Hi all,

Severe arachnophobe here, and it was actually this game that gave me my arachnophobia. One of those spiders in the Tian Shan candle room came down RIGHT in front of the camera once. Haven't been able to stomach those things in video games since. LOVE this game, though, minus the spiders.

Anyone know how to mod them out? I'd be willing to pay for someone to do this (within reason). I love this game, but could never enjoy it to its fullest due to the above issue.

Cheers.

Hey, I'm building some mod tools for this game. If you still need some help, let me know.

That would be great. I know nothing on the subject so how would this work?

Sorry for late reply!
There are few possibilities here but I think the easiest would be to modify the game script for spider to not appear at all.

Below I will describe how to do this. If you get stuck or have any question just reply with quote to the part you have question for.
I have tested this on the River level (3rd level) for the room where the green candle is (in this room spider comes down from the ceiling) and it worked.
I have to apologize in advance if this mod doesn't work for any other case or the game crashes.
Also note that this guidance is written for the original game and not for GOG's version.

Ok, so this mod when done correctly should remove all spiders from the game.
First what you will need is a tool to extract game's resources from one of CD*.GOB file. The files can be found on the original CD under "Resource" folder.

Note: You can use my tool gobext. The tool can be found here: github.com/smlu/ProjectMarduk/releases

After downloading a tool extract the content from one of the CD*.gob files (either CD1.gob or CD2.gob) to the folder on your computer.
If you're using gobext tool just drag the *.gob file onto the gobext.exe file. The terminal window should open and start extracting the files. After extraction is completed the terminal window automatically closes and you should find the extracted folder in your user folder (e.g. C:\Users\<your_user_name>\CD*_GOB).

Then go into extracted folder and open sub-folder "cog". Look for the files "actor_spider.cog" and "actor_stickyspider.cog". Those are the game script files for spider creature. Copy those 2 files to the "Resource\cog" folder where you have installed the game (eg.: C:\Program Files\LucasArts\The Infernal Machine\Resource\cog). Btw you won't find cog folder there so you have to create one.

Ok, let's modify the scripts.
Open file "actor_spider.cog" and replace the content under the section "created" to:

created:
DestroyThing(GetSenderRef());
return;

Save and close the file.
Now open file "actor_stickyspider.cog". You'll have to change 2 sections here.
First replace the content under the section created to match the above modification:

created:
DestroyThing(GetSenderRef());
return;

Then replace the content of section "aievent" to:

aievent:
DestroyThing(GetSenderRef());
return;

Save and close the file.
Try running the game and if everything went right there should be no more spiders in the game now.

Cool stuff. I am kind of amazed that there are no mods for the Infernal Machine. Jedi Knight modding is still active and here we have a newer version of that same engine. I would assume people would want to take a look.

Just guessing here, the reason could be that the game doesn't have multiplayer mode and it didn't get that popular for modding community. Also game's eula could be the reason nobody tried to make mp mod.
Unlike JK, IM's game level files (which contains also some resource files e.g. animations, textures) are in binary format. Maybe this discouraged people at the time from building the mod tools for it.

Hey!

Infernal Machine pretty much was my entire childhood which always made me want to be Indiana Jones. This turned into me wanting to design adventures. I then realized it would be the coolest thing to make my own custom levels for this game, but was disheartened to find that no one has done any modding on this game. I realize now that making a custom level for this game would be very difficult (near impossible) but I am still interesting in modding it (in some way). In your previous replies you mentioned a tool you were working on to mod this game. Is that the same as the GitHub link you posted? If so, are there any things I should know about setting it up/how to use it? Thanks for your help!

Hey!
Yes, all tools are located in the Github link posted above. There are 2 tools in that repository. One is gobext, which can extract resource files (models, scripts, level files etc..) from GOB resource files. The second one, cndtool, can extract textures, sounds and animations from level files (CND) and patch level files with new textures and animations.
If you want to modify textures and 3D models I've made plugin for GIMP (free image editing program) and Blender (free 3D graphics editing program). Links to plugins can be found in the above github repository (or on my github profile).

Unfortunately for now you won't be able to create new levels you can only edit the existing one through scripting (COG scripts) and modifying models, textures and animations. At least I don't know any program that is capable to mod Infernal Machine at this moment. I'm working towards converting CND level files to NDY file format now, which is text based representation of level. So you will be able to modify level directly just by opening it in text editor. You still won't be able to make new level geometry (well, in theory you could :) but you will be able to add/remove new Things in level very easily or change level textures and sounds.

Before you start I suggest you read some specifications about the game structures, scripting etc..
FYI the game engine of infernal machine (Jones engine) is modified version of Sith engine which was first used in game [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Jedi_Knight:_Dark_Forces_II] Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II [/url] . The engine was not modified much so almost everything that you can find on the internet about modding Star Wars: JK2 can also be applied to modding infernal machine (apart from editing game level itself).
There are 2 good community forums for JK2 modding: JK Hub and The Massassin . The Massassin also host very good specification about the game structure. The specification can be found here: massassi.net/jkspecs . I'd suggest you to run through this specification first.

If you'll have any question feel free to ask.
P.S.: Here you can find all links to tools/plugins that I've uploaded to the github: gog.com/forum/indiana_jones_series/mod_tools_for_indiana_jones_and_the_infernal_machine

Thanks.

It seems to work on hanging spiders but not on spiders on the ground, or scorpions for that matter. I will investigate further.

Cheers.

Thank you.


It doesn't work quite yet. Do the files need to be moved somewhere after they are changed or are they just left in the cog folder I created in the resources directory? I've posted screencaps of the Spider, StickySpider, and Scorpion cog files that I have modified.

Cheers.

After some testing I found out that game engine doesn't call always the 'created' message.
So I guess the solution would be to add "aievent" with destroy function call to scripts actor_spider.cog and actor_scorpian.cog. To do this, you first have to define "aieven" under symbols section e.g. "message aievent".
After that, define aievent message in the code section as in script actor_stickyspider.cog e.g.:
aievent:
DestroyThing(GetSenderRef());
return;

This should remove spiders and scorpions from the game for good.
I've tested it on Meroe level (pyramids) and it worked.
If after above changes you still find spiders and scorpions in the game please post in which level you found them.