The rgo-lua-utils are required for these batch files to work, including all of their dependencies.
Obviously you should also have Rebel Galaxy Outlaw installed.
And since these files are batch files, they're intended to be used from the command line (terminal window), so you should be somewhat familiar with it.
The batch files should be placed somewhere where they can be globally reached, which is a directory that was added to you PATH variable.
If you don't know what that is or how to add to it, here are some links that might help you (note that I have no affiliation with these whatsoever):
- https://superuser.com/questions/284342/what-are-path-and-other-environment-variables-and-how-can-i-set-or-use-them
- https://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-10/add-windows-path-environment-variable/
- https://thegeekpage.com/environment-variables-in-windows-11/
- https://youtu.be/8HK1BsRprt0?t=222
Theoretically they could also be placed directly inside the directory you want to use them, but then you'd have to copy them again for every mod you make.
You will also need to set the path to these utils, and to the Rebel Galaxy Outlaw game installation, in the rgo-variables.bat file.
The UTILS_DIR variable defines the path to the location of the rgo-lua-utils.
The GAME_DIR variable defines the path to the installation of Rebel Galaxy Outlaw.
Do not use any quotes or a trailing backslash for these path variables!
To extract and convert all files, navigate to your game's PAKS folder and run
rgo-convert-all <optional_target_directory>
This will extract all of your DATAX.PAK files into the provided directory, and if non was give, into the DATA folder inside the PAKS directory of your game installation.
After that, it will run the conversion process, creating a .lua representation of every .DAT, .WDAT. .IMAGESET, and .LAYOUT file inside the extracted directory.
I'm not going into the process for actually creating a new mod, but only how to create the mod file for it.
To make a new mod file, create a new directory with the name that your mod file should be (e.g. "x99_New_Missile_Launcher_by_me"), and then create a LUA folder inside of it.
In this LUA directory, you'll need to copy every LUA (or image) file you wish to include in your mod, exactly mirroring the directory structure of the original files.
So for example, you'd need a LUA\MEDIA\COMPONENTS\32_SECONDARIES_NEW_MISSILE.WDAT.lua and a LUA\MEDIA\WEAPONS\MISSILES\15_PLAYER_NEW_MISSILE.DAT.lua, etc., in exactly these directories.
After you have all the files you need, you can run rgo-pack <optional_version_string> to create a .PAK file from the files inside the LUA directory, which will be postfixed with a version string if you wish so.
For example: rgo-pack 1.0.0 run inside the x99_New_Missile_Launcher_by_me directory will create a x99_New_Missile_Launcher_by_me.v.1.0.0.pak file.
If you omit the optional version string, it will just create a x99_New_Missile_Launcher_by_me.pak file.
rgo-deploy <optional_version_string> is very similar, it will create the pak mod file, but will also automatically move the file to you game's PAKS folder, so that you can immediately test the mod.
rgo-convert-all.bat <optional_output_directory>
This file unpacks all of yourDATAX.PAKfiles in your game's PAKS directory into the specified output directory.
If no output directory was provided, it will unpack the files into theDATAfolder within your PAKS directory.
Additionally, after unpacking, it will also convert all the.DAT,.WDAT..IMAGESET, and.LAYOUTfiles to human-readable.LUAfiles.
rgo-pack.bat <optional_version_string>
This will create a .pak mod file with the same name as the directory the file was run in, using the files in theLUAdirectory as the content for the mod.
rgo-deploy.bat <optional_version_string>
This will create a .pak mod file and will move it to your game's PAKS directory.
rgo-variables.bat
This is not an "actual" batch file, instead it holds the variables that are needed for the other batch files to work.
You need to adjust theUTILS_DIRandGAME_DIRparameters inside this file for the other files to work.
NirCmd.chm
Help file for the NirCmd tool.
nircmd.exe
The NirCmd tool, used to modify the date of the created .pak file (see below).
This repository includes the excellent NirCmd by NirSoft.
From the tool's description:
NirCmd is a small command-line utility that allows you to do some useful tasks without displaying any user interface. By running NirCmd with simple command-line option, you can write and delete values and keys in the Registry, write values into INI file, dial to your internet account or connect to a VPN network, restart windows or shut down the computer, create shortcut to a file, change the created/modified date of a file, change your display settings, turn off your monitor, open the door of your CD-ROM drive, and more...
In our case, it's used to modifiy the creation and modification date of the generated .pak file, because the game will ignore the content of any additional .pak file if the date of the additional file is earlier than those of the original .PAK files.
Therefore the date is set to the year 2099 for the newly created .pak files, which should hopefully prevent any issues.
See the tool's page for a full description of what it can do (it's a lot!).
hhrhhr / Dmitry Zaitsev
NirSoft / Nir Sofer
sp00n