Recommended Mod Tools

[Hawk]

Thanks for that link to Free Commander.
I downloaded it and will give it a shot.

[Gumboots]

Cool. Will try it. With this modification stuff you end up doing a lot of unpacking and repacking (mostly repacking during the testing phase) so geting rid of that step would be quite useful. Usually you only generate the .lst file itself once, so not a huge deal even if you do have to get rid of the extra bits for the path, but I'm up for making it even easier.

ETA: Just saw something else on that site: Useful utilities. Down the bottom it lists xdoc2txt, which apparently will extract text from PDF's. I can see uses for that too.

[Gumboots]

Anyone after a good, free hex editor might want to look at this:

Code: Select all

http://www.hexedit.com/index.html

Edit: This editor seems to be defunct as of October 2023.

The thing about this one is that it has a decent, permanent bookmarking facility, which makes all the difference when trying to navigate large hex files. Frankly I think editors like XVI are near to useless, because they wont keep a permanent and easily accessible record of what groups of bytes do what. This makes trying to modify complex files almost impossible for normal humans.

I'll still be using HexEditorNeo, just because I already have the license for one of the paid versions and because its interface is better in some ways that HexEdit, but HexEdit looks like it would be a very good option for anyone who wants a free app.

[Hawk]

ETA: Just saw something else on that site: Useful utilities. Down the bottom it lists xdoc2txt, which apparently will extract text from PDF's. I can see uses for that too.

With FoxIt PDF Reader you can copy text from a pdf file, but it seems FoxIt is getting a little bloated recently (but not near as bloated as Adobe Acrobat Reader).
It used to be a good app. Still works OK. I use it only for the purpose of copying text from pdf's. I use Sumatra PDF reader for my daily pdf reading needs.

[Gumboots]

Yeah but anyone can read a PDF. I'm thinking we should be aiming to make hex edting less intimidating/frustrating/aggrevating for people, which means we should get away from recommending editors that don't contribute to this aim.

It'd make far more sense to ship HexEdit with the TM dev pack, for example, than to ship XVI if you want people to actually work on this stuff. As I said to Stoker yesterday, if I had to use XVI I honestly would not be doing this stuff, because the difference between XVI and a really good editor is like night and day.

[Hawk]

How does HxD compare with HexEdit?

[Gumboots]

No good. No bookmarking = stumbling around in the dark going crazy. Been there, done that. It was HxD that got me convinced there must be a better way, and someone would have built it, so all I had to do was go and find it. So that's what I did.

[Gumboots]

Y'know after doing quite a bit of unpacking and repacking lately, there's only one thing that bugs me about these tools: the commands are too long.

Having to constantly re-type PK4Pack and PK4Unpack gets to be a real nuisance after the first 25 times. It'd be much better if the commands were simplified: use pk> for packing and pk< for unpacking. Easy.

Unfortunately I don't know how to change this for the packing files. I've looked inside them in my hex editor but can't see where the default commands are defined for the packing files.

I can find them for the unpacking files.

[Wolverine@MSU]

Using the ">" and "<" in the command line might be a problem because they are also DOS command line parameters (at least the ">" is) redirect output. "dir > dirlist.txt" input at the command prompt sends the directory listing to a file named "dirlist.txt". You probably already know this and it may not be an issue.

[Gumboots]

Didn't know that. Could use different characters to get around it, if necessary. The main thing is shortening the commands without jumping all over the keyboard. I am not a proficient typist.

[Hawk]

I am not a proficient typist.

WOW! Could have fooled me. I figured you were a speed typer, from your posts.

[Gumboots]

No. I just like grumbling.

[RulerofRails]

Had me fooled as well.

Speed isn't so much my problem, just the thought-to-words process and how to string sentences together in a logical way. Sometimes it works!

---

I never packed up a PK4 file before, only unpacked. A quick test later and I think I might have a shortcut for you, at least it works on my machine.

First thing, I placed the PK4Unpack and PK4Pack files directly in (on Windows 7) my user folder: C:\User\<Your Personal Username>\. This is the default place that command prompt runs on my machine. Yours may be different. Any files to be packed or unpacked must be in this "default" folder. Edit: Below Gumboots found that I was in error on this. As long as you have the files for the program and whatever you want to pack or unpack in the same place, it will work anywhere.

Anyway, the shortcut is to edit the PK4Pack.bat or PK4Unpack.bat with Notepad. Select "Edit" in the menu from right clicking over file in Explorer. This needs to look just the same as what you would type if you were in command prompt. (Needs to have the list file name for PK4Pack or the name of the pk4 to be unpacked for PK4Unpack.)

After the file is correct: Save it. Now, double-click on the .bat file, to run the program.

Note:
There are still some hassles such as copying files into and out of that folder. But there are ways around this. For example, it's not very hard to modify the dates on the important files (plenty of free tools for that on the web) so that you can quickly sort to clean the folder.

Alternatively, utilize the fact that pasted files are "selected" when they first appear in a folder. Use two windows, one just for pasting and cleaning. The other for working.

Edited: There's been enough misinformation on this. Don't need to spread some more.

[Gumboots]

If the tools work by simply double clicking the batch file why on Earth did people insist on posting descriptions that said it was a command line tool? That just complicates things for absolutely no benefit.

It seems to be a common question, as to which tools to use in order to create engine, building, and other mods. I'd like to get this thread going, to collect recommendations for the best tools to use, to accomplish all of the hex-editing, PK4 packing, skinning, and other tasks needed. I'll go ahead and list the tools I'm using briefly, but it might be good to post as further replies a more in-depth examination of how to use each particular tool, such as a post all about hex-editing. If anybody else has pointers on how to create successful mods, please add them here!

Here's the tools I use:

...Pack4.exe = PK4 creation utility, included in User Skinning Tools, command-line operation...

Ok, NO! It does not require the command line.

If someone had the sense to mention that before I'd never have bothered with the command line rigmarole. Nobody else needs to have bothered with it either. For years people have been jumping through unnecessary hoops to use this thing.

I just tested it. As long as the .lst file and PK4Pack.bat files are set up correctly in advance, which you need to do anyway, simply double clicking the PK4Pack.bat will work perfectly regardless of which directory the files are in.

I'll say that again:

...simply double clicking the PK4Pack.bat will work perfectly regardless of which directory the files are in!

No CLI needed. At all. Ever.

Code junkies: making things more difficult for normal people since time immemorial.

[Wolverine@MSU]

The only way to know is to try it and see what happens. DOS command expects to see the ">" as a stand-alone character so using it in the "pk> ..." command may work after all. Sorry I can't help with the actual coding change that would be needed to accomplish this.

[Gumboots]

You missed the last two posts. RoR just mentioned you could get the packing stuff to run by just double clicking the .bat file. I tested that, and found it was even simpler than he thought (ie: no need to have the files in the C drive default directory).

So whoever started this nonsense about people having to use the command line for packing and unpacking pk4's should have their butt kicked. It ain't necessary, and never was. A double click on the .bat file is a much simpler, faster, and more efficient process.

[RulerofRails]

I missed the part about running outside the default folder in your main post as well. Works for me too. Did a little edit to my post so hopefully no one does the extra steps I was suggesting.

When first trying to get it to work (with the archaic command prompt) I remember doing a little head-scratching with setting up permissions, but now don't remember if I got that sorted properly or not.

Anyway, one other requirement is that java must be installed on your machine. If the easy method doesn't work for someone, check if you have java installed (no need to be using it online).

[Gumboots]

Yup. I have java running for desktop stuff, but disabled in my browser. Haven't ever noticed any problems online.