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un-wasm
Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 11:15 am
by quota4stupid
It's far from perfect/complete, but I've knocked together a little application to decompile BWD files back into WASM source. It can be downloaded
here. It requires the Java 6 runtime, which can be downloaded from
here if you don't already have it.
From the command line "java -jar jmw2.jar" will print out usage instructions. As an example (assuming you have Mercenaries installed in C:\MERCS) running:
Code: Select all
java -jar jmw2.jar unwasm -source C:\MERCS\MW2.PRJ -all
from the command line will decompile all of the BWD files in the Mercs project file into the current directory.
The output files *should* be compilable with WASM, but don't always work properly. The following is a list of bugs/shortcomings that I know about:
- Star names (used in the "star" and "mission" constructs) aren't actually stored in the BWD chunks that use them - instead they are identified by a "group ID" value. I make a best effort to properly map these ID values back to star names by searching the including gp_spec BWD files, but sometimes there are gaps, in which case I try to make a guess at the name. It doesn't always work
- There is a similar situation with object names - these aren't stored in the BWD either (again, the binary uses ID values). In this case I wrangle up a name based on the name of the geometry file the object uses. This mostly works OK, but some of the MEC files make for ugly reading.
- There is an "critical" value in the mission tables that I can't identify, and it's driving me insane! The various mission building FAQs only identify "Mandatory" and "Optional", but there is a 3rd value! I can't find anything by hexdumping WASM.EXE either, so at the moment it just craps out if it encounters this value
- I haven't been bothered decoding the weapon/ammo ID values yet (this wont be hard, just time consuming - I will get to it eventually
). As such, any place weapons/ammo are refered to in the xxxxCAM1.BWD files, I output the numeric value but comment it out (since WASM expects a name).
- I haven't decoded the VWSP chunk yet (only occurs once in MW2MECH.BWD, and probably isn't all that important anyway), so this doesn't get decompiled.
- Likewise, I'm still working on the patch record in the WTHR chunk, so these wont decompile yet either (having said that, they don't appear to be used in any BWD anyway, so it doesn't really matter).
- It will output a lot of warnings about chunks that have unknown fields and how data may be lost - this is nothing to panic about, it just means those particular chunks still have bytes I haven't decoded yet, so when they are exported back to WASM source, there may be some loss of information... practically speaking though, I don't think anything important is missing... probably
- I've also got an issue, when trying to recompile sources, of WASM complaining that certain files (generally audio in mission tables) don't exist in the project file. It also complains of not being able to find "Null" in the project file when this is used to indicate "no file" in the mission table, despite the fact that this is what the DEM1 and DEM2 examples in the Mercs tools directory use!!
I've written this to help me finish decoding the last little bits of the BWD format, but I thought there might be a few people here who might be interested in it too
If you do use it and find any bugs or problems not listed above, please let me know.
Re: un-wasm
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:48 am
by Col.Kell
Wow.
I am so going to test this. I was saddened by believing allmhuran's words that Ed Wong had a BWD-to-text converter lost to time.
There is an "critical" value in the mission tables that I can't identify, and it's driving me insane!
I do have some useful info that may help you on that, quota. Please take a look at my notes
here in this thread.
Re: un-wasm
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:34 am
by quota4stupid
Col.Kell wrote: Wow.
I am so going to test this. I was saddened by believing allmhuran's words that Ed Wong had a BWD-to-text converter lost to time.
I hope you find it useful despite its flaws. Most of the output can be recompiled back to BWD with WASM, but I had a lot of troubles trying to get xxxxSCN1.WLD files to recompile - it seems that a lot of the audio files they link to aren't actually in the project file
Not to mention that WASM suddenly decides that specifying "Null" as a mission objective target is invalid, despite it being used that way in the samples on the CD!
Having said that, I think you might enjoy looking over the mission tables in some of those files - some of the ones actually used in game are quite intricate - it's pretty cool stuff
Col.Kell wrote:
There is an "critical" value in the mission tables that I can't identify, and it's driving me insane!
I do have some useful info that may help you on that, quota. Please take a look at my notes
here in this thread.
Thanks, but no luck
The mystery value is 0x4E, which means there's a 3rd option (Mandatory, Optional, ?) but I can't find ANY hint of it anyway (none of the mission building FAQs, not in the 3D editor, not in WASM.EXE hexdump - NOWHERE!) It is supremely frustrating... Ultimately, I think the only way I'm going to be able to assign a label to it is by experimenting with the sim - build a custom mission, insert the mystery value, and try to figure out how it effects the game
Maybe later this week...
Re: un-wasm
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 8:17 pm
by Col.Kell
4E? I only know of 4D and 4F... no clue what that value is. Maybe I'll put 4E into a mission objective and see what happens. I'll have to check that out and try the unwasm in a couple of days, I have to leave town for a while and won't be back til then, I have friends to visit and a C\SrA CAP promotion to celebrate (check my rank sig the next few days
)
Re: un-wasm
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:54 pm
by quota4stupid
Col.Kell wrote:4E? I only know of 4D and 4F... no clue what that value is.
And so you see why it drives me mad!
Col.Kell wrote:I have to leave town for a while and won't be back til then
Who did you kill?
Col.Kell wrote:I have friends to visit and a C\SrA CAP promotion to celebrate (check my rank sig the next few days
)
Have fun
Re: un-wasm
Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 9:05 am
by Col.Kell
I'm back!
quota4stupid wrote:Col.Kell wrote:4E? I only know of 4D and 4F... no clue what that value is.
And so you see why it drives me mad!
Ah the little anoying things... kinda like when I aborted the construction of two KAM mechs because I didn't know how to put in negative xyz values. xP
quota4stupid wrote:Col.Kell wrote:I have friends to visit and a C\SrA CAP promotion to celebrate (check my rank sig the next few days
)
Have fun
And I have, promoting to Senior Airman was great. Now I need to get to changing my sig now.
Re: un-wasm
Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 6:18 pm
by Col.Kell
One quick question; if I want Java Runtime 6 for my Windows XP (32bit), which one should I get?
Re: un-wasm
Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 6:42 pm
by quota4stupid
Col.Kell wrote:One quick question; if I want Java Runtime 6 for my Windows XP (32bit), which one should I get?
"JRE6 Update 13" for "Windows" (the other two Windows options are different 64-bit flavours)
Re: un-wasm
Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 6:43 pm
by Sir MMPD Radick
Kell always go grab the latest one off of the sun website.
(Heh looks like quota beat me to posting by a few sec)
Re: un-wasm
Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2009 2:00 am
by Col.Kell
== Gone til' Monday morning -- CAP SAREX ==