How to play around with TMW resource files
Posted: 06 Jun 2007, 16:56
When you downloaded TMW as a prepacked install packet for your operating system it comes without most of the graphics, maps and so on. These are downloaded at the first start by the updater. Here I will explain you how to get these files so you can play around with them, customize TMW and maybe contribute to the development.
Method A: Unpack the updates
To use this method you just need a program that can unpack zip archives and no other tools. But you won't get the most recent development versions of the resource files but only those that have been released to the general public.
1. Update the mana world
Start tmw and let an updater run to ensure that you got the newest updates.
2. Locate the updates
The updates are stored in your user directory. For users of UNIX-like operating systems this should be usr/home/*your_username*/.mana/updates/updates.themanaworld.org. Windows users find their user directory in C:\Documents and Settings\*your_username*\AppData\Local\mana\updates\updates.themanaworld.org
("Documents and Settings" is called different on different language versions of windows and the appdata directory is hidden by default)
There you find all the updates you downloaded since you first installed tmw. When you are a long-time player, most of them will be obsolete. You can find a list of the updates that are actually used in the file resources.xml.
3. Unpack the updates
Unpack the zip archives listed in resources.xml into the subfolder "data" of your tmw installation (When there are any zip archives not listed in resources.xml in your update folder don't unpack those. They contain outdated files that have been replaced by later updates).
4. Tell TMW to ignore the updates and use the files in the data directory
To do so you have to start tmw with the additional command line parameter -u
Windows users can right-click on the tmw shortcut on their desktop and select Properties. In the field Target you find the path to your tmw executable in quotation marks. Add -u behind the quotation marks. It should now read something like that:
"D:\Programs\The Mana World\tmw.exe" -u
Method B: Use Git to get the latest developer versions of all files
This method should be prefered over the other because you will receive the most recent development versions of the files. But it requires you to install a new program.
1. Install Git
Git is a distributed, commandline-based sourcecode management tool which makes it easy to work with many people on a software project.
Most linux distributions should have Git in their packet management systems.
A windows version can be found here: http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list
2. "clone" the git repository.
Open your command shell, browse to the directory where you would like to have the files and enter:
git clone git://gitorious.org/tmw/tmwa-client-data.git tmwdata
This will create a new folder "tmwdata" and download all the files here.
3. Tell TMW to ignore the updates and use the files in your new directory
To do so you have to start tmw with the additional command line parameters -u -d path/to/your/data/folder
Windows users can right-click on the tmw shortcut on their desktop and select Properties. In the field Target you find the path to your tmw executable in quotation marks. Add -u -d behind the quotation marks followed the folder where you cloned the git repository. It should now read something like that:
"D:\programs\The Mana World\tmw.exe" -u -d D:\tmw\data
4. Update the repository from time to time
To synchronize your local repository with the newest develpmont changes open your command shell, navigate to your tmw data folder and type:
git stash
git pull
git stash apply
You can skip stash and stash apply when you didn't change any files.
Now you can edit or replace all resource files of TMW like maps, graphics, sounds and the changes will be visible in the game. You can also change what file is used for what to some extend by editing the xml files in the data directory.
Happy Hacking
Too lazy to do all this just to get one file?
You can also browse the content repository online:
http://gitorious.org/tmw/tmwa-client-data/trees/master
Method A: Unpack the updates
To use this method you just need a program that can unpack zip archives and no other tools. But you won't get the most recent development versions of the resource files but only those that have been released to the general public.
1. Update the mana world
Start tmw and let an updater run to ensure that you got the newest updates.
2. Locate the updates
The updates are stored in your user directory. For users of UNIX-like operating systems this should be usr/home/*your_username*/.mana/updates/updates.themanaworld.org. Windows users find their user directory in C:\Documents and Settings\*your_username*\AppData\Local\mana\updates\updates.themanaworld.org
("Documents and Settings" is called different on different language versions of windows and the appdata directory is hidden by default)
There you find all the updates you downloaded since you first installed tmw. When you are a long-time player, most of them will be obsolete. You can find a list of the updates that are actually used in the file resources.xml.
3. Unpack the updates
Unpack the zip archives listed in resources.xml into the subfolder "data" of your tmw installation (When there are any zip archives not listed in resources.xml in your update folder don't unpack those. They contain outdated files that have been replaced by later updates).
4. Tell TMW to ignore the updates and use the files in the data directory
To do so you have to start tmw with the additional command line parameter -u
Windows users can right-click on the tmw shortcut on their desktop and select Properties. In the field Target you find the path to your tmw executable in quotation marks. Add -u behind the quotation marks. It should now read something like that:
"D:\Programs\The Mana World\tmw.exe" -u
Method B: Use Git to get the latest developer versions of all files
This method should be prefered over the other because you will receive the most recent development versions of the files. But it requires you to install a new program.
1. Install Git
Git is a distributed, commandline-based sourcecode management tool which makes it easy to work with many people on a software project.
Most linux distributions should have Git in their packet management systems.
A windows version can be found here: http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list
2. "clone" the git repository.
Open your command shell, browse to the directory where you would like to have the files and enter:
git clone git://gitorious.org/tmw/tmwa-client-data.git tmwdata
This will create a new folder "tmwdata" and download all the files here.
3. Tell TMW to ignore the updates and use the files in your new directory
To do so you have to start tmw with the additional command line parameters -u -d path/to/your/data/folder
Windows users can right-click on the tmw shortcut on their desktop and select Properties. In the field Target you find the path to your tmw executable in quotation marks. Add -u -d behind the quotation marks followed the folder where you cloned the git repository. It should now read something like that:
"D:\programs\The Mana World\tmw.exe" -u -d D:\tmw\data
4. Update the repository from time to time
To synchronize your local repository with the newest develpmont changes open your command shell, navigate to your tmw data folder and type:
git stash
git pull
git stash apply
You can skip stash and stash apply when you didn't change any files.
Now you can edit or replace all resource files of TMW like maps, graphics, sounds and the changes will be visible in the game. You can also change what file is used for what to some extend by editing the xml files in the data directory.
Happy Hacking
Too lazy to do all this just to get one file?
You can also browse the content repository online:
http://gitorious.org/tmw/tmwa-client-data/trees/master