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History of Oni modding: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:OniTools.jpg|thumb|225px|right|Ian Patterson was probably the most influential early binary hacker, and his trail-blazing program [[OniTools]] for the Mac was quickly ported to Windows. It had support for delta patches, and the earliest binary mods were probably based on this method.]] | [[Image:OniTools.jpg|thumb|225px|right|Ian Patterson was probably the most influential early binary hacker, and his trail-blazing program [[OniTools]] for the Mac was quickly ported to Windows. It had support for delta patches, and the earliest binary mods were probably based on this method.]] | ||
Fans with some expertise in parsing files with hex editors found that the binary data (i.e., the files ending in .dat and .raw, not to be confused with "binary" as a term for an application) held four-letter codes, indicating the start of each resource within that file. Within a week of the street date for Oni, the community had its first resource modding tool, OniTools (pictured, right). While the author did not yet know how all the data worked, his program could at least parse it, and allow the modder to more easily edit each resource without having to count in hexadecimal. It also supported user-friendly replacement of texture maps and allowed in-line viewing of the game's 3D models. There seems to be little evidence that this knowledge was put to use in modding the game resources beyond simple mods such as texture replacements, no doubt due to the lack of a complete understanding of how Oni's | Fans with some expertise in parsing files with hex editors found that the binary data (i.e., the files ending in .dat and .raw, not to be confused with "binary" as a term for an application) held four-letter codes, indicating the start of each resource within that file. Within a week of the street date for Oni, the community had its first resource modding tool, OniTools (pictured, right). While the author did not yet know how all the data worked, his program could at least parse it, and allow the modder to more easily edit each resource without having to count in hexadecimal. It also supported user-friendly replacement of texture maps and allowed in-line viewing of the game's 3D models. There seems to be little evidence that this knowledge was put to use in modding the game resources beyond simple mods such as texture replacements, no doubt due to the lack of a complete understanding of how Oni's dozens of resource types were inter-related. | ||
This did not stop one intrepid programmer named Pierre from deciding to import data from Oni into the game engine that he was writing from scratch. Called [[Konoko Payne]], it is a long-term project which currently takes the form of (1) an underlying engine, and (2) a short scenario for it that resembles a sequel to Oni. In order to extract models and animations from Oni and recreate them precisely in his project, Pierre became one of the early pioneers in "reverse engineering" the game's resources, although his acquired knowledge remained largely private, as his work predated the community's organized public attempts at gathering this information. | This did not stop one intrepid programmer named Pierre from deciding to import data from Oni into the game engine that he was writing from scratch. Called [[Konoko Payne]], it is a long-term project which currently takes the form of (1) an underlying engine, and (2) a short scenario for it that resembles a sequel to Oni. In order to extract models and animations from Oni and recreate them precisely in his project, Pierre became one of the early pioneers in "reverse engineering" the game's resources, although his acquired knowledge remained largely private, as his work predated the community's organized public attempts at gathering this information. | ||