Campaign Creations

9/24/2009 UPDATE: I've finally gotten the source code to ThunderGraft up in a downloadable package. Also, the crash SF initially found was fixed a few days ago, in build 2009.9.22. Both are available from the Files page on ThunderGraft's SourceForge site.

Well, it's that time of year again, and I've got some presents to give out. First, I released build 2009.09.13 of MPQDraft a couple days ago. While it only fixes bugs, it fixes some major ones - so major I'm amazed nobody told me about them in the last year and I had to find them myself.

The bugs fixed, in approximate order of severity:
-SEMPQs not activating for games specified with relative names
-plugin page not setting the plugin pointer after selecting with Browse, resulting in a crash
-plugin page stops listing plugins after one fails to load
-not saving custom executable names in the SEMPQ wizard
-plugins weren't forced to use proper plugin IDs for their modules, allowing some plugins to get away with bad behavior that didn't work with FireGraft (which forced plugins to use the correct ID)

As with the last year and a half, MPQDraft is open-source on SourceForge. You can get both the binaries and the source from the files page.

Second, ThunderGraft has been resurrected from the dead. For those who haven't heard about ThunderGraft before, it allows the use of MP3s, Ogg Vorbis, and other sound compression formats in Diablo, Diablo II, StarCraft, and WarCraft II: Battle.net Edition, which give higher audio quality and smaller file sizes than the WAV compression used in those games normally; ThunderGraft also integrates with StarEdit to allow maps to use non-WAV sounds in triggers. I'm calling it a beta version as ShadowFlare just yesterday mentioned a crash that only occurred on her computer, and I probably won't have time to investigate it until at least tomorrow.

And finally, as sort of "present #2.5", ThunderGraft has been open-sourced as well, and it's also on SourceForge. The binaries are available on the files page, but I haven't gotten around to putting a ZIP of the source up yet. Specifically, I really, really need to clean up the directory structure of MPQDraft and ThunderGraft to make it much easier for people other than me (without my directory organization) to compile it. You can still view the source through the source browser, or download it with Subversion or CVS, but you probably won't get it compiled without a bit more info from me; I'll get to that when I have time.

As always, there are two flavors: release and debug. I'd advise using debug for mod development, as it generates log files that are very helpful in fixing bugs, should you find any (but would probably annoy people who download your mod).

Enjoy!

This is great, future projects can definiately make use of thundergraft

Nom nom nom!

one of your hobbits has organised a birthday party in the sculpture garden?

I've finally gotten the source code to ThunderGraft up in a downloadable package. Also, the crash SF initially found was fixed a few days ago, in build 2009.9.22. Both are available from the Files page on ThunderGraft's SourceForge site.

Is there a Mac build of the newest MPQDraft or only source?

The latest Thudergraft works great and I too can confirm that the CRT error on exit is no longer there.  I am however experiencing a new Firegraft error with the new plugin.  The error is quite obscure and involves closing FGraft after making a change without saving. (Something that I do a lot as I change my mind about a modification as I'm sure do many others)

Here is the error which requires ctr-alt-del to the task manager to close:
[imgwh 150x113]http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/5746/fgrafterror.th.png[/imgwh]

And here are the steps:
create a new Fgraft.exe > add thundergraft plugin > save exe > Open saved exe > change any button > exit without saving.

EDIT:
The error may seem severe at first as the next time you save the program you will continue to get this message and will need to use the task manager to always close the program.  However after making a subsequent modification and saving, the problem appears to be fixed (requires 2 times).  Tho trying to close a new modification without saving starts the whole process over again.


Also, I can confirm that poiuy's Locunlock plugin error that I reported at my forums back in Nov2008 is now compiling fine with the new MPQdraft!
Plugin crashing MPQDraft @ locunlock

poiuy_qwert wrote: Is there a Mac build of the newest MPQDraft or only source?

The Mac version of MPQDraft is BahamutZero's work, not mine. It's a completely separate program with completely separate code and patching methods. I don't actually know much about it, like if it even supports plugins or anything. Everything related to the Mac version (binary, source, and a freakin huge 103 slide presentation on how it works) is on BZ's MPQDraft Mac site.

MPQDraft for Mac is similar to MPQDraft for Windows in that it is based on a plug-in architecture. The full source is available on Launchpad at https://launchpad.net/mpqdraft.

That being said, I have no idea if the program still works. It has to deal with the rather complex situation of PowerPC CFM applications (e.g. classic applications) running on Intel hardware on an operating system with a completely different binary format (Mach-O). In addition, MPQDraft is useless for Warcraft III and beyond, as Blizzard started using static linking which makes patching functions very difficult in a way that survives patches.

Honestly, I don't think there's much interest or need for something like MPQDraft moving forward. WoW and SC II modding will likely not require code injection and patching.

Unless they let you change everything it will still be needed plus just needing to run an exe will no doubt be the most simplistic way to run a mod and it still works just fine for WC3.

Never had any problems with wc3 and mpqdraft.