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This zip contains binaries and source code to extract star information
from stars.bin, and to recompile that information back into a binary
format, allowing you to modify star data for the games I-War, Independence
War and Defiance.

Written by: Vurt, <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Last modified: 2000/01/15

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bin2csv: convert a stars.bin file to a comma delimited text file

usage 1: bin2csv <bin file> <csv file>
usage 2: bin2csv <csv file>
usage 3: bin2csv

example: bin2csv stars.bin c:\temp\test.csv
example: bin2csv stars.bin
example: bin2csv

csv2bin: convert a stars.csv file to a binary file

usage 1: csv2bin <csv file> <bin file>
usage 2: csv2bin <bin file>
usage 3: csv2bin

example: csv2bin c:\temp\test.csv modstars.bin

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Installation and use:

Unzip the contents into a working folder. Copy the file stars.bin from its
original directory: \psg\resource\geog into the working folder, after first
having backed up the original. Executing bin2csv at this point from the
command prompt should extract for you stars.csv, which at this point you
can modify with any text editor.

Note: Instances of a comma in the star's name will have been replaced with
an asterisk (*). This fixes a potential bug in the program when recompiling
the csv back into a binary file, since a comma in a csv generally denotes
the presence of a new field. Upon recompilation of the csv, all asterisks
are converted into commas.

Finally, to recompile your modifications back into the stars.bin file, run
csv2bin with the appropriate filenames, and then copy the output bin file
back into the geog directory as stars.bin, and run the game.

One final point. Try and keep the same number of lines in the csv as in the
original. If you want to remove stars, overwrite them with blank data.
Otherwise things tend to crash while loading up.

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Disclaimer: Neither Particle Systems nor Infogrames are responsible for this
code, or anything it does to your machine, and cannot be held accountable.
For that matter, I'm not accountable for anything this code does either, etc.

Feel free to modify this code, and distribute it, but please credit the
original author. If you make any really good mods, or find and fix a bug,
please send me a copy of what you did so that I can incorporate it into the
original version.

Finally, you are prohibited from making any money from my work.

Special thanks go out to Particle Systems, for obvious reasons, and to
Nanoprobe for getting me started on this, and for his help debugging. Also
thanks to Fargo for inspiration and support.

Enjoy,

Vurt