Topic: new descent 2 data compiler/blender exporter (beta release!)

[SaladBadger]

Info:
I wrote a new Descent II data file compiler and model exporter for blender. Its a simple command line application, which can "decompile" a descent2.ham file into json scripts describing the data and .POF models, and it can then compile these scripts into a new descent2.ham file (you can also compile robots and models into HXM files, but this is more limited), which can be included in your .HOG file for D2X-Rebirth. This lets you modify all the robots and weapons to some degree, and it even lets you poke at certain other internal bits, though this is of much less interest to pretty much anyone...

It's written in c# and requires .net framework 4.5 or above. It is also tested to work fine with the Mono runtime, meaning that it will work perfectly fine on a linux machine (tested on an arch box) or a mac.

Basic usage:
In the simplest usage, extract the tool to a new directory, copy in a DESCENT2.HAM, DESCENT2.S22, and GROUPA.PIG into that directory (do not put it into your main Descent 2 directory). Then, from a command prompt, navigate to that directory and invoke the tool with

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Descent2Tool -d DESCENT2.HAMThis will decompile the HAM file and export a number of .json files, and a number of .pof files. From here, you can alter the json scripts to adjust things to be how you want, and then you can recompile with

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Descent2Tool -c DESCENT2.HAMWhich will compile all the json scripts in the working directory.

Further documentation is included in the archive, though its incomplete at the moment. Run Descent2Tool without any commands for command line help.

Downloads:
Note: this is a beta release. Error messages are a bit vague and useless at the moment, and there's probably some bugs here and there. As always be sure to keep backups of your work and do not run this in your main descent 2 directory! Use copies of your ham, sound, and pig files!
main archive
source

[D2Disciple]

Cool!

Can't say I'm savvy enough to know what I would use this for, but this seems like a good tool for modders. Thanks for this.