How Do I make an op4 mod

What do I need to put in my pak file to make an op4 mod? I'm gonna need the op4.dll file. what else?

Hmm...the models, cl_dlls, dlls , sprites and gfx (optional) folders.Did I miss anything?

Technically speaking, you can't make an Op4 mod. All you can do is replace existing content and do a bit of a map pack, and if you don't do that you have to include all the base op4 content, which unfortunately falls into the category of distributing a retail product for free, which = illegal.

If you are going the replace existing content route, you'll just need your levels and any replaced content to replace the originals. Whatever you use in your pak file will override the default pak file, much as the HD pack does. Including the dlls or any original Op4 content that allows you to play the mod without having op4 installed is a bad idea (tm). You can update pretty much all the art assets within the .pak file, though.

Of course, then there's the matter that if anyone has custom content installed in their op4 directory outside of a .pak file, it will override yours by default anyway. Which is also a problem.

question:

can you make a mod, of a mod?

or is that what you just said andrew, you can't

OP4 is a mod for HL, so i assume the answer is no?

Isn't op4 free to download now?

Yeah, if you have a valid Steam account.

....and if I could find out the binary encription they used Condition Zero would be too lol.

No offence or anything, but im sick of people saying that they created a mod by adding levels.....THATS NOT A MOD!!!!!!!! its a level pack. so pink are you actually going to make new maps for op4 (like nuclear winter), or are you going to actualy change the code (like the specialists)? An answer here will assist me (and probably everyone else) in helping you further. :biggrin:

Orpheus said:
question:

can you make a mod, of a mod?

Well, if you modify the opfor source, add levels and new models, then you could say that you modified the mod.

There's one big problem here, like KungFuSquirrel mentioned OP4 is still classified as a retail package which means you can't mod OP4. However you can MOD a MOD (yes you can it's not a lie!) as long as you have the base source code.

Valve obvisouly released their SDK which is the source code to Half-Life (basicly) and includes the source code for TFC. So you could make a mod on a mod if that mod's name is TFC, or if you can get your hands on another mod's code you could mod that mod.

Now, if that made sense to you, congrats, you now understand the "mod on a mod" theory.

What you'll need is the following:
A C++ compiler (prefereably Microsoft Visual C++) and the SDK (or the modified source code of another mod), that's it now you can start building your on mod. But judging from this situation, you probaly don't know C++, so you'll need some books! Yes books, you need to start reading books! Books on C++, there's tons of em out there. (you could also be a cheap bastard, then just take a look @ http://www.cplusplus.com/ the basics are discussed there).

BTW, the basics directory structure of a mod looks a little bit like this:
-HALFLIFE
-+<MODNAME>
--+cl_dlls (your compiled client dll)
--+dlls (the server side dll)
--+gfx (the menus and stuff
---+shell (the splash and everything belongs in here, just copy the standard structure from the valve directory and modify it from there on)
--+maps (duh, maps)
--+LIBLIST.GAM (basic config file, so Half-Life detects your mod)

That's basicly it.