How to change generals' portraits and cards?

[Stella Artica]

Here's my issue. I've been playing with RTW mods "Roma Surrectum" and "Terrae Expugnandae" and looking for a way to edit the roman generals portraits that lie in data .pak files. I've downloaded "pak extractor" here like everybody does - http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downl...?do=file&id=43 - and got all the hidden folders, the one with portraits and cards too. So I modified some generals cards but when I start the game my changes have no effect. The portraits are still the same. I've been reading around about that and now I guess that problem is, I have to re-pack the unpacked files with all the changements I made and then replace the older ui_1.pak file. But how do I do that? I can't create a new .pak file, I don't know how to re-pack the edited Data. May somebody help me? Thanks anyway.

[Aradan]

The unpacked files are contained inside a packs/data/ui/blablabla folder right?

Put xpak.exe and the pack.bat files inside your packs folder.
Create a text file (let's call it ui_1.txt) inside your packs folder.
The first line should be the name of the pak file you want to create, which means ui_1.pak.
Then, in each line below the first you list one by one all the files included in your pack, together with their respective paths relative to the packs/ folder.

So your ui_1.txt should look like this:

ui_1.pak
data\ui\roman\portraits\portraits\young\generals\000.tga
data\ui\roman\portraits\portraits\young\generals\001.tga
[etc etc]
data\ui\roman\portraits\cards\old\generals\000.tga
[and so on and so forth, until all files have been listed]

Now edit pack.bat to read:

xpak.exe -v -pf ui_1.txt

Then just run the xpak.exe and a new ui-1.pak should be created. Just to be safe, keep the old ui_1.pak somewhere safe until you make sure the new one works.

[Stella Artica]

The unpacked files are contained inside a packs/data/ui/blablabla folder right?

Put xpak.exe and the pack.bat files inside your packs folder.
Create a text file (let's call it ui_1.txt) inside your packs folder.
The first line should be the name of the pak file you want to create, which means ui_1.pak.
Then, in each line below the first you list one by one all the files included in your pack, together with their respective paths relative to the packs/ folder.

So your ui_1.txt should look like this:

ui_1.pak
data\ui\roman\portraits\portraits\young\generals\000.tga
data\ui\roman\portraits\portraits\young\generals\001.tga
[etc etc]
data\ui\roman\portraits\cards\old\generals\000.tga
[and so on and so forth, until all files have been listed]

Now edit pack.bat to read:

xpak.exe -v -pf ui_1.txt

Then just run the xpak.exe and a new ui-1.pak should be created. Just to be safe, keep the old ui_1.pak somewhere safe until you make sure the new one works.

Wait a second... should I have to write manually, one by one, little by little, in the .txt all the filenames that lie in the ui_0.pak (that's the pack which portraits and cards lie in, at least for my Terrae Expugnandae mod...)? You mean like this, as I started to:
"
ui_0.pak
DATA\FONTS\FONT_10.CUF
DATA\FONTS\FONT_14.CUF
DATA\FONTS\FONT_18.CUF
DATA\FONTS\SML_FONT_10.CUF
DATA\FONTS\SML_FONT_14.CUF
DATA\FONTS\SML_FONT_18.CUF
DATA\FONTS\TEX_NO_MIP_LIST.txt
DATA\FONTS\TEX_RAW_DIR

"
And so on, as my ui_0 unpacked folders are DATA\FONTS ; DATA\SHADERS ; DATA\UI (the one with cards and portraits).

By hand it will take years, if I correctly figured out the method... isn't there any other way to get to it? Either can those files be listed without such a tiring effort?

[Aradan]

You can always get a tool that lists all the files in a given directory (there are some around if you search the net), but there's no way RTW will provide that list for you.

[Stella Artica]

You can always get a tool that lists all the files in a given directory (there are some around if you search the net), but there's no way RTW will provide that list for you.

Such as "Directory Lister"?

[Aradan]

Judging by the name, then yes.

[Stella Artica]

All right, here I am. Done. Now I need to know if I have to get even the folders listed or not.

For example:

DATA\UI\EASTERN\
DATA\UI\EASTERN\PORTRAITS
DATA\UI\EASTERN\PORTRAITS\
DATA\UI\EASTERN\PORTRAITS\CARDS
DATA\UI\EASTERN\PORTRAITS\FAMILY
DATA\UI\EASTERN\PORTRAITS\PORTRAITS
DATA\UI\EASTERN\PORTRAITS\CARDS\
DATA\UI\EASTERN\PORTRAITS\CARDS\DEAD
DATA\UI\EASTERN\PORTRAITS\CARDS\OLD
DATA\UI\EASTERN\PORTRAITS\CARDS\YOUNG
DATA\UI\EASTERN\PORTRAITS\CARDS\DEAD\


I have to leave them foldernames in the .txt or just the files?

[Aradan]

Just the files.

[Stella Artica]

Just the files.

Let's see what I get.

But can I unpack and repack just the ui_0 file or I have to pack/pack back ui_0 and ui_1 together? I'm asking because pak.extractor reported some "failed to extract" messages while unpacking ui_0. And those failure messages referred to folders and files (like building) out of the ui_1 pack.

[Aradan]

Only repack what you have unpacked.

[Squid]

Easiest way to list files in a directory is to use the command dir /s /b path\*.* > ui_1.txt, this eliminates the need for any extra third party software. A simple search and replace all (ex. search for c:\temp\ and replace with nothing if your files are in c:\temp\data) will remove the drive/path information and you can add the pak file name as the first line.

[florin80]

Why aren`t you using the fileparser for xpak?
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downl...do=file&id=908

[Squid]

Because according to its instructions, you'd need to repeat the file selection with each directory, while my method takes a minute tops no matter how many files you have and as I said doesn't require any extra software.

[Aradan]

If you use the above, the "/A:-D" parameter will stop folders from being listed.

Good idea Squid, completely forgot that the console is there to be used.

[Squid]

You're right, I'd thought the /s did that, but it only makes it recursive. So the full command to use would be: dir /s /b /a:-d path\*.* > ui_1.txt.

[Stella Artica]

Got it! Now I'm successfully managing to replace portraits I don't like at all. By the way I got the files listed in the ui_0.txt with dirlister, I read just now Squid's advice. Actually it's much faster and easier, don't even need to deal with folders in text. I really owe you people, thanks a lot! I'm now able to edit things of RTW I didn't think I ever could.

Just a try: is there around any archive of roman characters portraits and cards which I could draw on?

[Aradan]

Don't think so, but you could use this: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...65#post3202765

[florin80]

Try this:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=150941