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ModId - Modkeen for all the 16-bit Id games!

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 10:20 pm
by lemm
Hi folks,

Over the last couple of weeks, NY00123 and I have worked to improve LModkeen 2 so that it supports import and export for arbitrarily formatted graphics archives. This tool was originally hacked together for Atroxian Realm and the CK Source Mod, but I decided that it would be a good idea to fix it up so that everyone else would be able to use it.

From the readme:
ModId is a tool for modifying games that were created with the 16-bit DOS engines that Id Software developed in the early 1990s. ModId is a command-line utility that will export graphics from these games into BMP files, and import those BMPs back into the graphics archives used by these games. Such games include Commander Keen, Bio Menace, Catacomb 3-D, Rescue Rover, Wolfenstein 3D (VGAGRAPH only), Dangerous Dave, and possibly others.
It also uses 256-color bitmaps with a whole host of options, including the ability to import and export both CGA and VGA graphics archives. If you want to do CGA Keen or Wolf modding, this tool is for you!

Like LModkeen, ModId can be built for both Windows and Linux. With the source, I've provided a win32 build.

Download: ModId v 0.1 - Github


Enjoy!

Re: ModId - Modkeen for all the 16-bit Id games!

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2017 2:18 pm
by NY00123
I've just published another release of ModId with a few changes. There isn't a lot of features added, but there's a warning below that someone might want to check out.

The last release may currently be found here: https://github.com/owenmpierce/modId/releases

FOR ANYBODY WHO IMPORTED VGA MASKED 16x16 TILES, PLEASE READ THIS:
So, it turned out that an old Wolfenstein 3D alpha version (from March), leaked long ago, has 16x16 tiles in its VGAGRAPH.WL1 file.
However, the format that ModId expected for VGA masked 16x16 tiles differed. I don't think ModId was really used for importing VGA 16x16 tiles, except for one case of what might be an abandoned game/mod.

Personally, I thought it's more important to be consistent with the tiles formats as originally used in early Wolfenstein 3D revisions. And so, ModId is now compatible with all 16x16 tiles from the Wolfenstein 3D alpha. (In fact, no change was required for the non-masked tiles, just the masked ones).

It does mean, though, that if any of you used ModId for importing VGA masked 16x16 tiles, changes will be required. In particular:
- You'll need to add a separate mask for the tiles. The -16color option has no effect on VGA tiles, and the masks are always separated from the color data.
- You'll probably also need to re-import the VGAGRAPH data, and possibly also modify any relevant game code for handling/drawing the tiles.
- Unfortunately, exporting 16x16 masked tiles from an older VGAGRAPH file may be a problem, unless you use an older version of ModId.
- I'm really sorry for doing this, but I thought it's more important to track the original formats (as once used in Wolf3D).
- Finally, you can still use an older version of ModId if it's really a problem.

A few more changes:
* def and palette files updates.
* VGA fonts are now exported as 8-bpp bmps (S3DNA fix).
* Added -optimizedcomp.
* Masked 16x16 tile no. 0 is now imported as-is, rather than being replaced
with a sparse tile. This was done so the Wolfenstein 3D alpha's graphics
can be exported and then imported back as-is.

Re: ModId - Modkeen for all the 16-bit Id games!

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2019 1:46 am
by Blacklion62
Hello, all

OK. Got ModID to export and import Catacombs 3D, making a .pat file.

Now, how do I proceed?

Any help is appreciated.

BlackLion

Re: ModId - Modkeen for all the 16-bit Id games!

Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2020 12:40 pm
by NY00123
Following a few chats about ModId in the PCKF Discord, I suddenly came out with a small update (including fix for an issue reported on GitHub), which should be available now:

https://github.com/owenmpierce/modId/re ... odid-0.1.3
Blacklion62 wrote: Sat Jun 29, 2019 1:46 am Hello, all

OK. Got ModID to export and import Catacombs 3D, making a .pat file.

Now, how do I proceed?

Any help is appreciated.

BlackLion
Sorry for getting back so late, I just don't work on ModId in general.
Either way, you should ignore the .pat file. ModId often generates one even if it isn't used.
Instead, you can get the Catacomb 3-D sources, as currently available from here: https://github.com/CatacombGames/Catacomb

They can be built with Borland C++ 2.0. I think that 3.1 should be compatible as well. There are a few macros in ID_HEADS.H that you might be interested to check out, especially with regards to linking data. You'll probably want to undefine GRHEADERLINKED, so external EGADICT.C3D and EGAHEAD.C3D files can be used, instead of the OBJ files which can get linked by Borland C++ into the EXE.

Re: ModId - Modkeen for all the 16-bit Id games!

Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2020 9:12 am
by Nisaba
thanks a lot for the update. appreciated