xpak Tutorial

[PiperWilliam]

Hope I don't sound like a complete newb, but I can't figure out how to make Vercingetorix's xpak tool work. Will some kind person write a quick tutorial for me, and others like me, that could be pinned here or something?

Thanks very much guys.
PS. If you do it, could you make it as Idiot Friendly as possible!?

[Hans Kloss]

There is read me files in xpack.Simply extract files to relevent directory and run it

[PiperWilliam]

No, the readme doesn't help me. It's not Idiot Friendly enough!

[Vercingetorix]

1) Download xpak.zip
2) Open xpak.zip with winzip
3) Open explorer
4) Goto the harddrive you installed RTW to (c:\ or d:\)
5) Goto Program Files
6) Goto Activision
7) Goto Rome - Total War
8) Goto data
9) Goto packs
10) Select from the winzip window: xpax.exe and xpak.bat
11) Drag those files to the Rome -Total War\data\packs folder you have open in explorer
12) Double click xpak.bat
13) Wait for it do it's stuff
14) Done.

Doesn't get any idiot friendlier

[PiperWilliam]

Ok, thanks, that's got me a hell of a lot further than I did before..... but ( ) where does it put the files once it's finished doing it's stuff?

again.

[Vercingetorix]

In data\packs. Are you looking for certain files?

[PiperWilliam]

Yeah, I was hoping to do a bit of texture editing. I can see a bunch of files in Data/packs, but they're all .pak.

Please bear with me here - and thanks for the help!

[Hans Kloss]

I remember vaugly having to move these decompressed files as they were in different folder

[Vercingetorix]

Once you have extracted the packs the textures for the units will be data\packs\data\models_unit\textures

[PiperWilliam]

Brilliant! Thanks very much, really.

Now I need to work out how to get the DDS Plugin to work for Paint Shop Pro!

[therother]

Go here:

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/n...ure_tools.html

There are simple instructions there.

[PiperWilliam]

Thanks all!

[heruben]

Thx to, but now I have done it, I cant open .tga files, a window pops up and says paint couldnt read it :s

(sry bout my english)

[Hans Kloss]

MS Paint or even older version of Paint Shop can not handle TGA files.You really need Photoshop if you are thinking of editing RTW textures

[Myrddraal]

You can use a free program you can download.

Here is Irfanview

[Flavius Belisarius]

Where do you download the tool from?

[Hans Kloss]

http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/?mod=43

[Malachus]

I followed the instructions above as to how to unpack the PAK files, and it worked, except that the newly created directories within the Data/packs folder do not contain the files im looking for. I want to edit some unit cards, but there is nothing there for me to select. Anyone know what i did wrong?

[Malachus]

Nevermind guys, I figured out what I did wrong.

[Meneldil]

Another question : how do I repack unpacked files ? How do I use the -pf program argument ?

[Monkwarrior]

Sorry if this is a silly question, but...how can I unpack the patch_0.pak file?
I successfully unpacked the packs in 1.1, but when I try to unpack the 1.2 packs the name of patch_0.pak file does not appear.

[Monkwarrior]

Another question : how do I repack unpacked files ? How do I use the -pf program argument ?

Perhaps you finally have the solution. In any case I think that finally I have understood the whole thing (my knowledge about computers is too much limited )

In xpak.bat with mouse right click you have a menu. The second option is edit. Then you have something like this:

xpak.exe -mkdir  models_building_textures.pak battle_open.pak game_init.pak sprites_1.pak ui_0.pak ui_1.pak models_unit_textures.pak sprites_0.pak
xpak.exe  models_building_textures.pak battle_open.pak game_init.pak sprites_1.pak ui_0.pak ui_1.pak models_unit_textures.pak sprites_0.pak

In red it is the argument you have to change in order to pak the files. But remember you need to create a txt file with the directory structure.
My problem is solved by substitution of all the paks in there by only patch_0.pak, in this way:

xpak.exe -mkdir patch_0.pak
xpak.exe  patch_0.pak

Sorry again if everybody knew this.

[Ragnor_Lodbrok]

Hi,
I didn't know where to post this so I searched a thread about xpak.
I got a problem, when I try to start xpak.bat, I get an error "The access on this device, path or file was denied".:/

[Myrddraal]

Are u using an account with full priviliges, like not a limited account?

And welcome to the forum

[vale]

Hey I was wondering after I unpack the pak. file how am I going to repack them again? Thank for the answer first!

[Myrddraal]

You don't need to:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=38736

[vale]

Well thank you for your time, yes I had read the the in the link you showed me before; however, to save space won't I needs to repack it in order to make the game run much more smoother?

[King Ragnar]

Is there any other place to get the extractor apart from twcenter? it isnt on the downlods page.

[Myrddraal]

vale, you don't need to repack the files, it won't run any smoother for it. In fact if you want to distribute you mod it saves space not to repack as you can upload only the files you edited...

Ragnar, try google?

[Monkwarrior]

vale, you don't need to repack the files, it won't run any smoother for it. In fact if you want to distribute you mod it saves space not to repack as you can upload only the files you edited...

It is true that you don't need to repack the files, but if you modify the files included in the packs, those files won't work for the users of the mod having the paks still packed.
This is the case, for example, of the faction symbols appearing in the ui interface.
However, I've just found something really interesting (sorry if this was already known). We can easily make new patches for the game . I asked some time ago about a method for this purpose. But it was too complicated and required several software programs.
I thought: let's try easier! This is the step-by-step procedure:

1) New folder in the desktop (I named it: test) with a copy of xpak.exe, a copy of samplePak.bat, a new txt file named patch_1.txt and another folder named patch_1.
In this folder I put the data subdirectory with the required structure. In my case the test was only: data\ui\captain banners and data\ui\roman\interface.

2) This is the content of patch_1.txt:

patch_1.pak
patch_1\data\ui\captain banners\captain_card_armenia.tga
patch_1\data\ui\captain banners\captain_card_britons.tga
patch_1\data\ui\captain banners\captain_card_carthage.tga
patch_1\data\ui\captain banners\captain_card_germans.tga
patch_1\data\ui\captain banners\captain_card_pontus.tga
patch_1\data\ui\captain banners\captain_card_spain.tga
patch_1\data\ui\captain banners\captain_card_thrace.tga
patch_1\data\ui\roman\interface\sharedpage_01.tga
patch_1\data\ui\roman\interface\stratpage_02.tga

3) I opened samplePak.bat with notepad (I don't know any other method ) and I changed it to this content:

xpak.exe -v -pf patch_1.txt

4) I run samplePak.bat (simply by clicking on it) and patch_1.pak was created almost inmediately.

5) I copied this file in Data\packs and the symbols are now visible in all the user interface positions.

I hope this will be of help to include more easily modifications in the files contained in the packs.