File Extraction utility for Total Annihilation
ported to the Macintosh by Bruce Payan
(with many thanks to Joe D for the PC version)

HPIDump allows you to extract the contents of a UFO, HPI or GP3 file so that its contents can be modified/adjusted. Some examples for doing this would be to:

  • alter an AI on a given map
  • modify the behaviour of a unit (eg. build time, damage, etc...)
  • alter the WAV files (sounds) for given units
  • modify/create a specific pack of units (eg. TAEC.UFO)

There are two ways to run HPIDump:

  • Double Click: if you double-click on HPIDump, you are first asked to specify the UFO, GP3 or HPI file to open (via a dialog box). You are then asked into which folder to place the resulting extracted morsels.
  • Drag and Drop: you may drag and drop a UFO, GP3 or HPI file onto the HPIDump app. If you were, for example, expanding the file "REV31.GP3", you would then see a folder titled "REV31.GP3 f" next to the original file, with all of its contents in there.

The program will generate a set of folders containing all of the extracted data. (Warning: you can easily create thousands of files doing this). You can rearrange or edit these files as you see fit -- the WAV files (with Quicktime), the PCX files (with Graphic Converter), or any of the TXT, TDF, GUI, BOS, XLS, FBI, OTA text files with a text editor (CodeWarrior or BBEdit is suggested as they invisibly retain linefeeds; Simpletext does not).

After all the modifications are made, you then use HPIPack to compress/encrypt the file to its original state. For example, if you've HPIDump-ed to a folder "REV31.GP3 f", you'd select that folder as the one to compress from within HPIPack.

This program is E-MAILware. If you find this program useful, send me an e-mail at <bpayan@kallion.com> Thanks!

Bruce.

Download HPIDump v0.9 for Macintosh from my site. Please send me any bug reports.

A sample HPIDump of the Battle Tactics File "TACTICS4.HPI" produces the exploded folder below.

Macintosh PowerPC, Mac OS 8.x (with Navigation Services and Appearance Manager) or Mac OS 8.5 or later.

Many thanks to Joe D <joed@cws.org> who wrote the PC version of HPIDump, who kindly provided his original source code and his support for the Macintosh version. ("Oh the endian-ness of it all!") Please do not bother him about bugs/reports with respect to the Macintosh version.

ZLib compression and decompression by Jean-loup Gailly (compression) and Mark Adler (decompression).
For more info, see the zlib Home Page at <http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/zlib/>

Many kudos to Westlake Interactive Inc. and Varcon Systems for their hard work in porting the PC version of the game to the Macintosh.

You may freely redistribute this software as long as the application and this file (HPIDump README) are included. I would appreciate an e-mail <bpayan@kallion.com> if you find this software useful.

This software is provided AS-IS without warranty of any kind with respect to its use or misuse. Total Annihilation is a trademark of Humongous Entertainment, Inc. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

HPIDump (or shall I say the MacOS Finder), doesn't deal nicely with file names over 31 characters in length. An error screen will pop up admonishing you of this when it occurs. An example of this is the file " The Wayneston Ford Engagement.tdf" which is in the REV31.GP3 file of TA.

HPIDump will not create a new folder (and expand stuff into it), if that folder already exists; rather, it will place all of its output at the parent directory of the existing folder.

There isn't a whole lot of friendly user-feedback (eg. progress bars) with this build. I may include that in the next version :-)

HPIDump [version 0.9] -- released February 4, 2001