FileView
http://www.shikadi.net/old/fileview/

FileView is a shell extension I'm working on that allows you to use Windows Explorer to browse into some game data files. You can then extract files by dragging and dropping them into another Explorer window, just like you'd copy ordinary files between two folders.

Important!
This is a VERY UNSTABLE program!!! Use it at your own risk! It is quite possible that it will cause Windows Explorer to crash sooner or later, and while you probably won't lose any data it can be quite irritating...so don't say you haven't been warned! If you don't think you can live with this, then by all means have a look around and come back to download it when all the bugs have been fixed ;-)

Duke Nukem 3D's .GRP file opened in Windows Explorer
	
Wacky Wheels ending opened in the text screen viewer

Update: 2003-07-05 Abandoned!

    Well, seeing as I switched to Linux a year ago now, I haven't done any more work on this at all so I'm abandoning it to work on other projects. I'll be releasing the source code shortly in case anyone wants to have a look at it or even continue working on it, so feel free to do what you want with it (but if you do anything useful, please give me a mention!)

    Download program here
    Download source here (coming soon) 


Update: 2002-06-09 Initial release

    This is the first public release of the program. I've decided to release it because, well, it's been sitting on my hard drive for the last six months and I haven't touched it because of Uni work, so I thought if I didn't release it now I'd never get around to it ;-)

    There's still a lot of work to do on it, but I'm hoping that it's still going to be useful in its current partially completed state.

    You can download it here. 


What is it?

    As indicated by the screenshot, once you've installed it you can open supported game files as though they were actual folders on your hard disk. It currently supports a few various formats, however at the moment Duke Nukem 3D's GRP file is the only one that can be edited (i.e. you can open DUKE3D.GRP in Explorer and drag other files into it to add them to the GRP file.) Eventually other formats will be editable, but it's just a matter of when I get around to it. Also note that any GRP file can be edited, not just Duke's, so you can edit Shadow Warrior, Redneck Rampage, etc. I think I've ironed out all the bugs but you should still make regular backups, just in case!

    FileView can perform conversions on-the-fly, which means that for formats such as Build .ART, when you open the file the tiles are automatically converted to bitmaps (.BMP) instead of their native weirdo format ;-) This is also done in with the sounds from Commander Keen 1-3, which are converted to wave files (.WAV) which are much more useful than an obscure PC-speaker format!

    The formats are implemented as a plugin system, so it's quite easy to support another format, and once the plugin system has been finalised, that's what I'll be relying on everyone else to do ;-)

    It also comes with a rudimentary text screen viewer, so you can double-click on the ending screen files to see them, and from there you can right-click on the display to save them as text or (if you want colours too) HTML. (See screenshot.) 

Supported formats

    This is a list of all the currently supported formats. These formats are what you'll be able to open if you download the program as is.

    Halloween Harry data: .-0

        Alien Carnage extraction unsupported (unknown compression - you can still extract the files in their compressed format though)
        MOD music (*.4MD) is NOT corrected 


    Build engine graphics: .ART

        Tiles are automatically converted to bitmaps (.BMP)
        Requires palette file (automatic if opening .ART from within .GRP) 


    Bio Menace sound effects: .BM1 .BM2 .BM3

        Converts PC Speaker sounds to wave format (.WAV) 


    Commander Keen 1-3 sound effects: .CK1 .CK2 .CK3

        Automatically converted into wave format (.WAV)
        SOUNDS.CK2 and .CK3 are stored in the .EXE file, so you'll need to extract them seperately. 


    Commander Keen 4-6 audio: .CK4 .CK5 .CK6

        Extracts .IMF music.
        Adlib sound effects converted to IMF files.
        PC speaker sound effects converted to wave format (.WAV) 


    Duke Nukem II data: .CMP .STN .VOL .MS1 .MS2 .MS3

        Same format as Cosmo's Cosmic Adventures
        Same format as Major Stryker 


    Hocus Pocus data: .DAT

        Requires version 1.1 of the .EXE to be present alongside the .DAT file 


    Monster Bash data: .DAT

        Compressed files are displayed in an alternate colour
        Decompression is not yet supported and it never will be unless someone can figure it out for me... 


    Wacky Wheels data: .DAT

        Many other .DAT files are detected as this when they're actually not (that's what you get for using such a nondescript extension ;-) 


    Build engine data: .GRP

        Also supports adding files, deleting files and renaming files
        This format is also used in Shadow Warrior and Redneck Rampage et al. 


    Descent data: .HOG


    Ken's Labyrinth audio: .KZP

        Supports music and sound files (SONGS.KZP and SOUNDS.KZP)
        Sounds are automatically converted to .WAV 


    Vinyl Goddess From Mars: .LBR

        Incredibly limited partial-support ;-)
        Need much more info on this format! 


    Quake I and II data: .PAK

        Quake I: Beware of some of the wave files - they were made incorrectly, and may cause Sound Recorder/Media Player to crash. Use a real sound editor to play them ;-) 


    Terminal Velocity data: .POD

        The first format to support subfolders! 


    Stellar 7 resources: .RES

        No idea what format the subfiles are in, but you can extract them all the same... 


    LithTech resources: .REZ

        Used for Shogo and Blood 2 (and probably others.) 


    Blood 1 data: .RFF

        Supports decryption
        Encryped files displayed in alternate colour (if your OS supports it) 


    Doom and countless others: .WAD .RTS

        Works with PWADs and IWADs
        Also supports Quake's WAD2 format
        RTS files work too
        No conversions as yet 



Important!
This is a VERY UNSTABLE program!!! Use it at your own risk! It is quite possible that it will cause Windows Explorer to crash sooner or later, and while you probably won't lose any data it can be quite irritating...so don't say you haven't been warned! If you don't think you can live with this, then by all means have a look around and come back to download it when all the bugs have been fixed ;-)


Once you've downloaded it, make sure you read all the accompanying text files - you'll save yourself a lot of hassle!


Download:
fileview_prerelease.zip (474.4 KB)