Any tools that can edit the .art file?

[Yon-Nos]

Well I managed to extract the Art file, but none of the tools I have found for viewing/altering Build format .art files work with it. Is it the art file still encrypted like as was with the early access version? I'd like to mod in some enemies for an asset pack once I've completed the game.

[Yon-Nos]

Well with a little hex editing I managed to create a Tiles001.art file I can use to add custom art. Already tested in a test map and works like a charm. So all is well. For now Back to enjoying the game in its vanilla glory :)

[SolidJenner]

Can you dude write a little more about it? Because we here were looking for the way to edit IF .art files too. If you could write something like guide or instructions, tha would be pretty cool.

[Yon-Nos]

Originally posted by Solid_Jenner:

Can you dude write a little more about it? Because we here were looking for the way to edit IF .art files too. If you could write something like guide or instructions, tha would be pretty cool.

For now I just took a Duke Nukem .art file, opened it in a hex editor (WinHex in my case) and changed the following values:

offset 00000009 and offset 0000000D both to 4F. This makes the Art file's tiles start at tile number 20224, which is below the last of Ion's art tiles. Then I renamed the file "Tiles001.art"

I still need to create a palette.dat file in Ion's palette, so the available art editors have a reference they can actually use. But that should be easy enough. In theory you should be able to add "Tile002.art, Tiles003.art, Tiles004.art" by setting the offsets I listed above 4F (50,51,52... 5A, etc). There is a hard limit at about 79 or 7A (Mapster32 can only access up to tile number 31232), but that gives you room for roughly 10000 tiles, so you should be good I think, lol.

Hopefully 3D Realms just releases an art editor that works with Ion's altered format in the near future instead of having to rely on such brute force methods to add new art assets. But I guess I've at least found a working solution if that never happens.

[dwtietz]

Here's some additional info that'll get you part of the way there:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/562860/discussions/0/1642045637385428991/

[Yon-Nos]

Originally posted by dwtietz:

Here's some additional info that'll get you part of the way there:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/562860/discussions/0/1642045637385428991/

Ah, this fills in one of the final pieces of the puzzle. One issue of my method is I couldn't find an art tool that would load my Tiles001.art file once I had hex edited it to be a follow up file to Ion's .art file. BAFed however works :)

I've created a Palette.dat file in Ion's palette, which will allow people to view the art assets in their native palette. For now I'm going to work on expanding the available art tiles using my method (Tiles002.art, Tiles003.art, etc). I think this would be a better method of adding new art to the game, as it won't require overwriting the game's Vanilla art file. Also my art files already work completely in BAFed. I've already tested to make sure it works in the game as well:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1839691935

Oh and here's the link to BAFed for anyone searching for it:
https://m210.duke4.net/index.php/downloads/download/8-java/41-build-art-files-editor

[dwtietz]

Originally posted by Yon-Nos:

Originally posted by dwtietz:

Here's some additional info that'll get you part of the way there:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/562860/discussions/0/1642045637385428991/

Ah, this fills in one of the final pieces of the puzzle. One issue of my method is I couldn't find an art tool that would load my Tiles001.art file once I had hex edited it to be a follow up file to Ion's .art file. BAFed however works :)

I've created a Palette.dat file in Ion's palette, which will allow people to view the art assets in their native palette. For now I'm going to work on expanding the available art tiles using my method (Tiles002.art, Tiles003.art, etc). I think this would be a better method of adding new art to the game, as it won't require overwriting the game's Vanilla art file. Also my art files already work completely in BAFed. I've already tested to make sure it works in the game as well:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1839691935

Oh and here's the link to BAFed for anyone searching for it:
https://m210.duke4.net/index.php/downloads/download/8-java/41-build-art-files-editor

Glad to hear that this helped you out. I agree that using multiple art files may be the way to go - for now anyway. It would be nice to see a utility like BAFed get some updates after all these years to make it a modern tool that would be fully compatible with Ion Fury.

Which palette.dat file did you use, and was the palette you made comprised of the first 768 bytes of that file, or was it a 768 byte chunk in the middle of one of the files? I tried loading a couple into BAFed but none of the ones I tried seemed to work. I also created my own using the palette screenshot Voidpoint posted on their Twitter page a long time ago but that didn't work either. I never looked into it much beyond that point though. :(

[dwtietz]

You've likely already seen this by now, but this is the one and only map I've produced (made it about a month ago I think). I suck at maps, so it'll probably never get any better than what you see right now. LOL
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1815433043

[Yon-Nos]

Originally posted by dwtietz:

You've likely already seen this by now, but this is the one and only map I've produced (made it about a month ago I think). I suck at maps, so it'll probably never get any better than what you see right now. LOL
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1815433043

Uploaded a prototype. Short on time at the moment so used a temporary upload link that will expire in a week until I find a more permanent home for it:

https://filebin.net/mtgjj4xhrm51megz

Feel free to distribute it or upload it anywhere you want as long as you create me as MrEsturk for creating it.

What it includes:

- TILES001.art through TILES010.art. I expanded them to allow 1024 tiles each, allowing up to 9216 custom tiles to be added to the game (To compare Vanilla Duke Atomic only had a bit over 6000 tiles available).

- A Palette DAT file (palette_editor.dat) using Ion's palette that can be read by BAFed. This file is only meant for use in the editor. It doesn't have light mapping or anything else that would make it work in game.

For now these tiles only work in BAFed. No other Build .ART editor I've tried works (including EDITART)

[dwtietz]

Originally posted by Yon-Nos:

Uploaded a prototype. Short on time at the moment so used a temporary upload link that will expire in a week until I find a more permanent home for it:

https://filebin.net/mtgjj4xhrm51megz

Feel free to distribute it or upload it anywhere you want as long as you create me as MrEsturk for creating it.

What it includes:

- TILES001.art through TILES010.art. I expanded them to allow 1024 tiles each, allowing up to 9216 custom tiles to be added to the game (To compare Vanilla Duke Atomic only had a bit over 6000 tiles available).

- A Palette DAT file (palette_editor.dat) using Ion's palette that can be read by BAFed. This file is only meant for use in the editor. It doesn't have light mapping or anything else that would make it work in game.

For now these tiles only work in BAFed. No other Build .ART editor I've tried works (including EDITART)

Thanks! I don't have any need to redistribute myself. I'm not really a modder or anything, nor am I a member of any kind of modding community - I just like to tinker with the files at home without ever creating anything ever worth distributing.

Within your project, you could feel free to list me as a contributor toward some of the achievements that helped make this possible if you felt so inclined. ;)

Not looking for anything out of it really, but the recognition for my small part would be cool I suppose. :P

[Yon-Nos]

EDIT: Released my art asset pack:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/editable-art-files-for-ion-fury

[Yon-Nos]

Currently working on an expansion for the Duke Nukem mod: Alien Armageddon. Once I'm done I'm thinking of creating a classic Wolfenstein expansion for Ion Fury. Will include the enemies from the original DOS Wolfenstein, the bosses of the Spear of Destiny expansions, and the enemies from the Macintosh port. The Macintosh port used sprites that had far less frames (no rotation sprites) but double the resolution detail.