PLEASE tell me this is a stupid question!

Lightstorm

i was looking at the demo and its very different then any other C&C games (other then genrals which isn't really C&C) and i was wondering, does TW use voxels? because if not modding it will be far more difficult.

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Banshee · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 9:50 pm Post subject:

No, TW uses W3X files: Westwood 3D XMLs. Nobody knows about this format yet because people couldn't extract it properly. It's inside these bin/manifest/relo/imp packages that are a real mess..

Anyway, they are models like in Generals, but they are packed on XML like files...

Lightstorm · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 9:56 pm Post subject:

you see, that gets annoying. westwood designed C&C to be so easily moddable the only way it could be more easily changed was if it was open source, now EA comes along and turns it into a rats nest of files.

just another thing EA messed up.

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Antios · Civilian **Joined**: 06 Feb 2007

Lightstorm wrote:

you see, that gets annoying. westwood designed C&C to be so easily moddable the only way it could be more easily changed was if it was open source, now EA comes along and turns it into a rats nest of files.

just another thing EA messed up.

I guess we wont really know if they really did mess it up until the real game comes out?
lol maybe theres some sort of magical key that will organize everything?

Banshee · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:13 pm Post subject:

This is a demo, guys. We don't know yet if the final product will have these annoying manifest/imp/relo/bin crap.

Antios · Civilian **Joined**: 06 Feb 2007

sry for my noobishness, but what was generals like? was the demo similar in file structure as the real game? or any of the cnc games for that matter?

Banshee · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:35 pm Post subject:

I've never downloaded the demo from Generals. They've released months after the game release.

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

The reason for the .bin/.manifest/.relo/.imp files is to make the game load faster (i.e., its a GOOD thing).

Modding of C&C3 will not be possible until EA releases the source XML files for the game.

ORCACommander · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:52 pm Post subject:

So far all I have found out [Through Google] that W3X is also used in Warcraft 3

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Banshee · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:59 pm Post subject:

[sarcasm]Wow! Amazing discovery![/sarcasm]

No, mate. The W3X from Warcraft III are map files... they have nothing to do with graphics Laughing

Team Black · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 11:26 pm Post subject:

what we need is a vxl23d program lol

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kmx · Civilian **Joined**: 07 Mar 2007

jonwil, XML files are not required to mod the game, afaik they are only used to compile these relo/imp/bin packages, and they are just listfiles pretty much - I can easily recreate XML files, but we don't need it, all required infos is already in the headers, we do not miss anything that would make me think it's not modable.

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

WRONG.

The XML files contain all the game coding (like the INI files of Generals).
There are also other XML files that contain references to audio files, textures etc.
Plus there are the 3D W3X XML 3D models.

If you think that it is possible to mod C&C3 without the source XML files, I issue a challenge: Find me the file or coding that codes for the speed of the mammoth tank. You wont be able to because its (probably) in gdi/units/gdimammoth.xml and is compiled down to the .BIN data associated with the GDIMammoth GameObject.

As for not crediting you for finding the decoding function for the C&C3 audio, sorry about that. I have corrected the information on that wiki Smile

Clarkson · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 1:31 pm Post subject:

Lightstorm wrote:

you see, that gets annoying. westwood designed C&C to be so easily moddable the only way it could be more easily changed was if it was open source, now EA comes along and turns it into a rats nest of files.

just another thing EA messed up.

WRONG. Ever try to mod C&C 95? Far from easy. Westwood didnt make it easy for modders. Westwood made it easier for the coders. EA atleast releases tools for modders to use like the Renegade tools. People like Banshee had to make the damn voxel editor everybody takes for granted.

Get your facts straight and stop beliving that EA is the evil and Westwood is the robin hood corporation who gets raped. They are not. Rolling Eyes

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Daz · Energy Commando **Joined**: 26 Apr 2003

As above, if Westwood was making things to be easy for modders there wouldn't be so much hard coded stuff in TS/RA2.

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Banshee · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 4:24 pm Post subject:

They were making things easier for their designers. As Delphi (today at Petroglyph) said when he was the RA2 Community Manager: "Red Alert 2 wasn't made to be modded". Westwood only started supporting mods from Renegade.