Group File Studio
- Release 1.3
Help Contents
Authored by: Gary and Jonah Bishop
Copyright © 1999. All Rights Reserved.
Program Overview |
Program
Layout |
How To...
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Main Window
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Menu
Commands |
File Menu
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View Menu
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Tools Menu
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Help Menu
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Program
Errors & History |
Miscellaneous
Information |
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Introduction
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Welcome to Group File Studio. This Windows 95 program makes
it easy to work with the 3D Realms group file format, which is used in games such as Duke
Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, and Nam. A group file (any file that ends with the extension
.grp) is simply a file that rolls many different files into one "package". Group
File Studio currently allows the user to extract a single file, several files, or all
files from the group "package". Art file support, allowing the user to view the
settings and the art for each art file, is also available. I hope you find this program to
be a useful addition to your editing files.
How To...
How to extract a single
file - Back to Top
Extracting a single file is quite easy to do. Simply open
the group file that you want to extract from. The contents of the group file should appear
in the tree view on the left side of the program window. Find the file header that you
wish to extract from (a file header is simply a means of organizing the many files in the
group file) and expand this header by clicking the plus on the left side of the header
itself. Now locate the file that you wish to extract, and select it in the tree view. From
the Tools menu, select the "Extract Selected File" menu item (you also can
either click on the appropriate toolbar button or press [CTRL]+[E]). Now select the
location that you wish to save the file at and press the "Save" button.
How to extract files of
the same type - Back to Top
Extracting files of the same type is just as easy as
extracting a single file. Find the "filetype" (the file header in the tree view)
that you wish to extract, and select it in the tree control (you need not expand the
header as you would when extracting a single file). From the Tools menu, select the
"Extract Selected Filetype" menu item (you also can either click on the
appropriate toolbar button or press [CTRL]+[F]). Select the folder you wish to extract the
files to and press the OK button.
How to extract all files
- Back to Top
Before extracting all files from a group file, you should
be warned that group files include a large number of files (some group files include
almost 700 files). From the Tools menu, select the "Extract All Files" menu item
(you also can either click on the appropriate toolbar button or press [CTRL]+[A]). Click
on the [OK] button (on the warning dialog box) if you wish to extract all files from the
group file. Then select the extraction location and press the [OK] button.
How to view art file
information - Back to Top
To view information about an art file, simply expand the
art file header in the tree view and select the art file you wish to examine more closely.
The information will become available in the art file information box (at the bottom of
the program window). To view the artwork itself, simply click on the tile number you wish
to take a look at in the art file information box.
Main Window
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A screenshot of the main program window is shown below.
Click on the object you want to know more about.

Group File
Contents
The contents of the current group file are shown in the
tree view on the left hand side of the window. This view shows the different filetypes
that exist in the group file, and the individual files that exist under each filetype.
Selected Item
Information
This section of the main window shows the number of files
in the current filetype (regardless of whether a file or a filetype are selected in the
tree view). Also shown in this view is the selected size of either the selected file or
selected filetype (depending on which is selected in the tree view).
Art File Information
This list control displays the "contents" of the
currently selected art file (provided that one is selected in the tree view). The columns
in this view are as follows (from left to right):
- Tile # - The tile numbers (in order) of the
tiles in the currently selected art file.
- Width - The width (in pixels) of the art
tiles.
- Height - The height (in pixels) of the art
tiles.
- Anim. Type - The animation type of the art
tiles, if any. Types can be none, oscillating, forward, or backward.
- Anim. Length - The number of tiles in the
animation sequence, excluding the first tile. To find out how many total
tiles are in the animation sequence, simply add one to this number.
- X-Offset - The x (horizontal) offset of the
current tile for centering purposes.
- Y-Offset - The y (vertical) offset of the
current tile for centering purposes.
- Anim. Speed - The speed of animation.
Strangely enough, larger numbers are slower animations, with smaller numbers being very
fast animations.
Extraction
Progress
This section of the screen shows the progress of extracting
either a file or a filetype. This is useful when extracting a large filetype or file (such
as the .art files).
Status Bar
This area of the window shows the description for the menu
commands (when you have one selected), the total size of the group file, the total number
of files in the group file, and the total size extracted after a successful extraction.
Menu Commands
File Menu - Back to Top
- New - This release does not yet include
support for creating new group files, but support for this will appear in a future
version.
- Open - Open a group file for viewing and
file extraction.
- Exit - Exits Group File Studio
View Menu - Back to Top
- Toolbar - Toggles whether the toolbar is
shown or not.
- Status Bar - Toggles whether the status bar
is shown or not.
Tools Menu
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- Extract Selected File - When a single file
is selected in the contents tree view, this command will extract the selected file from
the group file. If a default directory is not provided in the program options, a folder
browsing dialog will appear, allowing you to select the location where the file will be
placed.
- Extract Selected Filetype - When a filetype
heading (or filetype) is selected in the contents tree view, this command will extract all
the files under the selected filetype (for example: all map files (*.map)). If a default
directory is not provided in the program options, a folder browsing dialog will appear,
allowing you to select the location where the files will be placed.
- Extract All Files - This command will allow
you to extract every file from a group file. Be warned that some group files are extremely
large and contain many files. If a default directory is not provided in the program
options, a folder browsing dialog will appear, allowing you to select the location where
the files will be placed.
- Options - Opens the dialog box for setting
general program options. Click here to see the options
available.
Help Menu - Back to Top
- Contents - Opens this art file in the
default internet browser.
- Program Errors List - Opens the program
error listing with the default internet browser.
- Report a Bug - Opens the default e-mail
client to send mail reporting a program bug found.
- Submit a Suggestion - Opens the default
e-mail client to send mail submitting an idea or suggestion.
- About This Program - Shows a dialog box
with some information on Group File Studio.
The Toolbar
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The toolbar (like in most programs) is a quick way to do
the exact same thing that you can do in the pulldown menus. The items are (in order from
left to right):
- New - This release does not yet include
support for creating new group files, but support for this will appear in future versions.
- Open - Open a group file for viewing and
file extraction.
- Extract Selected File - When a single file
is selected in the contents tree view, this command will extract the selected file from
the group file. If a default directory is not provided in the program options, a folder
browsing dialog will appear, allowing you to select the location where the file will be
placed.
- Extract Selected Filetype - When a filetype
heading (or filetype) is selected in the contents tree view, this command will extract all
the files under the selected filetype (for example: all map files (*.map)). If a default
directory is not provided in the program options, a folder browsing dialog will appear,
allowing you to select the location where the files will be placed.
- Extract All Files - This command will allow
you to extract every file from a group file. Be warned that some group files are extremely
large and contain many files. If a default directory is not provided in the program
options, a folder browsing dialog will appear, allowing you to select the location where
the files will be placed.
- Report a Bug - Opens the default e-mail
client to send mail reporting a program bug found.
- Submit a Suggestion - Opens the default
e-mail client to send mail submitting an idea or suggestion.
- Program Errors List - Opens the program
error listing with the default internet browser.
- About This Program - Shows a dialog box
with some information on Group File Studio.
Program
Options
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General Options - The following
options are applied upon selecting the OK button of the general options dialog box.
- Open last group file on program launch -
Does exactly what it says. When checked, the last open group file is opened for editing at
program startup (if the last group file no longer exists, the program will supply an
appropriate warning).
- Show art information when art files are selected
- When this option is checked and an art file is selected in the group contents tree view,
the art file information box will show the selected art file's attributes. This option can
be turned off, preventing the information "loading" time that accompanies each
art file.
- Use default directory as file extraction destination
- When checked, all extract file dialog boxes will start in the specified
directory. If this option is not checked, the extract file dialogs will start at the
desktop (highest) level.
Miscellaneous Settings - The
following settings are remembered by the program, but are not set in a dialog box.
- Window Size - The window size of this
program is remembered, so you only have to set the window size once.
Future
Additions
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Future additions to this program include:
- Viewing the artwork from the group file
- (?) Viewing KVX sprite files from the group file (Shadow
Warrior only)
- Playing music and sound files from the group file
- Creating new group files
- Adding files to an existing group file
Contact
Information
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If you have a comment, question, suggestion, or a bug to
report, please send e-mail to:
Also, visit the home for Group File Studio at Map FAQ
Central.
Known Bugs
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The following is a list of bugs that are known about in
this release of Group File Studio. They will (or should hopefully) appear fixed in the
next release.
- If the "default directory" program option is
turned off, and you press the Cancel button on the "select directory" dialog box
(when extracting a file), an error message that shouldn't appear, does appear.
Acknowledgements
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I would like to thank the following people for their help
and support:
- Gary Bishop - My dad, co-author of the
program (I'm learning to program...), and all around cool dude.
- Ken Silverman - For sending me the specs on
the group file format and other items of interest.
- 3D Portal - For being the cool site and
host that they are.
- 3D Realms - For creating Duke Nukem 3D and
Shadow Warrior in the first place.
Program
Glossary
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- Group File - A single file that contains
many different files in it, and that follows the 3D Realms group file format. This is an
easy way to package many different files for use in a 3D Realms game (Total Conversions
often use group files to "clean up" the user's directory (fewer files are placed
in the directory as a result of the group file)).
- File - In the tree view, files are made
viewable by expanding the filetype (or file header).
- Filetype - Also known as file headers, a
filetype is a way to organize files in the tree view. For example, the filetype "Art
Files" is comprised only of files that end with the .art extension.