OS BIG Editor 0.3 Beta released!

Banshee

Rejoice, Command And Conquer 3 modders!

Now we have a user friendly tool to browse the C&C3 demo .BIG files, the new OS BIG Editor. Dispite the editor in the name, this version is too early to edit .BIG files, but it's already able to view them, including the compressed ones from C&C3, thanks to jonwil RefPack decompression library (in the end I decided to use his, over kmx's dll file). I've released this program early, so people would be able to play with C&C files without needing to use DOS command line programs, which are annoying...

So, OS BIG Editor 0.3 Beta is able to view the text files inside the .BIG files and also, to extract a single file or all files inside the opened .BIG file. Enjoy it and download it HERE or at our left menu, under CnC Editing Tools -> .BIG Tools.

Support for this tool is available at the CnC Editing Tools Forum (guest post allowed).

Darth_Digger · Guest

You're at VERY least the second one to write such...
The first one I've seen is called "Final Kane", a russian utility at RedSystem forums (www.redsys.ru). This two are almost identical.

Darth_Digger · Guest

The tool I mentioned is located here for Download:
http://redsys.ru/forum/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=1474
(But you may have to have Russian IP to be able to download it...)

gufu · Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 4:42 pm Post subject:

Great!
Thank you Banshee - that makes it all much simpler

_________________
DUNK!

Banshee · Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 5:01 pm Post subject:

... and I don't have a russian IP, unless I use a proxy #Tongue

... but I'll still not be able to understand the russian text #Tongue

.

Anyway, OS BIG Editor was made from scratch, based on FinalBIG's interface, to make it more user friendly and, of course, the decompression code I've used is from jonwil, credited in the Help -> About.

Siberian GRemlin · Grenadier **Joined**: 13 Aug 2004 **Location**: Russia

2Banshee: Awesome! I like OS BIG Editor.

BTW, I attached Final Kane Tool

changelog.txt

Description:

Download

Filename:

changelog.txt

Filesize:

2.06 KB

Downloaded:

169 Time(s)

FinalKane.rar

Description:

"Final Kane", a RefPack Big file eXtractor for C&C3: Tiberian Wars,
C&C: Generals and Lord Of The Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth.
Written by Alexey Michailovich Berezin (aka EvilAlex) for RedSys.ru.

Download

Filename:

FinalKane.rar

Filesize:

320.64 KB

Downloaded:

193 Time(s)

_________________

Westwood Studios forever!

EvilAlex · Guest

Banshee wrote:

... and I don't have a russian IP, unless I use a proxy #Tongue

... but I'll still not be able to understand the russian text #Tongue

.

Anyway, OS BIG Editor was made from scratch, based on FinalBIG's interface, to make it more user friendly and, of course, the decompression code I've used is from jonwil, credited in the Help -> About.

Awesome! =) I used the both the same interface model & RefPack alg (JonWil's) =) Guess 'cause they're the best to find! Razz

Take a look at my tool, Siberian Gremlin posted it here =))

Banshee · Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 5:55 pm Post subject:

Nice program. It's really similar to mine. I have 2 suggestions for you:

1) Once you click the filename, you should make sure the user views the beggining (and not the end) of the file in the memo.

2) I suggest you to let the user move the splitter between the list of names and the file contents.

Koen · Vehicle Drone **Joined**: 25 Apr 2004

Banshee, I have a suggestion for BIG_File.pas: in TBIGPackage.LoadFile, you shouldn't read the whole file into memory, because you're only reading the header at the beginning. Just do a MyFile.Read(PData^, 4); every time you want to read the next int/byte/etc. You can get the file offset using MyFile.seek(0,soFromCurrent). That should make opening the 800MB BIG file a bit more smooth Smile

Banshee · Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 8:15 pm Post subject:

Yea, good sugestion Smile

. I've noticed that the big file with the movies lagged a bit here as well and I admit that a considerable part of the program is rushed. I'll make some improvements and release beta 0.4 soon.

jonwil · Rocket Infantry **Joined**: 24 Jul 2005

Just to let everyone here know, anyone using my refpack code in a program that is not Open Source is violating the license.

IcySon55 · Commander **Joined**: 19 Nov 2003 **Location**: Overworld

Looks like EvilAlex needs to jump on the Open Source band wagon if he hasn't already.

What wrath will he face if this does not happen? Probably none. Rolling Eyes

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Koen · Vehicle Drone **Joined**: 25 Apr 2004

So what license is the refpack code released under? GPL? LGPL?

Banshee · Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2007 2:49 pm Post subject:

Quote:

The C&C3 Decompression tool is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version. See the file COPYING for more details

Note that the file COPYING doesn't come in the zip I've downloaded.

Koen · Vehicle Drone **Joined**: 25 Apr 2004

Ah well, never mind. I mean, surely EA will give us a tool to read the new BIG files? They promised a mod SDK! And C&C3 was going to be very modable due to the use of XML files! Laughing

I think I will pass final judgement on their promises when they deliver on them.

EvilAlex · Guest

2 Koen
Hope they'll ever do it!
At least I don't really belive we can expect a really FULL SDK... There are always important parts missing. Probably EA think we can make tools better than thier own? He-h, or it's just plain laziness? Anyway no one really judges them, as long as the game itself is thier main product and thier main target. I just want to have a really full mod kit, with or without unofficial tools - it does not really matter as long as there are editors for all nessesary formats.