A Pigg Viewer

[Lost Ninja]

To cut a long story short, I'm looking for a usable binary of a pigg viewer that works with the modern HC client/win 10 machines. Ideally able to extract files. I don't need/want to make new piggs.

 

Tried Piglet but couldn't get it to compile and as I'm not a coder/programmer even though I can read the errors I have no idea what they mean. Found another that at least from the instructions implies I need some of the server code (or something), but goes way beyond what I actually need it for. I want to find sound file names (preview sounds) for a personal sound replacement mod, and text views (in game popmenus, etc).

 

So does anyone know of either a precompiled win10 binary of piglet, or some other working pigg viewer?

 

But no Porcine porn.

 

[LaconicLemur]

 

Check this forum thread. I have used Pro and 1.6 on Win 10:

 

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/5405-piggviewer/

 

[AboveTheChemist]

On 10/21/2019 at 5:43 PM, Lost Ninja said:

So does anyone know of either a precompiled win10 binary of piglet, or some other working pigg viewer?

Try here: https://build.ourodev.com/

 

Under CoX/Piglet, click 'Latest Stable Release' to download a 7-zip with an executable for piglet. I downloaded it today and am running it with no problems on my Win10 machine. Just extract the piglet.exe, double-click it, and off you go. That's how it worked for me, anyway.

[Lost Ninja]

Thanks guys, I found the original thread with the list of viewers and assumed because they were 9+ years old they weren't as good as something produced more recently. Then got Piglet (as above, thank you) and realised that Piglet seems to be pretty much a re-skinned Pig Viewer Pro. (I'm probably wrong and it's an entirely different program under the hood, parallel evolution and all that.)

 

Still not finding what I was looking for, I wonder what I used to find it back then... maybe process explorer... have to go look some more thanks... 😄

[MrGT5oh]

What kind of information is in a Pigg file and what is the purpose for trying to modify it?

 

[Hyperstrike]

1 hour ago, MrGT5oh said:

What kind of information is in a Pigg file and what is the purpose for trying to modify it?

 

Pigg files are the compressed archive format CoH uses to distribute game content.
Maps, art, audio, etc.

Why mod it?

Fairly straightforward.  Change how things look, sound and work.

You can do quite a bit with the Data directory.  But if you can reliably mod the Piggs you can more drastically change the game.

/taunt WASUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!

[Lost Ninja]

The data folder allows you to override the files in the piggs, you need the pigg viewer to find out what the original files are.  Many/Most of the files in the piggs aren't human readable (or you need specialist converters to turn them into something useful - which as we can get the source code it might be easier to go the other direction anyway). Or you need special skills to make use of them, eg: mapping 2d textures onto a 3d model.

 

AFAIK The only thing that being able to insert a file back into the Pigg would do is mean that if the devs update the pigg during an update you'll need to re-add the file too. It doesn't offer any better access to the game system (using a public server anyway). I have heard it claimed several times that you can insert things into the piggs that make the game work differently, but not seen any rational testing as to whether the same cannot be done by adding the same files into the data folder structure. To change core features of the game you'd need to edit the .exe (or .dlls) and then you might well be unable to connect to the correct servers anyway.

[LaconicLemur]

Some clarifications / more explicit information based on what I know.  .Pigg files are essentially proprietary .zip files which contain sound files (.ogg), texture files (.texture), font files (.ttf), and .bin files which afaik contain either images or text strings and likely a bunch of other game-specific file types.  They also contain animation files for all the animations in the game.  So afaik, .pigg files contain the visual and sound effect functions of the game.  I don't know if they contain (and doubt they do) actual "functions" like defining the effects of say, a snipe power.  I highly suspect those functions are housed server-side to avoid players essentially hacking and making themselves OP.  

 

The files in the .pigg themselves can be modified.  If you place it in the correct /data folder in your local game folder, the game will replace the in-game file with the one in your /data/* folder.  That's how sound mods, font mods, texture mods (ex. vidiot maps), etc. work.  You can see various examples of these in this sub-forum.  

 

AFAIK you can only make *aesthetic mods* client-side.  And it will only affect what you see or hear on the screen.  No one else in-game will see or hear your mods. All other mods to "make the game work differently", such as tweaking effects of powers, enhancements, or such, are in the server-side folders.  You'd have to host your own server to tweak those.  

 

I could be wrong, but certainly it seems logical that's how the game is laid out -- client files serve graphics and animations to reduce lag, and server-side owns the data to tell you how much you hit for, or what buffs/debuffs affect you, or your target, etc.

 

There's no real reason why you would modify a .pigg (really a .zip) file.  You want to view it so you can figure out the folder structure and filename for any files you decide you want to change (not all sound files are in the same location, for example) in your local /data folder.  

[MrGT5oh]

Thanks all for the info.

 

[Saiyajinzoningen]

hello i am trying to modify some animations (client side) and ran across this thread. Can someone direct me to a good starting point?

[Oubliette_Red]

On 12/1/2019 at 11:00 AM, LaconicLemur said:

Some clarifications / more explicit information based on what I know.  .Pigg files are essentially proprietary .zip files which contain sound files (.ogg), texture files (.texture), font files (.ttf), and .bin files which afaik contain either images or text strings and likely a bunch of other game-specific file types.  They also contain animation files for all the animations in the game.  So afaik, .pigg files contain the visual and sound effect functions of the game.  I don't know if they contain (and doubt they do) actual "functions" like defining the effects of say, a snipe power.  I highly suspect those functions are housed server-side to avoid players essentially hacking and making themselves OP.  

 

The files in the .pigg themselves can be modified.  If you place it in the correct /data folder in your local game folder, the game will replace the in-game file with the one in your /data/* folder.  That's how sound mods, font mods, texture mods (ex. vidiot maps), etc. work.  You can see various examples of these in this sub-forum.  

 

AFAIK you can only make *aesthetic mods* client-side.  And it will only affect what you see or hear on the screen.  No one else in-game will see or hear your mods. All other mods to "make the game work differently", such as tweaking effects of powers, enhancements, or such, are in the server-side folders.  You'd have to host your own server to tweak those.  

 

I could be wrong, but certainly it seems logical that's how the game is laid out -- client files serve graphics and animations to reduce lag, and server-side owns the data to tell you how much you hit for, or what buffs/debuffs affect you, or your target, etc.

 

There's no real reason why you would modify a .pigg (really a .zip) file.  You want to view it so you can figure out the folder structure and filename for any files you decide you want to change (not all sound files are in the same location, for example) in your local /data folder.  

That's pretty much how it works. Changes you make only affect client-side and only you will see them on the machine you made changes on. That's why for me, all Bots squeek like rubber ducks when they walk and glowies sound like a pack of hyenas. You would have to share the changes with others for them to see/hear the same thing.

 

Also, if you change the .pigg files, any time a client update is pushed out that updates that particular file. All your work will have to be redone, while the /data folder/subfolders and files are not affected.

[agentx5]

I was trying to find a current one that could tell me how things are structured, but I keep getting this error if I use Pigg Viewer Pro on any of the current i27 pg4 pigg directories:



Sounds like this "Pigglet" is the way to go, but alas the Orodev website URL provided in this topic doesn't seem to work anymore...
 

Spoiler

http://animikii-ana.com/zcvisitor/93047d18-04b5-11ed-b1f2-0aff0372a977/72092e88-2c53-401c-b988-51ef43ce1034?campaignid=9314a9b4-04b5-11ed-b1f2-0aff0372a977

So do anyone have a valid and working .pigg viewer that works with being able to see the structure of .pigg files (i.e. so I can change certain .ogg sound files or textures on client-side, but I have to know how the file folder structure is laid out in order to properly place into the data override folder)

Also have been looking for information about how the .texture files work (I suspect they are actually bitmaps), so I can replace things like the billboards with my own texture choices of the exact same pixel dimensions, but that can be another topic.

It's hard to find good information on any of this stuff...

[AboveTheChemist]

8 hours ago, agentx5 said:

So do anyone have a valid and working .pigg viewer

 

OuroDev used to provide a compiled version of Piglet but I don't think that is the case anymore. The Philotic Knight, who has provided many great resources to this community, posted a thread a while back with a link to the OuroDev Piglet page as well as to a compiled version of Piglet that he hosts.

 

Regarding texture editing, this OuroDev wiki page has some good info that might get you started. I have a decent amount of experience with texture modding, but the textures I mod are mostly the game minimaps which are a little different than the open world textures, which I don't have a lot of experience with.

Edited July 16, 2022 by AboveTheChemist
typos

[Herotu]

I used a python program I found called Readpigg.py
https://github.com/ovekaaven/cohtools/blob/master/readpigg.py

[agentx5]

21 hours ago, AboveTheChemist said:

 

OuroDev used to provide a compiled version of Piglet but I don't think that is the case anymore. The Philotic Knight, who has provided many great resources to this community, posted a thread a while back with a link to the OuroDev Piglet page as well as to a compiled version of Piglet that he hosts.

 

Regarding texture editing, this OuroDev wiki page has some good info that might get you started. I have a decent amount of experience with texture modding, but the textures I mod are mostly the game minimaps which are a little different than the open world textures, which I don't have a lot of experience with.

 

I checked into that thread and two problems.
1. Orodev site isn't working for email validation.
2. The file direct from @The Philotic Knight is calling for a missing .dll that doesn't exist in System32 (but there's 3 others ones, just nothing such as ...l1-2-1)

[AboveTheChemist]

1 hour ago, agentx5 said:

I checked into that thread and two problems.

 

I am a tad unclear. You pinged me in another thread and clearly stated that the DLL file was on your computer, and here you state that it is not. I am going to assume it is the latter. It might be possible to download the file directly from Microsoft. I did a quick Google search of the filename and saw a few YouTube videos that addressed this specific issue. Beyond that, I'm afraid this issue is a bit out of my league. And I have nothing at all to do with OuroDev so I can't help you there either, sorry.

[PsiBug]

On 7/15/2022 at 11:31 PM, agentx5 said:

I was trying to find a current one that could tell me how things are structured, but I keep getting this error if I use Pigg Viewer Pro on any of the current i27 pg4 pigg directories:

 

 

Would you mind providing a file path or a directory structure path within the pigg indicating one of the directories that gives you the error? I might have time to do a little testing.

 

I've modded a few in-game textures (faces, chest emblems, billboards, mini maps...) but I have not run into any troubles with pigg viewer pro(version 0.2.5.20860) so far on Win 10. 

 

=:P

 

 

[agentx5]

12 hours ago, AboveTheChemist said:

 

I am a tad unclear. You pinged me in another thread and clearly stated that the DLL file was on your computer, and here you state that it is not. I am going to assume it is the latter. It might be possible to download the file directly from Microsoft. I did a quick Google search of the filename and saw a few YouTube videos that addressed this specific issue. Beyond that, I'm afraid this issue is a bit out of my league. And I have nothing at all to do with OuroDev so I can't help you there either, sorry.

 

That's because I'm also confused and trying to figure this out as I go... Apparently it's even more complicated than that: for that specific .dll there's a 64-bit version in System32 and a 32-bit version in SysWOW64 , which is where I was getting confused because at first it doesn't seem to make any sense.  What this .dll essentially does is act as a translator of sorts between 64-bit and 32-bit.  Basically I was using a 32-bit version of the program on a 64-bit OS and for whatever reason it wasn't able to translate automatically using that .dll it was calling for, probably because it was an old version compiled in 32-bit with an older Windows OS and I'm using Window 8.1MC x64 with Classic Shell.  This is one of the thinks that irks me about .Net framework stuff.

Fortunately with some help I was able to recompile and I've got it working to where I can view all the internal directories:

yay!

However it does NOT seem to let me extract the entire thing all at once, and not because I'm low on SSD storage or RAM -- apparently the program itself has an upper cap to the amount of memory t can request to allocate.  Yeah right @ System.OutOfMemoryException 😄 LOL!   (when I killed the executable, RAM only dropped about 1 GB)



I'll continue tinkering with it, and sorry for the confusion @AboveTheChemist and @PsiBug  >_<
The gest of it is I did get it working for the most important part (which was seeing how HomeComing has the file directory structure laid out so I know what to name things and where to place into the data override folder for client-side customization (which I'll then get up on the CoH Modder for everyone to enjoy once I'm done).