Try this link:Originally Posted by King Ragnar
http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/index.php?mod=43
Try this link:Originally Posted by King Ragnar
http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/index.php?mod=43
thanks matey, this will save me a lot of time
Member of The Lordz Games Studio:
A new game development studio focusing on historical RTS games of the sword & musket era
http://www.thelordzgamesstudio.com
Member of The Lordz Modding Collective:
Creators of Napoleonic Total War I & II
http://www.thelordz.co.uk
This is really very helpful information Monkwarrior, thank you. I have a couple of points to add, resulting from my own experiments with this approach.Originally Posted by Monkwarrior
- The game engine will only read data from one supplementary .pak archive. It must be named "patch_1.pak".
So it will not recognise additional archives with names like "mymod.pak", or even "patch_2.pak", sadly. This prevents this from being a very useful way of overlaying consecutive data changes, made by several successive mods, for example.
- The game engine does not seem to recognise replacement text files stored in "patch_1.pak".
Adding replacement text files such as "desc_strat.txt" to the archive caused a CTD in my tests. This is a shame, since it would have allowed all of a mod's data to be presented as a single patch archive.
If anyone discovers different results to these, I would be very interested to know about it. :)
Thanks for the info Nigedo.
Yes, unfortunately this method seems to be a little limited.
I thought that it would be possible to do next patch_2.pak, patch_3.pak and so on. Did you tried patch_2 alone or with a patch_1 present?
About txt files, my idea was that only the files already present in the paks were suitable for patch_1.pak. And your finding confirms my idea.
I have other bad news. I tried to make a large patch_1.pak with all the new unit cards and infos I made. However, the game was showing different cards each time I opened the unit selection pannel. This happened in spite of having revised the directory hundreds of times to confirm all the files were listed properly.
In view of that I'm using patch_1.pak only for a reduced number of files, mainly (or only) those that can't be renamed.
Ah. That doesn't bode well.Originally Posted by Monkwarrior
I was hoping to use this method to tightly package all graphical replacements for a mod I'm working on.
We should try to research thoroughly the limitations of patching and publish them in a new comprehensive guide on the subject, I think. Too busy at the moment to look into it further, but I will at some point. :)
Me too.Originally Posted by Nigedo
I hope you find time to do it. I imagine the correct method would be to increase step by step the size of the patch_1.pak in order to find the limit.Originally Posted by Nigedo
In any case, take this problem report with caution. Perhaps I made a mistake somewhere.
Sorry, I missed this question previously.
I tried it both alone and with a "patch_1.pak" installed.Originally Posted by Monkwarrior
My guess is that the changes CA made to the game engine with patch 1.2 included an update to a hardcoded pointer that directs the engine to compile data from the current and next numbered "patch_x.pak" archive. Adding "patch_1.pak" does not increment this internal pointer, so further numbered (or named) patches are not compiled.
I think you are quite correct in the approach you outlined for testing the limits of patching. I will surely give it a go when my mod is ready for packing.
Bad news, mates.
The 1.5 patch for RTW has a patch_1.pak in packs folder.
So if you want to include new files, you must unpack this, include the new files and repack.
@Dol Guldur
It is necessary for all the files included in the original packs and whose name cannot be changed.
In my case I'm using it for:
model_strat\textures\#banner_symbol_factionname.tga.dds
ui\ROMAN\INTERFACE\different files
ui\CAPTAIN BANNERS\CAPTAIN_CARD_FACTIONNAME.tga
ui\UNITS\FACTIONNAME\#UNITNAME.tga
ui\unit_info\factionname\UNITNAME_INFO.tga
(these two last cases only for those units that keep the original name, but change the cards)
Yeah, I noticed - so it so with 1.6 too.Originally Posted by MonkwarriorThx. I'm using it for a lot more than that and I seem to remember reading that the file had some limit as to how much it could contain (?)
@Dol Guldur
It is necessary for all the files included in the original packs and whose name cannot be changed.
In my case I'm using it for:
model_strat\textures\#banner_symbol_factionname.tga.dds
ui\ROMAN\INTERFACE\different files
ui\CAPTAIN BANNERS\CAPTAIN_CARD_FACTIONNAME.tga
ui\UNITS\FACTIONNAME\#UNITNAME.tga
ui\unit_info\factionname\UNITNAME_INFO.tga
(these two last cases only for those units that keep the original name, but change the cards)
I'm not very good at this packing procedure, but I've been unsuccessful so far at trying this: Has anyone gotten other interface files to work *packed* other than the roman ones? I can get them to work if they are upacked, but I've not heard from anyone that they have gotten them packed and working.
Do you mean battlepage, sharedpage etc? If so, I have not tried. The reason why I packed the roman ones was because they would not work unpacked. I then added some other UI elements of other cultures but not the actual contents of the interface folder - they work.
This is all in the 1.3 RTW - for the old Fourth Age demo - I have not tried in later versions yet with the additional element as posted previously in this thread.
BTW, Epistolary Richard clued me in to this today (though I was sure I had tried it with no luck): you can have GUI's for any other culture (besides roman) by just creating an interface directory, dropping it in that culture's directory (in the UI folder), and then copying all the Roman ones and pasting them into that new interface folder. Then edit them and they show up immediately - nothing else needs be done. Way too simple!
Erm, yep that's right ;) The only problem has ever been the roman ones which need to be repacked. It's the only one that would never show up for us last year which is how we came to realize that.
I thought you wanted them to work packed, and assumed you knew they worked unpacked (in the manner you (ER) stated). Sorry!
Sorry that I'm replying to a slightly old thread, but something I've found by using Filemon.exe (Google it if you want a download link), a program that monitors what files and directories other programs access when they run. I set it to monitor RomeTW.exe, and the game seems to try and find the files mod_0.pak and a mod_1.pak before it looks in the other pak files. I haven't tried it out yet, but could this be the answer? I mean, if the game first looks in pak files before looking in the normal directory for files it doesn't find, would it do the same for paks? Ie, would it not bother loading the files present in patch_1.pak if they're already present in mod_0.pak?
I haven't tested it out yet (still trying to create the pak!), so I don't know...
Edit: I might also add that Filemon is a great program for tracking down error-less CTD's. While it won't tell you what's wrong with a particular file the game doesn't like (or can't find), it will show you what file it stops loading the game on. Just be warned, it can generate log files that are huge...
Last edited by Cheexsta; 04-05-2006 at 09:18.
It should be quite easy to test.Originally Posted by Cheexsta
Make a mod_0.pak file with only one unit card. Eliminate that unit card from UI folder and try the game. Or even better, rename a wrong unit card in the UI folder. Depending on which card you see in game, you can see which folder is being used by the game.
If this is true, this would make our life easier.
Haven't yet had a chance to test it out. Give me a few days and I'll try it.
I can confirm that the game looks first in mod_0.pak and mod_1.pak files first. I just packed files for Chivalry Total War mod into mod_0.pak file and put it into the Chivalry\data\packs folder. For the info ChivTW uses its own folder separated from the original RTW data folder.
Regards/Ahmose
Now playing and modding for Chivalry Total War Mod although I got Medieval II Total War...
Yes you all right, I think that a lot of the work produced by any mod can be put in that pack file. Then It will be easier for different mods installed at the same time on the same copy of RTW. Even until now, some mods conflict with eatch other. Like you said about the loading bar issue.
Regards/Ahmose
Last edited by Ahmose; 01-20-2007 at 11:31.
Now playing and modding for Chivalry Total War Mod although I got Medieval II Total War...
Mods are mad not to try and get everything into a modfolder - most people want to play more than 1 mod and they do not want to have to set up new installations of their RTW every time or have them overlapping in the vanilla and possibly causing conflict or at least a mess ;)
The Fourth Age - Forth Eorlingas upcoming release has not a single file outside the modfolder. Of course, some few elements modded by other mods are not possible (as far as we know) inside the modfolder but fortunately we have no such elements.
Just moved all my TW installations to new Windows 7 box. Lost almost all my RTW mods to a disk crash. Luckily MTW2 was already on disk. Had to reinstall RTW,BI and apply patch 1.6. Now I can't get xpak to work. It runs, but nothing happens. I even copied the data\packs folder to another area but still no luck. I have full admin privs on my box. I've correctly recreated a few of my custom units based on existing ones, but need access to the existing stock unit cards for recruitment/battle display (the grey peasant won't work for me:)). If anyone is still out there, any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Ok so I ended up manually running xpak 1 line item at a time in command prompt window. Success.
Last edited by TotalWarVet; 03-03-2011 at 22:38.
Bookmarks