description of most files of modding intrest

[rpgkdh]

 description of most files of modding intrest
written by Ojan
(Finished 30 December - 2003)

About this tutorial:
I thought that all the file extensions that StarCraft modders are talking about might confuse many newbies, and figured that I should do something about it. This tutorial will cover just that, it will describe what the files are, and how to mod them. After reading this, you will hopefully don't wonder what the heck the *.mpq, *.grp, *.bin, *.smk or whatever files are. The files in the list is somewhat organized after their modding importance, so the most important and common files will be first in the list. Many of these files will just be needed to modify if you are making TCs (Total Conversions, i.e changing much stuff - instead of just a unit to two). Anyway, here we go :)

File	Description
*.MPQ - MoPaQ - Mike O'brien PaCK	Nearly all StarCraft modding is using MPQ Archives. MPQ archives are basicly a file with loads of other files in it, similar to a *.zip file. Nearly all StarCraft modding is based on MPQ files. Most of the modifing you'll make will be in the files inside of the MPQ files. StarCraft itself uses three diffrent MPQ files, StarDat.mpq, BrooDat.mpq and patch_rt.mpq. StarDat contains files such as StarCraft (original) unit graphics, Portraits, unit stats, sounds, weapons stats and much more. BrooDat contains the same thing, but is updated with what BroodWar added. patch_rt.mpq contains all the information that patches fixes. In English this means that much of the things that patches changes will change or update files inside of patch_rt.mpq. Much of what's worth editing can be found in the MPQ files. If you want to know more about how the MPQ files is constructed, then you can see this page. The best and easiest way to create your own MPQs with your modified files is to use WinMPQ. It is made by ShadowFlare, and can be found at her page, here. Most of the files that you will edit will be files that is inside either StarDat.mpq, BrooDat.mpq or patch_rt.mpq. To make StarCraft load those files, you must create a MPQ file, and put your modified files in that MPQ. To load the MPQ files, you use MPQDraft, that can be found in the Downloads section. These are the *.mpq files: StarDat.mpq, BrooDat.mpq, patch_rt.mpq, all *.scm/*.scx (starcraft maps) files and install.exe on your StarCraft and BroodWar CD
*.GRP - GRaPhics file	All unit animation is in the *.grp files. Everything from the Marine graphics to the Guardian attack graphics to the wireframs of the units (the grind-net showing how much damage a unit have) graphics are in a *.grp files. The *.grp files themselves is located in the *mpq files. In order to edit them you must convert them to *.bmp format. You do that with RetroGRP. That program converts each picture in the *.grp file to *.bmp files. When you want them back in *.grp format (When you're finished modifying them), you simply convert them back. Note that not all graphics are in *.grp files. All unit graphics is, along with a few other things. Portraits for example is in *.smk format. Examples of *.grp files: unit\protoss\arbiter.grp, unit\thingy\NukeBeam.grp, unit\wirefram\grpwire.grp
*.DAT - DATa files	There are a few *.dat files. If you want to change the units, portraits, weapons, upgrades etc (Stats of them, not graphics), then you would want to modify the *.dat files. The best two ways of modifying the *.dat files is to either use Arsenal III or Arsenal Zero. You could also use ArrEdit, but it's harder to use. Don't use Arsenal II that comes with StarDraft (Don't use StarDraft at all), it is very buggy. *.dat files decide how to put the rest of the files in the MPQ together. For more help about modifying the *.dat files, see the StarCraft Editing Bible. Here is a list of all the *.dat files, and a short description of what they do: arr\flingy.dat Has data about movement control such as how to control the graphics of the unit when you move it in diffrent directions etc. arr\images.dat Here you can change things such as if the graphic will turn when you move the unit around, what palette the unit uses along with other things arr\mapdata.dat Here you can change in what order the campaigns will come. arr\orders.dat orders.dat has data about the orders. arr\portdata.dat This file contains data about the portraits. arr\sfxdata.dat It contains information about the sounds. arr\sprites.dat Here you can edit what Sprite number the graphics uses, how long the HP bar beneth a selected unit is, and information about the Selection Circle arr\techdata.dat It contains information of the different technologies. Some examples of a technologies is EMP Shockwave, Ensnare, Mind Control etc. In the Technology editor in Arsenal III, you can edit things such as which Icon a specified Technology uses, how much time, energy and resources it costs, what Race it is for etc. arr\units.dat units.dat is the file that is most commonly modified. It has information about a units HP, food requirements, if it is a detector or not, if it's a organic unit, a hero, what upgrade to use for it, if it's placable in StarEdit, what graphics and portrait to use for the unit and much more. arr\upgrades.dat upgrades.dat is similar to techdata.dat. It has nearly the same values, but they are for the upgrades instead of Technologies. arr\weapons.dat Contains information of the weapons. It determinates for example what Icon the weapon has, how much damage the weapon does, if it's Air or Ground, if there is Splash damage etc.
*.TBL - TaBLe files	Table files is basically just a list with data in it. Examples of this can be stat_txt.tbl that contains a long list with all the units names, what group they belong in, what requirements each unit and building has etc. You edit the *.tbl files with TblPad. Examples of *.tbl files: Rez\rank_txt.tbl, rez\stat_txt.tbl, arr\sfxdata.tbl, rez\tips.tbl
*.WAV - WAVe audio files	Well, these are pretty obvious. When StarCraft was made, there wasn't MP3 files around, so you have to go with *.wav files. All you have to do is to replace them with what you want. Examples of *.wav files: sound\terran\civilian\tcvdth00.wav, sound\zerg\bugguy\zbgwht02.wav (bugguy is infested Terran), sound\protoss\scout\pscyes03.wav, sound\Bullet\LASRHIT1.wav
*.BIN - BINary files	There are alot *.bin files, but only two are of real intrest. The first is scripts\iscript.bin (Which you can edit with ICE or IceCC), and the second scripts\aiscript.bin (which you edit with ScAIEdit). scripts\iscript.bin controls how animations are made. That includes things like attack animations, and unit movement. scripts\aiscript.bin is the AI scripts file. It has things like how the computer build, what their primary attacks are, when they attack and much more
*.SMK - SMacKer files	*.smk files are used for the portraits and some other animations, such as Kerrigan, when you select the BroodWar Zerg campaign. You need the old smacker tools to edit them. Examples of *.smk files are portrait\tmarine\tmafid02.smk , portrait\njungcrit\njctlk00.smk and glue\mainmenu\exit.smk
*.PCX - PC paintbrush X	*.pcx files are mostly background images. The loading screen, victory screen etc are *.pcx:es. You can open them with a more advanced image editor like Pain Shop Pro or Photoshop. Examples of *.pcx files are glue\palrt\tfont.pcx , glue\Battle.net\Backgrounds\bnfile.pcx and glue\palrt\backgnd.pcx .
*.CHK - CHunK file	These are only present in install.exe on your CD. They are uncompressed starcraft maps (a starcraft map (*.scm or *.scx) is a MPQ archive, and is thus compressed. The map has a file inside it called scenario.chk, which is the map itself. A *.chk is thus an uncompressed map). The only ones available in install.exe are the campaign maps. Examples: campaign\expzerg\zerg04c\staredit\scenario.chk , campaign\expzerg\bonus\staredit\scenario.chk , campaign\expterran\terran05b\staredit\scenario.chk .
*.GOT - Game Template	As the name suggests, this is a file that has game templates. A game template is predefined conditions of a game. UMS, Melee or Top vs Bottom are game templates. You can edit them with GotEdit or create new ones with Blizzard's hidden Got creator. This is unfortunately not available for download, as far as I know. Examples are templates\Free For All(1).got , templates\Melee(1).got and templates\team capture the flag(3).got .
*.CV5	This, as well as the *.vf4, *.wpe, *.vr4 and *.cx4 files are the tileset data. Modifications and Total Convertions that has edited tilesets often give a very cool and professional impression, but for some reason, the tilesets are rarely edited. It's not hard to do it, though. Use TileEdit to extract the image information into *.BMPs that you can edit.
*.CWD, CWAD, SECWAD	Basically like the MPQs, but older. You load the *.CWDs with StarDraft (which is outdated). You are reccomended to use MPQs instead of CWADs (CWAD is the same thing as *.CWD). A SECWAD is a Self-Executing CWAD. You need StarDraft to run CWADs, but a SECWAD is a self-executing EXE, so you don't need anything to run it.