Download
http://users.tpg.com.au/jfwfreo/cc3tools.zip to see these tools. You will need the SDK prerequisites (specifically the visual C++ runtime) installed in order for these to work correctly.
Included in the zip file is an XML editor with syntax highlighting based on the SciTE editor. It should make editing C&C3 XMLs just that little bit easier.
Also included is a tool called aptextract.exe which can extract any APT UI file and give you an XML file and textures you can edit and use in your mod similar to the DefaultUIScreens items in the SDK. In addition to the GUI view, you can call it with a command line similar to aptextract aptlevel0 c:\output and it will extract the data for aptlevel0 to the folder c:\output.
I realize the names of the APT entries are not very descriptive, if anyone has any ideas on how to make the descriptions better, please let me know.
Also, I have written a tool called textureextract.exe. This will extract any texture from the game. Fill in the name of the texture (without any extention, e.g. abbhive_nrm) and it will generate a texture file plus texture XML. The texture files are in DDS format because that is how the game stores them internally and if I convert back to the TGA format used as input when the game was made, the quality of the texture would be degraded. You should edit the DDS file in something like photoshop and then use both the dds file and texture XML in your mod. Like aptextract.exe you can pass in the name of the texture and then the output folder on the command line.
Also, I have written a tool called w3xdecompiler.exe. This tool decompiles compiled streams back into w3x files. Pass in the name of the w3x file you wish to decompile including the .w3x extention (referenced in an include tag in one of the xml files from the SDK for example). The "decompile low detail version" checkbox says that you want to decompile the "low detail" version of the model. The output from w3xdecompiler.exe is NOT the same as what would have been passed as input when the game was made. In particular, it does not correctly decompile BoneInfluences tags, ShadeIndices tags or W3DAnimation (it may not actually be possible to decompile the data correctly as information appears to be thrown away by the build process). Again you can pass the filename followed by the output folder on the command line. If you put l (thats a lowercase L) as the third parameter, it will extract the low quality version. (so something like this will extract the low quality version: w3xdecompiler abbhive.w3x c:\output l)
Full source code for all tools is included. The SciTE code is under the licenses specified in those folders. The other code (cc3tools.dll, aptextract.exe, textureextract.exe, w3xdecompiler.exe) is under the GNU General Public License Version 3 (basically if you make changes to the code in question and distribute a new binary version, you must also include the source code changes). This also means that if you want to use cc3tools.dll or any of the other code in another program, you need to comply with the GPL for that program too and release its entire source code.
I have the following possible ideas in the pipeline as possible tools I may create:
If the audio codecs are ever reverse engineered, I will produce an audio extraction tool to extract audio from the game.
If I ever find out what langdata.dat is for and whether you would want to edit it or not, I may produce a langdata.dat editor
I may produce a tool to handle and manage *.BIG files similar to XCC Mixer or Final BIG but properly supporting C&C3. However, there is already OS Big Editor that can do this so I may not make my own tool.
An editor for the UI is on my list if I can figure out the remaining unknown fields (and think of how the UI editor should work)
I am also currently investigating how civilian objects (buildings,units,props etc) work and this may result in information/tutorials/tools to handle this.
I am looking into a program that would parse a set of XML files and dump certain tags into a file that can be loaded into a spreadsheet program such as Excel or OpenOffice.Org Calc. This could be used to see all the numbers related to balancing in the one place. At this time, I have no plans for a tool to go the other way (which would be VERY hard)
But the big tool I am thinking about creating is a program that would basically manage a whole mod. It would feature a list of files in the mod down the side. It would be able to launch other programs (including the EA BinaryAssetBuilder tool, the XML editor and the .big creation tool). It would be able to generate skudef files automatically as well as having support for multiple language versions of your mod (so you could build a version for German and a version for English and have both versions available). It would completely replace buildmod.bat. It would be able to produce "patches" so that you do not need to distribute the entire mod every time you release a new version. It would even be able to launch C&C3 with your mod directly via the relavent switch. But most importantly it would mean you would be able to do everything in C&C3 modding right from inside of it and never need to worry about command prompts, the & symbol in your C&C3 folder name or anything else related to command lines.
As part of this I am also considering a mod install program that would be able to install a mod automatically. It would detect which language you had installed and install the correct language version of the mod. (similar in nature to the install program I wrote for the last version of my walls mod).
I am basically looking for feedback on how to make these tools better (especially how to make them easier to use) as well as any questions, comments or requests you have (e.g. requests for certain tools).
Also, anyone with C++ skills who wishes to help, please contact me.
To contact me, you can post in this thread or you can contact me via:
Email
jfwfreo@tpgi.com.au
MSN
JonathanWilson623@hotmail.com
ICQ 77572965
AIM jonwil2002
Yahoo jonwil2002
first look at some of my C&C3 moding tools
