Kanes Wrath

http://www.moddb.com/mods/kanes-wrath-mod-...es/logiccommand
I wish this brave and determined soul all the very best in his efforts.

This is also a call out to any experienced programmers out there... do give him a hand and we could soon have the tools to fix a sizeable part of the game ourselves instead of having to rely on EA's pathetic excuse for support.

omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg omg

Ha, all you need to do is politely ask the guy for the .big viewer he created and you can have all of your unit data.

Unless we can send the patch to EA and have them make it the official patch, it doesn't matter.

I wonder. We already have tons of BIG extractors, binary/asset extractors, CSF editors etc. But that doesn't help, because the game data is "irreversibly" compiled (and encrypted?) into a binary format, which is what's contained in the binary manifests, which in turn are contained in the BIG files.

Example: The game images are stored in files like PackedImages_001, which contains several actual images all in one. The data needed to identify the individual images, e.g. Button_PlayerPowerMothership, are stored in a file PackedImages.xml, available in the SDK. But in the finished game, this data is compiled into binary form, and the XML source file as such is no longer retrievable.

The SDK contains the binary asset compiler, and unless you have a way of reversing this binary compilation, you cannot really modify the existing game. I mean, you could make up an entirely new game and use the binary compiler from the TW SDK, but you cannot really access the current game data from Kane's Wrath.

(Actually, in the case of the packed images, I was able to write a binary decompiler for the image information data, but it only works for TW. It seems that the binary format in KW may have changed.)

Edit. OK, I spoke too soon. From the screenshot it looks like the ABE (Another Big Editor) can decompile the binaries. That'd be most interesting to see.

This post has been edited by R Schneider: Oct 8 2009, 14:13 PM

All we need is the professional payed team. For them it will be easy.

I don't know possum spit about the technicalities of modding, but if this thing will actually become a Mod SDK...let's just say this will do HUGE things for this game's community and survivability. HUGE.

...On another note, it'll make EA eat their hats about a post-release SDK being impossible.

I would just about kill to get my hands on the 1.02 unit/structure data. If anyone finds a way to get it from this fine gentleman, I would be incredibly appreciative. No questions asked, as long as it finds its way into my inbox.

Grim Reaper= Voddy

I know Asaka (aka Lauren, Ju-Jin or JJ) is doing the solo work on this project.

EALA making a excuse of not having enough resources to make a KW mod sdk without Breakaway Games support = strike one. CoreAngel and her team on a custom KW mod sdk which later failed = strike two. This better NOT fail again for a strike three.

If the custom KW mod sdk does work by Asaka, maybe I can revive my CNC Reloaded mod.

If EALA or some other modders release something that I want or fixed for the RA3 mod sdk, my RA3 Reloaded mod can also be revived.

This post has been edited by tham007: Oct 9 2009, 16:43 PM

dont want a 'strike three? try giving them em a hand




or stfu

I might give them a hand on something.

Sorry, that doesn't really make a lot of sense: It is a relatively simple task to at least publish the binary format specifications and the compilation algorithm; in fact I suspect that it's identical to the ones used in TW. On the other hand, reverse-engineering the binary formats (as Asuka is currently doing) is a comparably monumental task. Not only is it really, really hard and tedious, but it is also so morally defeating, knowing that all you're doing is trying to figure something out that someone else could just tell you in a few minutes on half a page of write-up.

At this point, I'm sure there are plenty of people willing to write their own tools, all it needs is for EA to release some measly file specifications. I can fully understand the frustration of the community on this.

Apologies for sounding harsh, but unless you have a constructive contribution about "giving them em a hand", perhaps you shouldn't attack others and take your own advice to heart.

whoa buddy, perhaps its you who shouldnt take such comments too seriously, especially when unaware of the context behind it

nothing personal... but my kind request - try not to be too condescending on such comments, or poke your nose too much into them - its an internet forum; there will be a degree of informality (usually with the intention of humour) to it regardless of whether you appreciate it or not


uhm.. sure, so which part of my post suggests i dont sympathise with the people working on this project or understand the tedious nature of it

This post has been edited by cnc315d34d: Oct 9 2009, 20:22 PM

I may have misunderstood you - your original statement was in reply to Electronic Arts being on strike two, so "giving them a hand" sounded like "giving Electronic Arts a hand". From your reaction I take that that you may have meant something else, so apologies if that's the case and no offense :-)

I've been peeking under the hood of KW a fair share myself for a while now, and I know how hard it is to come by useful information. Too many of the forums are unfortunately full of less-than-helpful comments, and the good bits are few and far between. I'm reasonably annoyed at the situation myself...

yep i can see where youre coming from ;D
not everyone swears by the motto 'if you cant beat em join em' as much as some do

Ditto, the fact that the info is being withheld is crazy.

Yeah if EA would release just the structs of the different compiled objects it would take about a day or less

And no, Purple, I don't know of this JJ, thats not me.

Edit: Yes Kanes Wrath uses the same format for the manifest, relo, imp and bin files. Its version 5, RA3 uses version 6, Uprising and CnC4 uses 7.
Also for the moment my big editor is just Another Big Editor (ABE ). It shows the same amount of information as OSBigEditor 6.3 (which is out there since, I think, the Tiberium Wars Demo) but that will change ^^

This post has been edited by Lauren: Oct 11 2009, 01:11 AM

This is the most important thread in these forums.

Good luck to everyone working on this.

Welcome to Gamereplays.org, Lauren.