Turvy's Quick And Dirty Bloodlines Tools
AUTHOR: Turvy
VERSION: 3.9a


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DESCRIPTION:
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This is just about the finest Bloodlines modding tool available.
It was created by Turvy back in 2004. This is version 3.9a and 
I think you will find it to be extremely useful if you plan on 
creating any of your own mods for Bloodlines.

Turvy's tools will enable you to unpack the game's VPK archives.
It will also allow you to convert the Bloodlines *.TTZ textures 
to more conventional formats and back again... very useful for
anyone who would like to try their hand at creating re-skin mods.

Lastly, Turvy's tools will enable you to explore the contents of
Bloodlines models, as well as open, view and modify Bloodlines maps.

NOTE: do not attempt to modify any of the Bloodlines models. In almost 
every case, you will cause the game to crash if you attempt to modify 
any of its proprietary MDL models. Extracting them and modifying them 
is not the problem... it's when you try to recompile and then insert 
the modified models back into the game that almost always results in 
a crash. Or at the very least, your modified models will not work. 
So unless you are truly an expert at this stuff, then don't even try. 



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INSTALLATION:
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Copy the file named "VPKTool.exe" to any folder of your choosing.
I suggest placing it into your main Bloodlines folder... but you
can put it anywhere that you want to on your hard drive.

After placing the file in your desired location, simply create a new
desktop shortcut for it. The easiest way to do this is to highhlight
the VPKTool.exe file... copy it... and then right-click anywhere on
your Windows desktop and select "Paste shortcut" from the pop-up menu.

That's all there is to it. After that... yer on yer own.  ;)


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A COMMON USE FOR TURVY'S TOOLS: VPK ARCHIVES
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Many people like to unpack all of the Bloodlines *.VPK archives, 
prior to installing any patches or mods. Also, on newer computers
with modern hardware, the speed of the system is much faster than
anything which was available at the time that Bloodlines was first
released (back in 2004). The increased bandwidth of newer computers
makes it unnecessary to use compressed game files... thus the entire
game may very well run faster, more smoothly and with less "stuttering"
if you unpack its *.VPK archives prior to patching and playing it.

Turvy's Tools make this task very easy to do. Just make sure that you 
unpack the *.VPK files in their numerical order. Unpack "pack000.vpk" 
first, then "pack001.vpk" second... and so on. It is important to unpack 
the *.VPK files in numerical order, because the game engine loads the files 
that they contain in ascending order. And in some cases, newer versions of 
some files were created by Troika after they had already packed the earlier 
versions into an already existing *.VPK archive. So, they simply added the 
updated versions of certain files into a higher-level *.VPK archive, knowing 
that the game engine will load the lower numbered archives first and the higher 
numbered archives last. 

To sum it up: unpacking the *.VPK archives in ascending numerical 
order ensures that you will overwrite any defunct versions of the 
unpacked files with their updated and final versions. 

Get the idea..?  :) 

NOTE: If you intend to unpack the game's *.VPK files, then this 
must be done PRIOR to installing ANY patches or mods for Bloodlines.
That includes both the official v1.2 patch from ActiVision -and- 
The True VTMB Patch. If you patch the game prior to unpacking the
*.VPK archives, then you will end up overwriting the patched files
with the much older, original and potentially buggy versions.

So always unpack FIRST and then patch the game SECOND. 


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- Tessera -
www.tessmage.com
June 14, 2010

