How do I add new entries in a hex editor?

**Éorl** · December 17, 2009, 05:47 AM

A quick search did not produce any results, so I will post my simple question here:

I'm tinkering with a .db file and need to know how to add new entries (not editing existing ones - I know how to do that), for example in the descr_geography.db. I'm using the XVI32 hex editor.

**makanyane** · December 17, 2009, 06:11 AM

If XVI32 isn't letting you add anything at all then you're probably in overwrite mode, go to 'Tools' and untick 'Overwrite', you can then type in new entries and the file length will extend

however if you're changing length of file names etc, remember that you need to update the number before the string that gives the string length.... in some of the M2 files there's quite often other numbers to watch out for that give a count of the number of things to follow, I'm not sure if geog.db has any of that

XV132 won't let you copy and paste chunks of hex file, if you need something that will you need to use another editor, eg. HxD http://mh-nexus.de/en/
lets you copy and paste and has a basic file compare function too (doesn't have the data inspector though)......

**dvk901** · December 17, 2009, 06:17 AM

Unfortunately, in the RTW descr_geography.db you cannot 'add' anything to it. The file has a certain size limitation or something specified (I imagine in the EXE). However, you can change values that exist, and you can change texture names referred to where there are multiple instances of 'sand', for example, in a given climate, you can change one to 'san1.tga' or 'san2.tga' if you wanted to use different textures....and then of course create those textures and put them in the appropriate climate folders.

The one to talk to who is a 'Guru' at this is Tone. He has done a lot more of this than I have.

**tone** · December 17, 2009, 06:44 AM

What are you trying to add?

**Éorl** · December 17, 2009, 02:58 PM

Thanx guys (edit: and GALS!!! - sorry Mak), your replies helped.

What are you trying to add?

A climate, though I'm sceptical it'll work. I have already heavily edited the descr_geography.db for Fourth Age and it now produces much more dramatic looking mountain ranges with sharp small scale relief and real peaks and ridges, as well as hills with steeper and more detailed slopes or even cliffs in some instances, plus I fixed the ground type distribution to get more rock on mountain slopes and rid of small clumps of forests clinging unrealistically to steep slopes - the landscapes created by the vanilla .db are just boring, unnatural and definitely not fitting Tolkien's descriptions. This is finished, and I'm just tinkering a little bit.

Again, thanx.

**makanyane** · December 17, 2009, 04:01 PM

It's always worth trying things.... Tone can probably advise better on the file length problem. I don't want to discourage you but Wilddog spent a while trying to get new climate into M2 (which should be a bit easier on the geog. front as it can be recreated back from .txt file) but he decided in the end that climate names were hard coded in .exe in M2 - some files would seem to take new climate names, but what that actually did was just give you 'default' climate for the new ones, when you finally got to point of trying new name in all relevant files, you just got CTD

M2 and RTW do vary though, and its still worth re-trying things even if others haven't got them to work... its quite possible to miss solutions for quite a long while!

**Éorl** · December 17, 2009, 04:21 PM

Yeah, that's exactly what this is all about as of now: Tinkering, trial and error, experimentation... maybe it's worth the effort, maybe not. Oh, and thanx for the hex editing advice, Mak, I'm downloading HxD now and will have a look into it this night.