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I'm wanting to mod a game, where to begin?

For Beginners

Started by Revs April 20, 2012 10:03 PM

3 comments, last by Revs 11 years, 12 months ago

Revs

149

Author

April 20, 2012 10:03 PM

Hello guys! (yeah first post in over 4 years)

Alright the thing is I'd like to mod a game. And I'm on Mac!

Can some of you guys point me in the direction to go? Is there a particular software or something to have?

I have found out how to open some of the files (for example using the bink player to open cutscenes) but I can't open other more interesting files like .sp files; it seems like the right applications for Mac are missing to open these.

I've gone thru prettty much all the files I can see - that's the point - the ones I can see. In some files I see links like .../resources/vehicles.. but in resources, I don't find any folder called vehicles. I tried to make them appear by showing all hidden files on my Mac, but nothing. Is there another way to show hidden files/hide files?

And finally, I would like to start with some simple things.

I've found a file with weather settings for the game. The different weather is only available in missions or so - in the free roam mode, there is only: day and sun. I found though tricks how to change the weather. But I'm thinking of something easier, like 1 = sun, 2 = morning, 3 = fog and so on (time and weather that is).

Also interesting would be to locate the player wherever I wish on the map. And similar things...

Later I'm interested in doing texture modding. Copying textures from the game and putting them elsewhere. (Taking textures from car A and putting them on car B for example)

So yeah. I hope you guys can help me a bit. Sorry if it sounds stupid, I'm pretty much new to all of this

Greetings

Revs

ApochPiQ

23,138

April 20, 2012 10:08 PM

What's the game? Chances are someone out there is already working on modding it and can probably point you at game-specific resources.

Other than that, here's a few generic tips:

Most games store their data in a "pack" file structure, where many different pieces of data are contained in one file on disk. There may be many such pack files but generally this is why you see "file names" in the game that don't lead to a file on your hard drive.
Hex editors are your best friend, download a couple and pick a favorite and open up various files in that. You can learn a lot this way.
Compressed files are your second worst enemy, right behind encrypted files. These can make modding a royal pain in the butt.
Don't expect that you can just open up some program and start modding any old game; every game is different and unless it's insanely popular and has its own mod community, chances are you have to learn to manipulate the files and data by hand. Hence, hex editors :-)

Last but not least, be patient, be willing to try experiments that might break the game, and good luck!

Wielder of the Sacred Wands
[Work - ArenaNet] [Epoch Language] [Scribblings]

Revs

149

Author

April 20, 2012 10:21 PM

The game is Driver: San Francisco, it came out not so long ago. And I guess that's the problem... some people have been trying to mod the game already, but like you said - encrypted files and such are the problem, because there's nothing to decrypt them (yet, I hope!). The first Driver game which is now 13 years old has a much bigger modding community, which, I have the feeling, only started grewing in the past couple of years.

I will see where I can get one of these Hex editors. I don't mind doing everything by hand (I used to do a lot of web developpement, always coded everything myself, never used anything like Dreamweaver or such :-)).

Also, I already tried "modifiying" some files (which use, like I said before, the "whatever = number" system) but then when I restarted everything, the game kept crashing. Is there a particular reason for that? Or any way to avoid it?

Cheers and thanks so far!

Revs

ApochPiQ

23,138

April 20, 2012 10:51 PM

Depends. The game could be crashing for any number of reasons: you told it something completely bogus that it didn't understand, or you told it something it understood but refuses to do, or maybe you corrupted something accidentally and it's all just borked.

That's the danger with modding; it can be extremely hard to diagnose problems like that. If you're proficient with assembly language and a debugger you can learn a lot by watching crashes happen, but that's a black art and a skill set all to itself. Being among the first into new modding territory is risky entirely because nobody has found all the little pitfalls and such that can go wrong.

Wielder of the Sacred Wands
[Work - ArenaNet] [Epoch Language] [Scribblings]