BUILD Tools, Group File related.

GROUP (GRP) FILE HANDLING

Features:

• Create new group files
• Insert files into an existing group file
• Permanently remove files from a group file
• Extract a single file, a file type (i.e. - *.map), or all files from a group file
• Rename embedded files
• Play embedded sound (*.voc) files from the group file
• Auto-Play option for automatically playing sound files
• Play embedded music (*.mid) files from the group file
• View the attributes of the embedded art tiles (located in .art files)
• View art tiles from the embedded art files
• Specify a default names.h file for showing the associated names when viewing the artwork
• Specify a custom palette.dat file to use for viewing art tiles
• Specify a default directory to extract files to
• HTML based help

GRP Viewer is a Windows utility that allows the user to browse, play, extract, delete, add and rename files from the Ken Silverman group file [.grp].

info:

• Support for next Group Files:
  Doom [.wad] – |Extract only|
  Quake [.pak] – |Flat mode w/o directories|Extract only|
  Chasm [.bin] – |Extract only|
  Sin [.sin] – |Extract only| – not tested
• support for viewing Duke3d levels [.map] in 2D Wireframe mode with highlighted secret places feature – |slow|experimental|
• support for naming ART Tiles. Uses ‘names.h’ file located in the GRPViewer’s directory
• ART Tile Zooming feature using either simple resizing or resampling with lanczos filter
• Dispalaying level names given in user.con with the rest of map params.
• Hi-Res Textures Tool [HRTT]: multipurpose tool for managing Hi-Res textures without having a look into the DEF file… [probably doesn't work in latest HRP packs]
• Generates list of maps containing selected ARTTile and shows its coords in a map

release notes:

• List Related Maps command shows the XY coords of the first found tile in map. It shows the exact coords for the sprites and first wall’s coords for floor and ceiling tiles.
• animated clock showing GRPV busy state is now removed ffs
• boring left-right-up-down buttons for scrolling map are now removed
• scrolling and zooming is bound to mouse wheel in combination with shift and ctrl buttons (slow as hell, wonder if I could render the stuff through DirectDraw one day)
• Go2Tile feature is available, just put the desired Tile Number in teh input field and hit enter
• Highlight Wall by Tile Number feature to help finding places in the map where you want too look at the newly created tile in game, put the desired wall tile into the input field and scroll the map to find thick blue walls
• backspace is now active for returning from maps and art entries into the grp content list
• copy to clipboard is available from the context menu of selected entry, it was designed for art tile only but works for map view mode aswell, basically it grabs anything that’s rendered in the Art Preview window, dont mess with zoom buttons before copying to clipboard otherwise you’ll get upscaled image which may be undesired
• fixed Go2Tile input box position on window resizing
• restored List Related Maps functionality which shows the coords of the first found tile in a map
• fixed WorkPath saving/restoring glitch (reported by Gambini @ duke4.net forums)
• fixed gviewer.ini unwanted appearance in GRP file folder in case of opening GRP files after associating them with GViewer.exe
• last opened file is now stored into gviewer.ini in case of opening GRP files after associating them with GViewer.exe
• Tile Zooming is not reset anymore after clicking on another Tile, also ZoomValue is shown near +- buttons (requested by Gambini, though I really wanted this feature myself long ago :D )
• fixed wrong (but still valid) path for GRP items extraction
• fixed “opened GRP” overwriting attempt handling
• opened GRP file name and path is now displayed in the windows caption
• Added VOC playing support, starts by doubleclicking or “enter” or pressing play button. Depending on soundcard driver (or OS) few VOC entries may not play. Note that some VOCs have interesting text fields dysplayed in the log ;)
• Fixed an exception when pressing F2 (+ misc keyboard combinations related to F2) while Entries ListView was out of focus.
  

Note: Requires a separate program to run (Windows Commander).

Here's a list of programs in this package.

• dn3idx.exe list index of GRP files
• dn3ext.exe extract files from GRP files
• artidx.exe list index of ART files, you can extract ART files from GRP files using dn3ext.exe
• dn3gv.exe view graphics inside GRP files; can also save them to hard disk
  
  

Includes: Source code, now (5-25-99) includes more src.

Is a menu-driven .GRP file viewer/extractor. This package also includes the Group (.GRP) File Format specs and some other grp programs (some source code included)

- Duke Nukem 3D Shareware v1.0
- Duke Nukem 3D Shareware v1.1

- Duke Nukem 3D Shareware v1.0
- Duke Nukem 3D Shareware v1.1

This program will allow you pull the resources out of the DUKE3D.GRP file and store them as individual files so they can be edited and then Recompiled. Can work with ART-files also.

The DUKE3D.GRP file contains the following file types:

Extension Description
.CON The 'scripting' files used by the game
.TMB Not certain
.BIN Not certain, ending text screen?
.DAT Various data files. PALETTE.DAT contains the color palette information.
.VOC Sound Blaster sound file
.MID MIDI music file
.ART Graphic data (see below)
.MAP Level maps.

The only types that at this time concern me are the .VOC, .MID, and .ART files to alter the appearance of DN3D.

Usage
=====

preparation
-----------
It is wise to make a backup of the original DUKE3D.GRP
file before proceeding much further. DN3D-DC will create a
backup of GRP and ART files before they get recompiled,
however this backup only has a one cycle lifespan (meaning
if you recompile twice, the first time the backup is of
the original, the second it is of the last recompile).

Create a directory that house the decompiled resources.
I usually do this off the DUKE3D directory but it could
be anywhere. In the following examples the game is in
G:\DUKE3D and I'll keep the resources in G:\DUKE3D\RES

decompile grp file
------------------
To decompile the GRP file, type:

decompile art file
------------------
To decompile the ART files (contains the graphics), type:

compile art file
----------------
To compile the ART file from the LST file and the BMP's, type:

compile grp file
----------------
To compile the GRP file from the LST file and resource files,
type:

Note: Automate your decompile/compile process with batch files. This speeds things up a bit.

Includes: examples and extras.