Using multiple pbos

[Yamato 0]

I was working on a wrp on Wrpedit using Res objects, objects form Data3d.pbo and other objects that my MOD team made.

Now I threw every p3d files into Buldozer\Data3d, and it was working fine in Buldozer.

However, when I put this into OFP, everything - textures, objects, everything - disappears except for those defined in the actual data3d.pbo in OFP\Dta\ directory.

Does anyone know how to configure the setting so that I can use multiple directories (i.e. use files both from O.pbo and Data3d.pbo and have them recognized as files from two separate addon files)?

[NZXSHADOWS 0]

I dont think you will be able to have 2 different .PBOs working together for Visitor.Theres only 1 slot that locates where your objects are.Wrpedit had But it doesnt mean V2 does.

[kegetys 2]

Im not 100% sure if it works right like this, but at least all the objects worked in Buldozer when I set the object etc. directories to "C:\Buldozer\.\", to trick it to use ".\" as the "root" directory. All p3d files from all directories under Buldozer are then visible in the object lists.

[Lobanak 0]

I tested it with the "\.\".

In visitor you see the objects and can use them, but when you make your island pbo and load it in OFP, the objects not there. There are different symbols on the map, but you can't see any object.

I have put a small road in which was in when using normal folders, but after adding the "\.\" trick and added some forrest of O.pbo, the road was away.

Hope there is another solution for this, else very bad :-(

Greets

[CiA]Lobanak

P.S.: Can BIS tell us how we can do this? PLEASE!!!

[Nagual 0]

Yeah, i finally got one export working once using .\, but ingame there was nothing, just terrain, all objects and texs were missing, same in wrpedit, the wrp gave out .\ as the model paths.

The nogova wrp uses data3d.pbo and o.pbo obects, so maybe it is possible to use o.pbo and a custom pbo for example, just need to find out how.

[Lobanak 0]

As Visitor 2 light (!!) seems to be the version which was used to do OFP 1.x (not Resistance), I think it's not possible. In "Help -> About Visitor" you see in the "Produkt" folder that it's version 1.0 from 1998.

I think BIS has a newer Version (1.x/2.x) of Visitor which was used to do Resistance and which is able to handle custom addons. But this version is not for us :-(

Greets

[CiA]Lobanak

-- edit --

Just thought I look on the pic posted at BIS side and look if they use another version, but it shows the same Visitor and the noe.pew, so it could be possible.

-- end edit --

[suma 8]

I think BIS has a newer Version (1.x/2.x) of Visitor which was used to do Resistance and which is able to handle custom addons. But this version is not for us :-(

If I am not mistaken, Nogova was created with exactly the same version you have. I do not know how to overcome your problems, but there is probably a way to do it.

[Lobanak 0]

hmm.... can you ask your guys who built nogova how they have done it?

Could be helpful.

Thanks

Greets

[CiA]Lobanak

[maddogx 13]

Hey guys, I've been having the same problems as you, and I've made a discovery... I don't know whether it's of any relevance:

in the V2 menu goto Tools-->Project Preferences. There, paths to texture and 3D data folders can be specified. I've tried this and failed, but pehaps some of you guys can work it out.

And I also made another strange discovery: Visitor 2 can also load textures from the Eden.pbo, Abel.pbo and Cain.pbo files. I haven't tried loading stuff from multiple files yet, but it's worth a try.

@Suma or Maruk: Couldn't you guys do us all a big favour and get one your island makers away from his comp for 5 minutes so he can tell us how to use this program? Please? It would be a big help.

[Lobanak 0]

Just playing arround with Visitor over 7 hours now (only today).

I think it's not possible to use custom objects that are in other pbo files. All objects must reside in the defined folders of the "System Preferences".

I have set the following for my project:

Quote[/b] ]

Basic Folder:

e:\visitor

Textures:

e:\buldozer\CIAHOME

Nature Objects:

e:\buldozer\CIAHOME

Artificial Objects:

e:\buldozer\CIAHOME

Forests and Roads:

e:\buldozer\CIAHOME

World Files:

e:\buldozer\CIAHOME

My directory structure of my island looks like the following:

Quote[/b] ]

e:\buldozer\CIAHOME <- main directory for wrp, config and textures

e:\buldozer\CIAHOME\tree <- for tree and bush p3ds

e:\buldozer\CIAHOME\road <- for road p3ds

Then I have copied the roads from data3d and O (O.pbo) to the road folder in my project. I used these p3ds for setting up the roads and they appear in Buldozer and in Visitor. Also done with some trees and forrests. They show up in Visitor and Buldozer.

After pboing my island, I tested it in OFP. And now? What do you think? It worked!!!

So now we can say the following:

- wrp-files created by Visitor can only use files, which resides in the folder specified in the "System Preferences".

- These folders must be pbos which are put in the Addons folders of OFP or must be original files of OFP.

- As standard pbos of OFP should not be modified, you must put all objects you wanna use in your own pbo or in the island

- if you wanna use objects of data3d or O.pbo or other addons, you must put them in the specified folders.

- if you use objects from OFP, you only need to copy the p3d files to the folders

- if you wanna use custom addons, you need to copy the p3d files to the specified folders and you NEED(!!!!) the custom addon as pbo in the Addons folder for the textures, if the p3d files are binarized

- if you are able to change textures, cause the p3d files are not binarized, you can put the textures to the specified folders and change the textures of the p3d files to the folder (pbo)

Problems:

- Island will grow up cause of the double use of p3d files

- you always need the custom pbos if you use p3d files which are binarized and you cannot change texture

I hope you understand what I have written. I try to put it together in a better way and put it in our cook book at www.ciahome.net.

If you find better words that describe that easier, please give them to me, so that I can write the info as easy as possible.

Greets

[CiA]Lobanak

[Nagual 0]

Nice work lobanak,

I cant imagine bis, players, island makers or web mirrors to be too happy about every island containing half the p3ds in O and data3d.pbo, its too bad i guess, but still early days so maybe there is trick to it

About the addon textures, you can always hexedit the paths of the ODOL models, with something like UltraEdit. Just use the replace function to replace something like

"data3d\tex.paa" to "islename\tex.paa"

,easy as text editing.

[maddogx 13]

Hey that's a good idea! Island makers could do the following:

- make their Island, copying all necessary files into their addon pbo.

- When they're done they make a backup, and then hex-edit the wrp file, so it loads everything from the correct files, like O.pbo and data3d.pbo.

It's a pain in the arse but it will get rid of the file size problem.

[Lobanak 0]

Not the wrp file. He meant the p3d files. They are ODOL.

Greets

[CiA]Lobanak

--edit--

hmm.. but that should also work with wrp files. just found the folders in clear text, must try it out if it works.

--end edit--

--edit2--

tried to change paths inside the wrp file. don't work. if trying to use the island pbo then, always a error occur and ofp crashes. a problem also is, that the path and filename is limited to a specific amount of characters.

--end edit2--

[suma 8]

I think it's not possible to use custom objects that are in other pbo files. All objects must reside in the defined folders of the "System Preferences".

I was told the setup we used when editing Nogova was like this:

All paths in the System Preferences were set to point to the same location (X:\ in our case), and there were subfolders Data3D, O etc. on this location.

You might want try to use similiar setup.

[maruk 80]

I think it's not possible to use custom objects that are in other pbo files. All objects must reside in the defined folders of the "System Preferences".

I was told the setup we used when editing Nogova was like this:

All paths in the System Preferences were set to point to the same location (X:\ in our case), and there were subfolders Data3D, O etc. on this location.

You might want try to use similiar setup.

To be a bit more specific:

all folders except the Basic application folder which shall point to the folder where the application is located and it doesn't matter what you use as folder for Worlds in this case.

[Lobanak 0]

Thanks Suma,

this is right. And I wondered in the beginning why the setup is different to Oxygen 2 Light. It's completely the same. Only the dowloadable tutorial is written wrong. It should be corrected to the correct setup.

Here the steps what to do:

1. unzip "o2_viewer.zip" to a directory (ex. N:\ like I used) Do NOT use a subdirectory!

2. copy content of "data3d.pbo" to N:\Data3d\

3. copy content of "data.pbo" to N:\Data\

4. copy content of "O.pbo" to N:\O\

5. Create a folder for your Island (mine is called "ciahome" => N:\ciahome\)

6. Set the directories under "System Preferences" to the directory you have used (here "N:")

As we want that the textures of the island reside in the island directory, you must do the 7th. step.

7. Set under "Project Preferences" - "Folder Textures" to your island directory (here "N:\ciahome")

Now all is working fine and you can use all the objects inside your Island.

8. If you wanna use more objects of custom addons, copy the contents of the pbo file to the directory on the drive (ex. say the filename is "objects.pbo", then you must copy the content of that file to "N:\objects\")

Greets

Kuffnuk

P.S.: oh forgot something: Visitor you can install at a place you want, it don't need to be in the directory where Buldozer and the data files are. Same like with Oxygen 2 Light.

[FatWombat 0]

Greets

Kuffnuk

Who?? What have you done with Lobanak?

Thanks Maruk, Suma & Lobanak. Just came across this problem myself while playing around with visitor and came here to ask about it, and look, problem solved already

Heres a handy workaround for installing buldozer in any directory and making your hard drive think its a root folder.

http://ofp.gamezone.cz/_hosted/brsseb/tutorials/start/start.htm

[Yamato 0]

Oh, now I can use O and other addon files!!

Thank you Suma, Maruk, Lobanack!

Now, I'll get working on the wrp file even though I have a precalc final tomorrow

[Lobanak 0]

Who?? What have you done with Lobanak?

damn... that's a name I use on other boards but not for OFP :-)

Greets

Lobanak

[Nagual 0]

I tried all these methods, no change. The easy part is getting everything to appear in bulldozer. The hard part is exporting it properly for game. Its either no export, the 21kb wrp, or just terrain with all object icons replaced with a tree one, and crashing on preview. Ah well, at least my isle was nearly finished anyway.

[MI_Fred 0]

Just 2 things, when saying directory you mean drive don't you. Big difference, and now they'll look as ugly as always sigh. 2nd, To be exact, there still isn't a clear answer that solves this post. Think about it: Using multiple pbos. Ok, you provided the directory structure, so how about how to define it in visitor?

My guess (at this state we got in Finland we call midsummer-soberness) you can put in tools/project preferences your textures and objects folder. I'm thinking only this way you can get a hold of res objects? Yawn. Relieve me from this stupendous state. Where do I write mah D:\O

[Yamato 0]

I tried all these methods, no change. The easy part is getting everything to appear in bulldozer. The hard part is exporting it properly for game. Its either no export, the 21kb wrp, or just terrain with all object icons replaced with a tree one, and crashing on preview. Ah well, at least my isle was nearly finished anyway.

Nagual,

Let's say that Buldozer is in C:\Buldozer.

put all de-pbo'd folders onto Buldozer dir.

ex.

C:\buldozer\O

C:\buldozer\data3d

C:\buldozer\customAddon

then

make a .bat file, which says

Quote[/b] ]subst Z: "C:\buldozer"

then save it as.... I don't know, "prepareOFPE.bat" or something like that.

then execute the bat file. There should be a "Z:\" directory with C:\Buldozer being the root.

the rest is easy.

Load Visitor, goto system preference,

set basic directory to Z:\

tex to Z:\

everything else to Z:\

If you want to use tex from O.pbo, make sure the Texture directory is set to

'Z:\O'

I think you can use texture only from 1 pbo.

Now when you try to load an object, the list should be like:

o\tree\dd_bush01.p3d

...

data3d\ker trs travy.p3d

...

customAddon\Blah.p3d

etc.

The tough part is replacing the existing objects with the new same file with different subdirectory.

Oh, if you were just starting to make an island, be happy. It won't be such an onerous task.

Now, if you have more than 100 types of objects used, it's time for you to groan and start working on the freakin' task of replacing all 100 new files, which took me an entire day, pretty much. But it's worth the effort.

[Nagual 0]

Thanks for info Yamato. I use 282 different objects, across 4 or so pbos, grooaan ;)

I thought the texture pbo might be problem, as i use texs from data3d, o.pbo and island.pbo. But bis island use texs from more than one source i think, not sure.

"The tough part is replacing the existing objects with the new same file with different subdirectory."

Could you please explain that bit some more, im not sure i understand what you mean.

I spent an entire day last week hexing and repathing the entire project into 2 pbos, to split into wrp / objects, hope i dont have to reverse that ;)

[Yamato 0]

OK, the thing with "The tough part is replacing the existing objects with the new same file with different subdirectory."

When you edit things from WrpEdit then import it to Visitor, I noticed that all the things with the directories were disregarded. This means that if you imported a file which contains an object from O.pbo, and another from data3d.pbo, Visitor did not distinguish that it was from two files.

So, Visitor thinks that you have

RootDir\SomeP3DPath\SomethingFromO.pbo

RootDir\SomeP3DPath\SomethingFromData3d.pbo

instead of

Root Dir\O\Something

Root Dir\Data3d\SomethingElse

Which means that once you put everything correctly as Suma and Maruk told us, Visitor fails to recognize the files.

Which means, you have to replace

RootDir\SomeP3DPath\Something1.p3d

with

RootDir\O\Something1.p3d

As for my wrp, I had to replace all the

data3d\dd_bush01.p3d

...

with

o\tree\dd_bush01.p3d

et cetera.

Quote[/b] ]But bis island use texs from more than one source i think, not sure.

I don't know. While the files from original OFP has tex from LandText and Eden, Cain, etc, I can't be too sure because as far as what I've seen, Visitor does not care about directory structures when it comes to texture files; it only loads from whatever directory you've specified as tex directory.

Quote[/b] ]I spent an entire day last week hexing and repathing the entire project into 2 pbos, to split into wrp / objects, hope i dont have to reverse that ;)

well, have fun during the weekends.

...Hey (suddenly realizes ), I'm supposed to be studying right now for the PreCalculus final that I have tomorrow.

I've been procrastinating for straight 36 hours since BIS announced release of Visitor2.

Should I be happy or should I get studying?

Screw Riemann Sums, screw Derivatives, screw Argon, screw Oiler, screw Polar coordinates, screw Conic formulas, screw everything...

[Nagual 0]

Ahhh, thanks again, i see now.

That will be one mighty task, i think i may be bald by the end of it

Good luck on your exam