Как использовать exe файл? Ложить в папку с lot файлами игры? Запускаю, высвечивается рамка окна и программа закрывается.

Проверил код в Codeblocks и выдало:

||=== Build file: "no target" in "no project" (compiler: unknown) ===|

D:\games\ThroneOfDarkness\todtools\sources\todunlot.o:todunlot.c|| undefined reference to `unlzotod'|

||error: ld returned 1 exit status|

||=== Build failed: 2 error(s), 0 warning(s) (0 minute(s), 2 second(s)) ===|

Спасибо!

Кхех... Зачем человеку Codeblocks, если он не знает что такое командная строка? А по поводу того что делать - сверху есть ссылка FAQ: запуск консольных программ - есть предложение открыть её и прочитать.

Кек. Скопировали бы свой ЧАВО в файлик, что нужно запускать в командной строке. Думал что опять винда слишком новая или железо слишком мощное (итак игра не запускается без DxWnd). Вы же вроде оформляли программу в окне (вон распаковщик музыки стареньких НФС Карбонов и Андерграундов).

Думал найду новые комбинации улучшений предметов, а обнаружил неиспользованные в игре звуковые файлы. Есть чувство будто часть контента вырезали из игры. Жалко, что разработчик забросил игру в начале 2000-х.

Огромное спасибо!

Консольные программы писать быстрее и проще. Вскрыть игровой формат - интересно. Прикручивать оконно-кнопочный интерфейс к распаковщику - нет. Тем более, что на это нужно дополнительное свободное время, которого и так не особо много.

Thank you so much for this program, the whole Throne of Darkness community was waiting so long for such an program. You are so awesome guys!

btw. you can just drag and drop the *.lot files with out the need for command line operation.

Thank you! This tool was available since 2014. And if you drag and drop .LOT files to the tool all unpacked files will be saved in "My Documents" instead of current folder (at least in Windows XP). By the way, is8totga tool has second additional commandline argument "/32" - if you add it all images will be saved in 32BPP .TGA files with transparency.

Yeah .. you guys are so awesome for making these tools .. I just love them, to look up whats in the game after so many years.

Bu could you please make a tool to repack lot files, this would make Throne of Darkness Modding finally possible.

Greetings from Germany! большое спасибо

Vielen Dank für die netten Worte! We probably can, but this format unnecessary complex and we need to check some other things in the game before. But if we do this, are you ready to support our work and donate a few bucks? And are you sure unpacked files can't be loaded by the game from the game folder?

Hi, thanks for the fast response.

Now as you say it, it would be much more easy to make the game read files outside of the lot files. I tested a lot and found out, the the final game (1.2.8 GOG) will ignore files outside the lot files but strangely the Demo will not.

I unpacked the Demos lot files and copied the contend into the main folder (not the LotFiles Folder) and changed some txt and xml files and it just worked fine. I was even able to rename the LotFiles folder without any problems.

I too copied the Demos DLL Libaries into the Final (1.2.8 GOG) and the Final was still not willing to read the non-lot files.

So I think its either the Exe or the suspicious LoadSequence.lot wich can not be opened by your Porgram and seems to be extra encrypted.

I'll put my hopes into the Beta 3.2.? for tomorrow, but today its a bit late.

by the Way I'm not a programmer or something, I'm might be wrong.

Greetings and спокойной ночи

These tools purpose was to extract game graphics - please note that is8totga has additional "/32" commandline argument for proper image extraction, by default all images will be extracted in 16BPP mode (smaller files, faster extraction, but without proper transparency). The tools we made was tested only on demo and the person who paid for them tested on his own final version of the game (this was work supported by donations). So we didn't have the final version of the game and we didn't look at the repacking before. Probably some code didn't exist anymore in final version of the game or somehow disabled, since .LOT unpacking done only by "Throne.exe" executable file (i.e. at least in demo all code related to archives was there). We tested a few things in demo today and it looks like File Allocation Table / Table Of Contents (FAT/TOC) in .LOT archives must be always packed. The good news is that you can use type 1 (no compression, copy data as is), but you still need to pack blocks with large available size or the game stops unpacking in the middle of data. It's awkward and inconvenient but bearable. Gute Nacht.

Thank you for your fast response.

I just wonder, why the Beta Demo will read unpacked files and the final game will not. There must be a switch or option in the exe file.

I don't quite understand what you are meaning with type 1 / no compression. Can I pack a file with winzlp and steal a *.lot header?

By the way if you are unpaking the demo you can find some portable Version of WinZip in it. This may be important.

Thank for the great work. I'll donate es soon as I found out how to use the Russian donation sides. They are a little bit hand to handle with out owning a gredit gard.

Greetings

"There must be a switch or option in the exe file." --- this will be nice, but we didn't have the final version so can't comment on this matter. "Can I pack a file with winzlp and steal a *.lot header?" --- no you can't, game archives completely different from the ZIP format; type 1 in .LOT archives means you don't need to write your own compressor (and it's a big shortcut) and just can store data as is, but you still need to add a proper FAT/TOC and it's very complex for manual edition. "I'll donate es soon as I found out how to use the Russian donation sides." --- you don't need to donate right now, because we didn't done anything yet and most important you probably can't use Russian systems. Although there are some other way you can help. Please write to the e-mail at the "About us" page (at bottom) since using comments section inconvenient. If for some reason you don't get a reply in a day or two - please report about it here. Thank you!

Здарова, админам!

Я здесь отписывался четыре года назад. Много воды утекло. Немного поднял навыки программиста. До вашего уровня далековато пока что).

Даже не ожидал, что немецкие "друзья" отпишутся здесь. Очень давно создавал на их форуме темку и потом вообще забыл про них. Они до сих пор увлекаются игрой. Связаться с ними что ли :D.

Вы писали, что можете покопаться в движке игры и выяснить, можно ли ее модифицировать или нет за скромную плату). Надо обговорить этот момент с немцами. Я тоже могу отправить вам донат покрупнее, чем в прошлый раз ;).

Думаете стоит ли связываться с "Софт-клабом" или издателем насчет упаковщика файлов? В CFG файлах локализаторы перевели названия персонажей, предметов, способностей и прочего. Либо им Sierra/Click Entertainment отправили свое ПО или они как-то сами все сделали. Сейчас Activision владеет Sierra. Click давно уже не существует. Печально.

Такие дела. Благодарю еще раз за то, что помогли утолить любопытство!

Здравствуйте! Вообще говоря, в прошлом году распаковщик был обновлён и теперь он может упаковывать назад. Просили как раз немецкие друзья выше для создания своих модификаций - см. документацию в архиве к программе (она, правда, на английском языке). Но выяснилась такая штука, что последняя пропатченная официальным патчем версия игры не работает с файлами *.XML, а только со скомпилированными из них *.XML.BIN. Тогда этот формат не получилось разобрать, однако вернувшись недавно к этой проблеме удалось сделать конвертер из этого формата в обычный *.XML, а, значит, можно сделать и обратный в *.XML.BIN, чтобы иметь возможность модифицировать игру. С немцами по поводу этого вопроса в конце прошлого года по e-mail связывались, но ответа так и не пришло, поэтому никакая разработка дальше не велась. На текущий момент состояние дел - вот такое. Если есть какие-то предложения по дальнейшей разработке и поддержке - пишите в обратную связь или лучше сразу на e-mail поддержки (есть на странице "О проекте"). Спасибо.

Hi, it seems as this LOTPacker for Throne of Darkness is still in development. It is

very nice of you to provide so much help with it. Thanks for that!

First I wanted to explain, that I have a background in coding (and even a bit

hacking) and have picked up this topic to help making the modding of the game a

reality.

In the readme file you explain that there is a /xml option to decrypt the .XML.BIN

files into .XML files. I tried, but could not get it to run with this option.

Could you please explain how the conversion of .XML.BIN to .XML works? With

this information I might be able to reverse the process.

Best regards

Hello! Thank you for kind words! Actually we're not really interested in Throne of Darkness or any modding tools for this game. As it was said in last comment we're already cracked .XML.BIN format, but not motivated enough to write a back converter. We're just updated our tools with the bintoxml tool and source code, so you can give it a try to write your own converter.

What if someone was willing to pay for the back converter (i.e. xmltobin)? I'd pay to be able to mod this game.

Thanks for the offer! We'll see what we can do. We do not promise anything, since don't have much free time now, and we also need to refresh our memory and remember how everything worked. We will try in the nearest week or two to find the time to see what's what and answer here. By the way - are you sure that the game didn't work with the plain .XML files if there is no .XML.BIN counterpart?

Let me try again and report here in a week's time.

It's alright, take your time.

If I repack without the .xml.bin counterpart (i.e. with just the plain .xml version), I get the following error message upon loading anything relevant to the edited xml.

"---------------------------

Click Entertainment Application

---------------------------

A fatal error occurred in Click Entertainment Application. Application will close.

---------------------------

OK

---------------------------

"

In this case, I edited Leader.xml and then cleared out all traces of Leader.xml.bin across all lot files. I unpacked and repacked each lot file one-by-one.

Thank you for the testing! We'll look into what we can do on our side now. If you have an e-mail - drop a letter to our support e-mail (see "About us" page) so we can write you back when it's done so you don't need to check this page everyday.

I am getting an error: Error: todunlot.exe unpacker tool not found, download it from www.CTPAX-X.org

But it is in the same folder as the bat file

https://imgur.com/x3zZFHk errors

If path contains spaces Windows reqired to use double quotes for path escaping:

unpaklot "C:\Sierra\Throne of Darkness"

Nevermind, I managed to make it work, but I am stuck with editing xml.bin files

I am blind, I just noticed there's a converter for that, I am not the brightest person around, thanks for all the tools, you are awesome!

Just wanna report some bugs.

The S8 Converter doesn't convert skill effect to TGA correctly, you get distorted images instead.

Some S8 are also missing when unpacked from LOT. Samurai.lot for example, Berserker has his weapon 2's attack 2 animation missing from all his armor variants.

Thanks for feedback! Unfortunately we're not familiar with the game. Could you please specify exact .S8 file names which aren't converted properly? As for missing .S8 files - we're checked unpacker on all of .LOT files and can confirm that there is no missing files (100% coverage of the .LOT archive file when unpacking, no duplicate files, etc.). So we can't comment on this matter - maybe Berserker didn't have attack 2 animation at all or it somehow works differently (modified or mirrored animation 1, etc.)? If you can - please ask such a questions here (there is a invitation link at the bottom for contacts): Grasyl's Throne of Darkness Page. Since these guys know about this game much more and even released a mod improving game balance and fixing some issues (link).

They are inside "Spells" folder extracted from Base.lot. Below are the problem S8 I gathered.

01eh0000, 01EbT0001, 01FbH0000, 01Fbt0001, 01FboltT0000, 01FBT0040, 01WbH0000, 01WbT0001, armorup0001, ebonus010000, Fbon0000, Lbon0000, wbon0000, wb0000, ecast0000, FCAST0000, Lcast0000, wcast0000, FC0021, Elg, Emed, Esm, Fbig, fmed, fsmall, Llg, Lmed, Lsm, WexpL0000, Wexp_med, Wsmall0000, 01Eiontail0000, 01ionfsus0002, 01ionftail0000, 01Lionring0000, 01wIT0000, MANASHLD0000, FL0001, 01Ls0000, 02Ls0000, 03Ls0000, 02Ls0000, LC010000, 01DFStrail0000, fwE0000, fwX0000, enE0012, fnX0000, 01moE0000, moX0001, 01scE0006, scEX0000, 01swE0000, swEX0000, Ref0000, WRe010016, 01EFS, 01EFStrail0000, 01FFS, 01FFStrail0000, 01LFS, 01LFStrail0000, 01WFS, 01WFStrail0000, ES0000, FG0000, LS0000, IG0000, 2teleport0000, light10000, light20000, light30000

Thank you so much for sparing your time. I'm a Diablo II modder and I'd like to use this game's sprites in my own mod. I really appreciate it.

Thank you! We confirmed that files you're specified indeed converted incorrectly. There is a different compression method which our tool didn't recognize. We will see what we can do (can't promise anything and this will take some time). As for modding sprites - you can also check out our File Archive for other converters for Startegy / RPG games like The Legend: King's legacy II, Relics: The Recur of Origin, Elixir, Konung and so on.

I've checked Prince of Qin, and Blade & Sword but sadly their frame animations have their height and width trimmed to smallest possible hence different resolution between each frame. This made aligning each frame to create a gif animation very hard without knowing center pivot offset information. This is very common way to store sprites in game sadly, hence why I really appreciate Throne of Darkness way of sprite storing.

Thanks for the recommends anyway and take your time. :)

Some status update: we finally managed to find and understand how the second compression method works. Unfortunately there are another compression method (method 4) which we didn't reversed yet. In game files there are 7 compression methods (from 0 till 6 inclusive) but only 3 of them actually used (0, 1 and 4). As for pivot offset - there are maybe some other game formats which preserve this information, it's just we don't remember which exactly game converter do that, so you may want to try them one by one.

Thanks for diving into this, you guys are the best \o/

We finally updated our tool. All three image compression methods 0, 1 and 4 should be supported. There are other changes, see "todtools.txt" text file for details and changelog. Fun fact: compression method 4 only used for two files in whole game (flame and ice effects: FG0000.s8 and IG0000.s8) and it's not worth the time and efforts to support... but oh well.

Thank you so much for this! I can finally get my hands on those animation. Though if I may burden you a bit more with my request; can I ask for an option to convert to 8 BPP with palette? There are animations that come with palette files to create variant color version of itself. With 16 BPP, those palette files are now useless.

Use /r argument for is8totga to force replacement image internal palette with another file palette. Archive updated with the new tool version.

It does replace internal palette but I think it replaced color indexes with wrong ones, result in output images display wrong colors instead of intentional ones. Like for example Water Bolt which should look blue-ish in color now look brown-ish instead.

I think it might need 8 bit supported to preserve color indexes inside color table.

There was a typo in the updated code where external palette readed from the wrong place. Archive updated with the new tool version. Sorry for the inconveniences.

Thanks for the update. It's working correctly now '-'b

Thanks for reporting bugs and feedback!

did anyone rip the sprites of them semurais and can share them? just the ripped sprites? im on discord at kromz7221