Dune Who: a mod with Dr. Who theme

[Dunenerd]

Hi,

I'm working on a Dune II Mod. I have never modded before but thanks to all the forums here (which I have been searching when I get stuck)I have got further than I thought I would.

I am making the mod for my 8 year old sister, who is a massive Dr Who fan, and from what I tell her of Dune, she would love to read that too if she could understand it.

Well, the first problem I have hit which I haven't got past is when I wanted to change the Intro text (also seems to happen to other things). I changed it to my custom text, but now both Siberian String Editor and any other medium brings up radom giberish for every string, even the ones I didn't change. This happens in game. Does anyone have any suggestions? I read about Windwalker having similar problems, but the fixes I saw on his Miserable attemps at Dune editing topic didn't work for me. I have tried repacking the intro.eng files into a pak.

Otherwise, so far everything is fine.

Thanks,

Dunenerd

[Nyerguds]

Dune has a lot of sex in it though, to advise to an 8-year old :P

As for the modding, the strings are encoded in some way. The string editor has some option to decode it I think. Though personally I think Dune II is a really odd choice for a starting mod maker, since it's really hard to modify graphics in it.

[MrFlibble]

I changed it to my custom text, but now both Siberian String Editor and any other medium brings up radom giberish for every string, even the ones I didn't change. This happens in game.

SSTEditor has the "Auto Decompression" option turned on by default. This means that any string table file you open will be treated as a compressed one: all strings will be decompressed for editing and compressed back when you save the file. As the editor has no way to determine if the text is compressed or not, non-compressed text will be decompressed too, resulting in gibberish. You need to turn auto decompression off to avoid this, and use the "Decompress all strings" command to manually decompress text when you need it.

[Dunenerd]

Thanks. Nyerguds, that was one reason why I wasn't letting her borrow my copy of it, apart from it being big words and she can't read all that well yet. I decided on Dune II because I thought it was so old the code would be easier to edit than some more modern games.

Anyway, my biggest passion is Dune, even if all the games and books are from before my time (I'm 15, born in '94, so the only people I know who have any idea what Dune is are the people who are crazy, like me ;D, and the not so crazy people (probably like you guys)

Mr Flibble, thanks for the info on the SST compression. I wish I'd noticed that myself about a month ago  :-[

When I finish it I have a few friends who want to do play testing (hard to find a friend who could be bothered experimenting and stuffing up until they found a bug, but I managed... somehow)

Just wondering, do I need to repack the file to make Dune II read it?

[MrFlibble]

I decided on Dune II because I thought it was so old the code would be easier to edit than some more modern games.

I'm afraid more modern games are, on the contrary, much easier to mod than Dune II. As a matter of fact, the current state of Dune II editing does not allow to replace unit graphics properly, for example.

Another thing is that the RTS genre seems not the best choice for a Dr. Who mod to me (I might be wrong on this though, I've only watched a couple of episodes from a recent season).

Just wondering, do I need to repack the file to make Dune II read it?

Dune II will read some of the files from its directory (e.g. REGION?.INI and SCENARIO???.INI), while others are only read from the original PAK archive (like MENTAT?.ENG). The choice of files also seems to depend on the version/release of the game.

[Dunenerd]

Ah, right. Well, I'm in it now, so I think I'll keep going until I either finish or continuously stuff up and decide to come back in ten years after some practice :P

Thanks for the info, I'm running the Abandonia version (I'll have to check which one it is) even though I have a Dune and Dune II compilation cd because it's in storage adn I can't get it back.

I chose Dune II because it's more of a cross-over, with the Doctor replacing the Mentat screen and the story line revolves around the TARDIS (time machine) being damaged and him having to collect Spice to get the new parts shipped in. Your right, a Dr Who RPG would be a slightly better application but noone has ever tried a Dr Who based RTS to my knowledge, so I decided I had the game, I knew what I wanted to do, and all I needed was to know how to do it.

So, the .INI files can stay in the Directory but the .PAKs need to be packed? If I keep a folder of unpacked PAK files, will that stuff up with the game if it is in the same game directory?

[MrFlibble]

I'm running the Abandonia version (I'll have to check which one it is)

That particular version seems to be more liberal with reading files from the game directory (probably because of this), but it is still recommended that the files be packed back into their respective PAK archives (note that the game will not read a file if it was put into a different PAK archive).

Anyhow, good luck with your project :)

[Dunenerd]

Thanks for the info (again)!

If your lucky you won't hear from me for another few months. So I hope your lucky  :)

Dunenerd

EDIT

You were unlucky  :P

With Siberian String Editor, when I try to open certain .ENG files, it returns "Stream Read Error". Is this a glitch with compression again, or do I have the format wrong? (I've tried all supported formats and Westwood string files (.ENG)

Thanks,

Dunenerd

[Nyerguds]

The easiest games to mod in the Dune II style are Red Alert 1 and Tiberian Sun. RA1 is a bit simple in terms of possibilities, but it's really got the best balance of modding simplicity vs editing possibilities.

And it's freeware :P

[MrFlibble]

With Siberian String Editor, when I try to open certain .ENG files, it returns "Stream Read Error". Is this a glitch with compression again, or do I have the format wrong? (I've tried all supported formats and Westwood string files (.ENG)

I think "Stream Read Error" means that something is wrong with the file itself. What files exactly did it fail to open? Were they already modified in any way?

Thanks for the info (again)!

If your lucky you won't hear from me for another few months.

Modders are always welcome here :) Besides, you can discuss Dune books in the respective forum section ;)

[Dunenerd]

Well, I might have a look around to see if I can find those games online.

The files that won't open are:

AND

BTTN

CHOAM

CREDITS

HERALD

MENTAT

MISC

TITLE

All these files are .ENG, I havnen't modified them at all, unless something to do with my fiddleing in Nyerguds' Editor stuffed them. I'll try checking that later.

Thanks,

Dunenerd

[Nyerguds]

Those are graphics. Don't judge files by their extension. all .eng files are just part of the English language specific part of the game.

[Dunenerd]

Give me a moment while I kick myself for making that mistake ;)

I have some sort of artifacts that appear either side of the intro videos, and they fade with the text. They say D on the left side and R on the right side. Should they be there? And if I remove Protection.ENG from the game, will it still run, but without asking for copy protection?

Now for another stupid question:

Is there a way to display Intro text while including voices? I like to have voices, so you have alerts when the enemy attacks and stuff, but I want to keep the intro text, in case someone wants to use the game on mute.

Most likely more stupid questions on the way.....

Dunenerd

[MrFlibble]

I have some sort of artifacts that appear either side of the intro videos, and they fade with the text. They say D on the left side and R on the right side. Should they be there?

Something seems to be still wrong with the edited INTRO.ENG.

And if I remove Protection.ENG from the game, will it still run, but without asking for copy protection?

Nope, the game will just crash during the copy protection stage. I suggest you use an EXE from the fixed EXE pack, where the "manual check" dialogue is turned off, along with other useful improvements (the version form Abandonia is designated as the EU version).

Is there a way to display Intro text while including voices? I like to have voices, so you have alerts when the enemy attacks and stuff, but I want to keep the intro text, in case someone wants to use the game on mute.

That's a nice question, actually: this could be useful if the game text were translated into a different language but the voices were not. I'm not sure, but the subtitles seem to be handled in the DUNE.CFG file created by SETUP.EXE. Nyerguds once helped me out with modifying the setup program, maybe he's got some ideas about this as well :)

[Dunenerd]

Ok then, I'll get back to my experimenting until I work out the answer. Those fixed EXEs don't seem to work for me. I've tried all the fixed EXEs, especially the EU one since Abandonia's version seems to be EU, but I'm still getting the copy protection.

What are the other improvements in the Fixed EXE pack?

Thanks,

Dunenerd

[MrFlibble]

Those fixed EXEs don't seem to work for me. I've tried all the fixed EXEs, especially the EU one since Abandonia's version seems to be EU, but I'm still getting the copy protection.

Erm... this means I screwed something up big time... :O I'll check out ASAP.

[Edit] I just double-checked the EU version, the "manual check" dialogue is skipped. Are you sure you installed the fixed EXE correctly?

What are the other improvements in the Fixed EXE pack?

Buildings no longer decay if built completely on concrete foundations; looped reinforcements were restored; also, many errors were fixed in the game missions. Read more here.

[Nyerguds]

nope, it must be handled by the game. None of the settings for the speech output gave one specific bit that could be the subs, and any conbinations I tried gave a "run setup first" error when trying to start the game.

speech: none
subs shown: yes
00000003: A1 (0001)
00000009: B3 (0011)

speech: adlib
subs shown: yes
00000003: AD (1101)
00000009: BF (1111)

speech: Sound Blaster
subs shown: no
00000003: A0 (0000)
00000009: B2 (0010)

speech: Sound Blaster Pro
subs shown: no
00000003: A3 (0011)
00000009: BD (1101)

[MrFlibble]

Ah, okay. Thanks for the info anyway :)

[Dunenerd]

Ok then, I stuffed up, not you Mr Flibble. I realised I stuffed up something very simple. I have a Vanilla Dune II folder as well as my Dune Who folder, I was very tired when I tried it and I accidently installed the fixed exe in the wrong location. I really should get more sleep  ;)

Thanks for the info on sound, Nyerguds. I noticed that the block of code you used for "Sound Blaster Pro" has "Prp" instead of "Pro". I doubt it would change anything but, if nothing else worked.

[Nyerguds]

lol, that's just my indication. What's below it are the bytes in dune.cfg that get changed in each of the modes.

[Dunenerd]

Ok, thanks. Sorry I havn't been on more often, I lost the internet dongle and had to wait for my cousin to find it and post it back to me. :P

I've nearly finished the Atreides Mentat, to make him look like The Doctor. Next I'll do the Harko mentat, who will look like a Dalek, and the Ordos mentat will look like a Cyberman.

[Nyerguds]

haha cool. Can't wait to see the result.

Damn, now I wanna see Daleks ingame in Dune II :P

EX-TER-MI-NATE!

[Dunenerd]

haha cool. Can't wait to see the result.

Damn, now I wanna see Daleks ingame in Dune II :P

EX-TER-MI-NATE!

Yes. If I can work it out, I might make Daleks use that as their catch-cry, I mean when they say "reporting" and stuff like that.

I had one or two of the images done, but now my computer with the pictures crashed, so I have everything but. I'm going to get it up and running in a week, hopefully. I'll post then.

EDIT

My hardrive was corrupted and I can't afford to get it repaired and data recovered. Fortunately, I have the code I had edited on a flash drive.

Now I have to try again with the pictures, I remember Reading that Mr Flibble had used .gifs to replace the animations in his Super Dune II mod.

I was wondering if anyone could please give me some advice on how I can get the small pictures that appear beside the mentat to appear in the new files? Also, is there a certain frame rate I need to keep the file at so the game plays it properly?

Thanks

[MrFlibble]

Now I have to try again with the pictures, I remember Reading that Mr Flibble had used .gifs to replace the animations in his Super Dune II mod.

Don't know where you got that, but it's all wrong. Dune 2 will only accept SHP files, which I converted from PNG files using Ultraq's toolkit. Static CPS images (that take the whole screen) can be created with XCC Mixer as well.

I was wondering if anyone could please give me some advice on how I can get the small pictures that appear beside the mentat to appear in the new files? Also, is there a certain frame rate I need to keep the file at so the game plays it properly?

You mean how to create new WSA animations? Once again, Ultraq's utilities support that. To get the correct framerate, just convert an existing WSA animation to PNG using Ultraq's WSA2PNG tool, it should show the frame rate.

[Dunenerd]

Maybe I'm dreaming again.

Thanks for the advice, I've been busy with school, but I'm starting holidays this friday so I'll do my best to get something done, unlike the last term or so.

If/When I get over my minecraft addiction... It can't be good for me.  :-[