Two NWNtoolset's One PC?

[Legacy_Tonden_Ockay]

               

Is there a way to run two copies of NWN Toolset's on one PC at the same time?

I am asking so while I have one compiling I can still be working on the game with the other one.

Thanks for your time

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_meaglyn]

               

On the same module? That's not likely to work well at all. You'll either have two diverging versions of the module and have to merge them or, if you managed to get the toolsets to point to the same temp directory, conflicts and races accessing/saving the data.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Mad Poet]

               

You know when you build a module you don't have to do a full rebuild all the time, right? If all you're doing is recompiling scripts you can just check the advanced controls, uncheck Unused and Missing Resources, and only have checks on Compile and Scripts.

 

It's never a bad idea to do a full build... but it isn't ALWAYS necessary.  

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tonden_Ockay]

               

What I was looking into doing was using some PW's people posted on the Vault and export all but the scripts into an .erf. Then upload it into my base module. However i have went to do this twice now but each time it was taking far to long and I wanted to work on NWN.

 

I made a complete copy of my whole NWN folder and put it on my D drive but I cant have both open at the same time. Is there away around this? So I could be exporting / importing large amounts of content using one tool set and working with other things with a 2nd toolset. 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               

There are better ways of moving content. Here's one:

 

1. open module A.

   
2. grab the resources you want from the temp0 directory inside nwn/modules/.

   
3. Put these resources in a new directory on your desktop. Keep in mind that areas require 3 file types ( .are, .gic, .git ) and that you need all of them for each area.

   
4. open module B

   
5. move the resources from your new directory on the desktop to the temp0 directory inside nwn/modules/.

   
6. do a compile if you brought over scripts, or blueprints

   
7. save the module

   
8. check out the new stuff

 

I've also made good use of Niv's ruby tools on my linux box which are great if you are comfortable with a command line interface. You can use these tools to extract and import resources to and from modules and haks and the like. You don't sound like you are at this level of skill yet, but when you get there I recommend moving resources around with these kinds of community tools.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tonden_Ockay]

               

Thanks to you " Henesus " I learning something new today.  '>

 

Ok I opened mod A up in the toolsets then went to may NWN Folder

 

 

 

I want everything but the scripts so how do I know which ones are scripts so I don't copy them?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               

scripts end in .nss and .ncs

 

I would be careful about adding everything. only bring things over a bit at a time. so you could dump everything in a folder on desktop. then you could sift through it. then just try chunks of things at a time (say all the creatures and items at once)

 

my recommendation is to look out for weird singleton files. I believe there is one for the module. there is a faction one called repute. not sure if there are others. i forget. there are also the palettes. i would not import the palettes. better to build those.

 

blueprints (all start with U)

UTC creatures

UTI items

UTP placeables

UTT triggers i think

 

others

DLG conversation file

ARE GIC GIT -- area files GIC is creature location and data, GIT is the same for items

NSS script (uncompiled), NCS script (compiled)

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_meaglyn]

               

(minor nit :.git files have all the data of placed things except the comments, which are all in the gic file as far as I can see.  There's no location data in the .gic. The .are has the area info and tiles. )

 

But regardless, you need to be careful about copying areas in directly. There is no way to add an area into the module.ifo file using the toolset for an area you copy in directly and having such files can cause the toolset to fail to open the module.  You either need to do it out of toolset (like using the tools Hen suggested) or pull then in with an erf.  If you really need to you could create an area first with the same tag and resref and then copy in the files from the other module. In theory that could work but you'd end up having to save, close and re-open the module anyway which takes time.

 

There are also uts, utm, utd, ute, utw files for sounds, merchants, doors, encounters and waypoint blueprints.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Mad Poet]

               

I've tried doing this kind of transfer before with areas. Almost every time it ends up causing module errors. I avoid doing these copies with areas at all. Items, placeables, and even creatures work fine though. You can also delete them in this folder too much faster than using the toolset.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_meaglyn]

               

Yeah. The module.ifo file contains a list of all the areas in the module. Copying one in does not modify this list. The toolset does not like that...

 

For completeness there are a few other types of files in there:  .itp files are the various palettes. The module.ifo file contains the main details of the module. It includes most of those module properties, including the hak list and the above mentioned list of areas.  The module.jrl contains the journal entries. And repute.fac contains the faction data as Henesua mentioned.  All of these are modifiable outside the toolset using Niv's ruby tools and a text editor. Very nice.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tonden_Ockay]

               

Is there a quick and easy way to delete all the custom scripts out of a module?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_meaglyn]

               

In Linux i'd do

     cd nwn/modules/temp0; 

    rm *.nss *.ncs

 

Then save and re-open the module. You should be able to do something like that at a command prompt in windows. Or select them all in explorer. But this will only remove the files it will not remove any references to them in blueprints etc. So you may end up witl a lot of missing resource warnings if you build with that enabled.   This is a big hammer '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               

yes, remove them from the temp0 folder.

 

then do a build.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tonden_Ockay]

               

Never mind I found a way using what henesua talked about.

 

Thanks for helping me learn something new about working with NWN " henesua ". That said I think I will make my own stuff. Its just going to be a lot of work reworking what someone else did and if I am going to put that much work into it I might as well make my own stuff.

 

Well I'm learning something new about NWN daily. At this rate I might know what I'm doing in 10 years '> .

 

Thanks for the help all.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Lightfoot8]

               

.... not sure if there are others... 

 

blueprints (all start with U)

UTC creatures

UTI items

UTP placeables

UTT triggers i think

 

others

DLG conversation file

ARE GIC GIT -- area files GIC is creature location and data, GIT is the same for items

NSS script (uncompiled), NCS script (compiled)

 

 

Might as well just list all if the file formats

information it taken from 

 

BioWare Aurora Engine

Key and BIF File Formats

ResType  File       Content  Description
         Extension  Type 
0xFFFF  N/A         N/A      Invalid resource type

1       bmp         binary   Windows BMP file

3       tga         binary   TGA image format

4       wav         binary   WAV sound file

6       plt         binary   Bioware Packed Layered Texture, used for player
                             character skins, allows for multiple color layers

7       ini         text     (ini) Windows INI file format

10      txt         text     Text file

2002    mdl         mdl      Aurora model

2009    nss         text     NWScript Source

2010    ncs         binary   NWScript Compiled Script

2012    are         gff      BioWare Aurora Engine Area file. Contains
                             information on what tiles are located in an area, as well
                             as other static area properties that cannot change via
                             scripting.
                             For each .are file in a .mod, there must also be a
                             corresponding .git and .gic file having the same
                             ResRef.

2013    set         text     (ini) BioWare Aurora Engine Tileset

2014    ifo         gff      Module Info File. See the IFO Format document.

2015    bic         gff      Character/Creature

2016    wok         mdl      Walkmesh

2017    2da                  text 2-D Array

2022    txi         text     Extra Texture Info

2023    git         gff      Game Instance File. Contains information for all object
                             instances in an area, and all area properties that can
                             change via scripting.

2025    uti         gff      Item Blueprint

2027    utc         gff      Creature Blueprint

2029    dlg         gff      Conversation File

2030    itp         gff      Tile/Blueprint Palette File

2032    utt         gff      Trigger Blueprint

2033    dds         binary   Compressed texture file

2035    uts         gff      Sound Blueprint

2036    ltr         binary   Letter-combo probability info for name generation

2037    gff         gff      Generic File Format. Used when undesirable to create a
                             new file extension for a resource, but the resource is a
                             GFF. (Examples of GFFs include itp, utc, uti, ifo, are,
                             git)

2038    fac         gff      Faction File

2040    ute         gff      Encounter Blueprint

2042    utd         gff      Door Blueprint

2044    utp         gff      Placeable Object Blueprint

2045    dft         text     (ini) Default Values file. Used by area properties dialog

2046    gic         gff      Game Instance Comments. Comments on instances are
                             not used by the game, only the toolset, so they are
                             stored in a gic instead of in the git with the other
                             instance properties.

2047    gui         gff      Graphical User Interface layout used by game

2051    utm         gff      Store/Merchant Blueprint

2052    dwk         mdl      Door walkmesh

2053    pwk         mdl      Placeable Object walkmesh

2056    jrl         gff      Journal File

2058    utw         gff      Waypoint Blueprint. See Waypoint GFF document.

2060    ssf         binary   Sound Set File. See Sound Set File Format document

2064    ndb         binary   Script Debugger File

2065    ptm         gff      Plot Manager file/Plot Instance

2066    ptt         gff      Plot Wizard Blueprint

Now not all of them can go in a module but some of them have to go in .bif's or other places,  but if you need to know what it is it should be in the list. 

 

the content types are given the following descriptions.

Table 1.3.2: Resource Content Types
Content    TypeDescription

binary     Binary file format. Details vary widely as to implementation
       
text       Plain text file. 
           For some text resources, it doesn't matter whether lines 
           are terminated by CR+LF or just CR characters, but for 
           other text resources, it might matter.To avoid 
           complications, always use CR+LF line terminators because 
           that at least will work in all cases.. 

text(ini)  Windows INI file format. Special case of a text file.

gff        BioWare Generic File Format. See the Generic File Format document.

mdl        BioWare Aurora model file format. Can be plain text or binary.