Battlefield 1942 Mod Tools

[Swaffy]

Hi every one,

Battlefield 1942 Game Archive Tool.
http://code.google.com/p/bga/

Holy balls! That's so awesome!

[Spaz attack]

[Senshi]

It is indeed. And every update improves on the already astronomically supersized awesomeness.

[Swaffy]

Whoa, you can view the terrain file using BGA. That's cool.

[Reblau]

Hi guys. I have a problem with ED 42 crashing. At first, my map was working fine. Then suddenly it started to crash every time i save and when i try to edit / add / delete object templates. How can i solve this`?

[Swaffy]

Hi guys. I have a problem with ED 42 crashing. At first, my map was working fine. Then suddenly it started to crash every time i save and when i try to edit / add / delete object templates. How can i solve this`?

Create a thread about it, that'll help keep this thread more organized.

[[ECG]TheOne]

ConTEXT
http://www.contexteditor.org/

Similar to textpad I guess, this is what I've always used.

[-Shadowfax-]

I recently followed your tutorial on downloading ED42, and it works correctly. I found your other tutorial, but there you do something with battlecraft, which i do not have, so i didn't do that. But i made a map in ED42, and packed the files that got saved into where the other bf1042 levels are. But when i try to run BF1942 then, it does not start at all. Do i need to do something else to the files that are saved by ED42 than to just pack them into the levels folder? Or how can i play a map from ED42 on bf1942?

[Senshi]

I got annoyed that there's no reasonable simple and smart DDS batch convertor.

So I made my own.

It's very simply (command line based), but it does have a basic UI that allows changing all the important options that are of interest for BF42. Might add some of the more advanced options if there's a demand for it.
There's no need for a tutorial, all options and switches are explained in the interface.

It's also possible to run the bat with some parameters that make usage even easier. I quote the batch file:

Code: Select all

REM Possible command line switches:
REM
REM Paths have to end with "\"
REM
REM /b - will be automatically used as a base path, e.g.
REM pointing to your levels (or game) directory (G:\Battlefield 1942)
REM
REM /p - The pathname that you want to be parsed. This is put after the base pathname
REM      and also can replace b completely.
REM 
REM /f - The files you want to be parsed. Can include wildcards (e.g. Tx*.tga)
REM
REM /o - Where you want the converted files to be saved (default is same dir)
REM
REM /overwrite - Overwrite existing files (default is false, files will get a trailing "_")
REM
REM /forcewrite - Overwrite existing files (default is false, files will get a trailing "_")
REM
REM /q x - Quality setting, x can be 1234 (default is 3)
REM
REM /s - Silent: Tool runs silent and will close when done.
REM If first three are specified, the tool instantly parses: [Base pathname]\[pathname]\[filenames]
REM
REM Example: ddsconvert /b G:\bfdev /q2 - This launches interface, but sets a base path already. 
REM Useful for "WIP" stuff when the level name differs often.
REM 
REM Example: ddsconvert /p G:\bfdev\bf1942\levels\gazala\Textures /f Tx*.tga /q4 /s
REM This would run the whole folder quick&silent.

The most important one for basic users might be the "/b" switch. Use that to add your basic edit folder in there ( I use G:\bfdev, as that's the folder where I extract all my levels in order to use them with Editor42 as well). This way the tool will always assume that directory as the "base", and whenever the tool asks for paths, you can use relative pathnames based on that /b path. Meaning that I'd only have to write "bf1942 \levels\gazala\Textures\" instead of "G:\bfdev\bf1942\levels\Gazala\Textures\".

If you want to go even further, you can just specify all of the switches I included and just let the tool run. But really, in that case you could just run the nvdxt tool itself anyway .

The tool has two main operation modes. One that allows you to specify all paths and filenames manually, and another that assumes the basic folder layout that the level-.rfa files have (which is "bf1942\levels\xxx\Textures"). Using this mode combined with the /b switch would mean that I could just type "gazala\" and be done .

It also has two setting menus, one for quality settings and another for write settings.
Quality menu includes a menu for picking the desired DXT type as well as one for the algorithm speed.
Write menu includes option on how to handle the batch process (Overwrite? Forcewrite? Outdir?)

All options and switches are explained in the interface.

Installation:
1) Place the "ddsconvert.bat" in the folder where your nvdxt.exe resides (get that here if you don't have it already: http://developer.nvidia.com/legacy-texture-tools - DDS Utilities).
2) Create a shortcut of it on your desktop (or wherever you want, for convenient access) and add the following to the "target" line:

Code: Select all

/b G:\bfdev\

Make sure to change the path behind the /b to point to your (extracted) levels folder, obviously. If your path contains spaces, you have to surround the path with "" (e.g. "G:\BF DEV BLA\"), else you don't.
Remember that it is important that you ALWAYS end pathnames with an "\" throughout the whole tool. Can't(=Don't want to) work around that one, sorry.
Now, whenevery you run this one, the actual tool gets called with the /b parameter .

A fully automated, silent call to the tool could look like this:

Code: Select all

G:\bfdev\ddsconvert.bat /o G:\bfdev\test\ /b G:\bfdev\ /p bf1942\levels\shanghai_streets\Textures\ /f Tx*.dds /q 2 /overwrite /s /dxt5

Considering this batch file has 382 lines of code, it's perfectly possible for it to still have some bugs, though I tested it pretty thoroughly.

Feedback is appreciated!

[Swaffy]

Your dedication amazes me, man.
Good stuff you have there.

[fo0k]

so, I have already the good old dds terrain converter which I find works great.

great tool! just not thought of ever needing it.. when do you need to do a batch convert of many files like this?