Tools and Editors
(click on headers to install)
The following is a list of all tools we included on the CD. The link to install them from the CD is usually the header, documentation links are in the text body itself. Note that wordpad or Word can be used to read them.
This tool allows you to edit the particle physics in the game. As this is a stand alone tool please locate a folder to install this tool when you click on the header above. A readme is included in the installation.
This tool allows modification and creation of any object in the game. This includes houses, plants and vehicles.
WARNING: Although this is an easy to use tool you can seriously mess up your game. Make backup copies of all files before you modify them with this tool.
Read the documentation and tutorial here.
Also make sure you read this document about the art standards which explains how textures and objects are built.
Note: If you get an "Access Violation $FFFFFFF" when starting the ObjectEditor you must reinstall Panzer Elite into a folder without spaces and a shorter pathname (Example: "Program files\JoWooD\Panzer Elite" is a bad path for Panzer Elite while "D:\Games\PanzerElite" is a working one).
The original naked 3d wireframe files can be found in here. You can use them to edit or change the objects by importing those into the object editor. Note: you need to tell the installer where to install them to. Make your own folder or install them into one of the objects folders of Panzer Elite (Normandy:Obj for example).
To install simply double click the executable. It installs all necessary files into the Panzer Elite folder. A new folder will be created with documents you should read.
NOW: Make sure you got 140MB free space on the drive where Panzer Elite is installed. Start the file called MakeTextures.bat. This generates or unpacks the textures for the editor.
Follow the instructions below.
Which is what:
ScenarioEditor: the main tool
TexGen: tool to generate the surface textures needed by
the editor to generate scenarios. This is the one we used in the
batch file makeTextures to generate those.
TexEdit: Tool to change attributes to surface textures
(roads, break factors etc.)
GameProjectScen.exe: starting tool to play edited scenarios
in a window from inside the Scenario Editor
AIStart.exe: co-program to display the AI window during
testing scenarios (kind if real time cheat/map tool)
Ignore all programs except the Scenario Editor. Let's test run
it:
- start scenarioeditor.exe
- click on desert when the requester pops up. This limits the
editor to the texturesets and objects from the desert campaign.
- use the load button (top left) to load Breakthrough-GER.DFP.
Ignore the popping up dialog boxes with cancel.
- after loading (notice that units are now displayed, top down
map etc.) click the button GERMAN
- this launches the scenario from inside the editor. Notice how
the editor generates the data needed on the fly and opens two
windows.
- drag one window away so you see both: one is the software rendered
game, the other is the AI top down map view (interactive)
- close the game window and notice how you return to the scenario
editor.
If this works you're set to play around now.
Before you create NEW scenarios please limit your work to modify existing ones to learn the ropes.
But you CAN'T modify PE scenarios when you dont have the original project files! As those are quite large they are a separate install below.
Note to Landscape Editor users: The landscape editor is part of the scenario editor but has a separate documentation. As making NEW landscapes is quite challenging please edit existing ones first to learn how it works.
Find the scenario editor documentation here.
Find the Terrain Texture Generator documentation here. IGNORE this tool and documentation unless you want to generate your own terrain textures.
Find the Terrain Texture Attribute Editor documentation here. IGNORE this tool and documentation unless you want to generate your own terrain textures.
Find the Landscape Editor documentation here.
Before you install the original project files make sure you got 480MB free space, thats how much it takes to install all of them! After they are installed you can edit all scenarios from their original source. Project files are located in the projects folder sorted by campaign (Desert, Italy, Normandy), while the heightmaps (the graphics defining the terrain) are located in the EditDirs folder.
Note: some updates might have been made to scenario files. If you edit a particular scenario make sure the files "scenarioname.scn" and the accompanying text files "scenarioname-german.txt" and "scenarioname-english.txt" are from the same modification date. If not, copy the files with the most recent date to the projects folder.
All data of units are defined in a single Excel spreadsheet. The files Panzer Elite uses are so called csv files (csv stands for Comma Separated Values) which can be exported from Excel. You can find an original excel file here. The most recent Panzer Elite makes serveral updates to the unit data, so make sure you compare the units entries before you modify them. You can simply import the Panzer Elite csv files into Excel and compare the table entries. Note that all mods modify the unit data heavily.
The Artificial Intelligence and a lot of unit configuration can be edited in this excel sheet. Use this excel table to modify them and export them as csv files.
Last Minute Contents
Use the windows explorer to locate some more files on the CD for your use. Inside the tools folder are some additional files you might need when you try to do complete campaigns.