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America's Army => General Chat => Topic started by: Koden on Friday, February 03, 2012, 19:45:11 PM

Title: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Friday, February 03, 2012, 19:45:11 PM
Edited for disclaimer - February 2015: this is an old guide not longer being updated, some of the tools used were updated by their authors, and therefore things might differ.

As of lately messing with America's army editors (yes i mean both) has given some good results, so i thought about posting a guide i made, for converting 2.8.5 game assets to 2.5.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5

Please keep in mind that the assets you can import are sounds, static meshes and textures. While sounds and textures will be a more simple matter, static meshes will be exported from the original files to a .obj format.

.Obj is a really handy format, because you will find plenty of 3D modeling programs that will let you import the static mesh model with success (by that i mean achieveing fidelity across the process).
Thanks to the tool we'll be using, sounds and texture will be capable of being imported  with no further processing once extracted.

Software and tools in use:

America's Army 2.8.5 install;
America's Army 2.5 install;

AARE 3.3 - extracting tool (made by ELiZ);
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62876385/AARE33.zip (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62876385/AARE33.zip)

Maya 2010, older version of Maya (not including 8.5) will quite surely be fine too.
3DStudio Max
XSI SoftImage Mod Tool(which happens to be available as free but i have to verify if it works correctly).

Unreal Actor X Plugin for one of the above http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/ActorX.html (http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/ActorX.html)

America's Army 2.4.1 editor for mapping and importing game assets.

Starting: extracting the assets

After installing AARE284, open it and type or find your America's Army 2.8.5 folder, click on select, then click load and export all packages. The extracting process will take some time, at least a minute or two.

(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FraeZ7.png&hash=40092f3f0cb85738066dccc8386bcca4)

(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FxdjFk.png&hash=1d2497df8b83ff16eec4e89f20624e52)
 

Converting the static meshes

(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FhxBt7.png&hash=c7a200e5095377a44355ad4de5bee436)

Now you have 3 folders, with Wav for sounds and DDS for textures. Since those are fine already, let's concentrate on the static meshes. Open Maya (using a different tool you'll happen to have quite different settings for importing and exporting) and click import, deselecting group and "remove duplicate shading networks", and select default references in the below menu.

(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FrdLXC.png&hash=e3881d563ecaf7b7fda9db7d6825f584)

(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FnfGu3.png&hash=db3c28db6248773598298bf761756f12)

Click import and select the .obj file you want to import in Maya. Now, please note that since what you are importing is an extracted .obj version of a package containing several staticmeshes, you'll have all of these staticmeshes imported in one workspace. This represents a more than fair amount of models and might drive to freezes depending on your hardware capabilities.

(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FR9PVS.png&hash=f989c1f5ecb9cb90f0f4d0ecf3e9e511)

At this point i suggest you to switch to a ortographic view to get a better viepoint (to do that, press spacebar once, and then with mouse over an ortographic view -front will suit- spacebar once again).
Zoom out (mouse scrolling) and move to your right to see the meshes, they will appear are as lined up to the X axys.

(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FFNeL3.png&hash=b9aeb035c54ca712b4de82d70608ae0a)

 If you imported a big package you will have probably not least than 60/70 meshes, so you'll have to manually move into the workspace and select the one you want to export, or going to the Outliner editor and look up for the name of the one you want. Do a visual check of the model, you might happen to have a tube protruding from your model or something wierd, so just select the unwanted additional tube/rod and delete it.

(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FkSlX6.png&hash=2a91f99447685cbc7122ee904a8fab9d)

(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FS7rNZ.png&hash=42f0a394015669a7722af921dccf7374)

The key point is that if you don't export 1 object at a time, once exported as .ase you will have a unique staticmesh made of the 2 or more meshes you selected. Anyway, if you are willing to convert the whole amount contained in the package, just go to Edit -> Select All.
Obviously this shouldn't be done for packages that go over 10-15mb of size as it will probably take a lot of time (and it might even happen to crash the editor), since in a medium to big package there are more than 80 meshes. Basically, don't waste your time.

IMPORTANT NOTE! You need to place the static mesh you want to export at the very axys origin, otherwise once imported in AA editor it might even fall of of the working area. To do this, select it, go to modify -> center pivot. Then, click on the icon with the arrow close to window right end, and select Absolute Transform, and type 0 in each of the 3 nearby boxes, and press enter. Your object will be now placed at the axys origin.
Note: some staticmeshes gets rotated by 90 degrees on  when exported in the obj.So, if you see a mesh laying over your workspace grid, its likely rotated: rotate by 90 degrees on the X axys to fix the misrotation.

(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FwNPRC.png&hash=4e83f42b68a9e902a15fa698aee0fa1b)

At this point you are ready to export the static meshes, so load the ActorX.mll plugin if you haven't done before. Then, type axmesh in Maya command line (white space with MEL written next to it), and once the window has opened select Selected Items only and Consolidate Output Geometry. Select the output path, and click Export Mesh. Good practises: name your files with the exact name you want them to have when they will became part of a static mesh package.

(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FUzkBI.png&hash=17e7a6b076663607ca1f2b4164f0d63b)

Final step

Launch America's Army Editor 2.4.1, and select the static mesh tab. Go to File, Import and import the file you exported out of Maya. Now remember that if you selected 2 or more meshes in Maya, and then exported, you will find them to actually be as one under one name. Now you can manually add textures to those meshes by right-click-> StaticMeshActor Properties -> display -> skin.

(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FNGcjD.png&hash=1c5d55f6c29899cb35364a6a78a7c41d)

Last but not least, if you use original assets name to get the files you are looking for, remind that:

Quote from: AARE284Author
My process of reading the nametables from America’s Army packages is not perfect, the signs of that is that the objectnames is not 100 % accurate.


Tips (Spanky's): if you take a map and change the file extension from .aao to .usx (unreal staticmeshes packages format) you will be able to use that map as a package of the exact static meshes used in it. Working only for 2.5 maps of course (2.8 maps can't be read straight off 2.4.1 editor but will need a namespace converting aside of the pure assets converting).
Might help if you have issues converting a particular staticmesh, copypaste it to a new empty map, save and try it on.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: BlueBlaster on Saturday, February 04, 2012, 01:53:53 AM
Yea I just couldn't read the whole thing either lol. But I trust Koden. :)
+1 for Skrewy.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Saturday, February 04, 2012, 03:50:55 AM
Yea I just couldn't read the whole thing either lol. But I trust Koden. :)
+1 for Skrewy.

Gonna add images to make things more easier to understand, it can be confusing to have to image what the work into Maya is without actually having worked on it. Also adding a couple thing i reminded.

Edit: done, now i think it's clearer, might add some other parts later (about maps general converting).
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: urban-ninja on Saturday, February 04, 2012, 05:12:00 AM
few maps i would love to see converted:

Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Saltuarius on Saturday, February 04, 2012, 05:27:59 AM
Steamroller...
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Saturday, February 04, 2012, 05:53:55 AM
few maps i would love to see converted:

  • Rummage
  • Floodgate
  • SF Refinery
  • SF Old Town

OldTown seems very very interesting, ill try taking a look at that, of course im already working on other maps but if there's other people willing i can surely write the remaining part of the guide that talks about map converting *wink wink*

p.s. good news, OldTown seems to have only 2 M_AAO package staticmeshes (but it still
has 836 T_AAO class ones, in comparison to t_AA2 ones). AAO tagged assets are the one missing from 2.5, usually. That means there should almost no need to convert meshes but you would have to do a lot of retexturing job.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Saturday, February 04, 2012, 15:33:40 PM
few maps i would love to see converted:

  • Rummage
  • Floodgate
  • SF Refinery
  • SF Old Town


Should probably pay more attention. Rummage and Refinery are already converted.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Saturday, February 04, 2012, 18:17:03 PM
Once we start converting 2.8 maps there will a share of 2.8 assets available as part of the mAAp pack (or at least it is what the idea is, the amount of files might start to became more consistent and so it might need to belong to a different package).

Updating with more details and a pretty important note.

Quote
IMPORTANT NOTE! You need to place the static mesh you want to export at the very axys origin, otherwise once imported in AA editor it might even fall out of the working area. To do this, select it, go to modify -> center pivot. Then, click on the icon with the arrow close to window right end, and select Absolute Transform, and type 0 in each of the 3 nearby boxes, and press enter. Your object will be now placed at the axys origin.

(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FwNPRC.png&hash=4e83f42b68a9e902a15fa698aee0fa1b)
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Saturday, February 04, 2012, 20:31:41 PM
Turned this into a sticky, this is fantastic. Thanks Koden!
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Saturday, February 04, 2012, 20:56:34 PM
Turned this into a sticky, this is fantastic. Thanks Koden!

Ty, a lot of this couldn't have been find out and written down without your help. And i have to wrote another part that should fill the circle of converting a map from 2.8 resources (and i had to ask you a couple questions, pm'ing).
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: BlueBlaster on Saturday, February 04, 2012, 21:26:22 PM
Koden you're such a boss. It's nice to see people doing quality work.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Saturday, February 11, 2012, 12:12:03 PM
Hi


I am the author of one of the above mentioned apps, AARE284.
I had the intentions of moviemaking in Aao, but if would like I could remake it so that it would be possible to export complete maps, I remember doing that for AAo-> UT2004 back in the early days.

I got a few messages the last few days about my work in the old AAo community, I suspect some of them have responded in this thread.

In short, I’m taking requests.

Besides authoring AARE and PBSSCollector, I have a few unreleased tools that I made when making AAo movies.

/ELiZ


Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Saturday, February 11, 2012, 12:15:26 PM
WELCOME! I posted a comment on one of your YouTube videos and I suspect VendorX has been trying to get in contact with you as well. Anything would be appreciated and if you wanted to even create stuff for 2.5, we would certainly welcome it.

Converting 2.8 maps is a pain in the ass :D
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Saturday, February 11, 2012, 12:18:24 PM
WELCOME! I posted a comment on one of your YouTube videos and I suspect VendorX has been trying to get in contact with you as well. Anything would be appreciated and if you wanted to even create stuff for 2.5, we would certainly welcome it.

Converting 2.8 maps is a pain in the ass :D

Any specific map I should start messing with?
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Saturday, February 11, 2012, 12:22:09 PM
Hi


I am the author of one of the above mentioned apps, AARE284.
I had the intentions of moviemaking in Aao, but if would like I could remake it so that it would be possible to export complete maps, I remember doing that for AAo-> UT2004 back in the early days.

I got a few messages the last few days about my work in the old AAo community, I suspect some of them have responded in this thread.

In short, I’m taking requests.

Besides authoring AARE and PBSSCollector, I have a few unreleased tools that I made when making AAo movies.

/ELiZ

Thanks for your contribute, without AARE converting static meshes could have been a real show stopper. Everything you can help us with is really welcome :) at the moment we're converting some maps from 2.8 backwards to 2.5, but i guess Spanky already anticipated you part of the story.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Saturday, February 11, 2012, 12:23:01 PM
Truth be told, I don't really know 2.8 maps that well. We converted Rummage by hand and Koden is working on Interdiction. I think someone wanted OldTown but I don't know how the community feels about that as a whole. No point in converting if nobody will play it :)
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Saturday, February 11, 2012, 12:23:51 PM
Any specific map I should start messing with?

Well, Jonny asked for SnakePlain, but it's a rather huge map and there's plenty of terrain that i believe Jonny meant to have in the 2.5 version of that map (while instead it has been cut out of Interdiction).

SF OldTown is quite a go as it likely has only about 2 static meshes from 2.8 and 800 textures from 2.8 over 21000 from previous versions. So it's fair to say it's a decently complete map on the geometry side.

After that, there's a good amount of custom maps, if you want a suggestion you can take a look at Sledgehammer (there might be a coop version around). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdvSwoioAAM

Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Saturday, February 11, 2012, 12:33:57 PM
I'm downloading 2.8.5 now.

If I manage to do this, the plan is to convert the map(s) completly without much manual intervention.
Terrain, Meshes...

I'll take a look, and repor back what can be done.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Saturday, February 11, 2012, 12:37:46 PM
Some textures and meshes aren't in 2.5 that do exist in 2.8. It would be good to put those in 2.5 packages in case they're used by multiple maps, this would cut down file size rather than using mylevel. Just an idea though. If there's a 2.8 map you like, I would say go for it rather than guessing one the 2.5 community would like.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Saturday, February 11, 2012, 12:41:39 PM
Some textures and meshes aren't in 2.5 that do exist in 2.8. It would be good to put those in 2.5 packages in case they're used by multiple maps, this would cut down file size rather than using mylevel. Just an idea though. If there's a 2.8 map you like, I would say go for it rather than guessing one the 2.5 community would like.

I only played bridge, from v1.1 to v2.8.X, so I would't  have a clue.
I've been out of touch for such a long time, I'm just need a starting point.
I've saw mention of 2.4.1 editor, where can I download that? I assume if you can load up what I produce in that editor you are good to go?
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Saturday, February 11, 2012, 12:45:24 PM
I've saw mention of 2.4.1 editor, where can I download that? I assume if you can load up what I produce in that editor you are good to go?

Well yes, provided to have the packages with a correct linking. As it's mentioned in Spanky's guide, 2.8.5 packages feature different root names in comparison to their 2.5 relatives (M_AA2_ instead of M2-).
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Saturday, February 11, 2012, 12:48:43 PM
I sent you a PM ELiZ. We do use the 2.4.1 editor to create/edit maps for AA 2.5.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Saturday, February 11, 2012, 14:32:30 PM
I think I got all that I need to convert packages from 2.8.5 to 2.5.0.
Now I only have to dig up old memories from 6-7 years ago about the pitfalls and I know there are some not so obvious.


Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Saturday, February 11, 2012, 14:54:58 PM
I think I got all that I need to convert packages from 2.8.5 to 2.5.0.
Now I only have to dig up old memories from 6-7 years ago about the pitfalls and I know there are some not so obvious.

One could write a book (perhaps volumes) on the pitfalls and quirks of Unreal :D
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: BlueBlaster on Saturday, February 11, 2012, 16:21:26 PM
Came here to post that when Spanky was making CD's for the mAAp developers a few years ago when we thought we were finished with AA, I remember he put a copy of ELiZ's 3DSMax bridge. Just some trivia for you guys :)
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Thursday, February 16, 2012, 14:28:25 PM
Status report:

About 80% done.
Almost all 2.8.5 packages converted to v2.5.0 can now be loaded in the 2.4.1 editor.
Only 4 maps fails on the convert.

I still suffer for not to be able to decode the nametable 100% correctly, some characters still get jumbled. Hopefully I will be able to finish this weekend, when I finally have some time over.

Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Thursday, February 16, 2012, 15:49:25 PM
Status report:

About 80% done.
Almost all 2.8.5 packages converted to v2.5.0 can now be loaded in the 2.4.1 editor.
Only 4 maps fails on the convert.

I still suffer for not to be able to decode the nametable 100% correctly, some characters still get jumbled. Hopefully I will be able to finish this weekend, when I finally have some time over.

I'm getting a "Arithmetic operation resulted in an overflow" message after a few maps, it stops at Canyon. I have a few custom made maps, would that make for an issue?
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Thursday, February 16, 2012, 16:01:57 PM
I'm getting a "Arithmetic operation resulted in an overflow" message after a few maps, it stops at Canyon. I have a few custom made maps, would that make for an issue?

the version you tested had som absolute paths for what maps to skip, ie:
D:\Workbench\AARE\America's Army 2.8.5\Maps\Canyon.aao

I've attached a beta2 vesion to to this post.
It still have alot of issues, but it should be able to get past 4 maps I have Total Failure with.

Make sure to unpack it anywhere else BUT the game folder.


Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Thursday, February 16, 2012, 16:17:00 PM
the version you tested had som absolute paths for what maps to skip, ie:
D:\Workbench\AARE\America's Army 2.8.5\Maps\Canyon.aao

I've attached a beta2 vesion to to this post.
It still have alot of issues, but it should be able to get past 4 maps I have Total Failure with.

Make sure to unpack it anywhere else BUT the game folder.

Roger that, thank you for the fast reply ;)

I tried the new version and it works.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Thursday, February 16, 2012, 17:06:22 PM
Eliz may i ask if you opened a converted map in the 2.4.1 editor? I have something wierd going on, as i ported all the converted packages (static meshes, textures, sounds animations and maps) into my AA 2.5 folder, and opened a map into the editor but i see many textures missing despite the packages being there. I hope it's just something wrong on my install :)
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Thursday, February 16, 2012, 17:15:30 PM
Eliz may i ask if you opened a converted map in the 2.4.1 editor? I have something wierd going on, as i ported all the converted packages (static meshes, textures, sounds animations and maps) into my AA 2.5 folder, and opened a map into the editor but i see many textures missing despite the packages being there. I hope it's just something wrong on my install :)

It's not you, it´s one of the things I hope to able to fix this weekend.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Thursday, February 16, 2012, 17:25:34 PM
It's not you, it´s one of the things I hope to able to fix this weekend.

Okie then, the result is very good already as no static meshes are missing, since they take more time to be replaced.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Friday, February 17, 2012, 11:15:51 AM
Here is Beta3, most of the issues are solved.
I'm still not 100% satisfied with the nametable issue, but I’ve added some more workarounds so it now works decent.

We also have the Issue with M_AAs vs M2-
What is the best solution?

Koden, I heard that you been working with Interdiction  ;)

(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi41.tinypic.com%2F1pym2w.png&hash=bcc01514e4914de4af6af31640eea3a9)
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Friday, February 17, 2012, 14:16:13 PM
Wow O_O yes i was working on Interdiction and actually the map was pretty much complete (on the visual side). Now a converted version made through your tool will most likely be better i guess.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Friday, February 17, 2012, 14:50:02 PM
Now a converted version made through your tool will most likely be better i guess.

But it won't have the tender love you put into it :D

Also, I'm a bit concerned with packages. From what I understand ELiZ, you've just converted the 2.8.x packages to a format the 2.5 engine & editor will use. The converted maps then use those packages right? That's cool but the problem I have is that a lot of those objects/sounds/textures are already in 2.5 and it's not going to be good to make people download duplicates of files. Is there a way that your program can check if an object/texture/sound exists in 2.5's packages and use those existing packages rather than the converted ones? Maybe we can trim down the stuff converted from 2.8 to only things that don't exist in 2.5.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Friday, February 17, 2012, 14:53:01 PM
But it won't have the tender love you put into it :D


It would have sounds...but i appreciate, i actually put much passion in it :) thank you.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Saturday, February 18, 2012, 03:05:11 AM
But it won't have the tender love you put into it :D

Also, I'm a bit concerned with packages. From what I understand ELiZ, you've just converted the 2.8.x packages to a format the 2.5 engine & editor will use. The converted maps then use those packages right? That's cool but the problem I have is that a lot of those objects/sounds/textures are already in 2.5 and it's not going to be good to make people download duplicates of files. Is there a way that your program can check if an object/texture/sound exists in 2.5's packages and use those existing packages rather than the converted ones? Maybe we can trim down the stuff converted from 2.8 to only things that don't exist in 2.5.

That sounds like a good plan, perhaps create new packages, ie T_AA25_ and M_AA25_
I should be able to create a list of all objects in all the exting 2.5 packages.

But first things first, I still have to fix the name table 100%, otherwize we wont be able to check if the object exists or not.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Saturday, February 18, 2012, 03:08:44 AM
That sounds like a good plan, perhaps create new packages, ie T_AA25_ and M_AA25_
I should be able to create a list of all objects in all the exting 2.5 packages.

Koden actually started doing that by hand with your older AARE program, before you started posting here :)

Is there a way you could explain how you're doing this? I mean, simple and whatnot? It just boggles my mind as I thought 2.8.x stuff was encrypted.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Saturday, February 18, 2012, 03:37:23 AM
Koden actually started doing that by hand with your older AARE program, before you started posting here :)

Is there a way you could explain how you're doing this? I mean, simple and whatnot? It just boggles my mind as I thought 2.8.x stuff was encrypted.

It's encrypted in such a way that I was able to "crack" it in a day just by looking at the data in an hexeditor.

Code: [Select]
' Create the 64KB key
        asa = 0
        For ca2 = 0 To 255
            For ca = 0 To 255
                If (ca2 And 3) < 2 Then
                    If (asa And 3) > 1 Then
                        SecondLevel(asa) = 1
                    Else
                    End If
                Else
                    If (asa And 3) < 2 Then
                        SecondLevel(asa) = 1
                    Else
                    End If
                End If
                FirstLevel(asa) = (ca Xor ca2)
                asa = asa + 1
            Next ca
        Next ca2

'load the file into an byte array
        cc = My.Computer.FileSystem.ReadAllBytes(name_Renamed)

'Apply the key to bytes 68->End
        For Dcounter = 68 To UBound(cc)
               asa = Dcounter And 65535
               cc(Dcounter) = cc(Dcounter) Xor FirstLevel(asa)
               If SecondLevel(asa) = 1 Then cc(Dcounter) = (cc(Dcounter) >> 7) + (cc(Dcounter) << 1)
        Next Dcounter

The Name table is then encrypted with a second layer, and it's that I'm currently working on right now.
I almost got it right.

The Exporttable and importtable isn't encrypted with a second layer, but instead it is modified in a few ways:
Flags is xor'd with FFFFFFFF
ObjectName and Flagss  has swapped places compared to a 2.5 package.


Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Saturday, February 18, 2012, 11:33:21 AM
Pretty smart man :)
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: BlueBlaster on Saturday, February 18, 2012, 14:26:50 PM
Well, ELiZ you are pretty damn intelligent haha.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Saturday, February 25, 2012, 09:32:02 AM
Whese are the maps that are in 2.8.5 that isnät in 2.5.0?
Code: [Select]
BRM_Range.aao
Canyon.aao
District.aao
Eagle_Tower.aao
ES2Border.aao
ES2Bridge.aao
ES2McKenna.aao
Interdiction.aao
JavelinTraining.aao
Recruiting_Station.aao
Rummage.aao
SFHospitalSE.aao
SFSnakePlain.aao
ShootHouse.aao
SMU_GH_SFFloodgate.aao
Steamroller.aao
Weapons_Fam.aao
Vehicle_Training_Driver.aao
Vehicle_Training_Gunner.aao
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Saturday, February 25, 2012, 10:09:10 AM
i was going to mark out the ones that are missing, but they pretty much all miss from 2.5 . There are many Training maps in there, from Javelin's to the Humvee driving ones.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: BlueBlaster on Saturday, February 25, 2012, 16:29:40 PM
Thats correct ELiZ for vanilla 2.5

2.5Assist has Rummage now. Koden is still working on Interdiction.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Sunday, February 26, 2012, 09:09:09 AM
Thats correct ELiZ for vanilla 2.5

2.5Assist has Rummage now. Koden is still working on Interdiction.

This is the current state of the direct convert of the 2.8.5 map.
(https://aao25.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi40.tinypic.com%2F339lqur.png&hash=d7a423dc7eb11f1db317f26a94bc4a01)
Naturally the skill of you all will be needed to fix it afterwards, I'm not a UnrealEd Export, I'm just a ByteJunkie.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: BlueBlaster on Sunday, February 26, 2012, 15:48:36 PM
Excellent work ELiZ. We are working to do this together. You're as important to the team as me, or Spanky, or Koden, or anyone else.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Jonnym on Sunday, February 26, 2012, 16:10:10 PM
I noticed the outside stuff was removed from interdiction, was there a reason, like reduce lag or filesize or something?
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Sunday, February 26, 2012, 16:12:23 PM
Terrain is a pain to convert properly (without ELiZ's tools). I just decided to remove it as it made the map too big and the outside wasn't very important IMO. It probably reduced file size quite a bit and for those that have slower computers, playing outside probably lagged them with all the foliage.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Sunday, February 26, 2012, 16:13:02 PM
I noticed the outside stuff was removed from interdiction, was there a reason, like reduce lag or filesize or something?

I should have had to make all of the terrain by hand with the terrain brush tool. This is what i was told by Spanky and i believe it wouldn't have been a simple process.

We posted almost at the same time. The outside might be used for another interesting map, it looks like a jungle :)
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Sunday, February 26, 2012, 16:16:41 PM
Part of it too was that we all took a break for a while from the editor. Rummage was my first conversion in a long while and when I did the terrain for it, it was a huge pain. I believe if I had done it right, it would have made things easier but it's fine as-is.

I could have done Interdiction's terrain but I still stand by what I said to Koden; It's too much work for not enough benefit. I mean, it makes the map bigger which is bad for small teams and the outdoor area isn't used much past 10-20 seconds every round.

I was also inspired by the outdoor area to make my own jungle/forest map so for those that like that type of gameplay, I'll try to keep working on that.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Sunday, February 26, 2012, 16:50:53 PM
Here is Beta4..

Most terrain Issues is solved..
Until I solve the encoding ot the nametable I'll use a Names.txt that contains the Byte->Name translations.
Canyon  now converts, but I'm still having problems, I think it's because the long names, 64 bytes.

Be prepared for it takeing ages to convert, I now lookup all the names that is in the Names.txt, and only if it not on the list, I try to decode it.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/62876385/AARE300Beta4.zip
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Sunday, February 26, 2012, 17:13:35 PM
Here is Beta5.
It now loads the Failing Maps, Canyon+3 others.
It still have problems with the ZoneInfos on those Maps, but at least it loads them now.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/62876385/AARE300Beta5.zip
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Sunday, February 26, 2012, 18:15:45 PM
Yay :D that's great, wonderful job EliZ!
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: -Dave- on Tuesday, March 06, 2012, 15:52:34 PM
guys if someone want to do map he download this ?
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Tuesday, March 06, 2012, 16:06:30 PM
No, this is just the converting tool. There is no public mapping tool for 2.5.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: -Dave- on Tuesday, March 06, 2012, 16:19:53 PM
ah kk
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Sunday, March 11, 2012, 16:43:29 PM
Good news, finally cracked the nametable nut.
So now all packages loads correctly

So here is the v1.0 of the new program :

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/62876385/AA2.8.5Converter.v.1.0.zip

Now that the nametable issue is fixed, I should be able to move quickly to the real issue, strip away the material already included in the 2.5.0 packages, but under a different packagename.


Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Sunday, March 11, 2012, 16:45:02 PM
Awesome! I'll have a look at this in a bit :)
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Sunday, March 11, 2012, 17:00:01 PM
Here is the complete Code for the Second layer of encryption that is applied to the name table.
The first I have already posted in this thread.
Code: [Select]
        offset = gheader.NameOffset
        ReDim nametable(gheader.namecount - 1)
        For f = 0 To gheader.namecount - 1
            NameStr = ""
            Call ReadIndexFromArray(offset)
            bsa = (-bt) - 1
            offset = offset + bl
            nextRol = 5
            For yu = 1 To bsa
                S1 = cc(offset)
                S2 = cc(offset + 1)
                S3 = S1 Xor S2
                For g = 1 To nextRol
                    S3 = ROR8(S3)
                Next g
                NameStr = NameStr & Chr(S3)
                offset = offset + 2
                nextRol = (S1 + 3) And 7
            Next yu
            nametable(f).text = NameStr
            offset = offset + 1
            offset = offset + 2
            ReDim nametable(f).flags(4)
            For yu = 0 To 3
                nametable(f).flags(yu) = cc(offset + yu)
            Next yu
            offset = offset + 4
        Next f
Looking back in what I was doing wrong, I cant help but slap myself for beeing stupid.
Considering how easy the solution is when I see it, it the row with:

Code: [Select]
nextRol = (S1 + 3) And 7

I thought they would do something completely different, after all, they were connected with the Army after all, I assumed the level of encryption would be more complicated.

The above code, and the first layer posted before can be used to mess with 2.8.5, so it’s up to you to moderate it or not as you see fit.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Sunday, March 11, 2012, 17:04:35 PM
v1.1 us ip.

No improvements featurewice, it just load packages faster:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/62876385/AA2.8.5Converter.v.1.1.zip
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Sunday, March 11, 2012, 17:18:27 PM
The above code, and the first layer posted before can be used to mess with 2.8.5, so it’s up to you to moderate it or not as you see fit.

No problem, I don't think anybody here cares about 2.8.5 :) Great work!
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Koden on Sunday, March 11, 2012, 17:23:31 PM
I am impressed  :D :D downloaded and started converting back, and then loaded straight in the editor...works brilliant, no linked packages missing except for a very few (not the ones that matter anyway). Every object and every zone is at its place with no scaling issue or whatsoever issue. Very very nice job :D i was actually even able to load a couple of custom maps without hassle.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Possessed on Sunday, March 11, 2012, 18:24:59 PM
guess its off-topic but, check this:
http://eliot.pwc-networks.com/portfolio/view/21/UE+Explorer
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: NoBigDeal on Wednesday, September 04, 2013, 16:29:24 PM
So, you guys are using the leaked E3 AA241 to mess up with AA25 - nice...

BTW: UE Explorer don't support AA - need to change that...
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Wednesday, September 04, 2013, 16:31:21 PM
So, you guys are using the leaked E3 AA241 to mess up with AA25 - nice...

Nope, just to import assets and edit/make maps.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: NoBigDeal on Wednesday, September 04, 2013, 16:46:11 PM
That's exactly what i said.  UScript is incompatible between those two versions, so closest to both is the UE Runtime 2226 - I'm right?
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Wednesday, September 04, 2013, 16:52:07 PM
"Mess with" and "edit maps" isn't really "exactly" :)

I don't know what our SDK is based off, I know next to nothing about UScript.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: NoBigDeal on Wednesday, September 04, 2013, 17:03:54 PM
Oh, I see...
Anyways, this 'config' work for me. There are some limitations, but...
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Wednesday, September 04, 2013, 18:16:41 PM
What are you talking about?
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: NoBigDeal on Wednesday, September 04, 2013, 19:35:58 PM
I just wanted you to know that I have access to AA25 content / uscript.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Wednesday, September 04, 2013, 19:37:01 PM
Cool. Are you wanting to contribute?
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: NoBigDeal on Wednesday, September 04, 2013, 19:48:31 PM
Maybe... First I need to collect some info about this version of UE, then we'll see what I can do.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Wednesday, September 04, 2013, 19:54:58 PM
I ask because I don't think you've showed us what you're capable of. Just curious.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Possessed on Wednesday, September 04, 2013, 20:07:23 PM
I just wanted you to know that I have access to AA25 content / uscript.
you don't need to know uscript or UE to see our packages and their sources :D

but but, are you Eliot (UE Explorer dev)?

Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Wednesday, September 04, 2013, 20:59:58 PM
but but, are you Eliot (UE Explorer dev)?

Ohhh, could be :) I read his sentence the other way, as in 'we' need to fix it, not 'I'. IP matches...
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Lord.aNoobis on Thursday, September 05, 2013, 02:19:52 AM
this project could sure use some more developers.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Possessed on Thursday, September 05, 2013, 02:21:23 AM
this project could sure use some more developers.
sounds like Dev's are objects :D, yea this is still America's Army :P
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: NoBigDeal on Thursday, September 05, 2013, 14:38:40 PM
you don't need to know uscript or UE to see our packages and their sources :D
You can't make i.e. a new map simply by looking at the game content. First you need to know how to do it, then you can do it by hard work. In my case, knowledge isn't a problem.

but but, are you Eliot (UE Explorer dev)?
Sorry to disappoint you...
I ask because I don't think you've showed us what you're capable of. Just curious.
Don't worry, you've made your choice and I wll respect that - nothing (if any...) will goes public.

... IP matches...
...mine is dynamic...
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Possessed on Thursday, September 05, 2013, 14:46:57 PM
I meant explicit access to the source, nothing less or more :)
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Spanky on Thursday, September 05, 2013, 15:00:51 PM
Don't worry, you've made your choice and I wll respect that - nothing (if any...) will goes public.

To be honest, I'm not concerned about you having a SDK. It's not super hard to get and that's coming from someone that knows nothing about UScript.

I just don't know what you're doing. You said you might be interested in contributing but everything you talk about is vague and mysterious. If you want to join us, you're going to have to prove what you're capable of and prove that you can be trusted. I'm not trying to be a hard ass, there's just a lot of security stuff on our end that could become vulnerable.
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: Genome.Soldier on Monday, January 19, 2015, 20:23:14 PM
Don't mean to necro an old thread, but I can't get the sound files to extract without getting an overflow error.

Can someone upload them somewhere for me or assist me with this?
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Monday, January 19, 2015, 20:27:18 PM
Don't mean to necro an old thread, but I can't get the sound files to extract without getting an overflow error.

Can someone upload them somewhere for me or assist me with this?

What version of AA are you using this on, 25Assist?
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: ELiZ on Monday, January 19, 2015, 20:31:46 PM
The latest version of AARE is here:
http://aao25.com/forum/maap/america's-army-resource-extractor-v3-0/msg67611/#msg67611 (http://aao25.com/forum/maap/america's-army-resource-extractor-v3-0/msg67611/#msg67611)
Title: Re: Guide for converting game assets from America's Army 2.8.5 to America's Army 2.5
Post by: [K][K].BigPappa on Wednesday, April 08, 2015, 18:05:10 PM
very nice guys,(fog for me, do not understand)