Dark Rain

Reply to Scenario Editor? in Mods Stardock Forums

Hehe, I wanted to change my mind from the pear library format so played around a bit with the save game format. It was pretty easy to come up with this, funny stuff : http://www.tauniverse.com/visual-ta/Graphics/GalCiv/SolScreen.png :D Note that the 655 is 65535, it just didnt fit ^_^. I don't think I'll release the save game format. I usualy release all my source code + file formats but it strikes me as an invitation to cheating. Then again I guess that takes out of the pictu

Reply to Ship encoder available in Mods Stardock Forums

Mmmmmm the pixels are harder to decode than a I thought. There's some parts I just cant figure out yet. I'm afraid it'll take a while, so don't hold your breath for a finished version too soon.

Reply to Scenario Editor? in Mods Stardock Forums

Just curious, any progress on the save game editing?

Reply to Stardock IS hiring... in Mods Stardock Forums

Mmmmm it's at time like theses that I whish my summer jobs werent always working in the construction. Makes for a pretty flimsy resume ^_^.

Reply to GalCiv Writer in Mods Stardock Forums

Hard to say, when I coded in VB I didnt find it either. I only found out about it via GameDev.net or maybe it was Flipcode a couple of years later.

Reply to Ship encoder available in Mods Stardock Forums

Mmm I'm pretty sure the alpha channel is somewhere in what I assume is the pixel data area, mostly because it's bigger than it should be. According to the docs, the alpha channel when loaded from an indexed bmp is based on level of grays, so it's a classic 255 levels alpha channel. I've read that the bitmaps are compressed all the time, I really, really hope it's some kind of RLE because if it's a kind of zip derivative or what not I'm really screwed :P. I'll poke around a bit tonight b

Reply to Ship encoder available in Mods Stardock Forums

Alright, I've updated it again. I only have to decode the pixel data now. I think I've found out most of the other useful stuff. Sure there's still some unknown but I dont think it should prevent me from reading SPR1 books. File Format : http://www.tauniverse.com/visual-ta/Downloads/GalCiv/gc-mdl-fmt.txt Also, it might be interesting to note that the mdl, mtd, tiles etc all have the same file format, so no work lost there ^_^. [Message Edited]

Reply to New - Different font color for Diplomacy screen sliders in Mods Stardock Forums

You have a red fetish don't you? ^_^

Reply to How do fleets work? in Strategies Stardock Forums

Mmm I'm pretty sure I read in another thread that this was not a bug.

Reply to New Stuff for you in Mods Stardock Forums

[quote]OMG she is not kidding! Using M_util is like torture I have no idea how they suffered through it to make such a great game [/quote] Tell me about it! It's now my mission in life to make a librairy editor :P

Reply to Ship encoder available in Mods Stardock Forums

Yeah but it's my hobby, it's fun in a twisted kind of way ^_^

Reply to GalCiv Writer in Mods Stardock Forums

I was reading about the .pcx control problem and I thought I'd mention a great free library I always use when I need to work with images : DevIL http://openil.sourceforge.net/ Works with VB, Delpi, C++ etc and it can read/write most existing 2d file formats. It's really a time saver especialy considering I used to write my own code to read tga, pcx or what not. [Message Edited]

Reply to Ship encoder available in Mods Stardock Forums

I've updated the file a bit, still have to understand quite a bit of stuff. I'm going to bed for now. I'm too tired to find out more :P [Message Edited]

Reply to Ship encoder available in Mods Stardock Forums

Tell me about it :P I'm doing some progress with the sprite book, I've identified some of it's structure but I havent pinpointed the pixel data yet ;(. I had hoped it was only a simple 64x2046 raw bitmap sprite for a ship (wishful thinking) but it's more complicated than that. Each frame is a different image and each image has a x, y offset along with a size. Add to that, that some form of SPR1 use compression and I haven't even found what is the compression flag. Anyway, back

Reply to Ship encoder available in Mods Stardock Forums

Well here's what I found out so far, I'm attacking the pixel data right now : http://www.tauniverse.com/visual-ta/Downloads/GalCiv/gc-mdl-fmt.txt ----------------------------- Visual Designs : http://www.tauniverse.com/visual-ta/ [Message Edited]

Reply to New Stuff for you in Mods Stardock Forums

Mmm I cant access the directory, I dont have the permission. Is it only me?

Reply to Scenario Editor? in Mods Stardock Forums

Can you write down the file format while you're at it. As you said yourself, hex editing is a pain in the ass and so is debunking file formats ^_^. And yeah earlier I was thinking about the metaverse problem too, dont know what will happen to that.

Reply to Ship encoder available in Mods Stardock Forums

Thanks CariElf, I'll look into it when I get home tonight. Mmmm I looked at the website and I dont think there's anyway I can download it or check the file format. Maybe email him and ask for it but since he licenced it to stardock it might not be legal. I think?

Reply to Ship encoder available in Mods Stardock Forums

mmm are you sure it's pear tree library? Its actualy a physical place so google isnt very helpful but I've gone through a lot of them and they dont seem to be computer related. On another note, you're right, the mtd and mdl file format do seem related from a quick glance at the headers in a hex editor. About Sybase : well I just said that because in the mdl file there's a reference to libblk and it's a sybase dll apparently but after having checked out more files it doesnt see

Reply to Ship encoder available in Mods Stardock Forums

MMmm are you using Sybase to save those files? Just wondering because there's a couple of references to "LIBBLK" in the file and it looks like it's a dll related to sybase (googled for it).

Reply to Ship encoder available in Mods Stardock Forums

Hello, I just got GalCiv and I already want to write some tools (it's my hobby hehe). I know that you dont have the .mdl format written down but can you give us some hints? I'm really slow/not very good at reverse engineering a file format, I've reverse engineered 6 of them max in my life and it's often been a frustrating experience :p If you can help, I was wondering how are they stored in the mdl? From what I gather, the sprites are stored in the file but how are they stored? Is it a