NO WADS! or 10 Wads

[McJobless]

Yeah, it helps if, when saving the file, you click "All files" instead of "ANSI Text File"...then again, I'm sure you're not THAT dumb...you're not that dumb, right?

[Cyrem]

  On 6/21/2011 at 8:19 PM, Lair of Rockwhales said:

Also that may be a developer CFG left in and you get to see modded stuff yay.

That 'configoriginal' is the proper configuration file. The other one which was saved as text (which in-turn adds extra bytes to the file) causes it to be larger. ;)

[codsniper]

Thanks! Now when installing mods I can easily fix errors and the like, without having to compile/decompile WAD's

[Medimorpho]

So, I decompiled the WADs, and moved the contents into the Data folder, but I cannot access the data inside them. Go into Windows Explorer and the folders aren't there, I can only see them when in the WAD Tool.

[Phoenyx]

  On 11/28/2012 at 4:07 PM, Medimorpho said:

So, I decompiled the WADs, and moved the contents into the Data folder, but I cannot access the data inside them. Go into Windows Explorer and the folders aren't there, I can only see them when in the WAD Tool.

Did you run the WAD Tool with administrative privileges?

[TheDoctor]

  On 11/28/2012 at 4:19 PM, Phoenyx said:

  On 11/28/2012 at 4:07 PM, Medimorpho said:

So, I decompiled the WADs, and moved the contents into the Data folder, but I cannot access the data inside them. Go into Windows Explorer and the folders aren't there, I can only see them when in the WAD Tool.

Did you run the WAD Tool with administrative privileges?

Stop that. The only reason you would need to do that is if you were trying to mod the Program FIles install, which you should NOT be doing. You copy the entire folder to somewhere like your Saved Games folder or Desktop. You will not need to run anything with admin privileges there.

[mumboking]

  On 11/28/2012 at 4:07 PM, Medimorpho said:

So, I decompiled the WADs, and moved the contents into the Data folder, but I cannot access the data inside them. Go into Windows Explorer and the folders aren't there, I can only see them when in the WAD Tool.

Windows Vista/7? Try looking in

C:UsersYourUsernameAppDataLocalVirtualStoreProgram FilesLEGO MediaGamesRock Raiders

[Phoenyx]

  On 11/28/2012 at 4:22 PM, TheDoctor said:

  On 11/28/2012 at 4:19 PM, Phoenyx said:

  On 11/28/2012 at 4:07 PM, Medimorpho said:

So, I decompiled the WADs, and moved the contents into the Data folder, but I cannot access the data inside them. Go into Windows Explorer and the folders aren't there, I can only see them when in the WAD Tool.

Did you run the WAD Tool with administrative privileges?

Stop that. The only reason you would need to do that is if you were trying to mod the Program FIles install, which you should NOT be doing. You copy the entire folder to somewhere like your Saved Games folder or Desktop. You will not need to run anything with admin privileges there.

It was worth asking. I mean I've even had that happen to me before and running it under administrative privileges fixed it for me.

fun leaves, ToolRaider gets banned and now since you can't go after someone legitimately you target me? You know, I used to actually tell people how respectful you guys are...

[Lair]

  On 11/30/2012 at 3:00 AM, Phoenyx said:

fun leaves, ToolRaider gets banned and now since you can't go after someone legitimately you target me? You know, I used to actually tell people how respectful you guys are...

Expand  

Turns out this community has always been terrible

Edited December 26, 2022 by Lair

[Phoenyx]

  On 11/30/2012 at 4:38 AM, Lair of Rockwhales said:

Sorry, how is he "targeting" you? He was simply making a statement about why a certain method should not be used to make thing easier. Unless you're really going to take offense that easily, I don't see what's so bad with what he said. Or how it can be generalized.

  On 11/28/2012 at 4:22 PM, TheDoctor said:

Stop that.

Assuming that "that" means "trying to help", and adding the general history between myself and TheDoctor, I think it's kinda easy to understand why I would assume it was an attack.

[Lair]

...

Edited December 26, 2022 by Lair

[Cyrem]

I mod in my Program Files folder, I don't have any issues with admin privileges.

[Taerdan]

  On 9/28/2009 at 10:31 PM, Lair said:

STEP 1-Decompile all Wads.

 

I can't seem to find a nice decompiler of .wad files. I found a nice viewer, but no decompiler. I simply want to apply a custom map, but I haven't done anything of this sort before.

Any that people can point me to? Or is there a program that does it for you, like the MCPatcher for Minecraft?

I've briefly searched on the forums here and nothing seems to say anything as to which decompiler is used - built in or otherwise. I like Rock Raiders (recently dug up the CD to install it on a new computer) but I've never modified the game outside of using -testlevels to play my favorites without getting to them, and that isn't even a mod.

[PWNZOR]

  On 9/8/2013 at 4:33 AM, Taerdan said:

STEP 1-Decompile all Wads.

I can't seem to find a nice decompiler of .wad files.

http://www.rockraidersunited.org/topic/105-wad-tool-221/

It's the first pinned topic under the "Modding Tools" subforum.

[socal87]

Sorry to necro this.  Decompiled my .WADs and moved everything into the /Data folder.  It seems the Lego.cfg is not being read properly...debug keys aren't working, music is playing despite being turned off, etc.

[Lair]

  On 11/9/2016 at 7:06 AM, socal87 said:

Sorry to necro this.  Decompiled my .WADs and moved everything into the /Data folder.  It seems the Lego.cfg is not being read properly...debug keys aren't working, music is playing despite being turned off, etc.

Expand  

did you delete the old wads afterward

[socal87]

  On 11/9/2016 at 7:29 AM, Ringtail said:

did you delete the old wads afterward

Expand  

Yes, I did.  Tried again...debug keys work again but the movies are still playing as well as menu music.  At least the .cfg edits for entities and weapons seem to be working.

[trigger_segfault]

  On 9/28/2009 at 10:31 PM, Jessietail said:

Lego.cfg probably needs to stay in 1. Data and CD are unknown in level of importantness.

Expand  

I can clarify a bit more on some of the loose ends like the CD priority, and expand on some information:

 

File System Priorities:

 

Data File Reading

1. LegoRR9.WAD - LegoRR0.WAD
2. Working Data folder (in current working directory, which should be your executable directory unless you want to have a bad time)
3. CD-ROM Data folder (in first-located CD drive (`C-Z`) containing the file `CD:\Data\cd.key` (contents don't matter), this excludes Floppy-reserved drive letters `A,B`)

Data File Streaming

For AVI videos (needs more checking) and Streamed sounds (Sample properties defined with `@` path prefix).

1. Working Data folder
2. CD-ROM Data folder

Data File Writing

This is seen a few times in assembly, but I don't think any of it is reachable code. (There's some leftover code used to scan the Working Data directory and write a list of relative file names, which was likely used when preparing to build a WAD file)

1. Working Data folder (only)

Non-Game Data Priority

Music, Saves, etc...

TODO. Everything outside the data folder doesn't use LegoRR's built in File System manager, and technically streamed media doesn't either. (Rule of thumb is Working Data is checked before CD-ROM Data though)

 

Misc

CD-ROM drives will always be checked for on boot.

As far as I can tell from the code, you can throw any data file in any different-numbered WAD file, as long as you're not relying on priority.

Higher number WAD files can still be loaded even when lower numbered files don't exist.
I have no clue about the machine-specific issue with the blaster though.

WAD File Names:

 

WAD file names are determined by the game executable name (without the extension).

Renaming the executable to something else means it will no longer look for WAD files named `LegoRR#.wad`, but for `<exename>#.wad`. This is identical to how the root `Lego*` and `LegoRR` properties are handled in CFG-type files (Lego.cfg, *.ol, *.ptl, *.ae).

 

Community Edition & Cafeteria

 

LRR:CE supports WAD files just like the original, as long as they use the same executable name `LegoRRCE`. Cafeteria only outputs a WAD file named `LegoRR0.wad` when rebuilding mods, so this is why LRR:CE only functions when using the "Data method".

 

 

WAD File Format:

This info is entirely useless, but interesting none-the-less. There's one extra feature of WAD files that are never seen, but are supported by LegoRR (and LRR:CE). That being file compression.

 

The WAD Entry metadata structure
uint32 version -> flags         // (1 = Store, 2 = Compressed)
uint32 size    -> packed_size   // size in the WAD file

uint32 size2   -> original_size // size of the file when decompressed

uint32 offset

 

In reality, version is a flags field, of which only the second bit (`0x2`) is ever checked. When set, the file is treated as RNC (Rob Northern Compression), not to be confused with the other RNC acronym: "Rob Northern Copylock". Following this, size is actually the packed_size (as present in the WAD file) while size2 is the unpacked original_size. When not compressed, these two sizes must be identical.

Using the reversed tool rnc_propack, and creating WAD files with the output (while writing the appropriate metadata), the game still manages to read the game data files as expected... until it tries to read certain compressed .wav files and crashes mid-loading screen... All other file types seem to work fine, though. This means there's at least a few wav files that are read or used in unexpected ways... or the compression/decompression fails at some point. It's also not all wav files, since LegoRR1.WAD is fully converted and contains numerous interface SFX.

 

I managed to get the 2 WAD file sizes down to nearly half their original size using compression. (74MB -> 40MB, and 3.6MB -> 1.9MB). And the game still loads a lot faster with compressed WAD data over using the Data directory method (which is the biggest benefit of WAD files: faster, more compact even without compression, and much less stress on the file system and Windows indexer).

Edited July 10, 2021 by trigger_segfault
+ technically streamed media does not use LRR's filesystem manager either