beta group in custom scenarios, and in tinkering with the game internals, I think we'll see a lot of interesting missions pretty quickly.

Cheers

Pip

[pomakli]

Good call! I also meant to add Open Office as a good tool for editing the squads file CSV.

Cheers

Pip

Using it since the beginning of the beta...



http://www.openoffice.org/

[junk2drive]

I made a quick flag mod using Paint.Net for the dds files.

I installed it with a swapping program Jones Software Generic Mod Enabler JSGME

I took the screenshot with Ultima Online Screenshot Utility UOSU

All the above are free.

[pipfromslitherine]

Just for people following the thread here rather than on the Matrix forums, you don't need to jerry-rig any modded textures using external apps. The game is designed to allow you to over-ride pretty much any file in your custom campaigns .

If something doesn't seem obvious, then just drop a post here and (assuming I have failed to document it - which is possible, so much to document!) I'll let you know how to replace or tweak whatever you are looking to do.

To continue your example, if you create a DATA\BATTLE\UNITTEXTURES directory in your custom campaign, then any textures you redo in Japanese colours (assuming you want to use Axis tanks as stand-ins until you get real assets) will be used in your campaign, rather than the default ones. It's how we deal with Shermans in the desert and europe, for example.

Cheers

Pip

[junk2drive]

Ah, understood. Still learning the curve and relying on past experiences.

Where are the flags that pop up when you start your turn?

[pipfromslitherine]

- create a dir structure in your custom campaign that is DATA\UI\TEXTURES
- the textures used are called sideicon<N>.dds (or TGAs will work too, just render slightly slower). e.g. sideicon5.dds

As you can set the side ID in the scenario, you don't actually need to over-ride the ones the game uses, just pick a value (the game currently only used 0 to 6) and then you can still use the existing ones should you like. You can check out the sideicon textures in the game's DATA\UI\TEXTURES dir to see how best to lay them out.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Pip

[junk2drive]

Found them Thanks

Guess I'll have to dig into this a little deeper. Hope someone beats me to it, lol.

[Dita0]

Another tool for sound editing is

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Thanks to Junk2Drive for this. Despite the fact I`ve got it installed for recording my vinyl I forgot this useful, and free programme.

Any other tools people suggest/I find I`ll add to this post.