Group File Studio - Release 1.3
Help Contents

Authored by: Gary and Jonah Bishop
Copyright © 1999. All Rights Reserved.

Program Overview

Program Layout

How To...

Main Window
Menu Commands
File Menu View Menu Tools Menu Help Menu
Program Errors & History Miscellaneous Information

Introduction

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Welcome to Group File Studio. This Windows 95 program makes it easy to work with the 3D Realms group file format, which is used in games such as Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, and Nam. A group file (any file that ends with the extension .grp) is simply a file that rolls many different files into one "package". Group File Studio currently allows the user to extract a single file, several files, or all files from the group "package". Art file support, allowing the user to view the settings and the art for each art file, is also available. I hope you find this program to be a useful addition to your editing files.


How To...

How to extract a single file - Back to Top

Extracting a single file is quite easy to do. Simply open the group file that you want to extract from. The contents of the group file should appear in the tree view on the left side of the program window. Find the file header that you wish to extract from (a file header is simply a means of organizing the many files in the group file) and expand this header by clicking the plus on the left side of the header itself. Now locate the file that you wish to extract, and select it in the tree view. From the Tools menu, select the "Extract Selected File" menu item (you also can either click on the appropriate toolbar button or press [CTRL]+[E]). Now select the location that you wish to save the file at and press the "Save" button.

How to extract files of the same type - Back to Top

Extracting files of the same type is just as easy as extracting a single file. Find the "filetype" (the file header in the tree view) that you wish to extract, and select it in the tree control (you need not expand the header as you would when extracting a single file). From the Tools menu, select the "Extract Selected Filetype" menu item (you also can either click on the appropriate toolbar button or press [CTRL]+[F]). Select the folder you wish to extract the files to and press the OK button.

How to extract all files - Back to Top

Before extracting all files from a group file, you should be warned that group files include a large number of files (some group files include almost 700 files). From the Tools menu, select the "Extract All Files" menu item (you also can either click on the appropriate toolbar button or press [CTRL]+[A]). Click on the [OK] button (on the warning dialog box) if you wish to extract all files from the group file. Then select the extraction location and press the [OK] button.

How to view art file information - Back to Top

To view information about an art file, simply expand the art file header in the tree view and select the art file you wish to examine more closely. The information will become available in the art file information box (at the bottom of the program window). To view the artwork itself, simply click on the tile number you wish to take a look at in the art file information box.


Main Window

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A screenshot of the main program window is shown below. Click on the object you want to know more about.

gfs.jpg (129428 bytes)

Group File Contents

The contents of the current group file are shown in the tree view on the left hand side of the window. This view shows the different filetypes that exist in the group file, and the individual files that exist under each filetype.

Selected Item Information

This section of the main window shows the number of files in the current filetype (regardless of whether a file or a filetype are selected in the tree view). Also shown in this view is the selected size of either the selected file or selected filetype (depending on which is selected in the tree view).

Art File Information

This list control displays the "contents" of the currently selected art file (provided that one is selected in the tree view). The columns in this view are as follows (from left to right):

Extraction Progress

This section of the screen shows the progress of extracting either a file or a filetype. This is useful when extracting a large filetype or file (such as the .art files).

Status Bar

This area of the window shows the description for the menu commands (when you have one selected), the total size of the group file, the total number of files in the group file, and the total size extracted after a successful extraction.


Menu Commands

File Menu - Back to Top

View Menu - Back to Top

Tools Menu - Back to Top

Help Menu - Back to Top


The Toolbar

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The toolbar (like in most programs) is a quick way to do the exact same thing that you can do in the pulldown menus. The items are (in order from left to right):


Program Options

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General Options - The following options are applied upon selecting the OK button of the general options dialog box.

Miscellaneous Settings - The following settings are remembered by the program, but are not set in a dialog box.


Future Additions

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Future additions to this program include:


Contact Information

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If you have a comment, question, suggestion, or a bug to report, please send e-mail to:

Also, visit the home for Group File Studio at Map FAQ Central.


Known Bugs

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The following is a list of bugs that are known about in this release of Group File Studio. They will (or should hopefully) appear fixed in the next release.


Acknowledgements

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I would like to thank the following people for their help and support:


Program Glossary

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