The TRPG 5.005 Help List FAQ


I. Introduction

A. Description and Use.
      This is the Tribes RPG v5.005 Help List File which lists all of the TRPG most-commony asked Questions concearning TRPG customizing and editing. Although this file is not nescessarily for brand new players, it does have some useful information in the Commands and autoexec.cs section that newer players can benefit from. Things will be added and taken from this file as needed, so it may be in your interest to stop back on occasion.
      This is only in associon to the Tribes RPG version 5.005 (unmodified) by Jeremy Irons, BUT, can be used to help edit your own RPG version and provide helpful info on other RPG 5.005 modified modifications.
      Please download from MIRROR sites before trying the main link on this site. This is a free site after all, thus limiting my bandwidth use daily to less than 35mb a day total. If you can stagger your downloads direct from this site to only 2 per day (in the event a mirror site is not available) that would be excellent. Thanks.
      I highly recommend you download the Tribes Tools Pack before reading on, simply because all of the basic tools you can use to edit TRPG can be found in the Tribes Tools pack.

B. Reporting Errors/Questions.
      If you find any errors in this file concearning rpg 5.005, be sure to report them at the main trpg site which can be found through any of the following links:
      The orriginal TRPG 1 website and download.
      Ironsphere.org
      Please give a full description of any problem and how to fix the problem (if you know how) in the Customizations forum. Keep in mind that the problem may only occur for youself, so be sure you give the problem a full whirl befor posting about it. Thanks.
      Also, if you have anything useful to add, go ahead and make a post about it in the Customizations forums as well. We appreciate any extra info you can give, and I'll give your name a mention in the credits if I use it in this document, with a link to your website.

C. Words Defined.
      This section contains TribesTools Zip Descriptions, tool names, file .xxx names and other useful terminology definitions that will better help you to understand TribesRPG modding.

Word, Tool, File, File Type:       Definition:

.div (dis) - Dynamix Interior Shape. The shape files you see which make up base objects in a map.

.dml - Dynamix Material Library. The files you will need to have to put custom textures onto objects in ZED.

PCA - Principal Component Analysis. Just a term that was the orriginal PicaNew name.

TribesTools.zip - This .zip archive contains all you need to edit tribes using DOS, Win32, and Tribes.

ZEDTools.zip - This .zip archive contains what you will need to edit Tribes & TribesRPG dis files.
-Zed.exe - The Primary .dis making tool for tribes.
-zedshape.exe - This Program converts your ZED .zvl into a usable .div dis. -zedbuild.exe - Supposedly does the same as zedshape, but it only crashes when I use it.
-zedlight.exe - I've not a clue what this is good for... probably something already built into an other zed .exe file.

VolumeTools.zip - This .zip archive contains the voluming utilities which enable you to put your created dis's, textures, skins, and maxshapes into .vol files for use in tribes.
-VTlist.exe - When run on a file this will show the contents of a file.
-VMerge.exe - This merges a file into a .volume. Very useful.
-Extract.exe - This extracts the files out of a .vol file so you can then edit the extracted files.
-vt.exe - Allows you to merge several files into one .vol file. Very useful.

MissionLighting.zip - You will need to place these files into your tribes\ directory if you want to re-light a mission map.

PicaNew.exe - This will pick 255 colors from a bitmap image you have made, and remap the bitmap to that new color set.

MiscTools.zip - This has some random documentation and tools. I'm not sure about all of it, but a Base Tribes Map editor tutorial can be found here, and a description of making sound packs as well.

MaxShapes.zip - An Archive of .zip archives of the base tribes items... useless to ya rpgers ;-p

Matilda.zip - A brief description of the matilda .DML making tool, and the Matilda tool. You'll need to know how to use this to make new .dis texture files.

Makeskin.exe - The File used to make all the skins for your little tribes people and monsters.

Other TribesTools Files - The remaining tribes tools files in the base archive "TribesTools.zip" are associated with making your new plethora of programs work. Read all of the documentation for each file to find out what file needs what .dll's. I may list this in the FAQ at some future time.