JSDF BETA 0.1 FIXED VERSION Released

[Snijboer]

Finally, i've finally managed to reduce the filesize to 65.mb. Way more better than 800mb!

So here it is!

 

 

----------JSDF MOD 0.1 BETA_FIXED VERSION----------

 

About the mod:

This mod will able you to play as the Japanese Self Defense Force.

This MOD was created for fun, Because why not? The artwork of some vehicles and other units are all created by me.

The japanese voices are not made by me, the credit goes to the author: issac0225 from the re-dubbed version from Age of Empires 3 Asian Dynasties.

A few soundtracks from RA3 are being used, credits to James Hannigan for the soundtracks.

And lastly, there are 2 soundtracks made by me.

 

---INSTRUCTIONS---

Make sure to backup your original EXPAND2.mix and REDALERT.MIX!!!

And also for modified .INI files if you have them!

 

- Put everything that is in the .rar folder to the Red Alert folder.

 

- Done! Start up the game and enjoy!

 

---WHATS NEW---

 

- Japanese voices

 

- More crates

 

- Default skirmish money $10000 can now be changed to $20000

 

- MCV can deploy and re-deploy

 

- Some new sound effects

 

- Some new soundtracks

 

- Pillbox changed to bunker which holds 2 machine gunners

 

- The Type 10 tank (medium tank)

 

- The Kumatsu LAV (Ranger/jeep)

 

- The Type 96 APC (Armored personel carrier)

 

- The Type 99 155 mm self-propelled howitzer (Artillery)

 

- The OH-1 Kawasaki (Apache Longbow)

 

- And more!

 

---ISSUES/BUGS---

 

- Choosing a color in skirmish will sometimes results a bit different then it supposed to be. The new units etc may look better if it's green/blue, other colors may make it ugly.

This may not be a big issue.

 

- Game crashes when playing the campaign at mission 4 as the allies. But this may be fixed. So i guess, give it a try.

 

---SOURCES---

 

The Japanese Unit Voice pack: http://aoe3.heavengames.com/downloads/showfile.php?fileid=3452&ci=5fc09c78b15326f12ba64919ec3c244bYToxOntpOjA7YToyOntpOjA7czoxNDoiU2VhcmNoIFJlc3VsdHMiO2k6MTtzOjQ1OiJsaXN0ZXIucGhwP3N0YXJ0PTAmYW1wO3NlYXJjaD1kdWJiZWQgamFwYW5lc2UiO319

 

---MANY THANKS---

 

Thanks for downloading the fixed version!

Please aware that this is an BETA and the content you see in the game is not final!

Sayounara!

 

New Download link here:

 

http://www.gamertz.nl/JSDF_MOD_0.1_FIXED.rar

 

Thank you!

 

Any criticism and opinions are welcome!

[mrgreenno1]

Hello! Great! Will test it today! Why is it so big? almost 1 gb =)

[Snijboer]

Hello! Great! Will test it today! Why is it so big? almost 1 gb =)

 

Hi! Thanks that you are going to try it! Be sure to help me out to improve the mod! Will gladly accept it 

 

Why it is so big? The MAIN.MIX is file is causing it.Probably because i'm using alot of wave files and are pretty high quality and takes alot of MB. To be exact 960 MB.

If you perhaps know how to reduce it, please tell!

 

[Nyerguds]

Why it is so big? The MAIN.MIX is file is causing it.Probably because i'm using alot of wave files and are pretty high quality and takes alot of MB. To be exact 960 MB.

If you perhaps know how to reduce it, please tell!

This, combined with your listed bug that your music plays too slowly, leads me to the conclusion you don't downsample your music before converting it to AUD format. All the original C&C1 music only takes 80 mb... I can't imagine how you get to 800.

 

Using RAD Video Tools, you can easily fix that. Just do this:

 

PS: "alot" is not actually a word.

[Jacko]

or use xcc mixer, that works too.

[Nyerguds]

I don't think XCC does automatic downsampling. Also, I'm not sure what else he would be using... the old DOS tools?

[Nyerguds]

What the hell? You left all the videos in main.mix? For a mod?

 

Ohgods it's worse. This is the original TFD main.mix, without even the cleanup performed.

 

Good lord, why? That thing is 400 mb too big courtesy of simply not cleaning it up (try right click-> compact; you'll see), and the Soviet videos in it don't even work, since in no-cd mode, RA can't read movies2.mix!

 

or use xcc mixer, that works too.

Looks like it's worse... they are not converted to AUD... at all. Just renamed.  O_o

 

 

Snijboer... aud is not just an extension. It's a file format. You need to convert the files to that format before putting them in your mod.

[Snijboer]

What the hell? You left all the videos in main.mix? For a mod?

 

Ohgods it's worse. This is the original TFD main.mix, without even the cleanup performed.

 

Good lord, why? That thing is 400 mb too big courtesy of simply not cleaning it up (try right click-> compact; you'll see), and the Soviet videos in it don't even work, since in no-cd mode, RA can't read movies2.mix!

 

Well, i didn't knew that TFD messes it all up. How would i know?

 

Anyways, how do i clean them up? Deleting those videos? If so, then i guess ill make a fixed version for the soundtrack and those videos.

[Nyerguds]

Uhh... I'm simply not sure why you decided to distribute your mod as a main.mix file in the first place... it's not the mod's place to do such things; without changes to how the game is launched it has no effect anyway. All you really did was bloat your mod with 1.3 gb of junk, as far as I could see. And it's all stuff the game should already have.

 

Besides the music, what exactly in there is part of your mod?

 

And did you see my note on the soundtrack? You never converted those tracks; you just renamed them. In fact, the sample format was already correct. Just the file format isn't.

[Snijboer]

Uhh... I'm simply not sure why you decided to distribute your mod as a main.mix file in the first place... it's not the mod's place to do such things; without changes to how the game is launched it has no effect anyway. All you really did was bloat your mod with 1.3 gb of junk, as far as I could see. And it's all stuff the game should already have.

 

Besides the music, what exactly in there is part of your mod?

 

And did you see my note on the soundtrack? You never converted those tracks; you just renamed them.

 

Alright, so you are telling me there are stuff that isn't required at all? I apologize! Again, how did i know?  I'm not an experienced modder, i thought everything the main.mix had is the stuff you need as every standard main.mix file is in RA1.

 

About the music, there are 2 tracks that are made by my own. Anything else is RA3 and RA1 soundtracks.

 

(Fixed the soundtracks, they are all playing at normal speed now)

 

And what do i need to do to fix those videos?

[Nyerguds]

Well, I'm sure there must be some modding guides around. The basic way is to add the stuff you want to replace in sc*.mix files. I'd just, uh, look at some existing RA mods, and see how it's done.

 

As for those videos, I dunno, I simply wouldn't put them in there... but then again, I wouldn't put any of main.mix in there in the first place.

 

If you seriously want to go that way, take the original TFD main.mix, and run my cleanup tool on it, then at least you're left with a main.mix that's half a gigabyte smaller, and in which everything works. Not that I know why you would want to keep the videos in there in the first place; modding loads of unit stats tends to make the original missions rather unusable anyway, making the accompanying briefing videos equally irrelevant.

 

Basic rule on editing mix files, though: every time you edit one, finish by right-clicking in it and selecting "compact". That will clean up all lost space in the mix file.

Or simply use XCC Mix Editor for that, and not XCC Mixer.

[Snijboer]

If you seriously want to go that way, take the original TFD main.mix, and run my cleanup tool on it, then at least you're left with a main.mix that's half a gigabyte smaller, and in which everything works. Not that I know why you would want to keep the videos in there in the first place; modding loads of unit stats tends to make the original missions rather unusable anyway, making the accompanying briefing videos equally irrelevant.

 

I tried patching RA1 with the TDF patch and used your clean up tool. The MAIN.mix file is was 1.23GB and now it is 795 MB. And yes, this is the original main.mix it from TDF.

It is still pretty big.

 

[mrgreenno1]

One more thing... what RA1 version is suitable here and where can I download it? Thanx

[AchromicWhite]

Hey, try using this as a base Should help.

 

Main MINIMUM game package (13 MB, comes with expansions)

Campaign files (12.3 MB), should be all you need.

 

http://iran.cnc-comm.com/ra/#

 

Yeah, chill Nyer, I know it's crazy seeing someone do this, but there's actually not that much info on how to mod RA. I remember when I started modding it was insanely hard to figure out how to do stuff. I mostly just asked people in the CnCNet IRC.

 

  -Liam

Hope that helps

[mrgreenno1]

Hey, try using this as a base Should help.

 

Main MINIMUM game package (13 MB, comes with expansions)

Campaign files (12.3 MB), should be all you need.

 

http://iran.cnc-comm.com/ra/#

 

Yeah, chill Nyer, I know it's crazy seeing someone do this, but there's actually not that much info on how to mod RA. I remember when I started modding it was insanely hard to figure out how to do stuff. I mostly just asked people in the CnCNet IRC.

 

  -Liam

Hope that helps

 

It is not working with this version. OK i will wait for update of the mode...

[Snijboer]

Well, the file size of the main.mix is now in total: 749 MB

 

I used your cleanup tool.

 

When putting my modified files in it, i selected all them to "compact".

 

I think this is the farthest way i can do.  is there still anything that i can reduce the file size? Or is this the end?

 

Please respond, thank you.

 

 

[Nyerguds]

As I said... if this is just for your mod anyway, and you did a ton of unit stat modifications... are the original missions even still playable? If not, is it still useful to put the original videos in there? If not, simply delete movies1.mix, and it'll probably be reduced to around 100 mb.

 

[edit]

Wait, if I remember correctly, removing movies1.mix could lead to problems... think you need to add an empty movies1.mix, instead.

[Snijboer]

As I said... if this is just for your mod anyway, and you did a ton of unit stat modifications... are the original missions even still playable? If not, is it still useful to put the original videos in there? If not, simply delete movies1.mix, and it'll probably be reduced to around 100 mb.

 

[edit]

Wait, if I remember correctly, removing movies1.mix could lead to problems... think you need to add an empty movies1.mix, instead.

 

I can still play the original missions with my mod.

 

So i need to remove the videos inside movies1.mix? will this not conflict with the campaign?

[AchromicWhite]

If you use the other version of RA to mod with, it should make things easier to mod, and make the game much smaller. There are no videos in that version either.

Would the videos even still line up with the missions you now have in RA (with the edited team etc)?

I know it's a bunch of work to copy the files over into new mixes, but the majority of the work for modding is graphics and balance (I find). I went through this myself. These larger versions of RA are really not that good for modding.

  -Liam

[Nyerguds]

I can't see the original missions still working with a mod... the balance will be shot to hell, and starting units will not be or do what they are intended for in the mission.

[Snijboer]

If you use the other version of RA to mod with, it should make things easier to mod, and make the game much smaller. There are no videos in that version either.

Would the videos even still line up with the missions you now have in RA (with the edited team etc)?

I know it's a bunch of work to copy the files over into new mixes, but the majority of the work for modding is graphics and balance (I find). I went through this myself. These larger versions of RA are really not that good for modding.

  -Liam

 

The videos are still lined up with the missions yes. I can still play the aftermath missions too.

 

I can't see the original missions still working with a mod... the balance will be shot to hell, and starting units will not be or do what they are intended for in the mission.

 

Well, they do work right here, i can play the campaign or the aftermath missions with it.

 

EDIT: My mod has no conflicts with the missions at all, it perfectly works fine. I can't see why you are saying that the balance is shot to hell. Yeah, if i use rules.ini file and mess things up.

[mrgreenno1]

Snijboer what version of RA do you use to play the mod? Please give a link.

[Nyerguds]

...um... if you don't change any unit stats... what exactly does the mod DO?

 

Oh, by the way... Frank Klepacki didn't make the RA3 soundtrack. He just made 3 tracks for it, one of which was Hell March 3. All of the Rising Sun music was composed by James Hannigan.

[Snijboer]

Snijboer what version of RA do you use to play the mod? Please give a link.

 

My version is V2.00 as seen in my ingame menu.

 

...um... if you don't change any unit stats... what exactly does the mod DO?

 

Oh, by the way... Frank Klepacki didn't make the RA3 soundtrack. He just made 3 tracks for it, one of which was Hell March 3. All of the Rising Sun music was composed by James Hannigan.

 

My mod has only replaced new skins i've created, replaced sounds, replaced soundtracks. And the rules.ini, nothing else.

 

Look, I apologize for everything here, I just did this too fast. And i didn't knew things about optimizing the main.mix file etc.

 

I know you can learn from mistakes. That is a good thing that i wont have this mistake for the second time.

 

Anyways, is there anything else that can be reduced for the main.mix? If not and everything is fine, then i will release the fixed beta version.

 

 

 

[Nyerguds]

So, some SHP files and some AUDs. What exactly was changed in rules.ini?

 

Practically all of these kinds of changes can be done with a simple sc*.mix addon file. The game automatically reads any mix file starting with "sc", so you don't need to replace any original game files to add a mod that way.