Group File Studio - Help Contents

Group File Studio - Version 2.0
Help Contents

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

Program Overview		Program Layout
Introduction - New to GFS? Read this first! How To... Extract a single file Extract files of the same type Extract all files View art file information View art tiles from an art file		Main Window Screen Shot (With Hot Spot Links) Group File Contents (Tree View) Extraction Progress Meter Art File Viewport Art File Information Status Bar The Toolbar Program Options
Menu Commands
File Menu New Open Exit	View Menu Toolbar Status Bar	Tools Menu Extract Selected File Extract Selected Filetype Extract All Files File Viewing Options Options	Help Menu Help Contents Report a Bug Submit a Suggestion About
Program Errors & History		Miscellaneous Information
Revision History Future Additions		Contact Information Known Bugs Acknowledgements Program Glossary

Introduction

Welcome to Group File Studio. This 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, as well as support for playing .voc sounds has been included as well. 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).

How to view art tiles from an art file - Back to Top

To view the artwork itself, simply click on the tile number you wish to take a look at in the art file information box (an art file must be selected in the group file contents window (the tree window)). The artwork will automatically appear in the viewport.

How to play and stop a sound - Back to Top

To play a sound, simply select the sound you wish to play (*.voc files are the only files that can be currently played), and press the Play button on the Toolbar (or select the Play menu command from the Tools menu). To stop the sound from playing, simply press the Stop button (or select the Stop menu command from the Tools menu).

Main Window (Screenshot)

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

Group File Contents

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

Art File Viewport

This area of the workspace shows the currently selected art tile (if one is selected from an embedded art file). Large objects and small objects are scaled accordingly.

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):

Tile # - The tile numbers (in order) of the tiles in the currently selected art file.
Width - The width (in pixels) of the art tiles.
Height - The height (in pixels) of the art tiles.
Animation - The animation type of the art tiles, if any. The type can be either none, oscillating, forward, or backward.
Length - The number of tiles in the animation sequence, excluding the first tile. To find out how many total tiles are in the animation sequence, simply add one to this number.
X-Offset - The x (horizontal) offset of the current tile for centering purposes.
Y-Offset - The y (vertical) offset of the current tile for centering purposes.
Speed - The speed of animation. Strangely enough, larger numbers are slower animations, with smaller numbers being very fast animations.

Extraction Progress Meter

This section of the screen shows the progress of extracting either a file or a filetype. This is quite useful when extracting large amounts of data.

Status Bar

The status bar gives very useful information on the group file as a whole and on the program as a whole. The total group file size is shown, with the total number of files in the group file also shown. Information on highlighted menu commands or toolbar buttons is shown in this area as well. Also, selected file or filetype size is shown here (when either of the two are selected in the group file contents window). Successful extraction reports are also shown in the status bar.

Menu Commands

File Menu - Back to Top

Open - Open a group file for viewing and file extraction.
Exit - Exits Group File Studio

View Menu - Back to Top

Toolbar - Toggles whether the toolbar is shown or not.
Status Bar - Toggles whether the status bar is shown or not.

Tools Menu - Back to Top

Extract Selected File - When a single file is selected in the contents tree view, this command will extract the selected file from the group file. If a default directory is not provided in the program options, a folder browsing dialog will appear, allowing you to select the location where the file will be placed.
Extract Selected Filetype - When a filetype heading (or filetype) is selected in the contents tree view, this command will extract all the files under the selected filetype (for example: all map files (*.map)). If a default directory is not provided in the program options, a folder browsing dialog will appear, allowing you to select the location where the files will be placed.
Extract All Files - This command will allow you to extract every file from a group file. Be warned that some group files are extremely large and contain many files. If a default directory is not provided in the program options, a folder browsing dialog will appear, allowing you to select the location where the files will be placed.
Play - Plays the currently selected sound file (.voc files only)
Stop - Stops the currently selected sound from playing
Options - Opens the dialog box for setting general program options. Click here to see the options available.

Help Menu - Back to Top

Contents - Opens this art file in the default internet browser.
Report a Bug - Opens the default e-mail client to send mail reporting a program bug found.
Submit a Suggestion - Opens the default e-mail client to send mail submitting an idea or suggestion.
About This Program - Shows a dialog box with some information on Group File Studio.

The Toolbar

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

Open - Open a group file for viewing and file extraction.
Extract Selected File - When a single file is selected in the contents tree view, this command will extract the selected file from the group file. If a default directory is not provided in the program options, a folder browsing dialog will appear, allowing you to select the location where the file will be placed.
Extract Selected Filetype - When a filetype heading (or filetype) is selected in the contents tree view, this command will extract all the files under the selected filetype (for example: all map files (*.map)). If a default directory is not provided in the program options, a folder browsing dialog will appear, allowing you to select the location where the files will be placed.
Extract All Files - This command will allow you to extract every file from a group file. Be warned that some group files are extremely large and contain many files. If a default directory is not provided in the program options, a folder browsing dialog will appear, allowing you to select the location where the files will be placed.
Play - Plays the currently selected sound file (.voc files only)
Stop - Stops the currently selected sound from playing
Report a Bug - Opens the default e-mail client to send mail reporting a program bug found.
Submit a Suggestion - Opens the default e-mail client to send mail submitting an idea or suggestion.
About This Program - Shows a dialog box with some information on Group File Studio.

Program Options

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

Open last group file on program launch - Does exactly what it says. When checked, the last open group file is opened for editing at program startup (if the last group file no longer exists, the program will supply an appropriate warning).
Show art information when art files are selected - When this option is checked and an art file is selected in the group contents tree view, the art file information box will show the selected art file's attributes. This option can be turned off, preventing the information "loading" time that accompanies each art file.
Use default directory as file extraction destination - When checked, all extract file dialog boxes will start in the specified directory. If this option is not checked, the extract file dialogs will start at the desktop (highest) level.
External (Alternate) Palette File to Use - This option allows a custom palette.dat file to be used for viewing the artwork. The standard palette.dat file is the default selection (as it is included with Group File Studio). The user can change this option should they wish to. Palette files are required by Group File Studio in order for artwork viewing to work properly. Should the user close the options dialog with this field blank, the default palette file will be used.

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

Window Size - The window size of this program is remembered, so you only have to set the window size once.

Future Additions

Future additions to this program include:

(?) Viewing KVX sprite files from the group file (Shadow Warrior only)
Playing music (*.mid) and other sound files (*.wav) from the group file
Creating new group files
Adding files to an existing group file
Deleting files from an existing group file

Contact Information

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

jonahb@3dportal.com

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

http://mapfaq.3dportal.com

Known Bugs

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

No known bugs have been found so far...

Acknowledgements

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

Gary Bishop - My dad, co-author of the program (I'm learning to program...), and all around cool dude.
Ken Silverman - For sending me the specs on the group file format and other items of interest.
3D Portal - For being the cool site and host that they are.
3D Realms - For creating Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior in the first place. For the standard palette.dat file as well.

Program Glossary

Group File - A single file that contains many different files in it, and that follows the 3D Realms group file format. This is an easy way to package many different files for use in a 3D Realms game (Total Conversions often use group files to "clean up" the user's directory (fewer files are placed in the directory as a result of the group file)).
File - In the tree view, files are made viewable by expanding the filetype (or file header).
Filetype - Also known as file headers, a filetype is a way to organize files in the tree view. For example, the filetype "Art Files" is comprised only of files that end with the .art extension.