> To olaf or any 1 else than can help
> Please can you help me with the formats of
> *.csf and *.big
> i have downloaded a few of your sourcecode files in an attempt to help me figure out
> how to read these files using vb.net. This is what i have gathered from your code.

> *.csf
> Reading the default english generals.csf
> This is what i have made my header

> [vb.net code]

> Private Structure CSFHeader
> Dim id As Int32
> Dim flags1 As Int32
> Dim count1 As Int32
> Dim count2 As Int32
> Dim zero As Int32
> Dim flags2 As Int32
> End Structure

> [vb.net code]

> when i read that i get

> count1 2774 Integer
> count2 2773 Integer
> flags1 3 Integer
> flags2 0 Integer
> id 1129530912 Integer
> zero 0 Integer

> wich i think is incorrect but then again i dont even know what those values are
> suposed to tell me about the file.

> What i have manged to work out, after the header follows a lbl value and rts value.
> the value for lbl seems to be in plain english (string of diffrent lengths)
> the value for rts seems to be incripted with certain ascii chars representing the
> alphabet as well as integers.

> but i dont know what to make the structure, is it 1 long string or maybe 2 strings ?

It's a unicode string that uses two bytes per character.

> *.big
> Reading the default english.big
> This is what i have made my header

> [vb.net code]

> Private Structure BIGFHeader
> Dim id As Int32
> Dim size As Int32
> Dim mc_files As Int32
> Dim mcb_header As Int32
> End Structure

> [vb.net code]

> when i read that i get

> id 1179076930 Integer
> mc_files 167772160 Integer
> mcb_header -1811873792 Integer
> size 2771924 Integer

> wich i gather size is the size of the big file and is in fact correct
> but i have no clue what id, mc_files and mcb_header is suposed to represent

count files and count bytes header are both in network byte order. So convert them to host byte order with ntohl().

> i do see that included in the header is the path and name of each file
> wich i think maybe is suposed to be in a structure called mc_files or mcb_header ?
> i also think that the filesizes of each file must also be in the header ?
> But i am not sure about that.

> I am making an editor for generals and i dont have a problem with the ini's, but
> the opening and editing and saving of the binary files has got me stuck. Even with
> looking at your c++ code i dont understand much of it. Please could you help explain
> a little about these formats? I know that you dont code in vb.net but if you could
> tell me the structure in plain english i think that it could help out alot. Making
> the editor isnt going to have the same effect as if i cant read from the *.Big and
> *.csf files.

> Halo
> GTS
> GenDev: Project Team
> icq: 233-103-157
> msn: Halo@webmail.co.za

Olaf van der Spek

XCC Home Page