Game can't find shape files, but they are there...

[Levi]

I extracted the shape files from darwinia with winrar, and put them all in my mod file (outskirts/shapes), but the game says it can't find data/shapes, so i put it there instead, but it still says fatal error, so i had to remove the shapes from the text file manually.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong here, any help would be great.




EDIT: Nevermind... *slinks away*

[brice]

You must leave a copy of all the original files where you found them. Extra copies & modified copies in your mod directories will supercede the originals. But the originals must remain in place. Only modify files under your mod directory -- not the originals or you will end up reinstalling Darwinia.

The originals can remain inside their "*.dat" rar archives. OR you can extract these *.dat files into the directory where you found them. So if main.dat is in Program Files\Darwinia you could extract the enclosed data directory to Darwinia\data. The *.dat files can be discarded after you extract them, but I wouldn't recommend doing this. Your best bet is to leave your Darwinia program installation the way it is. Then extract the *.dats to a working directory elsewhere. Then you can explore and copy out the stuff you want to your mod directories.

You can create subdirectories underneath your mod directory. Look at existing mods. Any directory found inside a *.dat file (below the "data" directory) can be replicated in your mod. You don't have to have a copy of every file, just the ones you change. So if your mod\shapes directory is empty except for one file called anthill.shp, then Darwinia will take all the other shapes from the original archives.

Darwinia seems to search for files in the following places, in this order: *.dat files near the executable; a Darwinia\data tree in the same directory as the *.dat files; and lastly in subdirectories underneath your mod directory. The exact paths vary with each OS but the same process holds everywhere.

Hope this helps.

-brice

[Levi]

I didn't modify the shapes at all, I just extracted them from the rar, and moved the file containing them into my mod.

When it said it could find them, I put them back where they originally extracted to (data/shapes) but it still couldn't find them, even though it's the same place it says they should be in the fatal error.

[Levi]

Maybe if I delete the shapes, extract them again, and copy instead of moving, it will work.

[Levi]

I just realized what the problem was..

I was leaving off ".shp" when I specified what shape it was in the editor.



How embarrassing.

[xander]

Use the edit button, please. There is no reason to post so many comments in a row.

As to the problem that you were having, you do have to fully specify the name of the shape, including the suffix. If you do not, Darwinia will not be able to find the file. However, from your first post, there was no way for us to understand that this was the problem that you were having. In the future, please try to be more clear about what is going on. Tell us everything that you have done, and exactly what error you are getting. My guess is that the game was telling you that it could not find some specific shape -- quote the error message in full, and provide a blackbox file if possible (the problem you describe should have created such a file in your Darwinia directory).

xander

[Levi]

I didn't know that the missing suffix was the problem, otherwise I wouldn't have even asked.


This thread was actually very helpful, because it told me I was doing the extraction part properly, and that the problem must have been something else.

[brice]

Yeah, the editor crashes first then if you're lucky tells you the problem. Very frustrating, especially when you're just beginning.

If you are placing a pre-existing shape as a StaticShape there is no reason to extract anything to your mod. Just specify the filename (with extension) and the game engine will find the file inside the .dat rars. This goes for any of the .shp files, including the ones not used by the regular game. The .dat archives are esentially just hidden directories.

Also, the safest way to place StaticShapes in the editor is this: 1) SAVE THE LEVEL, 2) place a StaticShape, 3) type in the file name and hit Enter, 4) clone the StaticShape, 5) delete the original StaticShape. Always save before cloning, so if you typed the name wrong you lose nothing when the editor crashes. As you've surely noticed already the StaticShape doesn't update when you type in the filename. You must either clone it or exit / re-enter the level in the editor. If you've saved the level with a bad shape filename, you can also open the map (or mission) file in a text editor and hand edit the filename there. But if you follow the above procedure you will never save with a bad filename since it will crash out when you clone, which is after you've saved.

[Levi]

If you are placing a pre-existing shape as a StaticShape there is no reason to extract anything to your mod. Just specify the filename (with extension) and the game engine will find the file inside the .dat rars. This goes for any of the .shp files, including the ones not used by the regular game. The .dat archives are esentially just hidden directories.

So i don't even really need the files, just a list of their names for reference..

Awesome.. thanks brice.

And yeah, I just go in the text file and delete the offending item when I goof up. Easy enough.



You were really helpful, I would have been messing with that for hours before I noticed my mistake, but when your instructions matched what I did, I knew it was something else causing the problem.