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!