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WDG extraction - any tools?

Posted: 25 Oct 2012, 16:07
by Lord Apocalypse
Before having to write a new tool for this I was wondering if there was anything else besides wdg explorer that I could use to extract all the text, wrf, etc from the various wdg files in WZ. It seems the data that was released with the source is based on the original retail release and not 1.10

The Dev CD that NEWST received only goes up to 1.08 so I still need to extract everything from 1.09 and 1.10 so I can rebuild them into a new wdg.

Re: WDG extraction - any tools?

Posted: 25 Oct 2012, 19:39
by Rman Virgil
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The only other .wdg extraction tool I'm aware of is the one made by vexed to deal with map .wdgs.

You'll have to ask him directly about it to get a copy.
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Re: WDG extraction - any tools?

Posted: 25 Oct 2012, 22:15
by aubergine
Can EditWorld open wdg files? If so I have various edit world downloads archived here: https://warzone.atlassian.net/wiki/disp ... +Downloads

I've just received another archive of historic warzone .exe's and source code (thanks bendib!) so I'll have a look through that to see if it contains anything useful. I know bendib has plans to make his fork of WZ support WDG format at some point so maybe worth chatting to him? http://universe2.us/wzlegacy/

Re: WDG extraction - any tools?

Posted: 25 Oct 2012, 22:40
by Rman Virgil
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EW compiles .wdgs but only opens .lnd.

Wdg Maker should be in the dev cd.

HB's custom tertile utility intercepted EW's .lnd out before .wdg compile to combine the custom tertiles with the other map files then compile the .wdg with Wdg Maker.

Troman made a feature in WZ Starter that could convert .wdg to .lnd but it was experimental and too buggy to be usefull..

BonesO WdgExplorer will extract everything but you have to redo your file structure headers by hand.

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Re: WDG extraction - any tools?

Posted: 28 Oct 2012, 05:55
by Lord Apocalypse
Wdg Explorer does not extract everything. I Checked the 1.08 copy from the Pumpkin Dev cd to an extracted copy of 108.

1.08 dev 108 files 18 folders.
1.08 extract 82 files 20 folders.

Looks like I will need to build a new program... probably in QT.

Re: WDG extraction - any tools?

Posted: 29 Oct 2012, 19:22
by Andrie
I would like to have it if you made it! :wink:

Re: WDG extraction - any tools?

Posted: 29 Oct 2012, 20:17
by Lord Apocalypse
It will be posted on the Redemption sourceforge page when completed. I will probably be able to use the wdg functions from the game to get what I need though need to finish going over them...

Re: WDG extraction - any tools?

Posted: 29 Oct 2012, 20:42
by Rman Virgil
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That's interesting about WdgExplorer and the game version .wdg. I only ever used it on Mod .wdgs.

Here's something that Alex Lee stated in 2009 that is peculiar:
When working on warzone as engineers we made decisions to leave openings so that people could make changes where they saw fit. Examples including using a scripting language (the slo,vlo’s) that wasn’t compiled into the game so users could edit them, or choosing zip as our packing format instead of something proprietary. I still think it’s a positive thing to do on pc titles, am I’m busy still doing it today!
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=122&p=31591#p31591

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Re: WDG extraction - any tools?

Posted: 29 Oct 2012, 22:53
by cybersphinx
IIRC we added zip support pretty early on (because wdg and tools were unsatisfactory), the original only used wdg.

Re: WDG extraction - any tools?

Posted: 30 Oct 2012, 00:22
by Rman Virgil
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That is exactly what I recall. One of the earliest discussions for change.

When I saw Alex's post it was like WTF - .wdg was .zip all along? How could that be?

Well, neurobiology has demonstrated in no uncertain terms that memory is not analogous to a video recorder and that conflation is a more common heuristic mechanism of normal brain function than we would like to think or admit.

Then there is this: .wdg is proprietary and WdgExplorer was created some 4 years before the source was liberated. :hmm:

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Re: WDG extraction - any tools?

Posted: 30 Oct 2012, 06:35
by Lord Apocalypse
Well, if any part of the wdg is zipped 7zip, winrar, and winzip could figure it out. Funny enough most of the wdg is plain text though there are a few entries that are binary. I think the binary sections are the wrf files. Also seems to be a NULL sperator between files internally though I haven't a clue about it really. Still need to get caught up on the wdg source files... got distracted by some Halo history past two days.