*.meg to *.exs Conversion

[Tonweya]

Back in the middle of May, Bain released a new Scenario, "The Crusaders". Unfortunately, it cannot be played on a PC.

He asked if anyone could convert the Main File, but that request only appears within the release posting and it seems that no one has noticed it.

So, I am re-requesting with the File types in the Title here in the hope that someone might notice the problem and respond by either submitting an *.exs version, or providing the File/Program that would do the job.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated,

me

[Ishad Nha]

If he has only released a Mac version, I think you can open the thing in the Scenario Editor and save it.

Graphics, meg, files are something else. I don't know what to do there.

[The Mystic]

If memory serves, the *.exs file, which is the main scenario file, is OS-independent (or at least it was, back when BoE was still shareware), so you should be able to open it. If not, try what Ishad Nha suggested, and (I think) it should convert.

 

As for the *.meg file, you need some kind of program to convert it to *.bmp to play the scenario on Windows.

[icelizarrd]

Hrm, yea, the .exs is supposed to be platform-independent.

 

Regarding .meg files, if I recall correctly, they're basically in TIFF format, but stuck inside the Mac resource fork as a "PICT" or something. (Corrections welcome.) When I was testing Crusaders, I crudely extracted the graphics by chopping out the resource header portion of the file, then opening it in a graphics editor, and that seemed to work. It had a bunch of extra garbage data on the end that needed to be cropped in the editor, however, and I don't really know enough about how the formats work to automate the process.

 

ETA: Now that I try this again, I remember there are also some slight issues with transparency that have to be sorted out by hand.

 

 

[Niemand]

Quote:

Regarding .meg files, if I recall correctly, they're basically in TIFF format, but stuck inside the Mac resource fork as a "PICT" or something. (Corrections welcome.) When I was testing Crusaders, I crudely extracted the graphics by chopping out the resource header portion of the file, then opening it in a graphics editor, and that seemed to work. It had a bunch of extra garbage data on the end that needed to be cropped in the editor, however, and I don't really know enough about how the formats work to automate the process.

It's PICT format data, stored as a PICT resource. (And if you care about the format of the resource fork, read this documentation. It's interesting to see the choices that went into this very old format, and to imagine how they derived from the capabilities of the machines at the time.)

In case you ever find a need to do this again, I wrote Graphic Adjuster, particularly its export function, for this purpose. The garbage appears to have been real, the image is just a couple thousand pixels tall, with only a couple of scribbles and a mangled icon in the lower section.

[Tonweya]

I probably used the wrong file names. Perhaps what it needs is a conversion from *.meg to *.bmp, but whatever the case, Bain talked like the program doesn't work on a PC.

I've 'chopped' a lot of firewood in my time, but I wouldn't have any idea what type axe to use on a 'resource header'. ;^}

I thought I had seen postings in earlier times regarding the conversion from one to the other and thought there might be a simple file program that did the job.

Thanks for the responses.

me

[icelizarrd]

Originally Posted By: Niemand

It's PICT format data, stored as a PICT resource.

Huh. Well, weirdly, the .MEG file I got seemed to have a TIFF in it, somehow. I could open the resulting file in programs that can't handle PICTs, so go figure. But yes, looking at other .MEGs, they don't seem to be TIFFed.

Thanks for the format link, anyhow. I may try to figure out a simple tool for Windows to mimic Graphic Adjuster's conversion ability, depending on how much work that ends up being.

Originally Posted By: Ahbleza

I've 'chopped' a lot of firewood in my time, but I wouldn't have any idea what type axe to use on a 'resource header'. ;^}

Hahaha, I used a hex editor. Very crude, as I said.

[Niemand]

Quote:

I may try to figure out a simple tool for Windows to mimic Graphic Adjuster's conversion ability, depending on how much work that ends up being.

I've been working on this (or perhaps more like the reverse; namely generating PICT resources on Windows from bmp files) off and on for a while. The tough part is not the resource map (for which I have a working implementation already), but the PICT data format, which is very complicated (it's kind of like Postscript, but stored in a dense binary form). Anyway, if you're interested send me a PM and I'll be happy to share my code and what I've learned so far.

[Celtic Minstrel]

Well, as I recall, PICT was actually a container format, so throwing a TIFF in it might be possible.

 

Anyway, anyone who has a Mac can make this conversion easily using GraphicAdjuster or a resource editor, which is probably better than the hacking methods.