UT System Config 2.1

Contents - Installation & uninstallation - User manual - Questions & answers - Bugs & fixes - Legal stuff

User manual: Intro - Server Packages - Bot Library manager - Options window - Datafile creator

Datafiles

If you write a mod, or have downloaded a mod for which I haven't done a datafile, you may wish to make a UT System Config datafile for it. The format has changed since version 1, but there is limited support for importing your old presets (you'll probably still have a lot of typing because a lot of information in new datafiles just doesn't exist in the old presets).

Creating new datafiles

From the main menu, choose File/New/Datafile, or from the Server Packages editor, choose "Create a new datafile". In the datafile creator window which appears, fill in the details of your modification, clicking Next after each page. Please don't forget to send me the finished datafile (see below).

Editing existing datafiles

If the datafile you want to edit is one you've just created, or one you've received as a *.utsc.txt file, you can open it with File/Open/Datafile... or by selecting it in the Server Packages editor and choosing "Edit this datafile". All data from the file will be preserved, except the name of the file's writer (on the last page, and added since UTSC 2.0; please fill in your own name here).

If the datafile is part of the main data store (UTSC210.DAT) it can't be edited directly. However, if it's a datafile for a mod you've written and you want to update the mod or your details, or if you spot a major bug and want to correct it, it is possible to export all the files from it and alter the one you want.

Technical details for advanced users

The application's main datafile is now a binary file called UTSC210.DAT which contains details of many mods. UTSC is unable to write to this file (its format is reasonably efficient but quite awkward, especially for random access, so I use a separate program to compile it from many *.utsc.txt files).

Additional user-created datafiles are stored in the UT System Config program folder (there is no longer a presets\ folder). They must have extension *.utsc.txt but are structured like a Windows 3.1 INI file.

Export Mode

To export the contents of UTSC210.dat, please run UTSC.exe with command line switch "/export". It creates a subfolder called "exports" and places the contents of UTSC210.dat here. For example, if installed in C:\Program Files\Games\UTSC, it would create C:\Program Files\Games\UTSC\exports and place lots of *.utsc.txt files here.

To edit one of these, copy it into the same folder as UTSC.exe (e.g. C:\Program Files\Games\UTSC) and use the datafile editor as usual.

Known Issue: UTSC will load the mod from UTSC210.dat and the *.utsc.txt file. This means two versions of the mod will appear in the mod list, and there will appear to be two of each skin, model and voice in the mod. To fix this, either abandon UTSC210.dat and just use the exported text files (slow), or rebuild the master file (some hacking and a copy of Delphi 3 required).

Rewriting the master file

Install the source code, then build and run the project "AdminTools.dpr". You will need to edit the source before it will compile - this is to remind you to fix a couple of hard-coded paths :-)

(the AdminTools utility was a quick hack for my own use and was never really intended for release)