What can be done on a Mac?

This forum is dedicated to platform-specific issues, discussions and tools relating to D2 modding for the Mac.

Moderator: Contrail

Post Reply
User avatar
Incompetent
Forum Regular
Angel
Posts: 938
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2005 12:45 pm

What can be done on a Mac?

Post by Incompetent » Tue Dec 06, 2005 4:31 pm

For a while now, I've been trying to make my own mod. The trouble is, I'm using a Mac, and the tools available seem a bit limited. I've been using Souricette's MPQ Tool for 1.10, and what I'm trying to do is very basic, but I've had some problems that just won't go away:

1) If I try to add new lines to skills.txt (as explained in various tutorials), the new skills never find their way into the game. I don't think I've made any simple mistakes like duplicating IDs or forgetting to put a line in skilldesc, so I'm wondering, is this a more serious problem with Mac Diablo II's txt-to-bin converter? Has anyone successfully added lines to skills.txt on the Mac?

2) If I modify existing skills, things are mostly fine but I've been hitting a brick wall with states. For example, I wanted to give Burst of Speed faster cast rate. So I put item_fastercastrate in aurastat3 and 50 in aurastatcalc3. This had no effect in-game. I then tried putting a number into aurastatcalc2 (which controls attack rate), and now BoS has no effect on attack rate either. It should be OK to put straight numbers into calc fields, as other skills do it (eg Battle Command), so what am I doing wrong?

Edit: After some more experimentation, it looks the problem was that I was using numbers instead of a formula, though I'm still puzzled as to where you can put numbers in calc fields and where you can't.

Specific answers to these questions would be nice, but what I'd really like to know is if anyone has done any serious skill editing on the Mac, and what problems they ran into or tricks they had to use.
Last edited by Incompetent on Tue Dec 06, 2005 9:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Ulmo
Forum Regular
Angel
Posts: 860
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2004 5:04 pm

Post by Ulmo » Wed Dec 07, 2005 12:59 am

I don't have a Mac, so I can't say much.

Your issue with calc fields seems strange. Be sure that your spreadsheet editor doesn't alter numeric entries.

User avatar
Sir Xavius
Junior Member
Paladin
Posts: 177
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2004 6:27 pm
United States of America

Re: What can be done on a Mac?

Post by Sir Xavius » Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:37 pm

It's been a while since i even played D2LOD, much less modded with my Mac. I use OS8.6 on a G3, also with Souricette's great little tool and EXCEL, and i just got fed up with all of the problems that modding on a mac entailed, so i gave up. Please see my other threads to get a good idea of our inherent limitations.

You will also run into a simple problem with the editing of text files, especially in EXCEL. Not only do you hafta save the edited .txt file in a convoluted way, i also discovered that, since Macs use ASCII 13 (a simple return character) for end-of-line edits — as opposed to a double-byte sequence that the .txt files use (hex $0D0A, which basically means next-line-first-column), this made it difficult to track down errors or even believe which lines caused problems within Diablo's engine.

From my other threads, you will also learn that you cannot edit .tbl, .dc6, .dt1, or other files, severely limiting your creative outlets. The best you can do is get a Wintel machine, buy the Windows version of D2LOD, and work from there. It is just too difficult to try to do any really creative modding on a mac (it's hard enough on a Windows machine).

Souricette is really the only one with the skills to make any modding tools for us maccies, but he doesn't have the interest. After all, he gets no compensation for the time it takes, so if he's on some other project, he has little motivation to put together any Diablo tools.

Sorry for all the bad news, but sometimes you just hafta accept the cold realities of life... :(

User avatar
Incompetent
Forum Regular
Angel
Posts: 938
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2005 12:45 pm

Re: What can be done on a Mac?

Post by Incompetent » Thu Jan 12, 2006 2:27 am

[quote=Sir Xavius";p="254842"]It's been a while since i even played D2LOD, much less modded with my Mac. I use OS8.6 on a G3, also with Souricette's great little tool and EXCEL, and i just got fed up with all of the problems that modding on a mac entailed, so i gave up. Please see my other threads to get a good idea of our inherent limitations.

You will also run into a simple problem with the editing of text files, especially in EXCEL. Not only do you hafta save the edited .txt file in a convoluted way, i also discovered that, since Macs use ASCII 13 (a simple return character) for end-of-line edits — as opposed to a double-byte sequence that the .txt files use (hex $0D0A, which basically means next-line-first-column), this made it difficult to track down errors or even believe which lines caused problems within Diablo's engine.[/quote]

There are free open-source alternatives to Excel, maybe they'd solve some of those problems. I'm aware of the eol problem, and I suspect some difficulties I've been having stem from there, but it shouldn't be hard to generate the right line endings (assuming MPQTool isn't bugged in this respect).

[quote=Sir Xavius";p="254842"]From my other threads, you will also learn that you cannot edit .tbl, .dc6, .dt1, or other files, severely limiting your creative outlets.[/quote]

As in editing is severely limited, or completely impossible? Surely I could at least change some of the interface graphics.

[quote=Sir Xavius";p="254842"]The best you can do is get a Wintel machine, buy the Windows version of D2LOD, and work from there. It is just too difficult to try to do any really creative modding on a mac (it's hard enough on a Windows machine).[/quote]

And spend money? 8-O ;)

[quote=Sir Xavius";p="254842"]Souricette is really the only one with the skills to make any modding tools for us maccies, but he doesn't have the interest. After all, he gets no compensation for the time it takes, so if he's on some other project, he has little motivation to put together any Diablo tools.

Sorry for all the bad news, but sometimes you just hafta accept the cold realities of life... :([/quote]

Thanks for your reply. It sounds like the number of potential Mac modders is small even as a proportion of Mac DII players. But even in the most pessimistic view, there are some things I know I can do with humble Excel and MPQTool. If all I can do is a 'just numbers' mod, it could still be worth something.

User avatar
Sir Xavius
Junior Member
Paladin
Posts: 177
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2004 6:27 pm
United States of America

Re: What can be done on a Mac?

Post by Sir Xavius » Sat Jan 14, 2006 6:09 pm

I will soon be receiving my Virtual PC w/Windows 98, and i'm pretty sure i'll be able to run on my G3 some of the tools that are currently out for the PC. These modders have been put together a nice collection of tools that you can use to modify what you can't modify with a mac. So we'll see how that goes...

I just simply gave up when it became obvious that, without the ability to at least change .tbl files (adding text keys and their strings), i would not able to fully realize what i really wanted to do, especially regarding skills. I eventually hooked up with some modders who were creating a "Total Conversion" and gave them some of my ideas that THEY could work on. Unfortunately, this mod is on life support and with my hopes kinda dashed, i've turned my attention to Unreal Tournament.

So whatever you can come up with, yes, there are a scant few mac modders who'd love the insight and experience that you gain. Don't be shy in posting them here!

Oh, and BTW, if you want to become godlike in the world of mac modding, put together some tools that maccies can use :P

User avatar
Staberind
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Jan 22, 2006 10:17 pm

Post by Staberind » Sun Jan 22, 2006 11:59 pm

may i second that? I'm fast reaching the extent of modding silly things on Cha-Cha's sublime "horadric" html based editor, and i'd like to fumble and fiddle more with the actual games guts... as well

User avatar
Sir Xavius
Junior Member
Paladin
Posts: 177
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2004 6:27 pm
United States of America

Re: What can be done on a Mac?

Post by Sir Xavius » Wed Jan 25, 2006 4:35 pm

I just installed Virtual PC 3.0 (w/ Windows 98) on my mac so we'll see what i can do...

BTW, for you maccies out there, i got my VPC from eBay in NEW condition for about $11 total. So if you're looking for it, use eBay!!

I'll get back to you all as soon as i get everything set up.

User avatar
Myhrginoc
Retired Admin
Cherub
Posts: 12100
Joined: Sat May 25, 2002 7:28 am
Location: Percussion U
United States of America

Hand-picked

Re: What can be done on a Mac?

Post by Myhrginoc » Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:09 pm

You ought to be able to use our standard tools on the other files. I don't know about SixDice, as the Java that is based on might not be the same as a Mac Java package (standardization, what???). But if CV5 doesn't sag to its knees you can even work on the animations. I would recommend afj666's tbl editor for the string files, and WinMPQ is a slick package for getting stuff in and out of mpq files. They are in our File Center, of course!

Nonetheless, when it comes time to making bin files, you'll be back to Souricette's modder. None of our Intel-based tools will address the reverse endian problem.
Last edited by Myhrginoc on Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
~ Mark Twain
Run Diablo II in any version for mods: tutorial
The Terms of Service!! Know them, abide by them, and enjoy the forums at peace.
The Beginner's Guide v1.4: (MS Word | PDF) || Mod Running Scripts || TFW: Awakening

User avatar
Sir Xavius
Junior Member
Paladin
Posts: 177
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2004 6:27 pm
United States of America

Re: What can be done on a Mac?

Post by Sir Xavius » Sat Jan 28, 2006 5:58 pm

Had problems early on. Something about "Couldn't find xxxx.dll" But haven't tried everything.

[quote=Myhrginoc";p="256577"]... when it comes time to making bin files, you'll be back to Souricette's modder. None of our Intel-based tools will address the reverse endian problem.[/quote]

Not a problem. That's one thing MPQTool can do!

Will get back to you all later...

User avatar
Myhrginoc
Retired Admin
Cherub
Posts: 12100
Joined: Sat May 25, 2002 7:28 am
Location: Percussion U
United States of America

Hand-picked

Re: What can be done on a Mac?

Post by Myhrginoc » Sat Jan 28, 2006 6:31 pm

Many programs assume certain standard modules are already installed in Windows, for example various runtime libraries for MS Basic or MS C++. Your Windows emulation may or may not have all the components that come from a normal Windows setup, especially after a bunch of applications are also installed with their components.

Most DLLs can be found as separate downloads.
Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
~ Mark Twain
Run Diablo II in any version for mods: tutorial
The Terms of Service!! Know them, abide by them, and enjoy the forums at peace.
The Beginner's Guide v1.4: (MS Word | PDF) || Mod Running Scripts || TFW: Awakening

User avatar
Sir Xavius
Junior Member
Paladin
Posts: 177
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2004 6:27 pm
United States of America

Re: What can be done on a Mac?

Post by Sir Xavius » Wed Nov 08, 2006 10:30 pm

OK guys, i'm back (for a while at least)....

I've begun working on D2LOD modding again, and i'm currently editing MPQ Tool's Help in WORD form, as well as adding an Appendix for anyone who would wish to do some Mac modding. The Appendix will be a how-to for beginners (who are still using less than OSX) on how to prepare files for modding, using EXCEL and MPQ Tool. A lot of experience will be going into it. Soon, folks. :cool:

With Virtual PC 3.0, i was able to use the TBL Editor (sorry, i forget who authored it) to correctly fix MPQTool-ready .tbl files. NOW I CAN ADD ALL MY SETS AND SPECIAL ITEMS!! YAYYYY :rotf:

It may be, however, that Souricette's app was not corrupting the .tbl, but rather other mis-saved .txts (and their incorrectly-generated .bins). More testing will determine that possibility.

Under the emulated PC, however, i was unable to load and use the .dc6 editor, even though i loaded the VBsp6run, or whatever file it needed. I'm still getting an error that says i need mosctrl.ocx or something like that. I haven't a clue about the inner workings of windows 98, so i wouldn't know what to do about that file (i did search, and Win98 couldn't find it in its system). I will need to find an alternative to the one i downloaded.

If any Classic MacOS users have a question regarding modding D2LOD 1.10 (i won't be upgrading to 1.11), post a thread -- i'll see it eventually. I've learned, however, that the new OS X will be able to run and process PC executables, so our numbers will be dwindling i'm sure... :-|


EDIT 9/14/6: After testing with both the PC .tbl editor and Souricette's MPQTool, it became obvious to me that MPQTool has a major bug in byte handling with .tbl files. After successfully opening patchstring.tbl with TBL Editor, and seeing it used correctly by D2LOD, i then altered the .tbl with MPQTool, and re-introduced it into the game. Most of what was the problem was AN EVIL FORCE showing up in Set items, plus other modified strings. When i opened the altered .tbl with TBL Editor, every string (not its key) was missing its last character, altho no strings or keys were missing or out of place. I could tell the correctly altered .tbl file was indeed PC formatted properly (with correct byte sequences), but the incorrect file was not easily identifiable by either the Mac or PC .tbl editors, meaning the format was mangled.

So i heavily suggest that any classic-mac modders use Virtual PC 3.0 or higher (the one that contains Windows 98SE) with any of the .tbl editors to do any string editing. Modifying .txt files CAN be done easily with the mac version of EXCEL, as long as you follow the proper procedure. However, i can't speak for OSX users -- maybe someone else can offer what they've learned when working with the latest Mac OS....


UPDATE: I discovered that the DC6 editor needs to be loaded AFTER the VB6runblah-blah-blah is already loaded into the PC Windows emulation. Now i can edit .dc6 graphics. Get ready, world, for swords of flame!!
Now with Virtual PC, i can create entire Sets and new uniques in the .txt files, add their string names in the .tbl files, and even use new and and refreshing .dc6 images of these. Life is GOOD :)
Last edited by Sir Xavius on Fri Nov 17, 2006 7:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
Joel
Moderator
Dominion
Posts: 6921
Joined: Mon May 27, 2002 7:19 am
Location: Orsay
Contact:

Hand-picked

Post by Joel » Fri Nov 17, 2006 8:26 pm

On latest MAC OS X and on MacIntel machine, Parallel Desktop is savage tech. It allows you to install any Win OS (even linux) onto a virtual drive and work in a seamless way as drag'ndrop and all stuff are transpartent between OSes.

I'm plannign to buy a Mac Pro and install this to have some multiplatform machine for buildign tools and mod.
"How much suffering, mortal, does it take before you lose your grace?"
Shadow Empire (coming soon) | forum

User avatar
Sir Xavius
Junior Member
Paladin
Posts: 177
Joined: Mon Oct 04, 2004 6:27 pm
United States of America

Re: What can be done on a Mac?

Post by Sir Xavius » Tue Nov 21, 2006 7:34 pm

All that means to me is how thick the dust is that i'm getting left in! :D

I will still be out here to help out the fewer and fewer Classic Mac D2 modders out there, as i will NOT be switching to OSX of any kind (i will stay happy and ignorant in my MacOS 9.2.2 :typing: ).

I am seceretly impressed with the universality of Mac's new OS...

Post Reply

Return to “Mac Modding”