Grandtheftcow said:
I’ve picked up the Battlefield 1942 pack with all the expansions included and would like to play around with it and do some modding work.
Are there any resources or programs out there you’d suggest using for mod work?
That depends on what kind of modding you're thinking of doing. Here are the possibilities:
-Modeling -- For this, you can get away with a freeware 3D modeling program specifically for games, known as GMax, by the same company that produces 3D Studio Max. GMax will do all of the basics. If you can get your hands on its more fully-featured big brother, though (and know how to use it) you're better off with that.
-Skinning -- You'll need the latest copy of Photoshop, as well as the .dds plugin, as all of the game's textures are in .dds format.
-Sound Engineering -- I have no idea what the best program is for this.
-Mapping -- EA Games put out their own map editor called BattleCraft, but there are a few other good ones out there, such as Editor42.
-Coding -- This is what I do, focusing primarily on the game's AI, of course. For this, you need a program called WinRFA, which will enable you to access the game's archived files. It's available in the
Mod Development Toolkit distributed by EA Games/DiCE, and also contains other useful utilities, such as the aforementioned .dds Photoshop plugin. This is really the only essential program for coding, although I recommend a program called Ultra-Edit 32 for .con file editing.
I know that's a lot of googling for you to do, but I'm short on time atm. So here's a link to the Battlefield 1942 site that I moderate,
Battlefield Singleplayer
Also, let me know if you'd like to try out my AI enhancement mod, just so you can get an idea of what's possible with the bots. You'll need the
Forgotten Hope realism mod, version 0.7. If you follow that last link, it also lists the "Intensity" mod, which is a very watered-down, very politically sanitized early version of my mod. PM me if you want the real thing, and I'll host in on Filefront for you.
Now, there
