I'll try and update this thread with information regarding modding capabilities.

So far the game has a ton of locked files, .txc for textures for example. I have contacted a old employee of Muckyfoot in hopes of perhaps getting a unpacker.

I tried making sense of those locked files, but they're pretty complicated...

Having the actual pack/unpack tools would be great, but I wouldn't hold my breath - it's been more than a decade.

I did manage to figure out a lot of info about level formats, including map scripting and some hidden levels, I'll post some more details later.

A small amount of hope i had was because, The Thing game (2002-03) community managed to get some tools (they couldn't share them with everyone) to use after seven years. We could get something for UC too.

I don't suppose you've had any luck with this?

Unfortunately, no. I emailed two ex members of the development team "Mucky Foot" but they both ignored me (via their frequently updated twitters and facebook too). So far we are at a loss.

They're still active after all these years?

MuckyFoot as such closed nearly ten years ago, according to http://muckyfoot.com/ , but it's reasonable to assume that the developers found alternative employment after that :)

There could be a number of reasons preventing them from giving away anything:
- the code is the intellectual property of whatever company bought their assets, and the new owners don't care to release it
- the game code could be mixed with third party code which they have no rights to release, and nobody is willing to spend time decoupling it
- nobody knows where the source code is anymore (don't laugh, that's what Electronic Arts said when we inquired about Red Alert 2: YR years ago)
- the code is embarrassing (from looking at the disassembled version I can certainly say it is made of pure WTF in certain places, although that could be because they were under certain constraints that are not relevant anymore)

http://zenade.angelfire.com/urban/ucpc.html

http://www.neoseeker.com/forums/2909/t1793865-mucky-foot-times-speedrunning/2.htm

I see you found out my thread on neoseeker. It was getting too fast, so we moved from there. Anyway, atm we're finishing texture exporter and texture placement on the level. After that we can make some simple map editor with object placement. We're doing simple reverse engineering, mostly hex editing and experimenting.

Yes, the devs are still active, I talked with Mike Diskett for two weeks, maybe he's just tired with all that Urban Chaos stuff happening.

Anyway, GET HYPE!

Do you guys have a GitHub account or something similar? I might be able to contribute something.

We don't have any open repository or other stuff like that. We're working in a small group of 3 persons, so sync is quite easy right now and we don't need any CVS. Unfortunately, I can't allow you to join our group. Why? It's nothing personal, I really admire your skills as you disassembled UC code and read through it, but it's also a major no-no. We started this project as a clean-room thingie: you get info from game by means not breaking the EULA. The only way to do this is to hex-preview and edit files and do all the documentation from this point of view. Should you join our group, our project becomes illegal and we can't publish it anywhere without breaking law, as someone can always say, that you implemented sth by copying algorithm straight from the game code.

BTW. thats the same thing, with which ReactOS is struggling - they're recreating win32 compatible OS but only by means of their own legal research (loadsa tests etc.) and public documentation. No disassembling, so noone can sue them that they've copied somebody's code.

We'll probably release one of our tools by the next weekend. I think the first will be: .txc unpacker, simple .iam editor or something to place entities on the map. In the meantime, enjoy some beta aircraft.

Fair enough, good luck on your project then.

Famous last words there.

With source or without? :)

Great to see modding has begun picking up with this, I understand the ex Mucky Foot guys are busy with helping you guys out but its kinda rude to just ignore me completely when i contacted them.

Hello. Is there any progress with replacing textures?