PipBoy Editing (AKA I HATE SWF FILES)

[omega9380]

Ok, everyone. Here's the rundown. After my updated DEFICONS2 mod took off, I figured I would try my hand at some more interface modding, starting with the PipBoy. After learning the basics of Flash when working on my icon mod, I figured some sprite editing would be simple enough. Boy, was I wrong.

 

What I am doing is working on a little mod to go with the Gold Kit Color PipBoy mod. I didn't like all the yellow, so I want to give it a little color. I'm starting with PipBoy_InvPage.swf, by recoloring the paperdoll that is under your armor on your inventory page. Here's my problem. Decompiling the SWF to FLA, cool. Worked like a charm. Editing the FLA, wonderful. I'm getting the hang of Flash. Export the FLA back to SWF... Not so much.

 

After exporting the FLA back to an SWF file and loading it into the game, my inventory page is completely fuggered. I either CTD or the page cannot be interacted with. One thing I noticed, before the decompile, Pipboy_InvPage.swf is 97kb (at least the one from Gold Kit is, the original might be different). After I recompile, Pipboy_InvPage.swf is 34kb. Dafuq? Did something evaporate into the electronic aether while it was recompiling? I have tried decompiling using both JPEXS and SoThink. Doesn't matter what decompiler I use, Flash still exports a 34kb Pipboy_InvPage.swf file, and whatever it removed to save that 63kb was the magic juice to make the game use the file correctly.

 

I implore all of you modders and Flash experts out in the Nexus. Please tell me what the heck I am doing wrong when I export the SWF file in Flash.

 

The programs I am using are JPEXS Free Flash Decompiler v8.0.1 and Flash Pro CS6. I also tried using Sothink SWF Decompiler v7.4. Thanks in advance!!

[omega9380]

Anyone?

[NorthWolf]

I haven't done any UI modding in Fallout 4 but I have worked with Flash so I thought I'd take a crack at figuring this out -- that being said, take this with a grain of salt. I was able to roughly replicate your file size using the following order of operations when using the default Pipboy_InvPage.swf from Fallout4 - Interface.ba2:

1. Use JPEXS on Pipboy_InvPage.swf -- there should be a warning that indicates the SWF uses assets from an imported SWF file (fonts_en.swf). It will ask you if you want to load the assets from that file. Click no.
2. Export the result to a FLA.
3. Use Flash CC to open the resulting FLA.
4. Export Movie to get your modded SWF.

Using that order of operations I get the following file sizes:

• Original SWF: 88 KB
• Exported FLA: 155 KB
• Recompiled SWF: 39 KB

If I do the above but instead properly import the fonts_en.swf I get a compiled size of 92 KB which is much closer to the expected 88 KB -- the variance could just be different SWF compilers. That being said I haven't tested to see if this works (I'm literally just using file sizes as a reference and decompiling/recompiling the vanilla assets) but I think it's a likely cause of your woes. If you want to fix it you should be able to just extract fonts_en.swf from Fallout4 - Interface.ba2 and use it when decompiling Pipboy_InvPage.swf in JPEXS.

 

To be honest, though, it'd be safest to just extract the entirety of Fallout4 - Interface.ba2, replace the vanilla SWF files with the modded files you want to further modify, then decompile them and work with them. That way you should have all the assets you need if there are any dependencies.

 

Hopefully that helps in spite of me not being able to test it properly.

[Lukong1515]

I think if the dude above actually tested his finding we could have known if it worked...why don't people take time to prove something works or not :wallbash: isn't that the whole reason for what you came here for :facepalm: .

 

Its like seeing all those solutions posted and a reply is Thanks...I'll try later... :geek: what are you so thankful about...you don't know if it works...

 

Thanks for at least responding, but you were milliseconds from the answer and choose not to post...kind of a dck move

[vargen14]

It is oddly not well documented how to do this which is strange as modding for Fallout 4 is very popular

[niston]

I've recently tried just decompiling and then recompiling the pipboy map page.

Setting the "automatically declare stage variables", but without changing anything in the code, I was able to get Flash to recompile the SWF.

 

But the recompiled SWF did literally nothing in game. The map page wouldn't accept any clicks or even panning around the map.

I haven't thus investigated any further.

 

It is possible, mind you. There are a bunch of mods which did it.