Programs

From AgeofWiki


To mod AOM and AOMTT, you will need an assortment of programs. Here is a list of the programs most comonly used by AOMTT modders. Navigate to the articles reguarding the programs for download links, more information on use and history, and links to articles reguarding the use of said program. Please add to the list of programs and applications, and by all means write articles for the programs.

Table of contents

Conversion/Extraction Programs

AOMEd

Should be number one on your list; this program can read BARs, DDTs, XMBs, and any file that AOMTT can throw at it.

Vachu'sBar Explorer

Nifty little application that can read BARs and extract one file at a time, or the whole archive.

Image Manipulation/Editing

Adobe Photoshop

Excelent photoediting program, and available as a 30-day trial on Adobe's website.

GIMP

Free open source "Image Manipulation Program." Comparable to any brand-name photo editor, but requires compilation from the source code which is difficult if you are running Windows. (Windows isn't cooperative with compiling Linux open source programs.) If you don't want to compile it, you can download a precompiled version of GIMP for Windows here (http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/)

Corel Photopaint

Essentially, the industrial version of Photoshop. You will not hear about many people using Corel, but it is a fantastic program, and ships as a suite of image manipulation programs.

Paint Shop Pro

A great, inexpensive graphics program that does almost everything Photoshop does at a fraction of the cost. A trial version can be found here. [1] (http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Downloads/Trials/PSP)

Microsoft Paint

Anyone running Windows has this, of course, and it is a staple to many hobbyist modders.

Text File Editing

Microsoft Notepad/Wordpad

Again, everyone running Windows has both programs. These are perfect for plain-text editing.

Programer's Notepad

A fantastic, open source and free text editor. This program has everything the hardcore modder needs.

Notetab

A fantastic, award winning free text editor. This program has everything the hardcore modder needs. "Build document templates, add bookmarks, convert text to HTML on-the-fly, and take charge of your code. Use a simple, power-packed scripting language to create anything from a text macro to a mini-application". It reads and saves config files and even opened the Bar file. Get it here: http://www.notetab.com/

Cheezy's Animation Editor

Anim file text editor. Simplifies the process of assigning those aggrivating animation files to units.

3d Editing

Gmax

The watered-down version of the most popular 3d editing suite in the world: 3dStudio MAX. it's free, and you'll need it to make model mods.

GMax is free at TurboSquid, http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax.

Tutorials on using GMax here:

http://www.simtropolis.com/index.cfm Read the Essential BAT Tutorial by Phillippbo

http://couchspuds.homestead.com/Library4.html Some of my tutorials on using GMax. (PurringCat/Couchpotato)


Complete Modding resources (http://s8.invisionfree.com/WSE_Forums/index.php?s=&showforum=13)