Fallout 2 utility Fallout DAT Explorer II [Deleted]

The drag&drop ability works pretty well (except for the update issue for certain directories). It's the greatest improvement over the old explorer IMO.
It would be nice if it can remember the "View" setting on close, so I don't have to select "Vew->Details" every time launching the explorer.

 

Dang! That looks nice!
Any chance for a search function?

Loving your hard work!

 

I compared speeds (using stopwatch) of extracting between two programs Dat Explorer 1.43 vs Fallout Dat Explorer II.

When extracting all files of fallout.dat which comes included with FOnline2 S3 Client on the Samsung SSD drive (970 EVO PLUS) and WD Mechanical Drive (Black edition) separately,
Results are:
-------------------------------------------
Version | SSD | HDD
1.43 Dat | 21s | 19s
Dat Expl II | 26s | 21s
-------------------------------------------
(time is in seconds)

Processor is Intel i7-9700k. Did test out of curiosity, to determine which dat explorer is faster, but since tests may rely on the 3rd party libraries of archiving it's difficult to make conclusion.

Good job though.

 

DAT-Explorer2_v1.1-FixDatLab Feedback

This can't open the Falldemo.dat, which is not a big deal, but if aiming for an universal tool it could be a final touch.

Actually, I don't think I haven't found a dat explorer yet that can open it, except F1 Dat Explorer v0.3_by Jab.rar. But that one is not the most practical to use. In fact, being able to use “DAT-Explorer2_v1.1-FixDatLab” to open Fo1 is a bit of a relief.

Anyway, Falldemo.dat isn't important but maybe for the cutter.frm (...) and some history (i.e. development, like what some reserved items of Fo1 & Fo2 used to be in the demo, or why the tool is called a cutter and so on).

 

Here's a funny thing:

I did study different master.dat versions, as it turned out that they are all different (the unifier is patch000), so it needed looking into (i.e. “why do I bug out but you don't” etc.), anyway, this master.dat has two splash folders, the translated one and the original one, but the latter doesn't show up in the directory.
It doesn't matter much as these are exclusive of each other.
In my tests any “language” splash folder overwrites the original splash folder. And a Fo2 version that is set to english ignores any splash folder under the “language” folder [even (!) if it's named “english”]. So regarding splash it is either english (data/art/splash) or another language (data/art/language/splash). But never both.
The weird thing about this is that the engine is capable of using both with any other art folder (as I posted some time (years?) ago). So a set-up of (data/art/language/intrface) & (data/art/intrface), would call the language one first, and if failing to find the frm in there call the default folder. Splash is (so far) the only exception to this (oddly enough). [However, this language folder (again) can't be named english, gets ignored, as mentioned above. Must be any other language, including fake ones, which the engine accepts (sets keyboard to qwerty then).] Btw, hi-res, behaves similar, just that it's absolute, i.e. it can't find anything that is in a language folder, no matter how it's named, only frms that are in (data/art/intrface).
[Note: “Fallout 2 Dat Explorer 1.43 by Dims” shows both Splash folders.]

I then checked the other master.dat (Fo1) and it is the same:

However, in opposite to the splash folder (which are always exclusive) the intrface here are definitely not. They are both used. The first has only 50 frms or so. The rest are pulled from the second intrface folder (which may be complete, not sure, but I think it is). So in this case both should/need to show up as both are used.
[Note: Can't check, as “Fallout 2 Dat Explorer 1.43 by Dims” doesn't open Fo1.]

Anyway, besides showing these master.dat versions correctly, it's not that big of a deal (i.e. something that may be used by a mod), as I don't think this “feature” expands much beyond “art”, so it may cover cuts (not tested) and data/text, but it doesn't cover premade & sound/speech (both tested), which limits this a bit. Consequently, I don't think this is a really usable feature (i.e. set up all versions in one master.dat and then toggle them by only adjusting the language line in the cfg. Although that could be nice, especially considering how the engine can combine (data/art/language/intrface) & (data/art/intrface)).

Last but not least, a French master.dat may be similar but I didn't get my hands on one yet. Not sure how or if that version is different.

I totally forgot that the FallDemo.dat has a crazy set of skilldex.frms. Most of them are not very good quality, but the ideas: Bad Breath, Disillusion, Gullible, Hard Hearing, No Nose (??? Why?), Overweight, Pick Nose, Stutter, Ugly (I think Nevada used this one for leper).
All perks that Fallout should have, but doesn't...
Would need whole new sets of msg files for “st-st-st-stutt-tt-er” options, hard hearing options “What?! What?!” and replies “I SAID THIS IS A SHOP...”, as well as reactions to Bad Breath, Nose Picking and constant floats over the dude's head for having disillusion and hearing voices. [I guess the last is actually an option... set of floats with a few conditions to react to environment... not that hard... if someone uses this I reserve the right to use it, too.] Plus a Heavy Flatulence and Dirty Socks/Cheesy Feet perk which they must have forgotten to add...
Guess, it needs a mod now... Fo2 for those who want to play as a Gullible, No Nose character with Bad Breath.
Anyway, if these can be restored/upgraded, the skilldex folder of FallDemo is a bit of a treasure trove. Still, no good fix for saviour.frm, though...