Leaderboard

Here is a little project I'd like to introduce, It's called LEGO Island Racers, a pack that reskins all characters (and soon tracks) to match LEGO Island! Not sure why the title looks so bad, the source file and the BMP look great, so it's probably auto compression. Look familiar? (*Cough* http://www.rockraidersunited.org/topic/4201-lego-racers-island/ *Cough* [FYI, the "ISLAND" there was edited in.]) Studz Linkin : In singleplayer he will be known as... Studz Linkin, best LEGO Racer, he even beat Rocket Racer! He has a red belt to differentiate his leg's from Bradford's. Buck Pounds : Uses mostly starter parts, replaces no one. Bradford Brickford : However, in singeplayer... he is known as... Bradford the Batlord!

Thanks! This is just a post to ensure everyone I still exist. Still busy with my own game, will get back to this after that.

Ok, so this isn't exactly in the blog system, but I wanted to keep this separate with my other blog entries, and I lost my second blog a little while after Cyrem disabled secondary blog creation. Basically, I'll be using this topic to cover modding two specific games by TT Games, that is, "LEGO® Indiana Jones™ 2" and "LEGO® Star Wars™ The Complete Saga". I'll be comparing them directly and describing steps for completing various mods. For the record, more of my attention will be focused on Indiana for the simple reason of flexibility. For example, even through LEGO Star Wars 1 and 2 both had a lot of deleted content to be restored, the Complete Saga was pretty much empty. Indiana Jones 2 has a lot of content left in the deepest bowls to conquer, as if it is some sick metaphor planted by the developers and we are the computer-based versions of the adventurous hero... NOTE: Using the steps to mod your game below will cause a slower load time in multiple parts of the game, which may induce the feeling the game has crashed. If the game crashes, it will shut-down, but if it pauses, it is just taking it's time to load. Please be patient. First thing, to start off easy, I'm going to go over file types, and then I'll quickly explain how to mod both games. LEGO® Star Wars™ The Complete Saga File Types: *.cfg - Configuration File (The two main ones deal with audio files, with a couple smaller ones scattered around) *.ogg - OGG Vorbis Sound File, essentially like an .mp3 file, but the codec is under Open Licence *.wav - Waveform Audio File Format, a high quality but high filesize sound file *.txt - Generally a Text file used for writing, but in these games they are used as configuration files *.fpk - See *.PAK (There is only one of these, and it seems to contain all the configs for the characters; maybe for backup?) *.ghg - Model Data, Node/Bone Information and DDS Texture Container (Specifically, *_LR_PC.ghg contain the node/bone information) *.an3 - Animation *.bsa - Unknown (There's one for all .an3 files though...) *.cu2 - (Probably contains all the custom animations and camera data for specific cutscenes in the game) *.git - Level information, camera positioning and level properties configuration *.giz - Unknown (Possibly an asset list for a level) *.ptl - Unknown (Relates to explosions and other effects) *.rtl - Unknown *.ter - Unknown (Most likely the terrain data; i.e. the level's model and collision) *.gsc - Data Container, Unknown Format or Files (I cbf right now to do the Hex Research on this one) *.pak - A file containing data from numerous other files; the header contains the list of files it contains data from, then all subsequent information is dumped below *.ai2 - Unknown ('LevelPath' for AI to follow?) *.scp - Script files (The game engine does not require compiled scripts; it reads in plain english) *.bur - Unknown *.par - Unknown (Possibly depreciated and removed) *.gra - Unknown (Possibly depreciated and removed) *.bik - Bink Video File, a common game video format offering high quality with lower file sizes; RAD Video Tools are free to use to open these *.dds - Direct Draw Surface, a common image format in video games, especially as alpha images *.raw - Raw Image Data File, a non-common image with no compression *.ico - Windows Icon File *.ats - Script Files, almost identical to *.scp files *.fnt - Compiled Font Files *.csv - Comma Separated Values File (only one present, contains localisation strings) LEGO® Indiana Jones™ 2 File Types: *.cfg - Configuration File *.txt - Configuration files *.pak - A file containing data from numerous other files; the header contains the list of files it contains data from, then all subsequent information is dumped below *.ogg - OGG Vorbis Sound File *.wav - Waveform Audio File Format *.apj - (Possibly a list of characters in the games and where to get their files, and also lists a "MOBJ") *.cd - (Contains data from the *.apj file) *.as - (Looks like the last two, but this one seems to be specifcally for animation and movement) *.ghg - Model Data and Node/Bone Information *.gsc - Data Container, Unknown Format or Files (I cbf right now to do the Hex Research on this one) *.cu2 - (Probably contains all the custom animations and camera data for specific cutscenes in the game) *.tex - Compressed texture files *.gix - GUI Scripts *.gil - (Some weird combo of BASIC and C programming code; probably depreciated and removed) *.fnt - Compressed Font File *.gip - GUI Scripts, the same as *.gix *.csv - Comma Seperated Values list *.ft2 - Unknown (Possibly a container for multiple *.fnt files?) *.led - (Just like *.cd, but controls lighting data) *.rtl - Unknown *.bur - Unknown *.dno - Unknown *.scp - Script Files *.gin - (Some crazy cross between a list of scripting functions and a configuration file) *.spl - Spline Files? *.ai2 - Unknown ('LevelPath' for AI to follow?) *.anm - Level Specific Animations? *.sfx - Level Specific Sounds? *.sav - Save file for tutorials? *.bik - Bink Video File *.par - Sound effect configuration? *.ptl - Unknown *.dds - Direct Draw Surface *.raw - Raw Image Data File *.ico - Windowns Icon FIle *.ats - Script Files As you can see, a lot more file types, and a lot more which need to be figured out. Alright, I owe it to you guys to teach you how to mod these games. Here's how you do it. Download and install QuickBMS, and get the "Traveller's Tales games DAT files extractor (script 0.3) (*.dat) (experimental)" BMS script all from here: http://aluigi.alterv...rg/quickbms.htm. Save the BMS script to where you installed QuickBMS. Drag the script onto QuickBMS.exe. Select one of the .dat files from either game. Create a new directory elsewhere on your computer. Save the files here. Wait for everything to extract, then rinse and repeat, each to sepeate folders. Make a copy of your game folder. In the copy, delete all the *.dat files. Open the folders you extract the files to, and copy everything inside. For LEGO Star Wars Complete Saga, you should be copying folders and files such as "Audio", "CHARS", "PC" and more, but not the folder everything is contained in. Paste all files in the copied game folder. Play to test if everything is correct.

So I've started getting the orginal textures from the game (since we can't convert them yet) so you can see what they are and make your own replacements. I'll list the packs below when they are done. You can replace the files in your JAM with these too in the relevant folder. Download: https://ore.rockraidersunited.org/legacy/LRTextures_v9_991919.zip Includes: - English Font - Power Up Icons ( Thanks JimbobJeffers ) - Power Up Effects ( Thanks Segatendo ) - Bricks ( Thanks Segatendo ) - All Tracks ( Thanks Segatendo, JimbobJeffers ) GRASPART.BMP & SANDPART.BMP Must remain as indexed colour BMP's in order to maintain transparency.

Steampunk is an interesting thing. It's a broad genre with lots of possibilities for exciting stories and interesting characters, and very popular with LEGO fans. Despite this, LEGO has never produced any steampunk-themed sets, much to the dismay of steampunk LEGO builders. Adventurers is also an interesting thing. Through multiple sub-themes over the course of five years, LEGO chronicled the expeditions of Australian adventurer Johnny Thunder and his team, who thwarted the plans of various treasure thieves while recovering ancient artifacts. The characters and theme became very popular, and even though Johnny Thunder hasn't been seen in a LEGO set for ten years now, the theme still lives on as a core element of LEGOLAND parks, with the characters also occasionally appearing in other places like My LEGO Network and LEGO Universe. But wouldn't it be great if LEGO actually made a steampunk themed set? And wouldn't it be cool to see the Adventurers theme get a real LEGO product once more? From the creators of the Thinking with Portals project comes The Adventures of Steamrod, a CUUSOO project that aims to do both of these at the same time. http://www.flickr.com/photos/brickthing/sets/72157632701790895/ And the results so far have been fantastic. Despite only being added to the site hours ago, Steamrod already has over 200 supporters, and that number is growing very fast. And while the proposed set makes heavy use of new decals, it uses no entirely new LEGO pieces, making the production of it more plausible. Steamrod doesn't directly use any Adventurers characters, instead, it's set in an alternate steampunk universe. With the hero Sir Jonathan Bolt being distantly related to good 'ol Johnny, and the villains being a battle-scarred steampunk-armored alternate version of Lord Sinister and his Slybot henchmen, Steamrod is essentially a steampunk-themed Adventurers reboot, with enough ties to the old characters to keep that Adventurers feel while still remaining a fresh, new concept - something LEGO has truly never done before. Now let's make this idea a real set! Sources: LEGO CUUSOOOfficial Flickr Set

[6:19:56 PM] jamesster: you're doing it wrong

The following is just a theory, not proven: You may have seen that the demo sort of has two different AI's. In the first lap, the AI (to call it AI1) is different from all other opponents, but then (after the glitch) the AI (to call it AI2) changes to a normal behaviour. I guess that these two different AI's are not lined up from the beginning, as Kahuka starts (way) over the finish line. The game thinks that this glitched position of Kahuka is in fact the startposition. AI2 won't be attributed to Kahuka until he crosses the finish line in-race, therefore it will use a different AI in the 'first lap'. Then at the moment Kahuka crosses the finish line (after that 'first lap'), AI2 will be attributed to Kahuka. Changing from AI1 to AI2 makes the game think that a new race starts, therefore putting Kahuka back at the startposition, and because of the glitched startposition, Kahuka glitches forwards. My conclusion is that there wouldn't be any glitches in startposition, if the AI stays the same. I hope you understand what I'm talking about.