unpacking .mpq files and running wow

[danielrhodea]

is there any way to run wow without .mpq files and just unpack the contents of the .mpq files, if so what order would be best to unpack them in, I know it's a long shot just wondered if the editing app dev's could help me, I looked at wowmapviewer source but do not know If I have the order right of mpq reading and I do not want to have .mpq files any more lol

[trancethraxx]

Yes you need MPQ files if you want wow to work.

Mywarcraftstudio is the best program for that

[danielrhodea]

I thought about this and what if they were empty or contained a 1kb file, I'm not against MPQ's just would like to have a working file tree, how would Mywarcraftstudio help with that??? If it's for extracting mpq's I know how to do that I need to know the order to load them to match wow.exe

[trancethraxx]

The application references .MPQ files not file trees like you are suggesting.

What are you thinking of doing? Perhaps there is another way.

[danielrhodea]

I know the application can reference files in the data directory. (it's a not very well documented/promoted way to test patches without a patch file) This is why I asked the question.

I basically want all my original wow files so I can study the file types to try to make my own editing tools in java, for this to work I need to know what order to unpack the .mpq file in so I have the same file structure wow.exe is working with because I'm not adding .mpq support in my app (i'll use ladik's mpq editor to unpack them and use them from the file system).

Once I have support for various file types I can do things like add flying around azeroth and tinker with adt editing but I need to know the order to open the mpq archives to extract them so I have a working file tree.

No offence trancethraxx but you have 9 posts and I would like other people to contribute to this as well such as schlumpf or tigurius and anyone with adt, dbc, mpq etc knowledge

[trancethraxx]

Well Daniel I am trying to help you. So I guess this will be my last post.

What you are asking is to keep the file structure. You can use Mywarcraftstudio to extract the MPQ as the EXACT file structure (it will keep all directories ETC). I think that is what you are looking for. Check Mywarcraftstudio and see if it answers your questions.

Best of luck!

-Trance

+rep if I helped

[Ground Zero]

Well Daniel I am trying to help you. So I guess this will be my last post.

What you are asking is to keep the file structure. You can use Mywarcraftstudio to extract the MPQ as the EXACT file structure (it will keep all directories ETC). I think that is what you are looking for. Check Mywarcraftstudio and see if it answers your questions.

Best of luck!

-Trance

+rep if I helped

When a mod tells you not to ask for reputation, you don't ask for reputation in the next post you make. -8 Rep.

[danielrhodea]

another thing he did not help, I meant extracting the contents of all the .mpq files in the right order as in common.mpq, common2.mpq ... he kept prattling on about mywarcraftstudio as if I was in some way confused by his stupid answers

[trancethraxx]

Nice attitude. I was trying to help you man.

[Mitron]

if you use MywarCraftStudio you can extract files out of the .MPQs without ruining the file, it basically just copies the files out of the .MPQ and put it where u tells it to.

[danielrhodea]

lol can an admin please close this thread, the answer is unpack the .mpq files in this order!

Data\common.MPQ
Data\common-2.MPQ
Data\expansion.MPQ
Data\lichking.MPQ
Data\patch.MPQ
Data\patch-2.MPQ
Data\enGB\locale-enGB.MPQ
Data\enGB\expansion-locale-enGB.MPQ
Data\enGB\lichking-locale-enGB.MPQ
Data\enGB\patch-enGB.MPQ
Data\enGB\patch-enGB-2.MPQ

you can replace enGB with your locale if your not from England btw so enUS, deDE, frFR, ruRU etc...