Installing custom levels

A few introductory words

Someone keeps asking me how to get the Amateur levels working. Information on how to do this can be found on my website, however, they are always written for a specific case. That's why I decided to write it all down and create a complete guide, how to record Amat. Levels to the game. I will describe here the installation of levels in all TR games (TR-1 to TR-5).

Tomb Raider 1

There are several levels available for download on the Internet for this first part of TR. There aren't many of them, but they are there. The first thing we will need is a Demo of this TR. Unfortunately, not every demo can be used. That's why you can download in the LEVELS/Dema TR section a demo that is modified to work with VooDoo graphics cards (3DFX). I will point out right away that if you are using the Windows XP operating system, you will have a lot of trouble. So here I will describe the procedure on the Windows 98SE operating system.
Unzip the archive to your computer's hard drive (For example - C:\ tombraid). Now let's take a closer look at the game's folders and files. The demo contains only one "DATA" folder. In this folder we have the files "EIDOSPC.PCX", "XINSTALL.PCX" and "TITLEH.PCX". These files are not important to us, they are images that are loaded in the game menu. Next, we have a file there "TITLE.PHD", which is also of no interest to us. It's actually an animation in the game menu. And I kept the last file "LEVEL1.PHD". This is already its own level of the game. We will overwrite this file every time we upload a new level. If the Amat. Level named other than "LEVEL1.PHD" must be renamed before uploading to "DATA" folder (I recommend backing up the original file!). So before you run the game itself with the "Tomb3Dfx.exe" file, game setup "Setup.exe" must be run. Here you need to detect and set the sound card. If the game itself does not want to find your sound card on autodetection, the problem is probably that your card uses a non-standard interrupt (IRQ). This game requires interrupt IRQ-5 or IRQ-7. I won't discuss the settings further here, as that is not the purpose of this guide. If you have a problem with the settings, see "Readme.txt".
When we have set and saved the settings, we can start the game itself. "Tomb3Dfx.exe" will run the game with VooDoo graphics card support (Of course, this card must be in the computer). Enter in the game menu New Game and the given Amat should be running. Level. If you also have the original Tomb Raider CD, you can insert it into the CD Rom drive so that the music files can be played.

Tomb Raider 2

There are a little more levels to this part. Here we will also need a Demo of this TR to get started. I personally use the Demo from the Tomb Raider: Golden Mask data disk (It can also be downloaded with others in the LEVELS/Demo TR section). This is probably the only part of TR that does not have problems with the Windows XP operating system.
Once installed on the hard drive, we have the "DATA" folder, which contains several files. 2 files are interesting for us this time. They are "tombPC.dat" and "Level1.tr2" (There is also a demo where the second level is "Level2.tr2", or "Wall.tr2"). The other files are not important to us. The "tombPC.dat" file is quite important because it lists all of them available levels and at the same time determines the behavior of the game when loading. Some Amateur levels contain this file and it is necessary upload it to the "DATA" folder with Level as well. If we didn't upload it there, we probably wouldn't be able to run the level. This file defines the name of the level and the file it belongs to. If Amat. Level this file does not contain it, the file with the level must be renamed to Level1.tr2 (According to the demo: "Level2.tr2", or "Wall.tr2") and then upload it to the "DATA" folder.
Here I will give a small example of how to upload a level:
We have an archive with Amat. A level called, for example, Sakul.rar. We unpack this archive and find that it contains 2 files. TombPC.dat and Sakul.tr2. We will upload these files as they are to the DATA folder of our Demo. Then just run the game (Tomb2.exe) and after entering New Game, the level will already start, or we will be prompted to select a level.
A different situation would occur if the archive contained only the file Sakul.tr2. Then we would have to rename the file Sakul.tr2 to Level1.tr2 and only then upload it to the DATA folder. We then start the level by entering the New Game option.

Of course, before you overwrite the original files in the Demo (DATA folder), it's a good idea to back them up so that we can return them later.
It also applies here that if you insert the original Tomb Raider 2 CD into the drive while playing, the music files will be played.

Tomb Raider 3

There is a bit of a problem with this TR. You can find quite a few levels in it, but running them on Windows XP is a bit of a pain. We will need the full version of this game to launch. Create a TombRaider3 directory on your disk and copy z original CD folders AUDIO, DATA and PIX (from the DATA folder you can delete all except : HOUSE.TR2, JUNGLE.TR2, MAIN.SFX, TITLE.TR2 and TOMBPC.DAT ). You will also need additional files that you can download in the LEVELS/Demo TR section (Tomb Raider 3). Of course, we can also use the original Demo of this game, but it probably won't work under Win XP.
With this, we have laid the foundation for the Amateur Levels. At the first launch, we will be offered a window for graphics settings. If we want to change something in the settings later, we need to delete the config.txt file in the TombRaider3 directory, which is created when the game is successfully launched for the first time.
Recording of Amateur Levels is identical to TR-2. The only difference is that if Amat. Level does not contain TOMBPC.DAT the level name is rewritten to JUNGLE.TR2.
 
 
 
Sample tree structure
files in the TrombRaider3. folder

Tomb Raider 4

I will pause here a bit. Most of the levels found on the Internet are intended for this game. This is due to the fact that the original editor (TRLE) was released for this version of the game. And at the same time for this reason on the Internet they find two species of Amat. Levels. The first kind of levels are ".TR4" files. These files are already compiled levels and just upload them to the game. Another type are levels in the ".TOM" format. They are uncompiled levels created by the TRLE editor.
First, we will describe what we will need if we want to play these levels. Here we have another chance with the demo, or we use the original editor (TRLE), which is included with the fifth part of this game, or you download in the section LEVELS/Demo TR Tomb Raider 4 TRLE demo. However, if you want to play all the levels that are on internet, you cannot do without the original editor (TRLE). It contains a compilation program levels in ".TOM" format as well as all music files. You can download it in Section DOWNLOAD/Editors. Since most of the Amateur levels are created in the TRLE editor, I will describe how they are using this editor run and play. If you want to use the Tomb Raider 4 TRLE demo in the attached Read_!!!.txt, read the installation procedure.
The first step is to get the TRLE editor. If you have it, there's nothing to worry about, if not, you can download it. I will describe an example if you download the editor from this site. Extract the contents of the archive into the "TRLE" directory. I will not discuss what is in which folder and what the individual files are for.
So if you download a Level that contains a file with the .TR4 extension, just upload it to the TRLE\data folder and if it still contains the Script.dat and English.dat files, upload them to the TRLE\ folder. Instead of the English.dat file, there may be another file, for example:
 
0- English.dat
1- French.dat
2- German.dat
3- Italian.dat          Sorted by loading priority !
4- Spanish.dat
5- US.dat
6- Japan.dat
7- Dutch.dat
 
If there is such a file (eg: French.dat), upload it to the folder TRLE\ and delete the English.dat file at the same time. If you didn't delete it, the game would load it because it has the highest loading priority and the level probably would didn't work because the information to run it is in the file French.dat.
But it may happen that Script.dat and English.dat files are not there. Then the file with the level will be named as the original level from this editor and we will use the files Script.dat and English.dat which are in this editor included. In order to run the correct level, we need to know which file name belongs to the given Level name. You can read this at the end of this manual or in the "Script.txt" file in the directory TRLE\Script. Now just double-click the Tomb4.exe file in the TRLE\ directory. The game starts and after entering New Game starts already level, which we uploaded there, or we will be prompted to select a level manually.
Furthermore, the Amateur Level can contain the file "uklogo.pak". We will upload this to the directory TRLE\data. Sometimes there is also "load.bmp" file, it will come in the TRLE\ folder. Many Amats. Levels also contain audio files. If these are files with the ".WAV" extension, we can upload them directly to the TRLE\audio folder. However, to save space, music files are often packed into MP3. Mostly it is with these files "madplay.exe" and "start_me.exe" program included. This is a program for converting from MP3 to WAV. Just run "start_me.exe" and MP3 files will be converted to WAV files, which can already be uploaded to a folder AUDIO.
That would be all there is to installing the already compiled levels. Now let's look at the levels that have the ending ".TOM". This version of TRLE contains already fixed ".WAD" files in the folder TRLE\graphics\wads, so that simplifies our work. If you are using TRLE from the original installation, you need to upload these patched files there. I will describe the installation for clarity fictional level. The procedure for other levels will be similar.
We have an archive with Amat. A level called Sakul.rar. We unpack this archive into a directory C:\Sakul. we found out that there are 3 folders in the archive: Audio, Samples and Wads. Then there are the files English.dat and Script.dat. The Audio folder contains files 038.mp3 – 081.mp3, madplay.exe and start_me.exe. The Samples folder contains many files .WAV and in the Wads folder there are Sakul files with different extensions (CD, lar, raw, sfx, swd, tom, wad, was).
 
 
 
Sample tree structure
of our fictional level.

 
Let's start with the C:\Sakul\Audio folder. Open it and run start_me.exe. This will make all "mp3" files converted to "wav" files that we can already upload to TRLE\audio.
 
 
Sample program for conversion
MP3 files to Wav files
start_me.exe.

 
Next, copy all the files from the folder C:\Sakul\Samples to TRLE\sound\Samples and the files from the folder C:\Sakul\wads upload to TRLE\graphics\wads. This concludes the preparation for Level compilation and we can run the tom2pc.exe program in the TRLE folder.

In the Edit Script field, click the Add button and select the Sakul.tom file. Now all you have to do is click the button Build All and level Sakul.tom will be compiled to Sakul.tr4. For some levels, it may happen that the progress bar compilation does not take place and it says Room Tex infos : 312. The compilation will end successfully, but if we they compiled several levels at once others do not compile. Such a level must be compiled separately! Level Sakul.tr4 is in the TRLE\data directory and we just upload the English.dat and Script.dat files to the TRLE folder and we can run the level (Tomb4.exe).
Of course, before you overwrite the original files in the editor with Amat files. Level, so back them up. After each compilation of Amat. It is good for the level to return them there so that the next compiled level can use it correct files and not the ones from the previous Level.
This was a sample compilation of a level that contained all the "WAD" files (CD, lar, raw, sfx, swd, tom, wad, was), however, some levels only contain a ".TOM" file. This means that other files are used from original TRLE and therefore there was no need to add them (we already have them in our editor). Then we only record this file to the TRLE\graphics\wads folder and compile. (Always a good idea to read the Readme file, which is to Amat. Level usually included.)
I think the description of installing Levels in the TR-4 is completely comprehensive and there should be no problems. Perhaps just one last note, which again only concerns the Editor from the original CD. Exe file (Tomb4.exe), which is included there is not intended for the Windows XP operating system and therefore it may happen that the game freezes when loading, or the loading will be very slow. This can be fixed by uploading a modified file that you can download on these pages in the DOWNLOAD/Patche Section. This version of TRLE from this site already has this patched "exe" file included.

List of original levels and files belonging to the book:
 
Game opening animation        --TITLE.tr4
 
Playable Tutorial Level    -TUT1.tr4
The Tomb Of Seth            -SETTOMB.tr4
Temple Of Karnak           -KARNAK.tr4
Coastal Ruins                   -COASTAL.tr4
Catacombs                        -CATACOMB.tr4
Cleopatra's Palaces        -CLEOPAL.tr4
City Of The Dead              -CITY.tr4
 
Added Levels:
 
Angkor Wat                        -ANGKOR.tr4
The Lost Library               -LIBRARY.tr4
Guardian Of Semerkhet -GUARD.tr4
New City                            -NEWCITY.tr4

To add, I have to mention that you can come across a level for TR-4 where the sounds won't work and the inscriptions in the game menu will appear strangely. In this case, it is a level for the original game engine TR and cannot be run on a TRLE engine. For such a level you have to download in the section LEVELS/Demo TR Tomb Raider 4 TLR demo. On this, this level will work with the fact that if you have the Windows XP operating system, it will take a long time for the level to load. The procedure for installing such a level is the same as the level for TR-4 TRLE.

Tomb Raider 5

And now we finally get to the last part of TR. There is probably the least Amat on the internet for this TR. Levels. Also, their separation on Win XP is quite a problem. Probably the only way to get these levels working is to get a Demo of this TR and pray it works. It works for me on Win XP SP2, but it takes a long time to load the level.
So if we have Demo installed, we upload Amat. Level to the DATA folder. If the Amat. Level name other than Demo.trc, it must be renamed before uploading to the game. This completes the installation and after booting games and entering New Game will already load Amat. The level we uploaded there.

 

Well friends that would be all for recording and playing Amat. Levels. If you have any questions, you can write in Discussion or Chat. I say goodbye for now. Be as you wish. ---Sakul---