The Elder Scrolls: Arena - Modding Tool

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Hallfiry
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The Elder Scrolls: Arena - Modding Tool

Post by Hallfiry »

Some of you might know I've been working on a TES Arena modding tool called "Arena Modder" since September 2012.
The most recent version is 0.95:
http://www71.zippyshare.com/v/53788214/file.html

NOTE: The program only supports 24-bit BMPs, NOT 32-bit! Importing a 32-bit file will add/replace it and set its size to 0! (which means, the program will delete it on save afterwards)

Info on INF files:
Inf files contain info about Textures, Sounds, Monsters, Sprites and Popup Messages (like in the Demo Dungeon).

Info from Terminator Rampage:

Code: Select all

# Use <#> for comment lines
# Use <@> to define FLOORS, WALLS, FLATS, SOUND, and TEXT
# Use <*> to define LEVELUP, LEVELDOWN, TRANS, TRANSWALKTHRU,
# DRYCHASM, WETCHASM, LAVACHASM, DOOR, CEILING,
# BOXSIDE, and BOXCAP
# these images must be in the WALLS section

# *DOOR n	 n = 0=SWING, 1=SLIDE, 2=UP, 3=SPLIT
# *MENU nn	nn = menu number
# *ITEM nn	nn = flat itemList number (0-63)
# *BOXSIDE n	 n = box side number (0-15)
# *BOXCAP n	 n = box cap number (0-15)

#±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±
# flat modifiers
# Y:-30	raise the object up 50 pixels
# H:45	this object has 45 hit points
# F:1	you can collide with this object
#	FI_COLLIDE		EQU	01h
#	FI_REFLECT		EQU	02h
#	FI_DOUBLE		EQU	04h
#	FI_DARK			EQU	08h
#	FI_TRANSPARENT		EQU	10h
#	FI_CEILING		EQU	20h
# N:5	when hitpoints are gone display the next flat and
#	show effect number 5
# S:3	play sound number three when hitpoints are gone
#	
#   0	sofa1.img F:1 N:2
#   1	sofa1pow.img F:1
#   2	sofa1x.dfa
#	
Some deeper explanation:

By writing more variables below eachother you set them all at once.
e.g.:

Code: Select all

*BOXCAP 3
*BOXSIDE 0
*DOOR 2
walla.set       #5

will set boxcap3, boxside0 and door2 set WallA, which has 5 entries.

setting a value again will add it instead of replacing the old value.
e.g.:

Code: Select all

*DOOR 1
mural1.img
*DOOR 1
mural2.img

will add mural1 and mural2 to the possible variations of DOOR1.

Items can be removed from a variable by putting "-" infront of them:

Code: Select all

*ITEM 3
nbarrel.img
-rat1.dfa
This will let item3 spawn as barrel, but not as a rat as it is set by default.

Sounds are not bound to variables, instead they are declared with their name, followed by their ID on the map.
The IDs have no particular order. The sounds are normally ordered alphabetically.

e.g.:

Code: Select all

arrowfr.voc 2
back1.voc 3
bash.voc 5
birds.voc 1
bodyfall.voc 4

Texts are definied like regular variables, but can have multiple lines.

Questions can be defined like this:

Code: Select all

^100 90
[some text]
:[correct_variant_1]
:[correct_variant_2]
:[correct_variant_3]
:[correct_variant_4]
'CORRECT
[Bla]
'WRONG
[Bla bla]

This will let the player enter a string and then compare it with the correct answers.
I don't know what the ^100 90 exactly does.

Example for a question:

Code: Select all

*TEXT 0
^100 90
What's my name?
:hellfire2079
:hallfiry
:moe
'CORRECT
Yay, you know my name. Now you can
mod Arena...
'WRONG
That's not my name...
I made another very little tool for editing fonts used by Arena, called Arena Font (Version 0.1):
http://www66.zippyshare.com/v/66815026/file.html
Last edited by Hallfiry on March 25th, 2013, 5:14 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Magazine cover disk catalog:
http://www.kultcds.com/Catalog/
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MrFlibble
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Re: The Elder Scrolls: Arena - Modding Tool

Post by MrFlibble »

Great stuff, thanks for sharing! You won't mind if I post info about this in a Russian forum where modders might be interested as well, will you?

On a somewhat related mode, do you run Arena in DOSBox? Recently I've played a bit (using v0.74) and there are some noticeable lags in the wilderness when draw distance is set to max, while in the dungeons everything goes super fast. Are there any workarounds to this?
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Hallfiry
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Re: The Elder Scrolls: Arena - Modding Tool

Post by Hallfiry »

MrFlibble wrote:Great stuff, thanks for sharing! You won't mind if I post info about this in a Russian forum where modders might be interested as well, will you?
Sure you can post it. Luckily it has Version Info, etc. 8-)
MrFlibble wrote: On a somewhat related mode, do you run Arena in DOSBox? Recently I've played a bit (using v0.74) and there are some noticeable lags in the wilderness when draw distance is set to max, while in the dungeons everything goes super fast. Are there any workarounds to this?
I have exactly the same problems and don't know how to fix them :(
Magazine cover disk catalog:
http://www.kultcds.com/Catalog/
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MrFlibble
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Re: The Elder Scrolls: Arena - Modding Tool

Post by MrFlibble »

Hallfiry wrote:Sure you can post it. Luckily it has Version Info, etc. 8-)
Did so, and apparently the guys who are doing a Russian translation of Arena might have use for your tools :) Thanks again for sharing them!
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Hallfiry
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Re: The Elder Scrolls: Arena - Modding Tool

Post by Hallfiry »

MrFlibble wrote:
Hallfiry wrote:Sure you can post it. Luckily it has Version Info, etc. 8-)
Did so, and apparently the guys who are doing a Russian translation of Arena might have use for your tools :) Thanks again for sharing them!
Yay ^.^

I'll try to expand the tool tomorrow evening. As you might have noticed, it doesn't support all IMG variants, yet.

I found better info about INF files in the Global.bsa of Terminator Rampage.
Magazine cover disk catalog:
http://www.kultcds.com/Catalog/
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Hallfiry
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Re: The Elder Scrolls: Arena - Modding Tool

Post by Hallfiry »

I dumped the old modding tool and decided to make the modding extractor/repacker based. I also though it might useful if it all came as a bundle, including more than just these two basic tools, so I created the Arena Suite.
After some bugfixes (nothing crashy, but some palette stuff for certain images), I released the first stable build 0.1c:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing
It can basically extract all files from Arena, convert most static images to PNG and decode the INF files. The repacker converts the corresponding files back to their original formats and builds a BSA file.
Magazine cover disk catalog:
http://www.kultcds.com/Catalog/
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MrFlibble
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Re: The Elder Scrolls: Arena - Modding Tool

Post by MrFlibble »

Cool ^_^
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MrFlibble
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Re: The Elder Scrolls: Arena - Modding Tool

Post by MrFlibble »

Hallfiry wrote:
MrFlibble wrote: On a somewhat related mode, do you run Arena in DOSBox? Recently I've played a bit (using v0.74) and there are some noticeable lags in the wilderness when draw distance is set to max, while in the dungeons everything goes super fast. Are there any workarounds to this?
I have exactly the same problems and don't know how to fix them :(
I've just found this topic, with the following being of interest:
greywolf wrote:Here a quote from the 1.06 patch notes (i.e. this is independant of DOSBOX):

"A Pentium slowdown has been included in the patch. To slow down game play for a Pentium, type:
arena -delay:#
at the DOS prompt, where # is an integer between 1 and 9. 1 causes the
least delay, 9 causes the most delay. We recommend 4 as a good speed.
If, after starting the game on your Pentium using this feature, you find
the speed still is not right, you may adjust the delay using the + and -
keys."

I'm not using the delay parameter myself as I'm happy with the performance of Arena, but you may wish to experiment with it.
If you do - let's know how it works.
Haven't tried this one out yet, but maybe in conjunction with
leileilol wrote:Try setting cputype to pentium_slow, see if that helps somewhat
this might actually do the trick.
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