You can download the modding tools for JC2 on this link:
The pack consists of many files, specially 5 .exe's which are the programs them self:
Archive Viewer
This is the program that opens up the games files for you to peruse and save. Most of the content you want to alter (and all the content that anyone so far has modded, to my knowledge) is in pc0.arc.
When you open archive viewer, you will see a huge list of sections, most of which branch off into many individual files. The modding process is saving these files, modifying them, and then dropping them into an override folder which will let you run off the changed content.
Bin2XML and XML2Bin
Many of the files present (indeed, most of the settings and such you'll ever want to change) are formatted in text files. When you look at them in archive viewer, and save them, they are pulled out in the .bin format. In order to modify them, you must convert the .bin file to a .xml text file that you can modify in notepad.
These programs simply do that for you automatically. If you drag a .bin on top of the appropriate program and drop it, it will automatically create an XML from that bin and place it in the same directory. Imagine that the program you want to use is a folder you are moving a file into, this goes for both.
Smallpack and Smallunpack
Most of the files which are not .bin format come in the form of archives. Basically just packages of associated files. Using the same method as the bin programs, you can pack and unpack archives, and modified archives are placed in dropzone just as other files are.
There are many file types which can be modded. A link to the file types can be found in the Mod installation tutorial, but I'll go over a few briefly.
- .bin - Files which are converted to XML for editing and back
- .xml - Text files containing setting data and variables for many of the various objects in the game. Most commonly modified with notepad.
- .dds - texture filetype, changeable with Paint.NET, a freeware photoshop clone.
- .blz - General collection of files meant for small unpack. It usually ends up being a folder full of other files. The process for editing a .blz is to unpack it, modify whatever files you want to inside it, and drag it back to small pack. The output is always a .sarc, simply rename it .blz and drop it in dropzone.
These tools are pretty ease to use, and I am sure that great things can be done!
I would like to thanks Gibbed for making the tools and thespiritfox from Just Cause 2.com forum for the explanation of each tools.
YESSSSSSSSSSSS at last!!
These tools have existed for quite a long time...
www.justcause2mods.com
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Hurray, a reason to keep JC2 installed. I can only imagine the wonders that will improve the core game coming from the mod community.
FANTASTIC! I hope seeing some awesome mods like realism mod, or zombie mode xD! Now, when did this torrent go....
now im sure to find this game
that's great. now at least there can be a community for really modding this game. Do you think it will be able to make total conversions with the Path Engine, in the future?
I wonder how much more the tools are going to be developed. It would of course be great to get a hold of the map-editor Avalanche studio uses. However, I doubt that can be cound anywere or recreated. Modding the island itself should be fun enough, for a while.
Guys. at least for now, these tools are pretty much like the GTA ones, made by users, since Avalanche has no plans to ever release a SDK. Buuuuut, this engine is much more modifiable than GTA SA, VC or IV ones. I can say that, in a few months after release of JC2, we can already do with these tools what the GTA modders took almost 3 years to be able to mod! So yes, I believe that soon we will have Total Conversions. Skins ands stuff are very easy to make and install, i've seen across the web even things like vehicles with modified parameters, extra guns, basic new weapons, and even new (very, very basic) missions! Good luck you all.
at last?
Have you actually looked around, those tools have been around for months.
As well as this site: Justcause2mods.com
Ah okay, yeah I know those. Thought it might have been something else in this release.
OOHH Yeah Gona Download it Now Thx!
Great that this guys has released the tools this early ,rather then bleed people with DLC
It's really encouraging to see that individuals release modding tools to support their favorite games!
Oh wow!
This may 'just cause' me to buy this game... heheh
Seriously though I will be watching moddb and the site that rebel28 pointed out for some sweet mods. Once the threshold is met I will grab the game. Thanks for the heads up :)
Its cool to see the news finally reaching moddb, here comes another wave of awesome mods.
At last!!! It arrived on Moddb, the modders at the justcause2 mod site were exploring many new possible modifications already, the modders at Moddb could use a little experience collected there already instead of starting from scratch :D
No model viewer in this rlease?
Get the version directly from Gibbed's SVN. It has more stuff.
Thankyou once again, Gibbed!
These has existed for a while...
www.justcause2mods.com use them quite often for their work.
yeah I knew about these but I'm glad, the engine is just amazing, so fast, so pretty.. easily one of the prettiest games I've played. Gameplays not too bad either- so I can just imagine what can be done in the future.
Can't wait!
game crashes after drop general.blz into dropzone,
file cause crashes, official steam demo of game also crahes
forum topics about this:
Facepunch.com
general.blz crashes red_feather"s posts
Facepunch.com
red_feather posted:
"I am having trouble making custom billboards in the game.
I use the archiveviewer on pc0.tab
Go under global/areasets and extract general.blz
I small unpack general.blz
modify a texture in the general folder
small pack the general folder
rename general.sarc to general.blz
put it into dropzone
But the game crashes when I start it up."
"...SmallPack may be generating the SARC incorrectly for this much data"
Unpack general.blz and pack occurring without errors, game crash with dx error.
Important that the no modifed this file cause crashes.
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