hak format / organization

AcadiusLost · Post by **AcadiusLost** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 2:19 am

I talked with GF about this briefly today, but let's get some discussion going on how we want to structure the haks as we start to add custom content for ALFA's use in NWN2. So far we've only been using a small script hak, which so far contains nothing really needed client-side- but that will change with the next ACR release.

GF's initial suggestion was to break content down into 3 haks to begin with:

1. A tileset hak (including Deep Halls, and others)

2. A textures hak (Including the snow textures)

3 Script/random small things hak, an extension of what we've been using.

Apparently the textures aren't working from inside a hak yet, so some of this may be premature, but how does that sound organizationally?

indio · Post by **indio** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 4:14 am

Haks, where possible, may be best orgaised via toolset palette categories:

- Tilesets
- Items
- Monsters
- Placeables
- Textures
- Sounds
- ALFA essentials

Keep everything separate, if it's not too big a pain.

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 5:07 am

I agree, organize by palette. I setup the file release packages on sourceforge on that basis as well. I think it's probably the most intuitive method we can run with.

Grand Fromage · Post by **Grand Fromage** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 5:27 am

My only thought so far was to keep things broken up into multiple smaller haks. The fact is that we probably won't have anywhere near as much hak content, since the base game content doesn't suck this time around. Plus, a few little textures will serve the same purpose as an entire tileset did in NWN. So, there's not much point in consolidating too heavily.

Breaking it up by the toolset palette is a pretty easy way to do it, so I think that's fine.

AcadiusLost · Post by **AcadiusLost** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 6:31 pm

Is it worth trying to keep the total number of haks low? The more we split up the haks, the easier they are to independently update, but also the more hassle for Average Joe Member to dowload and put into the right place.

As an update, I tried repackaging GF's snow pack into an alfa_terrain01.hak for Marklos to switch to on 002 The Far North, we were able to get the snow working without overrides that way, though he said he had some trouble trying to paint new snow in the toolset when using just the hak (despite still having the .bmp files in his toolset machine's /Terrain folder). So, that part may still be an issue with the 2da working from inside a hak- but the good news is we can work around it and still have things work for players without an override solution. I seem to remember having trouble opening the toolset while I had the 2da in my override folder, though.

Thinking about it now, I probably should have called that file alfa_textures01.hak instead of alfa_terrain01. That's easily enough fixed before the next official update though. Are there other custom textures we should be bundling in there this time around, perhaps from approved Vault content?

Grand Fromage · Post by **Grand Fromage** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 7:09 pm

Snow doesn't work in the toolset without an override, until the game file system restructuring (whenever that'll be). How did you get it to show up in-game? I still can't get snow to work in my module with a hak OR overrides, though it's fine in the toolset.

If I can figure that out I have more textures in my mod's pack, which I've just been using as the testing ground for the ALFA one.

AcadiusLost · Post by **AcadiusLost** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 8:51 pm

As I understand it, this was how we did it (and Marklos is experimenting as we speak to get more definitive answers).

Marklos builds his areas using the override. Once they are complete, we associate the terrain hak, which includes the terrainmaterials.2da and the other 12 texture files. The module was saved and closed, then the override was cleared out. The module was reopened, reading the textures from the hak instead- when all looked well, it was baked (with a clean override folder), and then hosted on a separate machine (which had the hak /and/ overrides). When so hosted, the snow appeared correctly to clients (me) connecting remotely with just the terrain hak, and an empty override directory.

Not sure if the override was needed server-side or not, we'll test to find out for sure. Marklos did report an inability to add more snow in the toolset when just using the hak though.

indio · Post by **indio** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 11:57 pm

Excellent experiment.

Hey, isn't a snow texture coming in MotB? Do we need a custom one?

Grand Fromage · Post by **Grand Fromage** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:22 am

I have quite a few, plus northern servers would probably like to build right now instead of waiting. Personally my entire module is snow, so that's my interest, and I know Marklos only started building because of the texture pack. And we want custom textures in general, the basic ones are a bit limited.

I'm going to see if I can knock an answer out of Obsidian about it. Custom textures were significantly less of a pain in the ass before, I bet they accidentally broke something and can fix it.

AcadiusLost · Post by **AcadiusLost** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 5:13 pm

AcadiusLost wrote:Not sure if the override was needed server-side or not, we'll test to find out for sure. Marklos did report an inability to add more snow in the toolset when just using the hak though.

To follow up on this: the override was not necessary, client-side or server-side, for seeing the snow textures on the server. However, it seems the override is necessary for the builder to add and work with snow in the toolset. Removing the overrides (leaving the hak in place) and then baking (passing along the new pwc to your players) may have been the key.

And I would agree that it makes sense to use GF's snow texture in the near-term, as opposed to putting every snowy server on hold until the fall (or longer, if they have setbacks).

GF: Which other tenatively approved material could be ready to wrap up into a hak or three, and does any of it need 2da edits/merges?

Grand Fromage · Post by **Grand Fromage** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 1:13 am

We can definitely start the tileset hak with the deep halls tileset. I'll go through the placeable ones this week (hopefully; helping my dad move so I may not have the time) and find the good ones, those'll all need to be merged.

If anyone wants to volunteer to check items that'd be kewl.

indio · Post by **indio** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 1:18 am

Yeah, I'll help with items.

There are probably very few at this stage, but any worth it I'll have a look at.

Grand Fromage · Post by **Grand Fromage** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 1:56 am

indio wrote:Yeah, I'll help with items.

There are probably very few at this stage, but any worth it I'll have a look at.

There are some that look good on paper, the question is how they look in game. I'll post a list soonish.

indio · Post by **indio** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 5:27 am

I'll try and get to items tonight. Too distracted by the toolset.