How to pack your Mission

Note

This article is WIP.

This article should describe how to pack TDM missions into so-called PK4 files for release.

Mission PK4s

Each TDM mission must be packaged in a PK4 file (a PK4 is just a renamed ZIP archive). The PK4 contains all the files needed to run the mission, including map, cm, aas, proc files, textures, models, scripts, defs, xdata, etc. The contents of the PK4 resemble the folder structure as found in the main darkmod/ directory: textures go into textures/, .def files go to def/ and so on.

At the very minimum, a PK4 archive needs to contain the compiled map and two text files:

maps/outpost.map
maps/outpost.proc
maps/outpost.cm
maps/outpost.aas32
darkmod.txt
startingmap.txt

Easy to see, the above example list of files is based on a mission called outpost. The two text files are needed to display your mission in the "New Mission" dialog in TDM's main menu. See their description below.

darkmod.txt

The darkmod.txt file describes your mission in the TDM's mission selection dialog:

Title: The Outpost
Description: Break into a builder outpost to retrieve a gold ingot.
Author: angua & greebo

The description text mustn't be too long, be sure to check the length of the texts when testing the package in the mission installation dialog.

startingmap.txt

This file holds the name of the first mission to load when the player selects "Start Mission". This is interesting for multi-map campaigns, but for a single-map mission just put the name of your map file in here:

outpost

Before creating the PK4

You should always perform a full recompile of your map. Delete the .proc, .cm and .aas* files and run a dmap command from TDM console. Make sure the dates of these files are making sense and no old files are floating around in your maps/ folder.

Creating your PK4

A good way to create your initial PK4 is to copy the compiled map files to a temporary maps/ folder and to zip them up. You can use any compression program capable of handling ZIP files, like 7-zip, WinRAR, WinZip, whatever (important: do not create files using RAR, 7z or any other format, only the ZIP format will be recognised). Be sure that the maps/ folder ends up in the root of your ZIP. Then add the darkmod.txt and the startingmap.txt to the archive.

In case you haven't added any custom models, textures or other assets (i.e. you're just using vanilla TDM assets), you're done here. Proceed with #Testing the PK4

Adding custom Assets

Any custom models, textures, def, xdata files need to be added to the PK4. Be sure to put the files in the exact same folder structure as found in the darkmod/ main mod folder. Example: .mtr files need to go to the materials/ subfolder. If you were to extract the PK4 file to the darkmod/ folder, the files would end up in the correct place (note: don't do this actually, you might overwrite existing files in the darkmod folder).

In the (hopefully) rare case your mission needs to overwrite existing TDM content (e.g. modify a DEF file present in the main mod to change a setting), just include the modified file in your PK4. The file in your PK4 will "overrule" the ones in the mod base when the mission is installed (this is what the fs_game_base and fs_game parameters are for: "game" content will overrule "game_base" content).

Testing the PK4

Once created, create a new folder in your darkmod/fms/ directory and put the PK4 in there. Then start TDM, your map should be listed now in the list of available missions. Make sure to use a "good" foldername for your PK4, not conflicting with any existing ones and without spaces, special or foreign (=non-english) characters. Numbers are fine.

Install the mission and see whether it starts correctly.