JamesP81

Join Date 09/2007

In case anyone is interested in txt 1.09 reference data...

I was able to use the convertdata utility and some Windows command line judo to convert the majority of the entity files in 1.09 to text format. The Ability entity files must have a different format because the conversion didn't work on any of them, but I appear to have a successful binary to text conversion on the rest of the entity files. I played one short game without difficulty using the conversions.

If anyone's interested, I can post some command line information on how I did the conversion.

modding

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I would love to have the reference data available to MOD.

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I've tested this method in Windows Vista, but I checked and all the commands appear to be the same for XP, so it *should* work for XP, but I can't guarantee it.

If you're not familiar with Windows command prompt, this might seem a bit arcane.

First thing you do is you copy the GameInfo folder in your sins game folder (default is C:\Program Files\Stardock Games\Sins of a Solar Empire) to the root of your hard drive. Using Windows Explorer, go into your newly copied GameInfo folder (the path should be C:\GameInfo) and delete all entity files that begin with "Ability". The current version of convertdata doesn't work on these files, so getting them out of the way initially saves you from having to clear a windows error message for every one of those files that convertdata would've failed on.

Next, copy the convertdata.exe file and it's accompanying dll file into your new C:\GameInfo folder. These files are located in the Convertdata folder of the mod tools pack.

Click Start -> Run and type 'cmd' (without quote marks) in the box and press enter. This will bring up Windows command prompt. Type cd\GameInfo. Now that you're in your new GameInfo folder, type the following command exactly:

for /r c:\GameInfo %a in (*.entity) do convertdata entity %a %a txt

Press enter and for every .entity file in the folder, it will run convertdata and overwrite the binary version with a text version that you can mod with notepad or any other text editor. Depending on the speed of your machine, I'd expect it to take about 30 seconds to a minute. Finally, copy from the GameInfo folder in your sins folder all the entity files that start with 'Ability' into c:\GameInfo. These will still be in binary and can't be modded. The current version of convertdata just doesn't work for these.

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I don't believe it works on XP since I just tried and for every file it told me "invalid # arguments" and I did double check what I typed in and it was exactly what you had.

Oh well, maybe someone could upload the converted info?

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Thanks, JamesP81 your trick works perfectly on my computer (WinXP)
If you find a way to get txt version of the abilities please share with us.
Ironclad if you listen please give us a 1.09 compatible version of ConvertData...please

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I don't believe it works on XP since I just tried and for every file it told me "invalid # arguments" and I did double check what I typed in and it was exactly what you had. Oh well, maybe someone could upload the converted info?

I've got access to an XP machine. I'll see what I can find out.

I didn't mention it in my post, and I should have, but certain parts of that command are case sensitive, most notably the %a stuff (%a and %A are two different things as far as it's concerned). So if you think you might've gotten the case wrong, it'd be worth trying it again.

It's also possible this command might not work if you don't have SP2 for XP, but I'm not certain of that. I don't have access to a non-SP2 WinXP box, so I won't be able to test that one.

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Whups! found my problem; I was using an old version of convertdata. works now thanks!

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Wouldnt it be easier to just zip up what you created, so the rest of us can download ?

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Wouldnt it be easier to just zip up what you created, so the rest of us can download ?

Should either wait for the new forge tools or be done by the modder, not uploaded to the net.

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In hindsight, not having the ability files sort of negates the rest for me anyway, so I shall patiently wait for the official versions.

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Yay!! I tried this with the new convertdata.exe from the 1.1 and it works beautifully, with abilities and all!!

Thank you for the nice help. I will have to look at the reference data folder to see how to convert them back to binary, but this is beautiful!!

Its a Big help!

-Teal

back to work on my mini-mods

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A quick update:

For those who have the Entrenchment beta and I would assume 1.12 (I haven't checked) ConvertData appears to be workin 100% now

I'm lazy so instead of using the command prompt I extended JamesP81's idea into a batch file so you can copy the gameinfo right into the mods folder and convert them all there.

for %%a in (*.entity) do convertdata entity %%a %%a txt

just create a convert-all.bat and copy that line into it. If you copied ConvertData.exe and msvcr80.dll into the same directory you should be good.

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I tried it and could not get convertdata to work. I am running xp64 and I have down loaded the new convertdata and when using it in a command line it finishes but does nothing.

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use the convertdata in the sins folder

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Just in case nobody has figured it out yet, k33bz method of converting does work for the entrenchment beta files.

Kushan

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