Can anyone tell me where I can find a program that unpacks and repacks ini files?

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My personal favorite is XCC Mixer .

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I'm a noob so please be patient with me; so if I wanted to unpack, mod, and then repack all the different zh files I could do it with XCC mixer? I want to start making a mod; so I'm trying to figure out all the pieces necessary.

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I use finalbig, search for it

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But I can't use FinalBig to pack/unpack w3ds and the like can I?

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I'm pretty sure that you can. There isn't any fancy compression implemented for Generals BIG files, so any program that can work with one type of file can work with them all.

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FinalBig is used to extract and import things from and to .BIG files, the compressed file format used in Generals and Zero Hour. Alot of the files used for modding such as INIs and models are kepted in these files, and it is essential to extract these files in order to mod the game. It is advised, however, not to import modded files back into the .BIG compressed files for the following reasons:

> The game prefers to read files outside the .BIG files instead of the one in it if there's a duplicate.
> There have been many cases of members having many technical difficulties when they imported modded files into the .BIG files.
> The un-edited .BIG files can act as back-up files as all the original files are still stored in them un-tampered with.
> When uploading a mod up for download, it is much more easier and efficient just to upload the essential files rather then the entire, and often large, .BIG files.

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Is it possible to create new units with code complete for them only, place that in the data file and have that work?

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As far as I know, yes, but you'll need to wait for a coder to give you the actual details.

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You're probably better off just copying all the files in INI.big and editing them as necessary instead of trying to create new INI files for each unit.

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Um, well how do I move my new w3ds, audio clips, etc. into the big file? Do I rewrite over an old one or what?

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Here's the note: There's no need to re-compress them into a .BIG file. As long as the files are in their correct sub-directories, the game will read them.

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