How to Make a self-extracting exe or whatever?

[Domi]

I've never done it, but I would like to know how one packages one of those neat exe files I will need one that does the following:

 

1) Asks player to browse to a specific directory.

2) Extracts the content of one folder into one subfolder within that directory

3) Extracts the content of the second folder into another subfloder within that directory

4) Pops up the Read Me open.

 

Do we have a tutorial on it somewhere ?

[the bigg]

http://forums.pocketplane.net/index.php/topic,18071.0.html

 

For #4, use README ~path/to/readme.html~ after the AUTHOR line.

[Domi]

Thank you. The post is made in 2005, were there any other tools that people picked over it since, or is it still the same?

[Gabrielle]

I have always wondered about this as well.

[the bigg]

"If it ain't broken, don't fix it"

 

The "PPG" method has the advantage of choosing the directory for the end user via the registry, rather than having the user navigate manually to the game directory. the G3 method forces the user to navigate to the installation directory, but it respects the G3 standards and (more importantly) can be extracted on Linux and Mac too. Of course, the latter point is moot if you aren't lazy and actually do an official Mac/Linux version

[Kulyok]

Of course, the latter point is moot if you aren't lazy and actually do an official Mac/Linux version:)

 

I wondered about that, too: I understand about Windows version(well, naturally) and a Mac version, but I always wondered what Linux users do. Linux users can't use Weidu for Windows/Mac, right? They need their own Linux version(which I saw at Weidu.org). So - how does an average Linux user install mods for BG2, and are there many of them?

[the bigg]

There are. To be honest, these days I work in Windows - most newer games (and many older ones) do not work in Linux. However, I have been installing mods on Linux for over an year, and it's quite stable.

 

Refinements and TB#Tweaks (over at SHS) have a Linux version, if you want to take a look at it. I have some Linux versions hanging around my older laptop (including Amber, which shows how to use Tisunpack, oggdec/sox and snd2acm), I should get around to uploading them one day or the other.

[Domi]

Mmgh, actually, I think that G3 way will be better for me, because I *need* to force the user to pick the path. 'Cause NWN2 creates 2 directories for NWN2, and I need to install into ONE of them.

 

Now, I will just need to weed out all the WeiDU stuff, and just do the simple copying.

[the bigg]

Domi: IMHO, you should follow the common NWN2 modding release guidelines, rather than adapting the IE ones. I'm sure there's a tutorial on packaging mods somewhere

 

Kulyok: I'm uploading Linux versions of the following mods:

 

amber v2.4

aurenaseph v4

d0questpack v2.3

dungeonbegone v1.4

g3anniversary v3

kelsey-soa 2.1

kelsey-tob v2.2

turnabout v1

xan v4

 

Other mods, like BG2FP, BG2TP etc. don't need special treatment (they have no AT_* .bat files), thus you can simply download, unpack and install the Windows version. I didn't take the time to make linux versions of every NPC/quest mod, those are the ones I installed in one of my last run-throughs and somehow decided to keep for later use

[the bigg]

Here are the links:

 

# amber-linux-v2.4.zip of size 59.422 MB

http://www.filefactory.com/file/add026/

# aurenaseph-linux-v4.zip of size 9.368 MB

http://www.filefactory.com/file/bc842a/

# d0questpack-linux-v2.3.zip of size 5.473 MB

http://www.filefactory.com/file/1f0653/

# dungeonbegone-linux-v1.4.zip of size 889.872 KB

http://www.filefactory.com/file/ec12e9/

# g3anniversary-linux-v3.zip of size 810.97 KB

http://www.filefactory.com/file/0bc7dd/

# kelsey-soa-linux-v2.1.zip of size 15.051 MB

http://www.filefactory.com/file/06d6dd/

# kelsey-tob-linux-v2.2.zip of size 14.793 MB

http://www.filefactory.com/file/c80686/

# turnabout-linux-v1.zip of size 2.08 MB

http://www.filefactory.com/file/d09483/

# xan-linux-v4.zip of size 12.69 MB

http://www.filefactory.com/file/218313/

 

Grab them, upload them, study them, etc. as you please, of course.

[Domi]

Domi: IMHO, you should follow the common NWN2 modding release guidelines, rather than adapting the IE ones. I'm sure there's a tutorial on packaging mods somewhere.

 

I am doing what hasn't been done before for NWN2. When I will do a standard mod, it will be its own package, but for now I want something more elaborate perhaps then a rar file. Or maybe I'll decide to stick with the RAR. I am not sure yet...