Howdy All,

(i posted before in the other thread, but i thought id make my own).
Im currently working on a Total Conversion (Which is abig step, and im not gonna make myself flame bait) but im starting off creating plugins and additions to the Original EV Nova first.

Anywho.
General Statistics:
Using EVNEW as my editior and working on Windows operating system (Vista).
Ive read most of the bible of where im starting. outf, ship, weap, spob, roid, syst, junk, govt and char.

General whereabouts of where im at:
After reading posts about TC's popping up and started and being abandoned, i thought i wouldnt rush into it. But ive started work on it, doing minor stuff. Ive split the work ive done into 2 .rez files, Which is;

1. Ships and Weapons:
   This is easy to test, ive just simply used the Existing EV:N Resources and Game and just simply worked on adding Guns/Missiles and general ship details. (ive done a fair bit of naming/addition but only tested a few) and threw this itno the Plugins folder for easy game loading/testing.
2. Ive mapped out systems and naming them. IE; Throwing names/links and positions using the x,y parameters. But i intially put this into the Plugins folder, And it threw the ev:n map out cause my systems went over it all.

Random Notes Before continuing:
I havent done anything on graphics or "Major" mission lines. So its not a "TC" in development, but im aiming along that lines, starting with simple mapping and new weapons/ships.

So for starters, ive got some simple questions;
Question 1) Is it possible to split the data between multiple .rez files and are they loadable like that? ie: loading ships/weapons/outf from one. Governments and Spob's and Syst resources from another? (im assuming so due to ev:n .rez structures in the folder are done like that). How do i go about this? or any info on this would be kind.

Question 2) Say i wanted to test my mapping and linking of the systems i created, how do i go about testing this? Do i remove the files in the "Nova Files" directory and throw my plugin in there? or how? Advice is appreciated.

Thanks,
Dark Elyptor.

@dark-elyptor, on Mar 6 2008, 04:04 PM, said in Simple Questions About Plugins/Total Conversions.:

Question 1) Is it possible to split the data between multiple .rez files and are they loadable like that? ie: loading ships/weapons/outf from one. Governments and Spob's and Syst resources from another? (im assuming so due to ev:n .rez structures in the folder are done like that). How do i go about this? or any info on this would be kind.

Yes, it's possible. The default Nova files do so, after all, as you've noticed. There's no special procedures needed to split the resources up - just put it how you like. It's easier, in my opinion, to group all of the same resources together. Basically the reason why this works all comes down to how Nova loads plugin and data files. First, all of the files in the Nova Files folder load in alphabetical order, then the files in the Nova Plugins folder, in alphabetical order. The game loads the resources as it comes to them. If any two resources of the same type share an ID number, the resource that loads last will have precedence.

To give an example, suppose I have a plugin named Aardvark which has s˙st resource 128 (one which exists in the default scenario) and another plugin named Zebra which also has s˙st resource 128. Both of these plugins are in the Nova Plugins folder. First the game will load Nova Data 2, in which the original s˙st resource is located - it loads first because it's in the Nova Files folder. Then the game comes to the Nova Plugins folder, and loads Aardvark first - it's s˙st 128 takes precedence over the default one, and thus replaces it in-game (but only at runtime, it doesn't change the data files themselves). Then Zebra loads, and its s˙st 128 takes precedence over Aardvark's. Zebra loads last, so Zebra's resource will appear in the game. Hope that makes sense.

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Question 2) Say i wanted to test my mapping and linking of the systems i created, how do i go about testing this? Do i remove the files in the "Nova Files" directory and throw my plugin in there? or how? Advice is appreciated.

Start off with the Absolute Minimum plugin, available from the Utilities section of the Addon Pages. Absolute Minimum contains everything neccesary to get Nova working, allowing you to test your plugin additions without the default scenario confusing matters. Otherwise, just stick your plugin-in-progress into the Plugins folder, and as described above, any new resources will take precedence over the default resources.

@dark-elyptor, on Mar 6 2008, 05:04 AM, said in Simple Questions About Plugins/Total Conversions.:

Question 1) Is it possible to split the data between multiple .rez files and are they loadable like that?

Actually, I have a question about that. Can MacNova load .rez files directly yet? If not, how would one handle conversion of a .rez file to the Mac plugin format if it was over 15Mb (the maximum resource fork size)?

@lindley, on Mar 9 2008, 05:05 PM, said in Simple Questions About Plugins/Total Conversions.:

Actually, I have a question about that. Can MacNova load .rez files directly yet? If not, how would one handle conversion of a .rez file to the Mac plugin format if it was over 15Mb (the maximum resource fork size)?

MC can load, modify, create, and save .rez files. I'd suggest splitting the .rez files into multiples in MC and then converting them to .npif. I have no idea if MacNova can read .rez files directly, because I've always assumed that it couldn't and haven't tried.

@lindley, on Mar 9 2008, 07:05 PM, said in Simple Questions About Plugins/Total Conversions.:

Can MacNova load .rez files directly yet?

No, it can’t — I lobbied for this a while back, but it never happened. My advice is that all plug-in makers should be cautious about the various limits that affect the Macintosh format, even though .rez has much higher ones, and err on the side of more files rather than fewer.

Crusader Alpha said:

I'd suggest splitting the .rez files into multiples in MC and then converting them to .npif.

If you do get a .rez plug-in that exceeds the file-size or resource-count limits, there’s no easy way to split it on a Macintosh, since at the moment MissionComputer handles .rez internally by converting it to standard resources. I do have an alternative method in development, but it isn’t ready for use yet.