DO/Modding

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Contents

Modifying and Editing Dark Omen

Overview

Dark Omen consists of battles and campaign flow. The campaign flow is not yet understood, though we suspect it is largely hard-coded into the executable itself. The design of battles, however, is almost completely understood.

Each battle is located in its own folder under the gamedata/1pbat path. Using the first battle "B1_01" (Defending the Trading Post) as an example. the principal files are

Dark Omen battle folder principal files
Filename Description Edit tools
B1_01.PRJ Battleground layout file. user:Mikademus' CLI Editor (PRJ section).
B1_01.BTB Battle zone definitions; f.i. deployment zones and map boundaries. User:Rob's BTB Editor; CLI Editor (BTB section)
B1_01.ARM Army definitions. After the first battle, only the opposing side army is used. The players' is overwritten from the save file. Both ARM and save files can be edited with Mikademus' (old) WH2EDIT and User:Ghabry's new Wh32Edit.
B1_01.SHD Contains a heightmap with vegetation. Initially thought to be a shadow map for the terrain, now thought to be either used for path finding costs, or a useless vestigal. You can extract these as .TGA images by the "export shadow" command from the PRJ Text Mode Editor. Currently not editable (no real reason to).
B1_01.LIT Light sources for the map. These are only used fully when running in hardware acceleration, which in turn only works on genuine 3dfx cards under DirectX6 on Windows98, which makes them difficult to test. The data format is cracked, though. Currently not editable (low priority, doesn't influence battles)
B101.CTL Battle scripts are stored in this file. This controls events that occur in game. Viewable in CLI Editor (CTL section), Rob is making an editor.
*.M3D All the 3D models used for and on the map in this battle Rob's M3D <--> 3DS converter
TEXTURES/*.BMP All the textures used by the M3D models. Use any image editor, 8 bit 256 colours only.

Project overwiew

Name Description Developer Language Binary Source
WARTBED Code name for a regimental tactical real-time wargame engine, in which Bright Prospects will be implemented. Community C++
Bright Portents Code name for the Dark Omen 3D editor (and possible game engine) project. Well underway and currently capable of loading and rendering an entire Dark Omen level. Not yet publicly available. Community C++

Tools

Tools currently being developed and in a more-or-less working state:

Name Description Developer Language Binary Source
WH2EDIT The original army file editor, written in 1998 in Borland Pascal by Mikademus. Allows editing virtually every aspect of an army, but is relatively buggy. To be supplanted by Ghabry's forthcoming editor WH32EDIT. (LINK TO DOWNLOAD AND SOURCE) Mikademus Pascal link link
PRJ file editor Parser classes for the .PRJ battle layout file format. Current front-end a text mode editor using literal expressions for commands, but the final version will be a 3D map editor. Allows editing most aspects of every existing map. Also includes functionality to view data of .M3D files. Developed in C++ by Mikademus. (LINK TO DOWNLOAD SOURCE) Mikademus C++ link link
BTB file editor Parser and editor for the .BTB battle boundaries and special regions file format. Written in C# by Rob. (LINK TO DOWNLOAD AND SOURCE) Rob C# link link
DOT file editor A program to modify the path of the dots on the overworld Ghabry unknown link link
MDose SPR editor The original .SPR sprite file editor. Function-complete but buggy. Written in Delphi in 1998 by Mikademus. To be supplanted by Rob's C# editor. (LINK TO DOWNLOAD AND SOURCE) Mikademus Delphi link link
RDose (Rob's SPR editor) A newer and improved editor incorporating new information about the .SPR format. Written in C# by Rob. (LINK TO DOWNLOAD AND SOURCE) Rob C# link link
.M3D-to-Belnder Model Converter Tool to import and export DO's .M3D models to the Blender 3D editor. Rob Blender API (Python with Blender functions) link link

Data Formats

The .PRJ Battle Description File Format

Short description <WIKILINK TO THE PRJ ARTICLE>

The .BTB Battle Boundaries File Format

Contains information about the mission, such as troop placement, obstacles, accesibility etc. BTB

The .DOT Campaign Map File Format

Short description <WIKILINK TO THE DOT ARTICLE>

The .LIT Lighting File Format

Contains information about the lighting of the level LIT

Lists

Items and magic item codes used on maps Particle effect codes used on maps Sound effect codes used on maps Graphic effect codes used on maps

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