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Newbie Joined: 22 Jul 2005 Posts: 6

was wanting to update my map and noticed that cell.dat doesnt exist in actod.. has it changed to "client_cell_1" ?

cant get map to update with new islands.

Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2005 5:20 pm

Somebody will have to experiment with this and let me know. Maybe the Decal people know. If they changed the filename, then they probably changed the data format, and if so, then there is no way to update the terrain in AC Explorer. If they kept the same format and just changed the filename, then I could easily fix that.

Newbie Joined: 22 Jul 2005 Posts: 6

acexplorer 3.4 will only look for cell.dat, doesnt seem to know what to do with client_cell_1. id try to make a change but i wouldnt know where to start with that 8)

Newbie Joined: 02 Oct 2005 Posts: 1

Turbine changed the format of the two dat files. Unless someone updates the map utility you are stuck with Ganzor's February map.

Newbie Joined: 22 Jul 2005 Posts: 6

"The format of the two dat files has been changed by Turbine. There is no possibility of getting a new map for AC Explorer unless Zugg or someone updates the map generation tool. yula."

-how bout it zugg ?

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 4:53 pm

If the format changed, then there is nothing I can do. The Terrain Path finding in AC Explorer was extremely dependant upon the cell.dat file format. Unless someone else can send me all of the details of exactly how to decode the new format and how to interpret the terrain data, then there is no hope. Since I don't have the expansion, I don't even have a new file to play with.

Sorry, but this is where I'll have to draw the line at support. It's sad that Turbine felt the need to change so much in an already established game.

Newbie Joined: 27 Oct 2005 Posts: 1

sorry, I didn't realize this was still an issue or I would have posted here sooner.

as referenced elsewhere, you can get CellConverter.exe as part of the Dat Utilities package from http://sourceforge.net/projects/acdev. CellConverter will convert the new client_cell_1.dat file into the old cell.dat format for use with AC Explorer (or any other type of map reader that worked with the old cell.dat format).

if you want details on the new format, source code is available (the relevant files may be browsed here). the source code will actually read both the old and the new format, so you can see the changes required just by comparing the "Format.Retail" sections versus the "Format.ToD" sections.

DatFile.vb contains code that (among other things) reads the new superblock info (same as before, except one extra DWORD was added between the Version DWORD and the Free Block Chain Start Pointer DWORD, and the starting offset moved from 0x12c to 0x140)

Directory.vb contains code that reads the new directory format (same as before, except file entries are now six DWORDs rather than three (ID/Pointer/Size -> Flag/ID/Pointer/Size/Timestamp/Version), which means the size of a directory btree node increased from 984 bytes to 1716 bytes)

-ken

edit: I don't browse these forums often (it's been more than a year since I was here last, and I've never posted at all until today). so please send me a PM if you have a question, need more info, or there's a reply here you think I should see. thanks.

Novice Joined: 14 Aug 2002 Posts: 40 Location: USA

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 4:19 pm

Wonderful .. This worked excellently for me! Very Happy

. Download the ZIP file that KGober refered to.
. Unzip the utilities all into any temp folder.
. Make a copy of the client_cell_1.dat file into this temp folder from the \Program Files\Asheron's Call ToD folder.
. Open a DOS prompt in the temp folder.
. At the prompt enter "cellconverter client_cell_1.dat"
. Depending the the speed of your computer this should take a few minutes. When done, there will be a new cell.dat there.
. Start up ACExplorer and select Update and Update Map...
. You now have a updated map. Don't forget to use the Update Data Files...

Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2005 6:57 pm

If someone could send me a copy of the updated TERRAIN.DAT file that they got after running the conversion listed above, I'd be happy to include it in the new AC Explorer release. Just put it into a ZIP file and attach it to an email sent to sales@zuggsoft.com and put "AC Terrain" in the subject of the email. I'm sure everyone else using AC Explorer would appreciate it.