QUESTION to all MAC MODDERS

[Ash to Ash]

did anyone tried to create a unique item and tested it because i tried to and it didn´t worked also after a lot of reading and testing it didn´t worked...

at the moment is my problem in the general modding forum but no solution until now...

so my simple question did anyone who work with a mac create a OWN unique item and if someone did could he give a tutorial how, especially how he TESTED it (qillrat dropping, cube...) detailed discription is wished

i also did some simple changes (max levels to 200, item alteration...)
but i couldn´t create a own item and test it ---> make it work

so maybe the problem is macspecific (that´s also the reason to post here)

thanks for reading

[Sir Xavius]

Some important things i learned:

1. You must add the name of the Unique in the .tbl file (usually patchstrings.tbl); however, i don't believe this will help the Unique item to drop. Unfortunately, unless you have access to a Windows machine, we Maccies have no reliable application that will add keys/strings to a .tbl file (those Wintellers have all they need and more).

2. Do not insert/move the lines of the TreasureClassEx.txt file, simply put. Every time the .bin files are created, the game uses the line number (not the TC name), when determining what each monster type will drop (according to monstats.txt. You can enter into the preset fields, and add lines to the end of the file, but i advise that you don't alter anything else.

3. Using Excel will alter the .txt file enough that special precautions hafta to be made to prevent alteration of cell contents. When opening any .txt file with Excel, open it from within Excel (not the Finder). It will present the File Wizard; from here, open it as a tab-delimited file, using quotes (") as the text indicator. In the last window (before you press "Finish"), select/highlight the first column, then scroll over, and select the last column while pressing 'shift' (this should highlight all the columns). Click on the "Text" radio button, and then click "Finish." What all this does is preserve the quotes and the formulas that may appear in some cells, and most importantly, the tab/linefeed characters within and ending each row.

4. MPQTool is not magic, but it's the best that we have. If you really wanna get into modding D2 in a serious way, even for the Mac, i recommend purchasing a low-end, used Wintel machine (don't worry, i recently found out they are really inexpensive — $200 - $400 w/o the monitor). Apparently no one wants to be a Mac hero and port some of the Windows modding software for our platform.

I'm not an expert, but i'll try to help based on what i've learned...

[Ulmo]

Apparently no one wants to be a Mac hero and port some of the Windows modding software for our platform.

Many tools, including DS1_Edit and at least one tbl tool, are just waiting to be compiled on a MAC...

[Ash to Ash]

thanks for your information (i will test your advices) but could you try to create a OWN, UNIQUE item in a NEW line please

[Joel]

Apparently no one wants to be a Mac hero and port some of the Windows modding software for our platform.

Many tools, including DS1_Edit and at least one tbl tool, are just waiting to be compiled on a MAC...

Well i wish I had time to do this, however I can onyl publish Panther/Tiger version :|

[Ulmo]

As this request seems recurrent, we may finally find someone able to compile them for other version
Or is MAC compilator that rare ? And BTW, is cross-compil doable ?

[Joel]

COmpiling Carbon applciatino on mac will maek them run only on MAC OS X and later. So peopel usign Systeme 7 otr MAC OS 9 won't be able to run them.

Mac OS X comes with hsi own gcc so no pb trust me
Biggest problem is endianness tough :|

[Ulmo]

And isn't emulation an easy solution. I remember some MAC user saying the best way to play D2 was throught PC emulation...

[Joel]

Yes, windows emulator exists ... for MAC OS X :p
My mac box use MAC SO X, WIn XP, Win 2k and Win98 :p
And what a joy to click <close windows> if one of them go nutz :p

[Paul Siramy]

[quote=Ulmo";p="227156"]Many tools, including DS1_Edit and at least one tbl tool, are just waiting to be compiled on a MAC...[/quote]
In simple answer, yes. But as Joel mentioned, there's the infamous little/big endian problem to take into account. All binary files that use datas stored on more than 1 byte are in PC format. For a Mac, all my tools would need to be updated to decode and encode word/dword datas for dc6, dcc, ds1, dt1, cof, animdata.d2, gif, pl2, palshift .dat, pcx, mpq (!) and any other ones I may have forgotten before actually working as expected.

Tough in itself it's not a hard job to do, it's a work that require some time.

[MickyBIs]

[quote=Sir Xavius";p="227145"]
4. MPQTool is not magic, but it's the best that we have. If you really wanna get into modding D2 in a serious way, even for the Mac, i recommend purchasing a low-end, used Wintel machine (don't worry, i recently found out they are really inexpensive — $200 - $400 w/o the monitor). Apparently no one wants to be a Mac hero and port some of the Windows modding software for our platform. [/quote]

Just out of curiosity, what have you found wrong with MPQTool? I've found it much easier to use than MOPaq or whatever the name of the windows mpq (un)packer is. The only things that I can think of it missing are tools for graphics.

MickyBIs

[Sir Xavius]

[quote=Ash to Ash";p="227313"]thanks for your information (i will test your advices) but could you try to create a OWN, UNIQUE item in a NEW line please [/quote]

I HAVE gotten D2 to drop/spawn my Unique Items, but they did not have their title's affixed (unless i used another name that was already in the .tbl file) — they just read "AN EVIL FORCE."

However, having so many problems with TreasureClassEx.txt, i have not spawned my own Uniques from specific monsters, like Quill Rats. I did at one time get the game to drop Set items i created, which were placed in their own line in TC. My previous post reflected this knowledge if i remembered it correctly...

Good Luck!!

[Sir Xavius]

[quote=MickyBIs";p="227640"]Just out of curiosity, what have you found wrong with MPQTool? I've found it much easier to use than MOPaq or whatever the name of the windows mpq (un)packer is. The only things that I can think of it missing are tools for graphics.[/quote]

Sorry, Admin for double-posting, i saw this after i responded to "Ash to Ash."

MPQTool's .MPQ-packing works flawlessly. I still use it for that purpose alone. And yes, i also had problems with the 'MoPaQ-whatever'.

However, you can only add/subtract .txt files, which will quickly get old when you've taken it as far as it will go. But you can't edit .tbl files reliably (because it somehow does not properly handle the added key/string entries within the file), and if you can't edit .tbl files, you can't with satisfaction add your own Unique items, Set items (especially), Runewords, etc., etc. The only way around this problem is to use existing entries in the .tbl file, which means you'll be giving up something that was already in the game.
Not to mention the fact that you can't do a damn thing about editing much less creating monster, item , or tile graphics, or even map layouts. (Not that those were ever meant to be Souricette's goals...)

But what it DOES do is allow us maccies to use mods already created by others (except when the code is altered). I've even uploaded and added map files from Diabolic Cartography using MPQTool (altho not all of them are recognized by MPQTool). That's good enough in itself, but now i've reached my limits with D2 because i can't create exactly what i want; i hafta limit my imagination based on a lack of tools, and that is no fun....

As much as i complain about the lack of MPQTool's tools, i am happy that Souricette took the time to not only compile it, but make it available to System 8.6 users like myself (i HATE OSX!). So thank you, Souricette!!

(Only problem is, he's moved on, and is not supporting his baby anymore .)

[erk]

Apparently no one wants to be a Mac hero and port some of the Windows modding software for our platform.

Many tools, including DS1_Edit and at least one tbl tool, are just waiting to be compiled on a MAC...

Hang on, one of the original .tbl editing programs, EnquettarM, is just perl script. It should run fine under MacOS X.

All the windows folk did was write a GUI for it so they didn't have to use the command line to run it.

[Joel]

It'll run fine but it won't respect the endianness of the file ...
And no we don't JUST write a GUI ... orignal script is bugged and make some tbl corrupt ... so we actually fixed it.

I'm currently writing an endianness independent filesystem handler .. so I may port all my own command line tool to MAC OS X 10.3-4 soon.

[Sir Xavius]

I'm currently writing an endianness independent filesystem handler .. so I may port all my own command line tool to MAC OS X 10.3-4 soon.

Bless you, my brother of Enlightenment...

BTW, if you keep the interface simple, it may be able to work in Mac Classic (i'm using System 8.6). I'll test it out when you upload it.

[Joel]

Well it's all command line :p so it *should* work or at least just need a recompile on system 8.6

[Souricette]

[quote=Joel";p="233246"]It'll run fine but it won't respect the endianness of the file ...
And no we don't JUST write a GUI ... orignal script is bugged and make some tbl corrupt ... so we actually fixed it.

I'm currently writing an endianness independent filesystem handler .. so I may port all my own command line tool to MAC OS X 10.3-4 soon.[/quote]

*A spirit comes from the past and has a smile*

Well... Yes endianness is the biggest problem faced - trust me I know it!

Biggest problem is MPQ compression/decompression - I could point you to the Stormlib sources (http://www.zezula.net/), since it contains a cross-platform C++ sources handling with that format, so that you could locate where you have to deal with endianness!
An "endianness-savvy" filesystem can't deal with successive compressions (where the result of a first decompression is a buffer of longs, so you need to swap all these longs before the second decompression!)

The other formats, yes I think such file system will be the best way to go!

Unfortunately, as stated somewhere else, MPQ Tool is a cancelled projects. Good to know that it still helps people modding, and that other people are creating Mac tools for them! Go, Joël, go!

*The ghost of the past vanishes again in the air without a sound*

Souricette

[Joel]

Well my short term plan is to write a C++ endian independant fielsystem, then we will be able to work correctly

[Sir Xavius]

I ran across an Applet called Converter (?) which converts end-of-line bytes to those of another platform (is this what you mean by endianness?). It will change, for example, 00D0A to Mac's end-of-line sequence (000A), or something like this.

It seems i can take a PC text and translate the EOL sequence with this Applet.

Do you think this would help?

[Myhrginoc]

Unfortunately, that is not what endianness is about. If you have a multi-byte value, such as the dword 0x004B5C4A, there are two ways to store it and use it. Big-endianness (Mac) has the most significant byte first, so it is represented as 00 4B 5C 4A internally. Little-endianness (Intel) has the least significant byte first, and the internal representation is 4A 5C 4B 00 instead. In a byte stream this order is critical, both Windows and Mac versions of the bin compiler used little-endianness coding and the Mac version doesn't work right as a result.

Which is why Souricette had to be rather resourceful creating his tool.

[Sir Xavius]

Well, if this is all it is, i can write a HyperScript (a precursor to AppleScript) that HyperCard can use to reverse the byte sequences of certain areas of the file.

Is the entire file written backwards in one endianness, or only at the end of lines. Or are we talking about instruction codes (oo, if that's it, i can't do anything...)?

[Myhrginoc]

Endian problems occur at specific places throughout each bin file, anywhere where there is numeric data wider than one byte. You would have to know the compiling format for each bin file (they are not the same) to write such a script.

I haven't had the need to look at Souricette's tool in some months (not being a Mac modder myself), but I see he had a final step to deal with endianness in his process. Fortunately his website is still active!

[Sir Xavius]

"That is why you are the great chef, and i am the humble assistant..."

Philippe on Three's Company