MAP MAKING VIA A TAGSET PATCH...

Point · Post by **Point** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:50 am

how do we go about making a patch that can be used to make map make easier.... oz inferred that maybe he does this... and I tried though it didnt seem to work...

Make a patch from a local tagset folder....

then that patch makes available the tagset units scenery etc... for placement on maps.... thus you wouldnt have to delete tags or select check boxes when building the map plug...

anyway i tried it with fear 1.7 mac a few times and the patch doesnt seem to load in loathing or in game... any tips?

Road · Post by **Road** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:30 am

That sounds great!
I cant tell you how often Iv had to dig through files and seperate local folders to make plugins and add-on plugins.
I searched for anything relating to this and found nothing so I tried to play around with patches and the local folder to see if I could make it work but couldnt.
If you find out please let me know, i usually always end up extracting the plugin and then have to remove tags/folders to make a add-on plugin for the plugin.

Post by **TarousZars** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 12:45 pm

Making a patch is pretty easy (At least on mac fear, I don't know in PC fear but i'd assume it works). Simply open fear with your local folder ready to be made into a patch. Click "File->Build->Patch File". Put in 6 for the version number (So it loads after all the other patches). Quit fear. Rename your local folder. Open fear again. You should see all of your tags in the list now.

Remember though, you just patched your copy of myth, so it won't work online unless you remove the patch.

Pyro · Post by **Pyro** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:02 pm

I know of this, or well heard of this. I have yet to try, but making a plugin become a patch is most useful for making a plugin that requires that plugin to work. To do this, you require a hex editor. A pdf file that came with the 1.4 series of updates mentioned the following at the end of it:

With 1.4 you can make special types of plugin. Hang onto your hat, and grab your favourite hex-editor. Better find a comfy chair and swig some black coffee while you're at it. Ok, lets look at what you can do:-

Normally the first 4 bytes in a plugin have the following hex values:- 00 01 FF FF. The first two designate what type of plugin it is (00 02 is a patch), while the second two are a version number, which for plugins was unused until now.

If you change the second two bytes to 00 02, you've designated that your plugin is compatible with the TFL Gameplay option in 1.4. Its up to you to check that it actually is compatible - this just means that the annoying popup asking if you really wanted TFL or just Anti-Clumping won't appear. It doesn't apply to tagset plugins, just those with meshes. "How", I hear you ask, "do I make my map TFL Gameplay compatible?". The simplest way is just to place Bungie units, and don't give them any special abilities or physics of their own. If you do include customized units, make sure that the unit and monster tag IDs are different from those in the Unity Patch, so those units play the same way in both regular myth 2 and TFL. Above all, test your creation thoroughly with TFL Gameplay turned on and off to ensure that it works as you'd expect it to.

Now here's where we really get clever. If you change the second two bytes to 00 03 and enter the URL as the name of another plugin, you're specifying that your plugin needs the other one loaded in order to work. When someone clicks on your plugin to activate it, a message will appear telling them to activate the other one as well. So why is this needed?

Ok, imagine there's a 100mb plugin called The Fallen Levels, with half the TFL solos ported to myth 2. It has all the collections and sounds already there. You want to make a variant that substitutes all thrall for krid giants, and dorfs for Alric with Balmung. Using this method, you could make your plugin hold only the meshes you've altered, and then anyone with The Fallen Levels could play your plugin - you wouldn't need to include the map collections etc in your plugin, making it a much smaller download.

Finally, the Unity Patch distributed as part of 1.4 has the value 00 01 for the 2nd two bytes. These are reserved for this patch - don't use them in your plugins, else BadThingsÃ¢â€žÂ¢ will happen.

Road · Post by **Road** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:50 pm

Tarz: Thats not an option on PC, just so you know.

I may have misunderstood what Point was asking because these answeres dont seem to be relevant to what I thought he was saying.
My impression was that he was talking about a way to make it so you can have a plugins information in fear without needing to extract the plugin and have all of the tags in your local when you make a follow up plugin/patch.

Post by **TarousZars** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:57 pm

He is. If the plugin exists already, then you can do as Pyro said and use a hex editor to change the first 4 bytes to 00 02 00 02.

Road · Post by **Road** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 2:22 pm

Works like a charm! Thanks guys! This'll save me hours of time and no need to take notes.

Pyro · Post by **Pyro** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:33 pm

Regular plugins are 00 01 ff ff and tagsets are 00 01 00 01 just fyi.

Pyro · Post by **Pyro** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:05 am

Which reminds me, how can I make a plugin act like a tagset and have that delta/triangle in front of it when selecting plugins? I know that if you make a plugin without any meshes it will automatically have it, but what if you have a mesh in there as well. How can I make it so its like a tagset. Hex editting it to have 00 01 00 01 doesn't do the trick.

Point · Post by **Point** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 1:14 pm

well since this seems to work... other than making them show a different color text in loathing

looks like we are good to go...

there should be a standard used so other map makers could use

a tain category even maybe....

TAGSET MAP MAKER PATCHES:

naming.... Patch (or ZTag) + game version + tagset name + Loathing (or some such ender)

tagset makers could upload their tagset patch so others could easily make maps without dancing around with the local and tag extractor....

what ever the naming it should load in the right order....

Patch 1.6 CWR Loathed Or ZTag 1.6 CWR Loathed
Ztag 1.7 CWR Loathed

Ztag 1.6 AoM Loathed
Ztag 1.6 B32 Loathed
Ztag 1.6 CPR Loathed
Ztag 1.7 wAvA Loathed

what are your thoughts...?

Pyro · Post by **Pyro** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 2:43 pm

I think it would be a waste to put such a thing on the Tain. Mapmakers can make it into a patch with a hex editor. So copy the plugin and place it in a safe place. Then hex the other one. You will have to end up removing it anyways since you won't be able to run games with other players that don't have that patch. It would be like if you created your own Myth II update so only you can play with it.

But if you are talking about patches in the form of tagsets, well it depends. Was the original that big already?

Point · Post by **Point** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:19 pm

TarousZars wrote:He is. If the plugin exists already, then you can do as Pyro said and use a hex editor to change the first 4 bytes to 00 02 00 02.

simply changing those first digits didnt do it for me... 00 02 00 06 didnt work either on the mac... still wont load as a patch in loathing...

I'll keep trying...

00 02 00 F6 <--- seems to try and load...
and when i make the patch via fear 1.7 mac... it does at leas try to load it though i get this message in log

"2008-07-07 19:14:44 Loathing 1.5.2 running under MacOS 1052 ------------------------------------------------------------
Error: Data Corrupted in tag_files.c, line #3281: found an invalid tag in the monolithic file ':plugins:Patch 1.6 CWR Loathed'
Error: Data Corrupted in tag_files.c, line #3281: found an invalid tag in the monolithic file ':plugins:Patch 1.6 CWR Loathed'
Loading Patch Files...
Patch 1.2
Patch MariusNet
Patch 1.3
Patch 1.4
Patch 1.4 Interface
Patch 1.5
Loading Patch Files Succeeded

which im sure theres a tag not used somewhere though is that the problem..? or is it the mac... version 1.52 loathing reading my 1.7 settings in fear?

Pyro · Post by **Pyro** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 10:41 pm

Tell us step by step what you did. Because I've been using a plugin with 00 02 00 06. When I open Fear, I see all of its tags in there eventhough my local folder is empty. Did you hex edit it and forget to hit save?

Point · Post by **Point** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 11:40 pm

2008-07-07 21:37:17 Fear running under MacOS 1052 ------------------------------------------------------------
Error: Data Corrupted in tag_files.c, line #3353: found an invalid tag in the monolithic file ':plugins:CWR-07-03-08-Tagset.TM2'
Error: Data Corrupted in tag_files.c, line #3353: found an invalid tag in the monolithic file ':plugins:CWR-07-03-08-Tagset.TM2'
Error: Data Corrupted in tag_files.c, line #3353: found an invalid tag in the monolithic file ':plugins:Patch 1.6 CWR Loathed'
Error: Data Corrupted in tag_files.c, line #3353: found an invalid tag in the monolithic file ':plugins:Patch 1.6 CWR Loathed'
Loading Patch Files...
Patch 1.2
Patch MariusNet
Patch 1.3
Patch 1.4
Patch 1.4 Interface
Patch 1.5
Loading Patch Files Succeeded
Closing Fear.

well the rename tag and change digits didnt work first time so i used
Fear 1.7 build patch and get the preceeding error ... though same in loathing though plugs play fine and local plays fine... not sure what the invalid tag is or if thats just the new limits error...

Pyro · Post by **Pyro** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 2:45 pm

What do you mean "rename tag". This is how I did it.

1) I make two folders inside the "plugins" folder. I call one PLUGS and I call the other one HEXED PLUGS.

2) I move the plug I wish to hex into the PLUGS folder.

3) I make a copy of that plugin into the HEXED PLUGS folder.

4) Open it with a hex editor and modify it. Save it.

5) Move the hexed plug into the plugins folder and run Fear.

6) When you wish to play Myth (and closed Fear) make sure you take out the hexed plug and place in the unmodified one.

You do not want to rename a plugin. You might have issues since the plugin you are messing with requires other tags that aren't being loaded.

The Tain

MAP MAKING VIA A TAGSET PATCH...

MAP MAKING VIA A TAGSET PATCH...

standards...

hmm

step by step....