Quick and Dirty Guide to Modding Homeworld One

[Fiirks]

Ok guys. After all the questions lately about "how do I do this..." that are often repeat threads, I've created this sticky to explain the basics of modding HW1.

Tonight I'm going to figure out how to give the scout an ion cannon and then report back. If somebody with some knowledge of modding HW1 wants to post a guide too, please feel free.


Edit: Help! When I tried to extract the .big WinBig crashes?

[Captain Pierce]

Heh, maybe the first tut should be on using Winbig... I was actually thinking about doing something like that, but it will be tomorrow night before I'll have a chance to fire it back up...

[AceRimmer]

That's strange, I just used BigViewer 3.0 to extract Homeworld.big. Here's the link: http://www.b5mods.com/tools_hw.htm

That has all the tools needed to mod Homeworld.

Anyway, for those young Padawans out there, the Homeworld.big file is where all the games files are held. That is, if you change a file in it, then that change will be reflected in the game.

[4E534B]

WinBig is much much much..... faster than BigViewer 3.0
Oh well. Back to the point, do you have spaces in your path? Like C:\Program Files\Homeworld..... That could be a problem, because most VB Programs don't exactly like paths with spaces

Edit:
Nope. WinBig exactly doesn't hate spaces. But if you didn't use the installer for WinBig, then you'll need to register HwBigWrk.dll by copying it into your System32 dir and then regsvr32.exe HwBigWrk.dll either in the CMD prompt or in Start->Run
(This would be needed if you extract all the files from the CAB instead of installing it.)

[Caboose123]

try using different winbigs, like winbigr or winbigw, does your error say something like incorrect amount of memory? or something along those lines




the Daleks have risen!

[Crook]

Bigviewer did it all for me. You only need extract it once, so speed isn't the main concern.

[scottismo]

Fiirks:

I don't know if you are aware of this but there actually used to be a tutorial specifically for creating an ion scout. It was located on this webpage http://www.strategyplanet.com/homeworld/archonx/ but the link to the page seems to no longer exist, which doesn't surprise me as its pretty old school, that only someone like me would remember!

If you knew that...then sorry

Also, I thought I would mention an old guide I wrote. Its not a guide to modding but a little bit about how mods work in general which may help clear some noobies confusion, back on my site of course: http://jstonline.homeworldarchives.com/guide.htm

[sgt cortez]

before starting on homeworld, you should probably start with cataclysm.cata isnt as sensetive to tampering so changing things is easy.heres a link to some tutorials.

[Captain Pierce]

Umm, Sarge... as someone who has modded both games extensively, no offense, but I think you're crazy. In my experience, Cata is way more sensitive to tampering, and lacks the debugtofile option to tell you what went wrong...

[Ghost3021]

Pierce- Ironically I find that Homeworld gives me more grief than Cata...but that's just me and my n00bishness

[sgt cortez]

i found every single tweak i have done so far hasn't caused cata to crash.except in my alliance mod but that is because i havnt given the defender proggramming that lets it create a forcefield.

[Caboose123]

i dont think you can, ive tried chainging the hive frigate to something else and copied the relative info in the shp files, and it does nothing, stops crashing when the ai tries to use it though, so not a total waste of time

oh and overall, i think cata is slightly easier to mod but most of the mods ive seen dont do much other that change a few ships, whereas Homeworld (with the debugtofile option) allows for more extensive modding, that, and there are more ships slots

[4E534B]

Personally I prefer HW1 Modding,
Less work -> That's I'm too lazy

Fiirks:
You got the files extracted???

[sgt cortez]

heres a question, how do i make my own custom cursors?

[Zabaron]

You would put them in the cursorbitmaps directory.

-Zabaron

[sgt cortez]

made a cursor and stuck it in that folder.the game crashed before it got to the main menu.

[Zabaron]

Well, it has to replace one of the existing cursors, and it has to be a proper .lif file generated by liflist.

-Zabaron

[Sorryyoulost]

Yah so im like really stupid when it comes to game code editing and extentions.....

This may sound 'n00bish' but i cant seem to steal ships away with salvage corvets effectively, resulting in me not being able to get very far in the campaigns
I have been trying all night to figure out a english code within a save file to change and give myself like a crap load of RU's or something.
While you guys are up at giving scouts ion cannons i am still at rock bottom.

In a nutshell, i need to know how to edit game code to give me that little extra edge....

THanks in advance.

[scottismo]

The secret to this is to get better at the game. When I first played the Homeworld demo, I gave up on it after about a week I think. I said it was too hard and it was annoying me. Then my young friend who used to like to come round and see new games I had asked me to reinstall it and I happened to nearly win my next skirmish with the cpu. Eventually I got the game for Christmas and found SP was a whole new ball game. You really do just have to practice. There are plenty of threads with people having problems just like yourself so have a search around to see if you can gleam any good advice.

Also have a look here; http://www.sobanforce.com/forums/index.php?showforum=37

That website mainly has multiplayer strategies and advanced tips however there is some useful info there and you can post questions and get some good answers from people who are pretty good or strive to be at HW.

May the Power Protect You Always

[Fiirks]

Hot shit, scottismo just pimped my forums.

[King of Hearts]

P-I-M-P SON!!!

Lets see if we can't make this an actual guide.

[Captain Pierce]

I did this for Winbig because it was easier to install than Spooky's Relic Archive tool, and (IIRC, anyway) easier to use than BigViewer was. The basics should apply to any .big tool, though.

1. Download the installer from http://www.b5mods.com/tools/homeworld/Winbig.zip and extract the .zip file.

2. Click on "Setup" to run the installer. Follow the on-screen prompts.

3. Once the program has been installed, go to the new "Winbig" folder in your Start Menu and fire up the program.

4. Go to File/Open Big Archive, and navigate to your Homeworld (or Cataclysm) directory (the default install location is C:\Program Files\Sierra\Homeworld). Select "homeworld.big" and click "Open." It may take a while for the program to open all the files.

5. I've found that it's usually easiest to just extract all the files all at once and be done with it. Go to Actions/Extract all to directory. Select a location to extract to, and click OK. Again, it may take a bit for the program to finish the extraction.

6. Go to the location you specified in the last step, and find the contents of the .big file all nice and laid out for you.

[Sobani Exile]

link is dead.......if anyone is still using this thread lol

[Captain Pierce]

Yeah, seems that the Great Wars team has finally given it up... :hmm:

[Durandel]

Begust updated WinBig to a new version called WinBigW. It was the final release.

You can download WinBigW from here.

[Lechryl]

Can somebody host the set of files that was on Archonx's page?

1 large zip of all of them would be great

[J-hawk]

Does anyone know where I can get HWSS and a LUT editor?

[nova_supreme]

uh...hi if anyone can tell me how to extract homeworld.big file it would be most appreciated i have tried unfbig .big extractor, didnt work


thanx

nova

[Zabaron]

Try winBig. I would post a link to it, but Jst-Online is down, so just google it.

-Zabaron

Edit: Theres a link to it a couple posts up.

[ArchProphet]

WinBigr and WinBigw have never gone wrong for me. Problem is that I don't know what I'm doing with the actual files :P

[doci7]

Let me begin by remarking on just how awesome it is to find a Homeworld site that isn't dead! Anyway, I followed the link to all the tools and was pretty happy. Only one thing disappointed me: the sound tool was dead- linked to afluffydemon. If anyone could make a homeworld sound viewer/importer/exporter available again, I would greatly appreciate it!!!

[AdmiralTheon804]

Pardon my being a newb, but I have a problem. I downloaded BigViewer and WinBigW. However, I don't know how to actually edit the .big files. I know how to extract them, but I don't know how to open a single file that I extracted so I can edit it. I've been able to in BigViewer, but I can't make any changes to the text.

Scratch that. I know how to edit them- in Notepad. But where do I put them to use them in-game?

[Zabaron]

Put them in your Homeworld folder, but keep the directory structure intact; i.e. if you edit the advancesupportfrigate.shp file in the r1 folder, you should put it in the folder [path]\homeworld\r1 where [path] it the path to your homeworld folder.

-Zabaron

[AdmiralTheon804]

Thanks. But how do I edit it so that it changes the .big file? I extracted all the files in the cataclysm.big file, and edited the .ship file I wanted to edit. Now what? Do I pack it all up into a new .big file?

EDIT: I should have mentioned that before. I'm trying to mod Cataclysm, not HW.

[Zabaron]

Like I said, there's no reason to repack anything. Just put the edited .shp file in the cataclysm\race_[whatever]\ folder, where [whatever] is sect, beast, etc. The game looks for its data files in its directory first, and only looks for them in the .big if it can't find them.

-Zabaron

[AdmiralTheon804]

Thanks. =] I got it to work now. I moved the .big file out of the system directory because I thought the exe would load it by default. It gave me an error saying that it couldn't find it. I guess it has to detect its presence even if it doesn't draw from it.

[semaj356]

hey does anyone know how to change the values (unit caps) for the amount of ships you have in Homeworld 1

[Captain Pierce]

There are nine files called unitlimitcaps.script and unitlimitcapsx.script, where x is a number from 1-9.

[northrup]

Does anyone know of a program that allows for at least viewing the models in the .geo and .peo files? There was a site that mentioned a program called 3D Explorer that supposedly opens them, but all the links are dead. Any suggestions?

[Captain Pierce]

3D Exploration went from a nice little freeware program, to a pretty reasonable $40 registration fee... to being a ridiculously overpriced $200 program called Deep Exploration.

HWSE is probably your best bet as a free viewer these days, although of course it's capable of much more than that...

[Oligarth]

hey. how do i make it so i can use the Kadeshi and Raiders in Multiplayer? specifically i want to replace one of the races w. the Kadeshi. thts wht i want most right now.

[Oligarth]

is it at all possible to add to or remove from the list of ships tht the mothership can build?

[Captain Pierce]

No. All you can do is replace.

[Oligarth]

ok. thx. so how do u, say, replace the Taidan ships w/ tht of the Kadeshi?

oh, btw, i read somewhere tht it is possible to add new ship classes, er even new ships to HW, but because of the level of work involved and all the technicalities, its virtually impossible. i hve seen some mods tht claim to hve done it tho.

[AdmiralTheon804]

@Oligarth- Those kinds of mods require much more than simple .shp file editing or ship replacement. Users that mod HW that deeply are required to delve deep into the heart of HW; its source code. However, I do not believe Relic distributes source code anymore, although they did at one time. You may be able to find it somewhere on the net if you look hard enough.

[Oligarth]

okay. thanks Theon. anyone know what i would search for? Just source codes?

[Zabaron]

Homesource has it, and I think you can still get it from Relic too, if you know where to look.

-Zabaron

[Captain Pierce]

And, not to discourage anybody or anything, but I think it's worth at least mentioning that not a hell of a lot has ever been done with the source code. There were, IIRC, significant gaps in the released code because Relic could only release the code that they owned (and not, therefore, stuff like network or sound code). So you have to fix that before even a stock .exe will compile, let alone anything with changes...

Like I say, I'm not trying to discourage anybody from looking at this, but let's be honest--it's not even remotely the same as swapping the Kushan interceptor for a Raider fighter...

[Oligarth]

lol. thanks a lot guys. im going to try to make this work. doubt a newb modder like me will get it to work though. ^.-.^ but hey, cant say i didnt try.


ha. i just realized tht to delve that far into HW i have to void some agreement or somthing. i dont remember exactly, but ill probably try it when i get my laptop. that way i can download all the programs that ill need in order to mess with HW. lol. theres only 1 GB of space left on this pc so i cant do it on this one.

[semaj356]

just get an external harddrive