Mod tool creation?

[Zaeyel]

How do people make,
Memgraft, A3, Datedit, RetroGRP, MPQDraft, and a SH*T load more! (Includes mapping tools like scxe and starforge/scm draft.)

Now I know some of these had to be made with a programming language, but I was just wondering how many of them were modded from a sc original program.
HOW?
And for the ones that were programmed with languages...
How would this work / HOW?

I'm learning a language with the thing I bought for it, and I was just wondering if I could make some modding tools.

[Aqo]

Learn Visual Basic. Learn C (optional, but will make it easier for you later, and it's always good to know yet another programming language :P ), learn C++, and write a program. Duh. lol.

[Ocendo]

Every program on earth is either made with a Programming Language or Scripting Language.
Programming would be like: Pascal, Delphi, Basic, C, C++, or C#.
Scripting Languages would be like: PHP or LUA.

None of those were modded from an existing program. How they were made is people have done very in-depth studies on Starcrafts mechanics. About storm.dll, mpq format, mpq archiving, memory managment, memory values, etc..

Then the people that found this information out, shared it. Then programs such as those were built using the knowledge we gained.

Now SCXE on the other hand is just a modded Staredit. Though it does call it's own .dll files. You need to know how to hextedit for this. Most Editors besides Starforge and Scmdraft 2 are just a modded StarEdit. Starforge and Scmdraft 2 just deal with opeing up mpq archives(map files = mpq archives) and then basically write in hex the data the chk in the map. CampaginCreations had a nicely detailed chk spec sheet.

Anything that deals with mpq archiving(.scm\.scx files are mpq's to) they include a library such as lmpqapi or stormapi and they use these to gain access into the MPQ's and extract files then minipulate them.
I suggest knowing C++ before attempting anything. You will also need a compiler, the 2 that I suggest are not free they are: Visual C++ 6 or Visual Studio 2003. Visual Studio 2005 Express is free but it can be somewhat hard to get a library such as lmpqapi or stormapi to compile properly. Dev C++ has VERY little chance to get them compiled.


An editor is no easy task and it isn't something you just one day wake up and say "I think i'm going to make an editor", it takes quite some time.

[mongoose41]

Every program on earth is either made with a Programming Language or Scripting Language.
Programming would be like: Pascal, Delphi, Basic, C, C++, or C#.
Scripting Languages would be like: PHP or LUA.Or DOS... I personally use a different language altogether (gml). It is mainly for advanced DirectX drawing functions. A lot of program compilers have unique opcodes/structuring that are a lot easier than the basic C (and variants), Basic, Vis. Basic and the others. Visual Basic is quite easy to learn, so I'd suggest that.

[Ocendo]

game maker language? That's an interpreter, slow even compared to VB, let alone C++ or Delphi. DOS is not a scripting or programming language. DOS is a Operating System.

C++ is the fastest language and most programs today are written in C++.

I'd suggest C#. It's made to have the speed of C++(About ~6% Slower) but designed for rapid develoment. Microsoft is really trying to push C# in applications because it is finally a language that gives a very nice Development Vs Speed Ratio. C# is rather new so there is not an incredible library. A few retail games have already taken advantage of C#. I found it fairly easy to even get a 3D window going and displaying models and sprites.

I'd suggest if anything just buying a "Learn C++ in X Days", getting VS2003 Academic Edition(Cheapest one) and go from there.

[mongoose41]

game maker language? That's an interpreter, slow even compared to VB, let alone C++ or Delphi.1. Yes. 2. Its for advanced blending and drawing effects, not for modding tools computation. And it's a lot easier to use.

[Ocendo]

It has some advanced DX8 Effects but in the end it is very slow. It lacks a lot of hardware acceleration and is not compiled into code. Many advanced custom functions have to be written as a dll in C++ in order to hold onto some of the performance.

It's easy yes, but you would never find yourself using it on something even equal to Quake 3 or possibly even Quake 2. For simple 2D games your making for fun, sure yeah it works. But other than that if your looking to create something that will stand out your FAR off from what you need.