Repacking your BIG files

[OTBjoel]

To all you other modders,

What program(s) do you use to repack you BIG files? BIGgui as many of you have mentioned corrupts files over time (it really doesn't take that long if you mod a lot so beware). What other programs are there? I know about EAGRAPH but what about for BIG files that are not graphics oriented. I now use GFXPAK and EAZIP sometimes but even those are bug-ridden. I back up EVERYTHING everytime. No program is safe. So... just wondering what other programs you guys use. I am specifically looking for another program other than BIGgui to repack my ingame.big file which has all the fel files for overlay programming.

[Jim825]

EAGraph works fine for repacking .BIG files, no matter what you are importing into the .BIG file. I use it all the time.

[Homer]

i've packed a lot of stuff in over time, and i've had nothing but problems with eagraph and biggui. and some of the more experienced modders will agree with me. but again, some use them without a problem. but i think you're doing the best thing to safeguard against it by backing up your stuff. my only other suggestion would be to create a folder with all the mods for each file that you add to. this way if something messes up, you can easily install what you want from a fresh copy of that specific file (ie models.big).

other than creating your own installation file, the only other thing that's out there to repack your files would be Tit. it's easy as pie since all you have to do is zip up your files and it installs them automatically. there are only certain files (such as audios) that need to go in specific subfolders first. you can check out kraw's thread about it to find out more.

[Jim825]

Oops, that's right! I also use Kraw's older Installer Thingy (version 26, I think) to install things into the .BIG files.

[krawhitham]

All the programs should be OK to create a new BIG files, problems with eazip, EAGraph, biggui, & eazip happen when you add or subtract files to already existing BIG files

[OTBjoel]

It's weird, some programs are ok with certain .big files but not with others. For example, I had to use gfxpak to mess with the bkgnds.big file but it wasn't so friendly with models.big which I had to use BIGgui for. With ingame.big, I have no luck with any program except BIGgui and that only works sometimes without messing the file up. It seems there are certain situations where you want to compress the file first but other times you will get a more successful import if you pull the file in first and then compress with BIGgui.

I guess I need to get familiar with TIT. Can TIT add/replace an .FEL file into ingame.big? As far as I can tell, my .big file needs to be ready to go first and then be put into a .RAR file before I can use TIT to import it into the game. I tried putting a bunch of .FEL files into a RAR and clicked 'Do It' hoping it would know to pack them into ingame.big but it didn't seem to do anything.

Sorry for all the questions. I'm just trying to learn how to do all of this so fast. I'll be posting some 'Classic' mods very soon after I can get some bugs worked and after a few other contributors review the mods. I have so many backups of these mods on my hard drive that it's getting crazy. Thanks in advance for the additional help.