Tutorials 2

Table of Contents

Editing Tutorials - Beginner

Tutorial One: Extracting the INIs

By: Killerkidd

Tools Needed: Red Alert 2, XCC Mixer


Step One: Open XCC Mixer.
Step Two: Open your RA2 directory in XCC Mixer (usually C:\Westwood\Ra2)
Step Three: Double-Click on "RA2.Mix".
Step Four: Double-Click on "Local.Mix" (don’t worry no more double-clicking) Step Five: Scroll down to "Rules.ini" and Right-Click. Scroll down to "extract", and in the dialog box that appears, select the directory where you want the ini files to be saved.
Step Six: Repeat the process until you have all the .ini's you want to edit (mainly Art.ini, and Ai.ini).

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Editing Tutorials - Beginner

Tutorial Two: Enabling the Hidden Units

By: Killerkidd & Kane 148

Tools Needed: Rules.ini, Wordpad, RA2StrEdit

Step One: Open Rules.ini from your Red Alert 2 directory (normally C:\Westwood\Ra2)
Step Two: Go to find (press Ctrl+F), type in "[HOWI]". Click "Find Next". Scroll down to "TechLevel=-1", and change that to any number from 1-10.
Step Three: Again, go to "Find" and type in "[LTNK]" and click "Find Next". Again, just change the "TechLevel=-1" to any number between 1-10.
Step Four: Once again, go to Find, and type "[BEAG]", and click "Find Next". Copy the entire unit code, and then go back to Find and type in "[APACHE]", then click "Find Next". Replace the Apache unit code with the [BEAG] code. Now change [BEAG] to [FORTRESS], and change the UIName to FORTRESS. Now replace Name=Black Eagle with Name= Stealth Bomber. Once again change the Tech Level=-1 to a number between 1-10.
Step Five: Go to Find and type in "APACHE" and click "Find Next". It should take you to a list of aircraft like this:
[AircraftTypes]
1=APACHE
2=ORCA
3=HORNET
4=V3ROCKET

Now, replace "APACHE" with "FORTRESS".

Step Six: Now go to Find one last time and type in "PadAircraft=" and click "Find Next". You will see two lines of code labeled "PadAircraft=". Go to the one without a semicolon infront of it, and add ",FORTRESS" to the list. Now click Save. That's it for the Rules.ini!
Step Seven: Now open Art.ini from your Red Alert 2 directory and find [BEAG]. Copy the code, and paste it beneath the original. Now change [BEAG] to [FORTRESS], Save, and close the file.
Step Eight: Open RA2StrEdit. Open "Ra2_English.csf" and click "Edit" then "Insert String", name that "Name:FORTRESS" and type in "Stealth Bomber" in the bigger, blank box. Save as "Ra2.csf".

That's it. You just added the "Hidden" units! You can go back and edit the stats of the units to make them better, such as making the Stealth radar invisable, or giving the Howitzer greater range. If you want cameos for them (those icons in the sidebar), you can download some from our Download section, and follow our tuturial for adding them.

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Editing Tutorials - Beginner

Tutorial Three: Adding a New Unit to RA2

By: Killerkidd & Kane 148

Tools Needed: Rules.ini, Wordpad, RA2StrEdit


With this tutorial, you will learn the basics of adding a new unit to Red Alert 2. The example for this tutorial will be adding a new infantry unit named Killerkidd.

Step One: Open Rules.ini from where-ever you have it saved in (example: C:\Westwood\RA2\Rules.ini). When you open Rules.ini, it will open a little box that says "File too large to open with Notepad, Open it with Microsoft Word?". Click "YES".
Step Two: Strike the Ctrl+F keys at the same time. It should bring you to the Find option. Once there, where it says "Find What" type in 45=JOSH, and click "Find Next". Now add a new line that says 46=KILL.
Step Three: Until you are an advanced modder, you should stick to copying the unit entry from a unit that is similar to the one that you wish to make, so go to Find and search for [GHOST]. Copy the unit code for the SEAL, and then paste it below the original unit code.
Step Four: Now, change [GHOST] to [KILL], UIName=Name:GHOST to UIName=Name:KILL, and Name=SEAL to Name=Killerkidd. Now remove the line PrerequisiteOverride=, so that you can build the unit normally, and remove Image=SEAL and AlternateArcticArt=yes, as you will soon be making a new image code for it. Later, you can edit the unit stats if you like, so that it has different weapons or something. Now, Save the file, and close.
Step Five: Open Art.ini, just like you did Rules.ini. Strike the Ctrl+F keys and type in [SEAL]. Now copy the entry for the SEAL, and paste it below the original code. Now change the code to look like this:
[KILL] ; Killerkidd
Cameo=KILLICON
AltCameo=KILLUICO
Sequence=SealSequence
Crawls=yes
Remapable=yes
FireUp=3
PrimaryFireFLH=100,0,100

If you do not have a new cameo for your new unit, you can use the cameo from an existing unit, by copying their cameo name from their Art.ini entry. Now, if you have a new infantry SHP to use for the unit, then name it KILL and place it in an ecachexx.mix file in your RA2 directory (xx= a number between 1-99). If you don’t know how to do this, then please refer to our tutorial on it. If you do not have a new infantry SHP for it, you should find an existing one that you like, and extract it with XCC Mixer. Then name it KILL and place it in the ecachexx.mix file.

Note: If you wanted to make a new vehicle, you would follow the same basic procedure as you did here. Obviously, you would have to add the codes to the vehicles section of the Rules.ini, and some tags would be different, but it would be very similar. They only major differences are that when you make your Art.ini entry, you would want to copy the entry for a similar vehicle, because vehicles are voxels, not SHPs, and thus have very different codes.

Step Six: You are now done with the INI editing. Save, and then close Art.ini, and copy both it and Rules.ini to your RA2 directory.
Step Seven: Open RA2_English.csf in Stredit. Go to the Edit menu bar and select Insert String. Type in: Name:KILL. In the blank box type in "Killerkidd". Go to the File menu and click Save. Save it in your RA2 folder as RA2.csf.

That's it. You have added a new infantry unit called "Killerkidd". Follow the same basic procedure when adding future units. Remember, the more you do this, the easier it becomes, and the fewer errors you will make.

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Editing Tutorials - Beginner

Tutorial Four: Adding a New Song to RA2

By: Kane 148

Tools Needed: XCC Mixer, XCC Mix Editor, XCC IMA ADPCM WAV Writer, Red Alert 2, Winamp, MP3 song


Step One: First, open Winamp and press Ctrl + P to go the Preferances menu. Go to the Output Plugins, and select the XCC IMA ADPCM WAV Writer plugin. Go to configure, and select your RA2 directory (usually C:\Westwood\RA2\) as the output directory. Now select "Close", and play the song that you wish to add. It will play real fast, and you will hear no sound, but that means that it is coverting the file. When it’s done, change back to your normal output plugin, and close Winamp.
Step Two: Now go to your RA2 directory using Windows Explorer, and rename the WAV (if nessisary) so that the filename is about 6-8 letters long or less.
Step Three: Now open XCC Mixer and go to the Lauch menu. Select XCC Theme Writer / Red Alert 2. A box will pop up in a few seconds that says "X themes have been written to theme.ini" (X= the number of tracks). Now click "ok".
Step Four: Go to the Lauch menu in XCC and select XCC String Table Editor / Red Alert 2. Look in the bar on the left and select "THEME". Now find the tag for the song you added. It should be named "THEME:xxxx" (xxxx=the filename of the WAV you added). Click on it once, and then click the Edit button. In the big box it should say the track's filename. Now change that to be whatever you want the song to be called in the Music Tracks list in Red Alert 2. (example: if the filename is killer.wav, the tag will be THEME:KILLER, and you should change "killer" in the big edit box to be the song's title). Now click "Ok" to close the edit box, and click the "Ok" button near the bottom of the screen. You will be taken back to XCC Mixer.
Step Five: Now go to the Launch menu in XCC Mixer and select XCC Mix Editor. Now click "New" to create a new MIX file. Name it expandxx.mix (xx= 1-99), and save it in your RA2 directory. Now click "Insert", and select the WAV file that’s in your RA2 directory. Click "Open" to add it to the MIX file. Now click "Save", "Compact", and "Close" in that order. You can now close XCC Mixer and Mix Editor. All you have left to do is to delete the WAV file from your RA2 directory, since it is now inside the MIX file.

The track should now play normally in Red Alert 2! You can also add multiple tracks by preforming the steps on multiple songs.

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Editing Tutorials - Beginner

Tutorial Five: Adding a New Cameo to RA2

By: Kane 148

Tools Needed: XCC Mixer, XCC Mix Editor, Red Alert 2, Art.ini


This tutorial will show you how to take an new cameo that is in PCX format and add it to Red Alert 2.

Step One: Open XCC Mixer and go to the directory that the cameo is in. Make sure that it is in the correct pallette, and is named correctly. For more info on this, read our cameo making tutorial.
Step Two: Select the cameo you want to add, and right click on it and select "Copy as SHP (TS)". The SHP file will be placed in your XCC folder. You can now close XCC Mixer.
Step Three: Open XCC Mix Editor. Now click "New", and save it in your RA2 directory as "ecacheXX.mix" (XX= a number between 1-99). Now click "Insert", and select the cameo SHP and click "Open". Now click "Save", "Compact", and "Close", in that order. You can now exit XCC Mix Editor.
Step Four: Now open Art.ini in Wordpad and go to your unit's code. Now add these lines to it (or modify the existing lines):

Cameo=XXXX
AltCameo=XXXX

(XXXX= the cameo SHPs' filename)

Step Five: Save Art.ini, and place it in your RA2 directory if it’s not already there.

That’s it, you have added the cameo. You can add more cameos by following these steps, except instead of making a new MIX file for each cameo, open the existing ecacheXX.mix and add the new cameos to it.

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Editing Tutorials - Beginner

Tutorial Six: Adding Files to MIX Files

By: Acid

Tools Needed: XCC Mix Editor


Although you can simply just add some of your mod files directly into your RA2 directory it is much better to add them to a mix files instead, especially if you are releasing your own mod.

Step One: Open XCC Mix Editor.
Step Two: Click the button called "Open"
Step Three: In the open dialog box that appears double click on either expandXX.mix, or ecacheXX.mix depending on which file you want to add to your mix (see note at the bottom)
Step Four: Use either Windows Explorer, or a regular directory window to navigate to the directory where your files to add are located.
Step Five: Drag and drop the files you want to add into the XCC Mix Editor window.
Step Six: Click the "Compact" button a couple of times.

That’s it! You have now successfully addded your mod files to a mix file. Simply repeat the above process to add more files to your mix file(s). When you’re done click the button called "Close", and then close down XCC Mix Editor.

NOTE: SHP files need to be added to ecacheXX.mix Voxel, HVA, new music tracks, and .ini files are added to expandXX.mix (XX = any number between 01 and 99). You can also add your ecacheXX.mix file into your expandXX.mix file if you want. DON’T add your Ra2.csf file to your mix files! The .csf files will not work if placed inside a mix.

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Editing Tutorials - Beginner

Tutorial Seven: Creating New MIX Files

By: Acid

Tools Needed: XCC Mix Editor


Step One: Open XCC Mix Editor and click the button called "Load Key"
Step Two: In the dialog box that appears, double click on "ra2.mix"
Step Three: Nothing will have appeared to have happened, but this is ok. Now click the button called "New"
Step Four: Name the new file either ecacheXX.mix or expandXX.mix and click on OK. (XX = any number between 01 and 99)
Step Five: Now click the button called "Compact" a couple of times.
Step Six: Now click the "Options" button. In the small box that appears, select Red Alert 2, from the drop down menu and check the box labelled "Encrypted". Click on OK.
Step Seven: Now click the "Compact" button a couple of times again.

That’s it! you have now successfully created a mix file and can begin adding your mod files to it.

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Editing Tutorials - Intermediate

Tutorial Eight: Adding a New Multiplayer Mode to Red Alert 2

By: Kane 148

Tools Needed: Red Alert 2, XCC Mixer, Wordpad, RA2StrEdit


This tutorial will show you how to create a new multiplayer mode, which can be used in skirmish games. For this example, we will be making a "Cheap Mode", where all units cost $1. (Yes this is simple, but it will teach you the basics of adding a new mode)

Step One: Open up XCC Mixer and then open up your RA2 directory in XCC Mixer. Now, open RA2.mix / local.mix, and extract the rules.ini, mpmodes.ini and the mpmeat.ini files.
Step Two: Open the mpmeat.ini in Wordpad. This is the file for the Meat Grinder multiplayer mode, but we are only using it as a base for our new mode.
Step Three: Scroll down to where it says:
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;UNITS
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

This is where units are listed, and the changes to them made. Any value put under their name will override the value set for them in the Rules.ini, which means, for instance, if you put
[TANY]
C4=no
SelfHealing=yes

,it would override her C4=yes tage in the Rules.ini, and make her not carry C4. Like wise, it would override the default SelfHealing=no, and make her self-healing. Ok, now back to the new mode.

Step Four: Select all of the unit tags in mpmeat.ini, and erase them, making the section blank. Now, using the units list in the Rules.ini for reference, make a new entry for each of the BUILDABLE units in the game, and give each the tag Cost=1, like this:
[E1]
Cost=1
[E2]
Cost=1
[SHK]
Cost=1
[ENGINEER]
Cost=1

Step Five: Now, once you have adding entries for all of the units, like I have shown you, scroll down to the Structures section below. Select and delete all of the structures section entries, making the section blank. Once that is done, scroll down to the last section in the file, the Superweapons section, and delete all entries there.
Step Six: Click Save, and then close the mpmeat.ini. Now open the mpmodes.ini in Wordpad.
Step Seven: Go to the section of this small file labeled [Battle]. Now create a new line below the first one, and make it say this:
10=GUI:Cheap, STT:ModeCheap, MPCheap.ini, standard, true

Step Eight: Save and close the file, then rename the mpmeat.ini file to mpcheap.ini, and then copy & paste both INIs into your Ra2 directory if they are not already there.
Step Nine: Use STREDIT to add a string called "GUI:Cheap", and in the big blank box type "Cheap Mode", and then add a string called "STT:ModeCheap", and in the blank box type "Everything's a Dollar!". This second string is a brief description of the mode, which is shown in the game when you select it. You can make it say whatever you want, as long as it is very short.
Step Ten: Save the ra2.csf, and close STREDIT. The mode should now work!

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Editing Tutorials - Intermediate

Tutorial Nine: Creating Units That Can Deploy Into Other Units

By: Commodus

Tools Needed: Red Alert 2, XCC MIX Editor, Wordpad

This tutorial will show you how to make a unit that can morph/transform into a different unit simple by double- clicking on it. Here are some examples:

- A cyborg mechanical walker that could be whipped into a battle frenzy by the getting it high on GA (gigadrenaline) drug - this would give it lower hit-points but make its attacking strength much more powerful.

- A deadly attack mechanism that can switch between having excellent anti-infantry weapons (poor anti-armor) or excellent anti-armor weapons (poor anti-infantry) - my mod, the Torestine Jihad, has a unit that uses this function. The main part of coding will be used to demonstrate this.

- An experimental prototype of a covert, high-tech tank that could switch on cloaking, at the expense of weakening its otherwise powerful gamma ray.

Step One: First of all, create an entry for a unit, like I have done here with my Ares PAX (Protected Assault Column Section):
[APAX] ; the unit entry
UIName=Name:MTNK
Name=Ares PAX
Image=APAX
Primary=105mm
Prerequisite=GAWEAP
Strength=300
Category=AFV
Armor=heavy
Turret=yes
IsTilter=yes
Crusher=no
DeploysInto=PHOBOS ; put this tag in to make it deploy into a building - I will explain later on why
TooBigToFitUnderBridge=true
TechLevel=5
Sight=8
Speed=7
CrateGoodie=no
Owner=British,French,Germans,Americans,Alliance
Cost=1200
Points=50
ROT=5
IsSelectableCombatant=yes
Explosion=TWLT070,S_BANG48,S_BRNL58,S_CLSN58,S_TUMU60
VoiceSelect=GenAllVehicleSelect
VoiceMove=GenAllVehicleMove
VoiceAttack=GenAllVehicleAttackCommand
VoiceFeedback=
DieSound=GenVehicleDie
MoveSound=GrizzlyTankMoveStart
MaxDebris=10
Locomotor={4A582741-9839-11d1-B709-00A024DDAFD1}
MovementZone=Normal
ThreatPosed=15 ; This value MUST be 0 for all building addons
DamageParticleSystems=SparkSys,SmallGreySSys
VeteranAbilities=STRONGER,FIREPOWER,SIGHT,FASTER
EliteAbilities=SELF_HEAL,STRONGER,FIREPOWER,ROF
Accelerates=false
ImmuneToVeins=yes
Size=3
OpportunityFire=yes

Don’t forget to add an entry in the Vehicle list as well:
xx=APAX
(xx= an unused number in the vehicle types list)

Step Two: Now, the reason why you put the tag DeploysInto=PHOBOS, is because we are going to use a workaround to make the deploying work: the Ares PAX deploys into an invisible building which has an active animation that will kill it. The building, upon deployment, gives a free unit, and this free unit is the unit you want the original deployer to turn into. Without much further ado, add the following:
[PHOBOS]
Insignificant=yes ; Eva/Zofia won’t announce it as a loss
Spyable=no ; can’t be infiltrated
Capturable=no ; can’t be captured
Selectable=no ; can’t be selected (it defeats the purpose)
Repairable=no ; no point :)
Strength=1 ; This will make the building weak so it’s easier to clean up the remains once the unit is deployed
Armor=none ; same concept as Strength=1
FreeUnit=PHPAX ; This makes a new unit appear with the building.

Step Three: PHOBOS is the building which gives you the Phobos PAX as a free unit that came with the building. Add the following to the Active Animation list:
xxxx==PHOBOS_A
(xxxx= an unused number in the Active Animations list)

Step Four: Now, open up art.ini and add a section for APAX (nothing special about it - it’s the same as any other vehicle) and for the building - add something like this:
[PHOBOS]
Image=none ; you don’t want them to see the building
Buildup=none ; same as above
ActiveAnim=PHOBOS_A ; This directs to an animation - explained next

Step Five: Now, add an ActiveAnim entry to the Active Animation section. The ActiveAnim is obviously an invisible one, but it will have a tag that makes it do enough damage to a building per minute so that it is destroyed by its own animation, and thus cleaned up. The entry should be something like this:
[PHOBOS_A]; entry name
Rate=300 ; Determines the speed
Damage=1 ; will be enough to kill the building because its Strength=1

Step Six: Last but not least, add the entry for the [PHPAX] unit (Phobos PAX), and voila! You’re done. Use the same unit code as the [APAX], but change the weapon and remove the line that allows it to deploy. Remember to add an art.ini entry for it too.

Please note that I have experienced problems when the invisible building was still sitting around near my base. Don’t worry, it should disappear after a minute (after all, the definition of Damage= says that it states how much damage is done in a minute) If you have any questions or problems, please email me at commodus25@hotmail.com

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