FFVII PC; modding difficulties

[Shademp]

The plan is to use Meteor to edit field files, then compress the lgp files into an flevel file and replace the original flevel file.
The (de)compressor used for most part has been 'lgptools160'. Has worked well in decompressing the flevel file and making the field files viewable through Meteor.

It fails in successfully compressing the field files, whether edited or not. The total file size is never right and the save files fail to load.

This problem seems referred to in this thread, http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=1296.0 , so I would not be surprised if lgptools is NOT the way to go. Using the Advanced Editor option (instead of trying to create an entirely new flevel file) results in the entire game itself refusing to load.
Weird, since this Tutorial, http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8092.0 , appears to indicate that lgp tools should work just fine.

Been looking at other LGP viewers/extractors, but Highwind yields me no results, and applicants such as Kaddy I simply can not get to even load. I've been trying at this for hours now.


Is there a possible noobish mistake I could be committing here?
What application do you recommend for compressing edited field files (which have been edited both in 'Dialog' and 'Entites&Script', as seen through Meteor) ?

Can't think of much more since I'm stumped, basically.

[sl1982]

The plan is to use Meteor to edit field files, then compress the lgp files into an flevel file and replace the original flevel file.
The (de)compressor used for most part has been 'lgptools160'. Has worked well in decompressing the flevel file and making the field files viewable through Meteor.

It fails in successfully compressing the field files, whether edited or not. The total file size is never right and the save files fail to load.

This problem seems referred to in this thread, http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=1296.0 , so I would not be surprised if lgptools is NOT the way to go. Using the Advanced Editor option (instead of trying to create an entirely new flevel file) results in the entire game itself refusing to load.
Weird, since this Tutorial, http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8092.0 , appears to indicate that lgp tools should work just fine.

Been looking at other LGP viewers/extractors, but Highwind yields me no results, and applicants such as Kaddy I simply can not get to even load. I've been trying at this for hours now.


Is there a possible noobish mistake I could be committing here?
What application do you recommend for compressing edited field files (which have been edited both in 'Dialog' and 'Entites&Script', as seen through Meteor) ?

Can't think of much more since I'm stumped, basically.

Try aali's unlgp and lgp programs. They seem to handle all the lgp's properly

[Aali]

This isn't about LGPs actually, the problem is the LZS compression. (LGPTools is not really capable of creating a "good" flevel.lgp either but that will only cause some very minor issues)

There used to be a set of LZS/UnLZS programs that worked well with FF7, see if you can find those.

[BrokenCrowe (Mendelevium)]

were you talking about F i c e L Z S ?

cause it can be found on fidecula's home page

http://www.sylphds.net/f2k3/php/programs.php?category=ff7

[Shademp]

were you talking about F i c e L Z S ?

cause it can be found on fidecula's home page

http://www.sylphds.net/f2k3/php/programs.php?category=ff7

Thanks very much.

Though I can't manage to get it working. The command line just instantly goes away when I try to use it.
I am using Windows (not familiar with any other format). I do not have a DOS. With the description "run it from DOS prompt but it needs to be run from within Windows" I assume I can not use this utility?

[sl1982]

were you talking about F i c e L Z S ?

cause it can be found on fidecula's home page

http://www.sylphds.net/f2k3/php/programs.php?category=ff7

Thanks very much.

Though I can't manage to get it working. The command line just instantly goes away when I try to use it.
I am using Windows (not familiar with any other format). I do not have a DOS. With the description "run it from DOS prompt but it needs to be run from within Windows" I assume I can not use this utility?

goto 'run' in windows xp or 'start' in vista or windows 7 and type cmd

[Shademp]

Searched the net for another compressor and found "LZSCDec". Either it doesn't work or I am confused.
First I thought I needed to compress all the lgp files into an flevel file through this application, but it can not pick an entire folder but only one file at a time.

So I tried compressing (with LZSCDec) an flevel file I created through LGPtools, which took hours, but the end result could not even start FFVII.


I am even more confused with the cmd. I read the readme file but I have no idea what to do. Dragging the suggested ficelzs.exe file to the cmd makes it display the text referred to in the readme, but I'm simply clueless.