Change files into txt

[StrongArmand]

Hello there !

 

Like I've already said here I'm french and presently french community about bg2 is most active. And recently I'm starting to work with a french programmer who reflex about an new tool for bg2.

 

However he try to do one thing and I admit that I have no one answer for his problem. He try to change some files (cre, are, itm....) into txt files workable. I know how change dlg into d or bcs into baf but is it possible for others files ? If weidu is able to change some data in itm with "WRITE" for example, change these files into txt should be possible no ?

 

Sorry for my english, this case is a little complex for my english level.

 

I hope that someone could help us....

[the bigg]

There are/were a couple of tools that converted itm/spl/... files to and from textual formats, but they aren't exactly reliable or easy to use, and I'm not even sure they can still be found online.

[Miloch]

There are/were a couple of tools that converted itm/spl/... files to and from textual formats, but they aren't exactly reliable or easy to use, and I'm not even sure they can still be found online.

They're available, easy to use (if you can master the arcane command prompt) and fairly reliable, though even igi lost the source code last I heard.

[StrongArmand]

They're available, easy to use (if you can master the arcane command prompt) and fairly reliable, though even igi lost the source code last I heard.

 

Thank you very much ! These tools will be really appreciate. I suppose that igi is out of touch... Therefore I'm going to ask my questions here. Maybe someone could resolve my problem...

 

Apparently, all tools work on the same scheme :

 

CCIE [compile | decompile] input.ext output.ext

 

I know a little command prompt for have use it for tis pack however I've somme difficulties to understand this model. Imput.ext and output.ext : what is it ? That's the file path or something like that ? (as it happens, it would be cre path....)

[Miloch]

CCIE [compile | decompile] input.ext output.ext

I know a little command prompt for have use it for tis pack however I've somme difficulties to understand this model. Imput.ext and output.ext : what is it ? That's the file path or something like that ? (as it happens, it would be cre path....)

Just put all your files (.cre, .itm, etc.) in a folder with the igi tools. Open a command prompt to that folder (Start > Run > cmd) or get CmdHere for XP (might be a Vista/7 version somewhere) to do that easier. Then if you want to convert a .cre to .txt, the syntax is:

ccie decompile mycre.cre mycre.txt

Say you edit that text file in Notepad or whatever and want to convert it back to a .cre, then it's:

ccie compile mycre.txt newcre.cre

[StrongArmand]

Ok. All work great.Thank you again miloch !

[StrongArmand]

Oops, apparently there are some problems with this software. I've reached to change cre into txt and txt into cre but if I trying to use this cre the game crash. I've checked this file with DLTCEP and it said me that there are problems with memorized spell. So I supposed that the program is wrong for these entries...

[Miloch]

Could be... hard to tell since as I said, I don't think anyone has the source code. It's best to use DLTCEP or WeiDU for dealing with CREs. I've mainly used these tools for converting older overwriting mods to patching format, because then you can text-compare the output of the vanilla CRE and the modded CRE to see what needs to be patched. But then I had to manually write the WeiDU code to do the actual patching, but it's better than eyeballing two CREs in two different editors to try to see if there are differences.

[Avenger]

Do you need a complete text version, or you just want easily portable text? Or maybe you want an easy overview of the file?

 

DLTCEP can export the text part of the creature into weidu tp2 files.

 

If you want an easily readable overview of the .cre file, use ielister.

 

If you want an own compact reusable file with preserving text, use dltcep's tbg export format.

 

The only thing one cannot achieve with the above tools is: a compact with text included weidu compatible format that is human readable

I see no real need for that, human readable formats are not compact by default.

[the bigg]

I see no real need for that, human readable formats are not compact by default.

The OP is trying to write a new modding tool in some shitty French-only drag'n'drop "programming language thingy". Apparently said tool lacks APIs to read binary files.

[Avenger]

Well, i didn't consider THAT! In that case he needs what I thought no one would want.

[StrongArmand]

The OP is trying to write a new modding tool in some shitty French-only drag'n'drop "programming language thingy".

 

I don't know if that's shitty but it's french yes. In fact, I'm not in charge in this project : I just post here for a french programmer who works for several years with this software (windev). He works with it as a real programmer in a company and he successed to create some software which are very usefull and very understanding so I think that we could try to do something with bg2...

 

The programming language is french but this software allow and facilitate the declination of programs in several language (as english, spanish...). And even if this software is sometimes a little limited in its possibilities, I'm rather optimistic.

 

Actually I think using of a macro for translate cre into txt. Viva el tp2 ! The software will looks like to a cre maker with more functions, a visual rendering for cre and code editor for dlg (only with CHAIN I think is simpler). I hope that if one day this soft is released you enjoy it...

[Miloch]

Actually I think using of a macro for translate cre into txt. Viva el tp2 !

I have done this to some small extent, but mainly for limited purposes - converting a vanilla .cre to a patched .cre (which would not be necessary if all mods used WeiDU to patch CREs in the first place, but of course older ones do not). May I ask what the purpose of your effort is? I might have some code somewhere that could be useful.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Actually I think using of a macro for translate cre into txt. Viva el tp2 !

I have done this to some small extent, but mainly for limited purposes - converting a vanilla .cre to a patched .cre (which would not be necessary if all mods used WeiDU to patch CREs in the first place, but of course older ones do not). May I ask what the purpose of your effort is? I might have some code somewhere that could be useful.

Well, I think that the idea behind that is that for example, we take a .cre file that has no script, no effects, no items, no spells assigned, whose stats are 9, level 1, it has a peasant avatar and no death variable... and then we use the macro to give them those if they are needed, all the thousand times we need a .cre to make something happen. It could probably start with this:

COPY ~*/custom.cre~ ~override/*.cre~
 WRITE_ASCII ~0x0248~ ~customscriptname~ //Override script
 WRITE_ASCII ~0x0280~ ~customdeathvariable~ //Death Variable

[the bigg]

May I ask what the purpose of your effort is? I might have some code somewhere that could be useful.

 

Not feeling like reading threads Miloch?

 

The OP is trying to write a new modding tool in some shitty French-only drag'n'drop "programming language thingy". Apparently said tool lacks APIs to read binary files.