Lt_Parsons
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Posts posted by Lt_Parsons
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Some time ago (almost exactly a year, it seems) i discovered a great tool for unpacking game pfp archives that helped people with mapping/modding since then.
This time as an exercise i tried to step up the game a little and made a packer/unpacker by myself.
Here it is - xen_packer
It can unpack pfp's and pack any files into archive again.
Maybe it will be helpful to package new tilesets or something.
This is a command line utility, if you launch it directly, it will run with default parameters.
Instructions/info:
xen_unpack.bat,
xen_unpack_log.bat
Unpacks files from PFPK archives, used by Xenonauts.
Outputs processing info in console (xen_unpack.bat) or in log file (xen_unpack_log.bat).
Usage: xen_unpack [[path]archive] [[path]output_folder|-l]
[] - optional parameters, | - alternative parameters
archive - path to archive file to unpack files from, defaults to 'GC_TilesXML.pfp'
output_folder - path to folder to write output files into, default to archive folder
Script unpacks all files found in the archive and creates in the same folder a text file that lists all output files separated by newline.
if instead of output_folder there is '-l' parameter, script only reads archive and creates file that lists archive content.
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xen_pack.bat,
xen_pack_log.bat
Packs files into PFPK archive, used by Xenonauts.
Outputs processing info in console (xen_pack.bat) or in log file (xen_pack_log.bat).
Usage: xen_pack [[path]file_list] [[path]archive]
[] - optional parameters
file_list - path to text file with input file names separated by newline, defaults to 'GC_TilesXML_list.txt'
archive - output archive file path, defaults to 'file_list_1.pfp' in the same folder as the file_list
Script assumes that all files mentioned in file_list are in the same foler as file_list.
Ignores files in file_list with paths longer then 255 characters, because of archive format.
Tested it on existing game archives (GC_TilesXML.pfp and GC_UnitsXML.pfp) by unpacking/repacking several time in a row - results seem bit-perfect when comparing with original archives and quickbms output.
Game recognizes new archives automatically.
It seems like any new or original content can be packed - tested by replacing all xmls from assets folder with archive containing them and by packing small test mod with sprites into new archive.
Whole thing is written in JavaScript and uses node.js as script processor (because if you have one hammer, why use anything else, right? =).
I'll be much obliged for any testing/suggestions/critique about the packer and its code.
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Update for 22.7hf2 - download attached file, unzip with replace in 'Xenonauts/assets' and launch patcher again.
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@Skitso: Didn't knew that. All good then
@kabill: Much better. More like smudged dirt and soot/grime from smoke and overheat now, less like lava pit.
Can you add screens from other sets too, not just arctic?
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@kabill: Yeah, you are right on all points. They were separate crashsite submaps per tileset per ufo and were ever done only for several smaller saucers.
Chris said here, that before release all tilesets will need to be compressed without external tile dependencies. I wonder now if it'll applies to the ufos/dropships as well or not.
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You know, long time ago, in the original kickstarter alpha demo and some time after it, there was really good-looking ground crash-trails as part of downed ufo submap. But they were discarded in the process of bugfixing/upgrading of ground combat, i don't actually remember why.
Maybe it will be possible to check those old builds and extract / cut them out somehow.
UPD: yes i had it stored luckily, this is how it used to look like:
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Big problem with Arctic and Antarctic is that land near the poles on this map projection is stretched relative to its actual size. To properly implement them GH will need to:
- implement ufo/aircraft speed increase relative to map the more near the poles they are
- implement radar coverage stretching near poles the same way
- somehow deal with ufo/aircraft flying through poles and appearing on other side of the map
Given that there is not much cities/people/funding countries to protect anyway, it is possibly more hassle to do then it's beneficial to the game.
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What about v22.7?
Can't check the game right now, but if there no significant changes to weapon balance (check the update notes), everything should work fine.
I especially made mod to use not just a replacement file, but a patcher - to withstand quick rolling out of new game updates.
Version number mentioned in the opening post is just versions i had time to test with.
You just need to, as is said in the opening post, to reapply patch by running 'xtlbm_patch.bat' again. If it doesn't fails - it works.
Just try it out by yourself, if i did not updated yet.
UPD: checked it now, work perfectly on 22.7.
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Gauddlike, Max_Caine - thanks, making it was fun. Never tried to program something map-related before.
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I did this:
- Excavator_NE_spectre - id - /common/ => common/ (don't know if really needed, but there is no sprites where id begins with /)
- Excavator_NW_spectre - damaged - /vehicles/ => /common/vehicles/
- Excavator_SE_spectre - damaged - /vehicles/ => /common/vehicles/
- Excavator_SE_spectre - destroyed - Excavator_destroyed.png => Excavator_SE_destroyed.png
- Excavator_SW_spectre - damaged - /vehicles/ => /common/vehicles/
- Excavator_SW_spectre - id - common/ => /common/vehicles/
One more thing, just in case - it crashes anyway if you try to just load the sprite, you firstly need to create submap grid with 'New Sub-Map' button.
EDIT: ah, you fixed it, i'm slow =)
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If i fix png filenames and spectre id's, they loads just fine for me on a new submap.
Nice excavator!
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Is it possible to implement something like a smoke trace effect that lingers along the beam length and vanishes slowly after it, so you know that something happend? That or an after-glow effect, that lingers and vanishes slowly.
No, lingering effects are not possible right now to my knowledge - projectile disappears in the moment of impact and impact effect, fire and smoke effects are placed automatically by game. Only thing you can do is add exhaust/trace/glow/animation to projectile itself while it flies, which is useless for beams.
You can edit the file so ballistic weapons use the laser projectile if you just want to try a few things to adjust the beam to your liking.It makes testing much easier.
That is actually easier to do than my testing hack =).
UPD3: Yes, mod should still work for 22.6hf if it was applied on 22.6.
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Made a thing that helps in adding new cities to Xenonauts - here.
Features:
- can convert coordinates from latitude/longitude to xenonauts format used in 'cities.xml' and back
- generates xml code for easy insert into 'cities.xml' and 'strings.xml'
- uses Google Maps to locate the thing in given coordinates
- if you scroll the map, updates coordinates accordingly
Happened because of discussion about wrong location of Paris on geoscape (thread).
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I have now played some time with this mod and I am so loving it.
All the other weapons seems so sloooow now.
But actually in some directions you can barely see the laser beams. Maybe this is because the beams are too fast? Or ist it my system?
Glad you like it.
Yes, there are some quirks. For example, sometimes burst-shot beams just merge visually if they landed near each other, and if you shoot too close to shooter, beams don't show because of speed.
Firstly i tried more slower projectile speed settings, but they were too slow - you was able to see beam slowly extending forward, looked very strange, so i settled on fast ones.
As for other weapons, all you need to change their bullet speed is find 'weapons_gc.xml' file in 'Xenonauts/assets' , open it with notepad, find block of data for the weapon, and in the string that looks like '<Projectile spectre="projectiles/bullet/bullet" speed="1000" showAfterDistance="60.0"/>' change 'speed="1000"' to whatever you like (beams use 10000 but that is kind of extreme for usual bullets).
Speed change is purely visual and wont break savegames. If game crashes after any changes - you had broken something and need to restore original file (do backups or you will need to use cache integrity check in steam).
Much more words needed to describe this, then to actually do =).
To test something you just mod it and play the game to see how it behaves, no actual secrets here.
(For quick weapon test i use small cheat-mod that unlocks all weapons from the start, begin new game and wait for first downed ufo. Good for testing looks and if it works at all, but you wont get much useful battle data this way. Open 'items.xml' in Excel, you'll know what to do there.)
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If you want to keep playing experimental with your saves, you can just disable automatic game updates in Steam. That way you can update only when you had finished your currently saved playtrough, or just if you know that there no new savebreaking issues.
Steam cannot do rollbacks though - if you updated, then you updated.
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For anyone interested, mod still works with 22.6 update, you just need to reapply patch for it to work.
Run patch script twice - first time it'll say that file changed and store old backup, second run will actually reapply the patch.
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The same issue with arctic buildings floor tiles.
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Chris included Paris placement fix in new update, changelog is here.
As for new cities - yes, if you want to. That what i updated geo tool for, to make placement of new cities easier.
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Look like this issue came with last update and is related to new Line of sight mode, Persistent LOS.
See update thread.
Do you began a new game or loaded save?
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With new LOS system it seems that water tiles are just stay black with whatever angle or distance my soldiers look onto them.
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Updated geo tool again, now with more google maps - link (still the same one).
Should i make separate thread for this thing in modding section? I kinda hijacked this one by accident with all the updates.
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I think i can add some minimal google maps integration to show what actually there at the coordinates, maybe more if i'll be able to work with google maps api.
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Updated the coordinates tool with city code generator and tileset mask calculations - link (the same one).
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I don't know if this could stop terror missions happening in some cases as the masks determine which terror mission tileset is used.
Terror mission tileset info is in 'aseets\earth\continentmasks\townmask.png', correct?
If so, i can just add one more conversion to pixel coords from mission/terrorsite masks.
Also, i'm feeling stupid again, because i looked on the geoscape map files and total size of the map in pixels is 8192x3420 - i could have easily saved an hour of work earlier =)
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Nice work, wish it had occurred to me to do that.
Got a little suggestion if you want to take it a step further though.
If you also had spaces for the city and country names (plus maybe a checkbox for zoom level it should appear at) you could output the information formatted for strings.xml and cities.xml so people could just paste up their cities to be easily added.
Thanks! Will try to do that a little later.
Right now it as much barebones as i could make - needed to be proven working after all.
OK so I have just sat down and ran through cities.xml changing the values to match those I found online.A quick browse through seems to have them in proper positions.
And thanks for the complete file =)
Condition: Black (Alien Weapons mod)
in Modding Discussion
Posted
It means our Xen troops are actually clan Foot ninjas?
Good idea for a reskin mod actually.
@Max_Caine These caltrops reminded me of some good shenanigans with proximity grenades in TFTD.