Please help me - wal converter

[Mikemc]

I can't believe how difficult this is to find!
I need a batch .wal to .pcx or .jpg converter to convert all 2100 textures from Quake2 into something Paint Shop Pro reads. Wally doesn't read the directories so I need something else!

- Mike

[grieve[Q2C]]

what you mean, "it does not read the directories" ?

it does not read the pak file, that's all. you need to get the textures out of the pak0.pak before Wally can batch convert them.

[Mikemc]

As you can see the texture folder does contain .WAL files and Wally seems to be set up correctly obviously I'm doing something wrong...

1024x768 screenshot:
members.shaw.ca/mccall1/wally_batchl.jpg

- Mike

[grieve[Q2C]]

yeah, obviously you have forgotten to enter some wildcards to tell Wally what it should select for converting.

Enter under "Image Wildcards" : *.wal

when you enter " *.jpg *.bmp *.tga *.pcx " in this field, Wally will select everything that is jpeg, bitmap, tga or pcx. this is my usual setting.

oh, and DON'T convert the wal's to jpeg !!! Jpeg is a compressed format for pictures on websites, where it is not possible that every bigger picture is several megabytes in size.
But it is not a format for picture works.

Every time you open, modify and save a jpeg it loses quality, due to the compression. The picture will get worse and worse.

Formats for images that you work with are BMP or TGA or other uncompressed formats.

[Mikemc]

Thanks but...
I tried *.wal (385 files) and Wally crashed.
+*.wal (files starting with a + sign, 25 files) It crashed
alarm0.wal - Wouldn't you know it, it crashed!

No matter what I put under Wildcards, even if I change the output extension, Wally closes!

- Mike

[grieve[Q2C]]

I have to agree, Wally crashes. It works fine when I batch convert other files to .wal, but crashes when I try to batch convert .wal to something else.

I looked around what else is there to use and tried Ikka Keranen's wal2pcx ( The less well known complementary tool to his famous pcx2wal). But it crashed as soon as I started it.

Then I googled a bit and found this one: [Win]Elchtest's wal2tga.

www.fileplanet.com/128089/120000/fileinfo/Wal-to-TGA-24-bit-Converter

This did not crash. But it is a simple DOS tool, if you know what that means. Other than Ikka's pcx2wal it does not even automatically create a name for the output file ( like "pcx2wal base1.pcx " - creates base1.wal ), it needs a name for the output file specified too ( like "wal2tga base1.wal base1.tga" - otherwise it does nothing)

Doing batch jobs with DOS tools means writing DOS batch files.


Yes, scripting.

And DOS is the least of all environments you can find. Everything is illogical and unnecessary complicated here.



So just copy and paste this code to a new text file (plain text file with the .txt suffix, not a Word doc) and rename it to batchconvert.bat ( or something else, but with the .bat suffix)


REM --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
REM * *
REM * DOS batch file for converting all Quake 2 textures to tga format after *
REM * *
REM * unpacking them with Pak Explorer, using [Win]Elchtest's wal2tga *
REM * *
REM * utility. *
REM * *
REM * This batchfile was created by Marc Kerschbaumer aka Grieve[AI] *
REM * *
REM * ([e-mail]) on Sunday, April 10th 2005. *
REM * *
REM * *
REM --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




cd textures\e1u1
for %%e in (*.wal) do copy %%e ..\..\temp\%%e

cd ..\..\temp
for %%e in (*.wal) do ..\wal2tga %%e ..\temp2\%%e
ren ..\temp2\*.wal *.tga
move ..\temp2\*.tga ..\textures\e1u1

del *.wal



cd ..\textures\e1u2
for %%e in (*.wal) do copy %%e ..\..\temp\%%e

cd ..\..\temp
for %%e in (*.wal) do ..\wal2tga %%e ..\temp2\%%e
ren ..\temp2\*.wal *.tga
move ..\temp2\*.tga ..\textures\e1u2

del *.wal



cd ..\textures\e1u3
for %%e in (*.wal) do copy %%e ..\..\temp\%%e

cd ..\..\temp
for %%e in (*.wal) do ..\wal2tga %%e ..\temp2\%%e
ren ..\temp2\*.wal *.tga
move ..\temp2\*.tga ..\textures\e1u3

del *.wal



cd ..\textures\e1u4
for %%e in (*.wal) do copy %%e ..\..\temp\%%e

cd ..\..\temp
for %%e in (*.wal) do ..\wal2tga %%e ..\temp2\%%e
ren ..\temp2\*.wal *.tga
move ..\temp2\*.tga ..\textures\e1u4

del *.wal




cd ..\textures\e2u1
for %%e in (*.wal) do copy %%e ..\..\temp\%%e

cd ..\..\temp
for %%e in (*.wal) do ..\wal2tga %%e ..\temp2\%%e
ren ..\temp2\*.wal *.tga
move ..\temp2\*.tga ..\textures\e2u1

del *.wal



cd ..\textures\e2u2
for %%e in (*.wal) do copy %%e ..\..\temp\%%e

cd ..\..\temp
for %%e in (*.wal) do ..\wal2tga %%e ..\temp2\%%e
ren ..\temp2\*.wal *.tga
move ..\temp2\*.tga ..\textures\e2u2

del *.wal



cd ..\textures\e2u3
for %%e in (*.wal) do copy %%e ..\..\temp\%%e

cd ..\..\temp
for %%e in (*.wal) do ..\wal2tga %%e ..\temp2\%%e
ren ..\temp2\*.wal *.tga
move ..\temp2\*.tga ..\textures\e2u3

del *.wal



cd ..\textures\e3u1
for %%e in (*.wal) do copy %%e ..\..\temp\%%e

cd ..\..\temp
for %%e in (*.wal) do ..\wal2tga %%e ..\temp2\%%e
ren ..\temp2\*.wal *.tga
move ..\temp2\*.tga ..\textures\e3u1

del *.wal



cd ..\textures\e3u2
for %%e in (*.wal) do copy %%e ..\..\temp\%%e

cd ..\..\temp
for %%e in (*.wal) do ..\wal2tga %%e ..\temp2\%%e
ren ..\temp2\*.wal *.tga
move ..\temp2\*.tga ..\textures\e3u2

del *.wal



cd ..\textures\e3u3
for %%e in (*.wal) do copy %%e ..\..\temp\%%e

cd ..\..\temp
for %%e in (*.wal) do ..\wal2tga %%e ..\temp2\%%e
ren ..\temp2\*.wal *.tga
move ..\temp2\*.tga ..\textures\e3u3

del *.wal



cd ..\textures\test
for %%e in (*.wal) do copy %%e ..\..\temp\%%e

cd ..\..\temp
for %%e in (*.wal) do ..\wal2tga %%e ..\temp2\%%e
ren ..\temp2\*.wal *.tga
move ..\temp2\*.tga ..\textures\test

del *.wal

REM ----- end of code -------


requirements for running the batch file:
run it in a directory where you unzipped the wal2tga.exe and the Quake 2 textures. the textures need to be in their
original path, like in baseq2 ( textures\e1u1, \textures\e1u2 ..... ).

best is you just make a copy of your pak0.pak to this working directory and extract the whole texture folder with pak explorer.

then you need to create 2 temporary folders in this directory, temp and temp2.
important: a copy of the palette file (q2.pal) which is used by wal2tga, has to be in the folder "temp" ( which is supposed to be the working folder for the tool).

after being converted in the temp folder, the files are moved to temp2, renamed, and then moved back to their original texture folders. the batch file seems to skip all textures with names that start with + for whatever reason, so you might have to convert these manually with Wally later.

additionally, here are 2 short cleanup batch files.

this one removes all the wal's from the folders, after you are done.

REM -- delete_wal.bat

del temp2\*.wal
del textures\e1u1\*.wal
del textures\e1u2\*.wal
del textures\e1u3\*.wal
del textures\e1u4\*.wal
del textures\e2u1\*.wal
del textures\e2u2\*.wal
del textures\e2u3\*.wal
del textures\e3u1\*.wal
del textures\e3u2\*.wal
del textures\e3u3\*.wal
del textures\test\*.wal

REM -- end of delete_wal.bat


this one removes all the tga's, for whatever reason if you need it.


REM -- delete_tga.bat

del temp2\*.tga
del textures\e1u1\*.tga
del textures\e1u2\*.tga
del textures\e1u3\*.tga
del textures\e1u4\*.tga
del textures\e2u1\*.tga
del textures\e2u2\*.tga
del textures\e2u3\*.tga
del textures\e3u1\*.tga
del textures\e3u2\*.tga
del textures\e3u3\*.tga
del textures\test\*.tga

REM -- end of delete_tga.bat





All this worked perfectly on my windoze 2000 with SP4.
If you still got probs plz tell me.

[grieve[Q2C]]

so this is how your working directory should look .....






PS: "WORKES" is attempting to be ancient style, like in "The colleckted Workes of William Shakke-Speare"

< Exeunt >

[Mikemc]

Thanks for treating me like a total n00b, it shows there are people willing to help.
I'll try it out and let you know..
------------------------------------
I don't understand this line:
ren ..\temp2\*.wal *.tga

Why am I renaming .wal to .tga? I thought this thing converts them already?

You seem to be going all over the place. Why not just copy q2.pal to all the texture folders and convert the files in each one instead of using these temp folders?

Thanks for your help, that post looks like it took you a while to set up. I'd really like to know what this %%e does.. (pretty much what you're talking about)
==================================
OMG That worked Perfectly! That's exactly what I wanted!

Now, how about a DOS tga-2-jpg? I'd use Paintshop Pro but if I could get it all into one batch file that'd be better If not, no problem, you've done plenty already

- Mike

[grieve[Q2C]]

copying the palette file in every texture folder ?
of course, would have been MUCH easier

the renaming is because of the incapability of the used tool to create a name for the output file automatically, as I described it.

we got to work with what we got .... this is the name of the input file itself. the for -loop processes every file with the *.wal suffix, whereas %%e is a DOS variable which contains the name of the file that is currently processed.

I use the same variable to give the output file its name. that means, the command which effectively is executed is " wal2tga base1.wal base1.wal"

the wal2tga tool creates a tga but calls it .wal, but this is the only way to dynamically create a name for the output file.
and you see how easy this can be fixed ..... just collectively renaming all the pseudo-wals in temp 2 to tga, and we are done.

sending them back to their original folder seemed a good idea to me. click on delete_wal.bat after the main batch is finished, and you have everything as tga in the right place.

[grieve[Q2C]]

not the batch file has done the real job, the program wal2tga did it.

you need another DOS tool that is capable doing the conversion from tga to jpg, if you want that done the same way.

you better use PSP for this ....



btw, remember what I said about jpg earlier .... this is not
the format for doing picture editing works.

[Mikemc]

I use the same variable to give the output file its name. that means, the command which effectively is executed is " wal2tga base1.wal base1.wal"

Oh how sneaky! I've been using windows too much to think of such sneakiness!

- Mike