[mod][wip] KKND 1&2

Level: 41

Hello everyone, i want to anounce that i've startet a new mod project for OpenRA.
Maybe some1 Remembers this both old games:
Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KKnD_series
KKND: http://melbournehouse.kknd2.com/kkndxtreme/images/screen_shots/kkndxe/kknd_x50.jpg
KKND2: http://www.holarse-linuxgaming.de/sites/default/files/2009-11-30-313/kknd2-2.jpg

My goal will be recreating both games as a mod for OpenRA.
At first ill do KKND only, and when its done i'll start working on the second game.
The main problem i have to beat at first is that there are no editing tools anywhere on the net. So im actualy reverse engeneering the .slv/.lvl file format which is used by the game. It looks like both games use them, but as i said: ill look into that later. For a little more help i decompiled the kknd.exe to some very unreadable C code, not that i plan to recompile it, but more to read it and understand how the package formats are working.

If any1 wants to help: you're welcome!

Current status:
The extractor works basicaly. However i have written it quickly in php, but can be easy ported. There is only one thing i've not figured out yet: after the footer comes some data, whatever this is, i need to look into that.

What i have found out till now is the following: (will update if i have found out more)

44 41 54 41 //HEADER
00 //SEPERATOR
XX XX XX //FOOTER OFFSET
XX XX XX //CONTENT TYPE TABLE OFFSET
00 //SEPERATOR

//RAW FILES WITHOUT SEPERATOR

1:n { //CONTENT FILES TABLE
XX XX XX //FILEOFFSET REVERSED
00 //SEPERATOR
}

1:n { //CONTENT TYPE TABLE
XX XX XX XX //SOUN | MOBD | MAPD | CPLC | BOXD itendifier
XX XX XX //REVERSED OFFSET TO A CONTENT FILES TABLE
00 //SEPERATOR
}

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 //LONG SEPERATOR - maybe not. something below in the UNK is pointing here, but its always a list of 0
52 52 4C 43 //FOOTER
//UNKNOWN - looks like it is not needed for file extraction, could be some info for the game engine
//DOUBLE DATA (???) - at the end of everyfile the offsets fot the content-tables are copied, with another seperator. cant find a reason why...
00 //END OF FILE

Here is the Extractror / Reader. It is written in php atm. It will extract all files in the files directory. Secondly i dont do anything with the raw data after the footer, still need to figure that out too.

NEW UPLOAD
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZTSF8XVI

It extracts all files now without problems.
the .mobd should be the sprites which seem to be RAW image data, when i found out how to read them, ill include an 2 .bmp converter or something like that.
about the other files: not sure what they are atm. figure that out after the sprites.
except 1: MAPD should be map files, need to figure them out too (maybe, if recreating the original maps)
i attached all .slv and .lvl files which include not only map files, so this is the complete collection of images and sounds (sounds work already, .wav)

Progress: http://img806.imageshack.us/img806/7316/progressp.png still wrong colors, but im almoast near it!

Edit: i switched using a new application called "010 Editor" - And currently im writing a script for it to read the whole file format. Secondly to extract all files. Sound will be .wav, textures will be .bmp. everything else i'll convert to something readable, .csv, .txt, whatever. still takes me very much time, and i havent got much free time atm. however, progress is been made!

Level: 43

make sure to post your findings in the ReWiki at http://rewiki.regengedanken.de/wiki/Main_Page

Level: 37

Hey IceReaper, any progress on this?

Level: 46

good. Still hope on Dune2000 mod

Level: 33

Now megaupload is closed is there any way to get the extractor thingy?

Would it allow tinkering with the maps - add more units, change resources, move the odd tree away etc?

Very interested in this nostalgic game.

Am referring to xtreme version

Level: 41

Well... its quite a time ago now, however i started a second try with 2 more years of development skills, and finaly managed to fully decrypt and read the asset container files.
The demo version includes all sprites and sounds, its just missing the maps. The map sprites are stored inside the maps themself - so you can use custom ones in your maps. Sharing of maps is allowed, so basicaly you also share the map sprites.

Wrote a little show off tool (tested in chrome browser) http://eiveo.net/kknd/

The next step would be to implement the container file format into openRA and then write the mod.

About writing the mod: is there any bare minimum mod somewhere? when starting with an empty mod.yml the engine crashes, so it sepends on some minimum definitions.

Also anyone interested in seeing this done?

If anyone wants to test the original game:
http://nahoo.net/downloads/go/kknd2/games/kknd2/KKND2-Demo.exe
just wait a few seconds and the download begins - its the demo with all three factions.
(and this demo includes all assets required btw, so it should be no problem at all hosting it)

Level: 46

Looks like the hardest part (reverse engineering) is done. For the Dune 2000 mod I did not add the Fileformat to the engine, but added converter subroutines to OpenRA.Utility to create PNGs and then convert those PNGs to SHPs. Might not be the cleanest solution, but I wanted to prevent a fork as I was a beginner working on the d2k mod mostly alone. Also the .R8 fileformat of Dune 2000 was horrible to work with and still has some problems not solved.

To get started with modding, simply copy the mods/ra folder and start adapting/stripping it. The bare minimum is defined in OpenRA.FileFormats/Mod.cs but you might also want mostly everything in OpenRA.FileFormats/Manifest.cs to really have something that loads the game. I started with replacing red alert graphics one by one and did the tilesets last. We have a GUI tool for that now. Have a look at https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/wiki/Pixelart for some documentation.

I suggest you post something in KKND communities to see if people are interested in playing this and what improvements they suggest.

Level: 41

i think a kknd mod would be great and i think you should do it. been wanting to play this game on openra for a long time now

Level: 41

Anyone here willing to help me with the c# part? Got the whole extraction and convertion process done in java, however im in war with c#, doesnt even compile openRA - Basicaly i need my code implemented (and converted from java), then the asset files should be readable and ready to go.

Level: 46

Post some code preferably on GitHub and tell us the specific error messages you get when trying to compile OpenRA. You can also join #openra on Freenode to get help faster.

Level: 35

i can help you with a new UI ... ive done the UI for Cmd. Matts D2k ... and it would be an Honor to create a new Interface for KKnd ... (i love the postapokalyptic atmosphere)

but thats not really important right now ...

Level: 41

Got someone for the c# part now

Level: 13

I hope you haven't gave up to develop these mods.
Some people (like me) are longing to test it

Level: 68

any progress ? I'm KKND fan....

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