Modding tools- files, graphics,documents & system utilities

[swdw]

Below are the links I've collected from subsim and the web. If you have additional suugestions, please post them. They'll be added to this first post so people don't have to scroll through to find them.

Note- when possible, links will be for free or open source tools. If a free one is not available, or a commercial one is recommended, we'll give the price for the tool.

Game Files

Installing and uninstalling mods- http://www.users.on.net/~jscones/sof...cts-jsgme.html

Alphabetical command list (in opencalc format) this is a list provided by skwasjer of all commands he could find in the add on.
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Hex files- .dat .sim .act

Silent hunter specific editors

Silent 3ditor

Mini Tweaker with SH3 and SH4 tweak files

Generic hex editors

XVi32

HxD

HexWorkshop $25 for academic or non-commercial use

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Text files- .cfg .upc

File comparison and merge tools

JTxE

WinMerge

Diffmerge

Programming editors- text files

ConText

gVim
Note- download the gvim file under "Self installling executable". This provides the windows based interafce and requires no other downloads- and choose gvim easy the first few times. This program has lots of features including a gvim diff option.
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Image editing- .dds .tga

EDITORS

Ubisoft texture extractor and inserter (use for textures that are internal to the dat file)


Paint.net (Native .dds support. Can use some photoshop plugins including nvidia's dds plugin)

Gimp for Windows

Gimp dds plugin

DDS converters and photoshop plugins



Image converters/viewers These will do batch conversion, resizing and renaming.

Xnview

Irfanview


Vector Dawing - although vectors are not usable directly, you can create files and export them as bitmaps. Great for complex curves, tracing logos and text

Inkscape (Vector Drawing w/ bitmap export)
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3D files-

DAT file extractors/packers- MUST HAVE! for 3D editing! unpacks 3D game files to obj files and repacks them after editing

Silent 3ditor- 0.5.4 version

Pack3D (hopefully will soon be replaced with new features in S3D)

!!!!! Also, read this entire thread before proceeding with 3D editing using Pack3D !!!!!
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...ghlight=pack3d


3D editors (free)

Blender

Wings3D

GMax


3D object converter

Accutrans3D (not free, but only $20. fully working 30 day trial)

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Sound files

Audacity sound editor

Audacity VST plugin enabler

Audacity Plugins Audacity can run VST, Nyquist, and LADSPA plugins.

Wavosaur Audio Editor Free audio editor with VST pluging support and 2D and 3D waveform and audio analysis tools

Kristal Audio Engine Powerful yet free sequencer / mixer / recording software

Sound Club Sequencer Although this is an old program, it ran with no problems on my WinXP system- nice utility, many tracks allowed
link changed

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File Transfer

Filezilla (FTP client)

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Zip utilities- these write 7z and unpack rar and 7z files along with zip and many other formats

IZarc

ZipGenius

7-zip

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File managers

FreeCommander (dual pane file manager with lots of features)

Note: although simple looking at first, this program has some great power user tools when you dig into it.

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Document tools

Open Office

Scribus Desktop Publisher

Inkscape

PDF Creator (make pdf's from any program)

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These should arm you pretty well for working on a mod.

Modders, now if someone asks you for links to tools, you can just point them to one spot

Cheers!

[Ducimus]

Nicely done!

[FIREWALL]

Thankyou swdw I always like finding all the tools in one place.

[Snuffy]

Best little tool box I've seen in a while!

[Cap'n Spanky]

Sticky me please!!

[leovampire]

Now this need's to have a sticky.

Great, thanks! All I need now is a tweaker file for the crew so I can beef them up as well. I probably wouldn't be cheating if the game didn't crash so often and if I wasn't sunk by a merchant vessel after plugging 8 torps into it's prop section. I never knew props could work after taking that much damage nor did I know that ships are indestructable in that area. Realism. LOL!

[ben cg]

Originally Posted by SubSuck

Great, thanks! All I need now is a tweaker file for the crew so I can beef them up as well. I probably wouldn't be cheating if the game didn't crash so often and if I wasn't sunk by a merchant vessel after plugging 8 torps into it's prop section. I never knew props could work after taking that much damage nor did I know that ships are indestructable in that area. Realism. LOL!

To edit the crew values look at: \Data\UPCData\UPCCrewData\CrewMembers.upc

The default values for crew are in the format;
[CrewMember 1]
ID= NR
NameDisplayable= John Brunner
CrewMemberNameIDLinks= NormalUSNames,CommonUSNames
DateOfBirth= 1920-11-05
Head= 2
Voice= 2
Tatoo= 1
Rank= NR3rdClass
CurrentExperience= 0
Qualifications= NULL
SpecialLocalAbilities= NULL
SpecialGlobalAbilities= NULL
IntelligenceCoef= 0.5
LeadershipCoef= 0.15
MechanicalCoef= 0.3
ElectricsCoef= 0.3
GunsCoef= 0.3
WatchmanCoef= 0.3
Medals=
Patrols=0
Morale= Normal
FatigueCoef=0
Hitpoints= 5
RenownCost= 0

The _____Coef= 0.x values are the starting stats (0.1 = ~ 10 etc with a slight variation)

I wouldn't mess with the ID's (unless you change all other references) and if you mess with the ranks be aware you may end up with some strange/boring crew combinations.

To change which crew fill which slots on each submarine (at the start of a career) look at \Data\UPCData\UPCUnitsData\UnitParts*Xsubname*.upc for deckwatch slots and \Data\Submarine\NSS_*subname*\NSS_*subname*.upc for all the other slots. Note: there are 2 or 3 complete sets of slots (for early/mid/late war starts?) in each file.

Btw. I agree it would be nice to see direct rudder and prop damage having an effect on speed, as it is hitting the engine room will often stop a ship. 2-3 hits along one side will sink nearly all merchants though (and quite a few warships too imo!). Hitting all in one place is more variable, sometimes they go down sometimes you need to flood more than one compartment. Super accurate merchant ship gunners are another issue, but I suspect it was not good practice to engage in surface gunnery battles so I can live with that

[swdw]

Was reading the posts in ROW on the new sounds and the new Ultimate Sound mod release and realized-

DUH!!!!! I forgot to include a section on programs for manipulating sound files

So I've added links to Audacilty and Sound Club- of course if you can boot into Linux, the number of free / open source programs for sound/music editing goes through the roof.

[Ducimus]

I just want to add, taht winzip is an awesome mod tool that saves a ton of time. Say for example you need to make changes to the SNS file of every ship in the /data/sea directory.


Instead of creating all those directories, and copy the file over, just winzip the ENTIRE sea directory. Then open this rather large zip file, sort it by file type, and delete all the file types you dont want in your mod. (in my example id delete everything but the SNS files) What your left with, is a zip file containing the just the SNS files, and their directory path information, ready to be unzipped into your mod. The entire process takes like 2 minutes to complete.

[swdw]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

I just want to add, that winzip is an awesome mod tool that saves a ton of time. Say for example you need to make changes to the SNS file of every ship in the /data/sea directory.

Instead of creating all those directories, and copy the file over, just winzip the ENTIRE sea directory. Then open this rather large zip file, sort it by file type, and delete all the file types you dont want in your mod. (in my example I'd delete everything but the SNS files) <SNIP>

To start with- what a GREAT IDEA. Never thought of that. Keeps you from having to pick through all the individual folders.

So you know, just tried it after reading this and Zip Genius will allow you to do the same thing- plus create self extracting zips, disk spanning, sfx zips that will launch a program and other tools.



So I'll keep it listed instead of Winzip because of the additional features (things like self extracting zips are only available in the Winzip payware version, and it won't pester you to register when you start it up). If I couldn't have done your trick in the utilities listed above, would have added a Winzip link.

Did find out, can't use your idea in IZArc because it displays the folder structure like windoze explorer.

So it's Winzip or ZipGenius for your method ( I like it, like it, like it! )

(Gotta go paint the siding now )

[swdw]

Hey people- anything new to add to the list.

Just downloaded the new release candidate of Paint.net- It now has native support for .dds files !!!

[swdw]

Made a couple of small updates- adding file types for each section. I'll finish that in a couple of days as I'm out of town for work again and can't look up the file types.

Sitting in KFC on the way to my destination. Will try and get some pics, the scenery is gorgeous right now.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Nice compilation here swdw, someday I need to get around to using/learning this stuff, again well done


RDP

[Thendash]

This should get stickied, it has a lot of usefull programs. Thanks for the list.