Cloning Objects in "Plainer English" by stljeffbb1

[stljeffbb1]

OK, so you've now copied all of you strings that DATNav provided into Hex Workshop....don't do ANYTHING quite yet.....here is what it should look similar to:



This was taken from the Liberator.DAT file, and even though THE_ORZEL had provided all of the string IDs, I wanted to see if the DATNav tool would catch them all, and it didn't...

However, if you closely look at the screen, you will see a pattern of red bands (which represents changed data) that is nice and symmetrical, and also some gaps.....

In an earlier thread on THE_ORZEL's thread, I posted that I found out that ALL of the necessary ID strings are located at the bottom of the data on the .DAT file represented in Hex Workshop....this was proven true because I was able to clone the Fishing Boat without having any strings provided on the message boards and having to fill in the missing strings that the DATNav tool does not provide....

"The Art of Finding Strings"

OK, lets take a close look at the Liberator file:



Find the spot where, in the right hand column, the text Liberator_Mrk03 appears....this seems to be a marker. Then, locate the data: "!?J.PH.=.*.?...@.59..." This also appears to be a marker...

Now, remember when I said "don't use '00' to start a thread?" This is because the game typically uses "00" to set apart one string from another. As it turns out, the dark highlighted section in the upper left of the window is the first string in THE_ORZEL's Liberator ID message....I had guessed that if I filled in the ID's that the DaTNav tool had missed by using them provided by THE_ORZEL, the Hex Workshop red bands would look nice and neat....and they do!



BEAUTIFUL!

So, what you have to do is look for similar instances of data....first find the last thing you can read in English in the right hand column....then, look for that little chunk of data not long after this, then, look for data in strings that have "00" right before it and/or look for the pattern that is established by your already entered ID strings from the DATNav tool....not all files have the same kind of markers...the Liberator had either "0C 00" or "0D 00" while the Fishing Boat only had "00" ......


You might wonder....OK, I've added in the strings (from the DATNav), but there are extra data that hangs over the edited parts (not in red)...well, remember I'm new at all of this too, and I don't know about that data, but I guess just don't worry about it?!? I have had good luck so far with planes and a ship....we will see when I attempt to clone a Battleship, however, I'll bet that the same ideas here apply to all ships!

Now that you have found the missing strings and you have them all on your text document (I recommend you type in a line that separates the DATNav strings from the ones you find), save that document (don’t lose it!) and then use the Replace feature in Hex Workshop and do like you did earlier with all of the other files (ZON, SIM, and DSD) to get ALL of the IDs changed that are necessary.

Just for fun, I’ll show you the Stuka.DAT file and where the first ID (I think!) starts:



(continued....)