Civ4 PakBuild

Pakbuild works with vista.
Just open PakBuild and then select Unpak.
Direct it to where the pak is.
 
PakBuild w/ Vista:
1) Right-click on the icon, and hit Properties
2) Select the Compatability Tab
3) Change Compatability to Windows XP SP 2
4) Run PakBuild
5) Hit the PAK menu
6) Select 'Unbuild'
7) Browse for the specific files

Note: This works for XP, just skip steps 1-3
 
Ok Im on vista, and I cant find the files I have EMPTY FOLDERS named Assets0.fpk, Assets1.fpk, Assets2.fpk, Assets3.fpk under the "Assets" folder of the games. I have searched my computer for "art.fpk" and "assets.fpk" FILES, but cant find any at all. I downloaded the PakBuild program, but its useless if I cant find the files... How the hell do I find them lol!
 
Assets0.fpk has most of the art you are looking for. Unpack it. You may need to unpack the others as well, but if I remember correctly all the buildings and units are in Assets0.fpk
 
1 suggestion I can add is for modders when creating the fpk file, instead of copying all the art, just use "link" (in vista/windows7), or "linkd" (for xp, but it needs to be downloaded separately).

Links ("name space junction") can only be made on NTFS formatted partitions. FAT is too lame.

Links are the equivalent of soft links in Unix. Very handy for (re)organizing things! Windows "shortcuts" are behaviorally different. For example one can't simply create a shortcut to Assets on a separate disk and have it work since the shortcut is actually "dirname.lnk", but the ".lnk" part is hidden by default.

eg)
D:\dev.units\packers>linkd Art d:\civ4\Warlords\Mods\RFRE.beta1p6\Assets\Art
Link created at: Art

now use pakbuild in the "packers" dir to generate the fpk file(s).



Another use I get out of them is utilizing my SSD disk, which has 2X the read performance of my HDD. The problem with SSDs is they wear out much quicker, so all I do is link in the most static, bulky data to speed loading. Even RoM2 can be made to start in a reasonable amount of time if all the tricks are used!



1 more tip, more files than just art *can* go in the fpk file. I can play my mod with only the privateMaps and Assets/res/fonts dirs outside. The python, XML, soundtracks... it's ALL in the fpk file :lol:
 
Wow the python, xml and soundtracks are in the fpk? and it works? Hum Ill have to experiment with that. Does anyone know if there is a UU that does not have the kfm where the rest of the unit art, will that work or not. Im attempting to fpk civ gold, and everything loads in the pedia fine. When i select a civ and start though, i get a blackish background where the terrain is. Here is a example of the Polish Hussar unit,
Spoiler :
Code:
<NIF>Modules/Custom Civilizations/Poland/Hussar/Hussar.nif</NIF>
			<KFM>Art/Units/Unique/Mongol/Keshik/MongelKeshik.kfm</KFM>
			<SHADERNIF>Modules/Custom Civilizations/Poland/Hussar/Hussar.nif</SHADERNIF>


I put all the units art back in its folder along with 51 other units that pulls the kfm from elsewhere. Now it wont load at all I get this error message repeatedly.
Spoiler :
Failed loading xml file......
Reason: Not enough Storage is available to complete this operation

Line: 0,0
Source.null


One other thing I was wondering about is if a fpk can be to big? For civ gold i have 6 that range from 120,000 to 350,000 kb. We have some in Woc 3.19 that are that big and have no problem with it. Any help would be appreciated. I am going to keep banging away at this. Im no computer person, just a carpenter, but Ill keep going till I get something working.
 
I got Civ Gold art to pak, it went from loading on my computers at about 6-7 minute average to loading in a minute. Now trying to fpk WoC full. Loads fine with the art in about 3 minutes. I tried to add the xml but do to the modularity of WoC and MLF's it didnt work. So now going to try to leave folder structure and MLF's and schema and remove the other xml to see it that works. If it works it will bring the load times to under 1 minute. I missed that you also had the python paked. Have to try that also.
 
> Wow the python, xml and soundtracks are in the fpk?

For Warlords at least. Only 3 things need to be outside:
1. custom maps
2. custom dll
3. Assets/res/fonts/*

The rest can all be in the fpk file. Strange but true.

Tried packing the movies and sounds, and no, it did not work for BtS, just lost the sounds and movies.
 
Does anyone know where the BtS fpk files are located? I have unpacked the ones form vanilla, but I can't find the promotion buttons for BtS stuff like Interception and Range. Thanks for any help!

EDIT: Never mind. I found it based on the file structure from looking at the XML. :)
 
@Thunderfall: Please put this link on page 1. It is a TUTORIAL "Using PakBuild to compress your Art folder" and very usefully.
 
Is there a NEW PakBuild for Windows7 64 bit or something, the old one does not work properly anymore with this OS, everything was fine before:confused:

It works fine for me with Windows 7 64-bit- I just used it to make a .fpk yesterday, and to unpack a .fpk today- are you sure you're using it properly?
 
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