The more I mod the more I run into the same problem.
Sometimes not all of the information for a mission or
an activity is readily available. Take FUZZ for example.
There is information in the xtbl and cts files about vehicle spawn
locations and cameraman spawn locations, but there is no car spawn data
What I mean is the code will tell you where the car is spawning but not
what kind of car it is. The same thing is true of the cameraman.
Since I know that sometimes data is located in other files I did use the grep -r
command on all the files in the saints Row 2 and common.vpp_pc folders and found
all sorts of information on the FUZZ activity but not the car spawn info or the
npc info for the cameraman.
This is an annoyance for a couple of reasons. I modded a police cruiser to
use in the mission, but I can't find the setting to add it, also I wanted to switch
the cameraman for Jane Valderama but I can't find that info either.
This is where compromises need to be made. I can still make the changes that I want to
but they will effect more than just the activity code. In order to change
the cameraman to Jane I will have to do an NPC swap which will permanently change the
cameraman. For more details on NPC swapping see:
www.saintsrowmods.com
(courtesy -SeaBoundSaint-)
In his case you only ever see him during the mission, so no big deal but in
order to use my Police Cruiser variant I have to mod the entry in the xtbl file and that
means that all the police cruisers (not including the Nuke Island and Ultor variants) will
look like mine. Note that you can just make your version as a variant, but then it will not
always show up in the activity. It might show up sometimes depending on whether or not
you used the police cruiser as the base of your mod.
I have mentioned elsewhere that everything in a game must be written somewhere in the code
and that is true, but sometimes that code can be obfuscated or buried in the exe file, etc.
I did search through the exe file and while there are several references to FUZZ it did
not contain the ones that I needed.
This is not the only place in the code where important information is missing. The
problems with replacing certain audio files also stem from missing code, although in
that case Idolninja did find what he believed to be that code hidden in the exe file
(SR2_pc.exe).
There are other activities that are afflicted with the same problem. The Regular Demo
Derby is one of them. There is no vehicle name info at all in the xtbl or cts file. The
Special Demo Derby does have vehicle info in it but no variant info.
I tried adding vehicle and variant information to FUZZ and the mission started ok
but the original vehicle loaded and when I tried to enter it the activity crashed.
I also tried adding variant info to the special demo derbys and while it did not
crash it ignored the variant data completely. So it appears that there is no fixing
the situation by modding the activity code.
Sometimes not all of the information for a mission or
an activity is readily available. Take FUZZ for example.
There is information in the xtbl and cts files about vehicle spawn
locations and cameraman spawn locations, but there is no car spawn data
What I mean is the code will tell you where the car is spawning but not
what kind of car it is. The same thing is true of the cameraman.
Since I know that sometimes data is located in other files I did use the grep -r
command on all the files in the saints Row 2 and common.vpp_pc folders and found
all sorts of information on the FUZZ activity but not the car spawn info or the
npc info for the cameraman.
This is an annoyance for a couple of reasons. I modded a police cruiser to
use in the mission, but I can't find the setting to add it, also I wanted to switch
the cameraman for Jane Valderama but I can't find that info either.
This is where compromises need to be made. I can still make the changes that I want to
but they will effect more than just the activity code. In order to change
the cameraman to Jane I will have to do an NPC swap which will permanently change the
cameraman. For more details on NPC swapping see:
NPC Editing - A Comprehensive Guide
Current Version: 1.0.0 With this series of .txt files, you will learn all about Saints Row 2's NPC related files. You will learn how to change the colours of the items an NPC wears, change their gameplay voice, filter in-game appearance by gender/race/character type, force specific outfit...
www.saintsrowmods.com
In his case you only ever see him during the mission, so no big deal but in
order to use my Police Cruiser variant I have to mod the entry in the xtbl file and that
means that all the police cruisers (not including the Nuke Island and Ultor variants) will
look like mine. Note that you can just make your version as a variant, but then it will not
always show up in the activity. It might show up sometimes depending on whether or not
you used the police cruiser as the base of your mod.
I have mentioned elsewhere that everything in a game must be written somewhere in the code
and that is true, but sometimes that code can be obfuscated or buried in the exe file, etc.
I did search through the exe file and while there are several references to FUZZ it did
not contain the ones that I needed.
This is not the only place in the code where important information is missing. The
problems with replacing certain audio files also stem from missing code, although in
that case Idolninja did find what he believed to be that code hidden in the exe file
(SR2_pc.exe).
There are other activities that are afflicted with the same problem. The Regular Demo
Derby is one of them. There is no vehicle name info at all in the xtbl or cts file. The
Special Demo Derby does have vehicle info in it but no variant info.
I tried adding vehicle and variant information to FUZZ and the mission started ok
but the original vehicle loaded and when I tried to enter it the activity crashed.
I also tried adding variant info to the special demo derbys and while it did not
crash it ignored the variant data completely. So it appears that there is no fixing
the situation by modding the activity code.
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