CMMOS Conversion Step-by-Step: Part 2, The Info.txt File

[Old Dog]

(Following is Part 2 of CMMOS conversion instructions for Panzermartin's T-34/76 hasty whitewash tank. To join in, the Link for Part 1 is here: CMMOS Conversion Part 1 )

Now that we have the BMP files renamed, we're ready to create the Info.txt file. This file is read by CMMOS when the mod is installed, so it must have a very specific format.

We'll make the file in Windows Notepad. Open notepad. You should have a blank white screen. One the first line, we type "[data]", to tell CMMOS we have data for it to read. The brackets need to be there, thus:

[data]

The next line in the Info.txt file is reserved by CMMOS for the mod artist/author. So, let's give Panzermartin credit for his work. The entry must begin with "author=" for CMMOS to read it, with no space either before or after the "=" sign. We therefore end up with this:

author=Panzermartin

Next line is the version number of the mod. CMMOS cares about version number since it will only install later (higher number) versions over existing mods. This is our first cut at Panzermartin's mod, so our version number is "1.0" We enter it on the next line (again with no space before or after) in the format CMMOS requires thus:

version=1.0

Next line. This one's easy, it's always exactly the same. We enter this:

type=CMMOS

Next comes "category". There is no exact "right" information to enter here, it's just for the benefit of webmasters who might host the work, giving them a quick reference as to the type of mod we have. We'll enter "Vehicles, Allied, T-34/76 whitewash" as a brief description, and so we end up with this (again no space before or after the "=" sign, but spaces in the description itself are OK) :

category=Vehicles, Allied, T-34/76 whitewash

For the next line, we enter the "series" of the mod. This is generally the tab in CMMOS in which the mod will go. Panzermartin's hasty whitewash T-34 obviously goes into the Soviet Allied Whitewash tab in CMMOS, which is called "Zimniy Kamuflyazh". As always, there are no spaces before or after the "=" sign. We'll enter the series as so:

series=Zimniy Kamuflyazh

The next 2 lines are like the "category" line, they are just info for a webmaster. We'll say:

season=Winter

resolution=hi-res

Our next line tells CMMOS which CM game this mod is for. As always, we'll use the "=" sign with no spaces. Here is our line:

game=CMBB

This is a good place to SAVE the file so we won't lose what we've done so far. Title the file "info.txt" and save it as a ".txt" file into your Workspace folder that contains the BMP files you suffixed in Part 1.

Since this part is getting rather long-winded (heh, maybe it's the author ), we'll continue with the Info.txt file in Part 3 of our series.

- Old Dog

[Major Jerkov]

Very informative... I cant wait for part 3!11 Seems pretty simple so far, just that its extra work for most ppl's....

[Bruno Weiss]

Will there be an intermission?

[Lou2000]

Still here and still reading

Seems i was doing things right so far .... but good to have it confirmed.

Question:

Once people start converting mods to CMMOS4 format and they start to appear on the various sites ... how & who will be controlling the version release of the rule-sets files ...i.e

Zimniy Kamuflyazh...if somebody adds panzermartins mods and somebody else adds other winter mods under the same rule-set name how are we gonna know what mods are supported :confused:

Does that make sense --- or do i need another coffee !

Lou2000

[MrNoobie]

what about the ruleset number? bah im jumping ahead you probably have it all figured out. why not just post the small tutorial up in the database, this place gets busy and it will get buried pretty quickly.

but then again what do i know

[Strontium Dog]

Good stuff Old Dog, keep it coming.

[Old Dog]

Lou2000,

CMMOS 4.0, unlike the earlier versions, does not require that the Rule-set (tab in CMMOS) have the mods written into it in advance. Put another way, once a rule-set is released, anyone can add a unit to that rule-set by writing a rule and releasing it along with their mod.

But there is a great big caveat. If modders/users just made and released CMMOS mods on their own, the whole system would break down since rule numbers would collide. So the process does still require some oversite. Gordon may be retiring from modding, but he still issues the rule numbers, and will continue to do so even from retirement (more about this later in the Step-by-Step). Gordon has made CMMOS 4 so that modders don't have to wait for a revised rule-set, but they do need to come to him for a rule number.

For private unpublished mods, I'm hopeful Gordon (or someone) will be releasing a "User" rule-set that any user can write whatever mods they would like into as long as they don't then release the mod to the general CM community. Provision for that is built into CMMOS.

So, what we will have is a system whereby the published mods are done (including the rules to allow inclusion in the tab) by modders and mod converters with communication with Gordon, and the private, undistributed mods are done by users who put them in their private "User" tab in whatever fashion and sequence that they'd like.

Mr. Noobie,

Besides writing rules, modders can get ask for a rule-set (not rule) number from Gordon and then write and publish an entire tab for CMMOS. His issuance of rule-set numbers is apt to be a more carefully controlled process however.

I will probably compile this and post it somewhere (or mail it to interested parties) once I've finished it.

Bruno,

Not only will there be an intermission, popcorn will be served in the lobby.

- Old Dog

Edit to correct totally confusing error in my response to Mr. Noobie. Note that Rules are for individual mods and Rule-sets are for CMMOS tabs not the other way around as I originally mis-typed. Oops!

[ December 01, 2002, 02:31 PM: Message edited by: Old Dog ]

[Lou2000]

Thanks for the info Old Dog ... and if you are going to email all of this outplease add me to the dist...

great stuff, please keep it coming.

Im going to start trawling the various sites for some terrain mods and start converting those

Lou2000

[Rob Murray]

Very informative indeed ( if I do this right, I'll have created my very first CMMOS mod { sort of; anyway }. I've renamed the bmps 58920_rww.bmp and so on. Is this correct? I'm asking because that's what I did & I would like to get this right first time around. Thanks for posting this tutorial. Put me on the list too if you're going to email the info out, please. Thanks again

[ December 01, 2002, 10:53 AM: Message edited by: Rob Murray ]

[ianc]

I will probably compile this and post it somewhere (or mail it to interested parties) once I've finished it.

Old Dog: very good stuff thus far and you're doing a good job of making it look easy.

As regards your above quote, why not include the doc in the next ver of CMMOS (along with the other more detailed readme) as a quik-guide for getting mods up with a minimum of hassle?

ianc

[Old Dog]

Rob Murray,

Response e-mail about your BMP question headed your way shortly.

Lou2000,

So that I don't miss anyone, I'll post the compiled document on CM Mod Database once I'm done.

ianc,

I'll probably leave the CMMOS Mod-Maker Manual that comes with the program as the primary reference (all the same info is there), and put this tutorial out as I mentioned above. I suspect Gordon wouldn't want to clutter up CMMOS with half a dozen readme files - put too many in and no one will read any of them.

Thanks everyone for the interest, and if you are following these threads, please note the important edit to my earlier post in response to Mr. Noobie's question. I don't want to create any confusion about the difference between a Rule and Rule-set.

- Old Dog

[Barleyman]

For what it's worth, I always thought the CM mod manager approach was sane®. Put bmp files for main mod into one sub-directory and options, if any, into separate directories. Doesn't involve renaming files and the config file layout was so simple I converted the mods I used myself into the mod manager format.