R&D - New Modding Tools

[Amineri]

For those that are interested in such things it appears that the EW patch 1 didn't introduce any new Export or Import Table references to XComGame.upk.

[Amineri]

I've also confirmed that EU patch 6 made no changes to the import/export tables for XComStrategyGame.upk. This means that mods to the strategy game should have remained unchanged from patch 4 through patch 6.

[wghost81]

I've also confirmed that EU patch 6 made no changes to the import/export tables for XComStrategyGame.upk. This means that mods to the strategy game should have remained unchanged from patch 4 through patch 6.

Fantastic news!

[Amineri]

Here's the latest update in XMTS's and my epic saga -- a new screenshot :

 

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/images/6/6a/Upmodderv05.png

 

Still a few placeholders and some general ugliness (all my fault, I'm afraid).

 

• The editor panes are now tabbed
• Tree view to show deconstruction of lines of hex (shown in the left pane) has been reworked to show the Operand Token name and other token types when expanded
  • The display is a bit ugly and awkward but the information is at least there
  • Currently only will display reference names if the Update References tool has converted references in the document to names.
• Reference Update tool added -- dialogue shown in upper right
  • Only applies to the current active modfile (not all open files)
  • Shows :
    • All source hex references (or already named references in the file)
    • Names associated with source hex references (once a source upk is selected)
    • All destination hex references found (once a destination upk is selected)
    • Conversion from source hex to dest hex is disallowed unless all references map correctly
    • When not all references map (as in this example), only conversion to name is allowed
    • Name references are allowed to do "partial" conversion to dest hex references, leaving the unmapped references as names.
  • The example shows an attempted update from Enemy Unknown(patch4) to Enemy Within(patch1)

[Amineri]

So another update. Hopefully there are a few people interested in what's happening with this little project :wink:

 

I've only given it a minor version number increase (to 0.51) but it has some significant improvements. Once they are working I'm going to update to 0.60 and let some beta testers at it. Here's a screen showing what's new :

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/images/8/8a/Upkmodderscreen_v0_51.png

 

The Reference Updating is still there but hasn't changed so am not showing it off this time.

 

The big change is some re-arranging of the main area.

 

• The tree view has moved to the right-hand side so it doesn't compete with the new project view.
  • The tree view now includes memory/file positions and sizes to make it easier to quicker to update offsets without having to bounce back and forth to UE Explorer quite as much.
  • Some little stuff like displaying reference names and string values has been added
• Editor hasn't changed too much, but a few improvements
  • Absolute jump offsets are colored differently than relative offsets
  • Styling no longer extends through last space of tokens
  • Some performance improvements in document styling times for larger documents
• A new toolbar has been added to the top to provide alternative access to commands
• Apply/revert to target upk has been added
  • Target upk for the current file is shown at lower left in the status bar
  • Filename in tab changes color based on apply/revert status:
    • Green/regular means BEFORE hex is in target upk
    • Blue / Italic means AFTER hex is in target upk
    • Black/regular means no upkfile has been designated
    • Red/Bold indicates an error -- neither BEFORE nor AFTER hex is in target upk
  • Still some stuff I want to improve here, like setting tab styling when file is loaded, etc.
• Project pane has been added
  • Currently only supports double-click to open modfile, but plan to add additional commands such as "apply/revert project" to target upk(s)
  • Also plan to color/style file/project names similarly to how file names in tabs are styled
• Message log show status of actions taken so you can figure what you've been doing :wink:

 

----------------

 

While I've been working on this I've also been spending time creating/updating mods. Partly so I don't go crazy just working on the new tool, but also to help test it out. In the background you can see the two mods I've been working on recently -- porting the Expanded Perk Tree over to EW and updating the Multiple Alien Bases for EU patch 6.

 

I'd just like to clarify that I'm aiming this tool at being able to create and manage medium-to-large modding projects. Definitely less at creating smaller mods, although the modproject management will help keep such mods organized.

 

Long War v2.12 for EU was over 300 function changes, and JL and I are making plans that would make the Long War EW version even larger, so I'm shooting for being able to manage in the 1000's of function changes.

 

Of course the tool will be available for anyone to help in creating medium-to-large scale modding projects or for organizing many smaller modding projects. And its still coded in Java so will be usable by our friends using OS X (I hope!)

[Drakous79]

With such great tool, small projects may become medium to large :)

[wghost81]

Hopefully there are a few people interested in what's happening with this little project

More than few, that's for sure! :wink:

[dubiousintent]

 

Hopefully there are a few people interested in what's happening with this little project

More than few, that's for sure! :wink:

 

Everyone who pays any attention to XCOM Modding, most likely. This tool has huge potential for mod maintenance and development.

 

-Dubious-

[Amineri]

Well, Johnnylump and I have been using the tool now for a few days without any huge issues, so I finally got around to setting up some minimal documentation and download capability through the google code site : https://code.google.com/p/upk-modder/

 

The newest version is 0.65, which includes the resize + apply/revert functionality as well as changing variable types.

 

This should still be considered early beta so be sure and make backups of upks before applying changes!

 

The user documentation is pretty bare-bones right now, but at least there is something there. If anyone were willing to help with the wiki documentation (hint, hint :wink: ), any help would be much appreciated.

 

The Google code page has an "issues" page for issue tracking, so both bug reports, usability issues and feature requests can all go there.

 

There is no installation necessary. Simply unzip and run. You should be able to run the .jar file directly.

 

If the application won't launch (and you have JRE 7 installed) you can run the batch file through a command window which should provide an indication of how/why it is failing to launch.

Edited December 23, 2013 by Amineri

[Bertilsson]

For someone unfamiliar with google drive...

 

Is there a way to download UPKmodder v0.65.zip as a single file instead of browsing it?