The unpacker, Using Vista

[Iñnsomñni]

ALL CREDIT GOES TO IRISHRON2004
Im not sure if a thread like this has been made before, but ill give a crack at helping your problems with unpacking data files using vista...

You will need to disable the UAC (User Account Control) To this go to the control panel, in the search box type UAC, and it should come up with a link saying something about turning the UAC on or off, keep doing this, and untick the box on the next page, click continue or next, and it should ask you to restart your computer now or later, do it now. This has turned the UAC off.

1.Go to your M2TW directory, and go into the tools folder, here you should find a folder called the unpacker, open it, and there should be several bat files, one of these is called unpack all. Right click on the file and edit it.

The text in the file should look like this :unpacker.exe --source=..\..\packs\*.pack --destination=..\..\ --verbosity=1.

Edit it (copy this text i type) so it looks like this:unpacker.exe --source=..\..\packs\data_0.pack --destination=..\..\ --verbosity=1

This works by only unpacking the first parts of the files. When you have changed it to what i typed, go to save as and under the file name it should say save type as, and change it from text documents to all files. A few other bat files should become visible.

Change the name of the file you are saving from unpack_data_all.txt (or something like that) To unpack_data_0.bat (which shows that this is the first bat used for unpacking the first part of the data, also it is extemely important you get rid of the .txt)

Save it and then run it, this should unpack around 5000 files, which is the first part of the data...

2. This is pretty simular, just edit your newly made file (unpack_data_0.bat)

Change the text: unpacker.exe --source=..\..\packs\data_0.pack --destination=..\..\ --verbosity=1

To:unpacker.exe --source=..\..\packs\data_1.pack --destination=..\..\ --verbosity=1

(Notice that all that has been changed is that the data_0.pack has been changed too data_1.pack

Now go to save as, change the save type as to all files, take of the .txt and change it too .bat, and save the file as unpack_data_1.bat, this is the code for unpacking the second piece of data

3. The same again, edit one of the two files, change the text in it too: unpacker.exe --source=..\..\packs\data_2.pack --destination=..\..\ --verbosity=1 (This will unpack the 3rd piece of data)

Save as, change the save type as too all files, removing the .txt and adding .bat, and save it as unpack_data_2.bat (remember to take off the .txt)

Then run it and unpack the 3rd piece of data

4.All the same again, edit one of the three files, change the text in the file to read: unpacker.exe --source=..\..\packs\data_3.pack --destination=..\..\ --verbosity=1 (this will unpack the 4th piece of data

Click Save as, change the save type to all files, removing .txt from the end and adding .bat, save the file as unpack_data_3.bat

Then run the file to unpack the fourth piece of data

5.Yet again, it is all the same, edit one of the four files, changing the text in it to read: unpacker.exe --source=..\..\packs\data_4.pack --destination=..\..\ --verbosity=1

Click save as, change the save type from text documents to all files, remove the .txt from the end and add .bat

Run it and unpack the last piece of data

6. This stage is very important, as if you dont do it, your M2TW game will continue to crash until this stage is done

Right, its pretty straight forwards, just go into your SEGA/M2TW directory, go into the data folder, scroll down a little bit, and you should find two files, one called descr_geography_new.db and another called descr_geography_new.txt, either delete or rename these two files as they are not essential

Well, thats it, hope you can start modding now, and remember

Problems you Might Face

When you have finished unpacking all the files, i would suggest turning the UAC on when you are not considering modding at that certain time, as turning the UAC off increases the risk of catching things from the internet... Also i seem to have to type passwords and usernames again...

Also, again before you jump right into modding, i would suggest downloading a mod folder, and converting and unpacking the files further....
Here are a few links that might help you eventually start modding...

Before you even consider modding, you should read this, this details how to make your M2TW ready to be modded

Alpacas Mod Folder - Creates folders and all necessary things to create your very own mod

Strings Bin Converter - This converts strings_bin files into a txt file which is then editable by a player, a strings_bin file is not

A Texture/dds Converter - This is needed to edit the skins of units, aswell as edit the terrain (i think) and other such variables, and is extremely important when adding new units into the game



If you are a vista user, just scroll through the posts, any problems that i have had have been solved by Alpaca and Irishron2004, so you should be able to do this fairly quickly

Id just like to say that this will be my last post in this thread, unfortunately my M2TW cannot start, coming up with some unspecified error, and i cannot be bothered to reinstall it again (having done so many times before) so i guess im stuck with RTW, or when i get around to it STW and MTW.



ALL CREDIT GOES TO IRISHRON2004