So I stopped modding for a couple of years, other things got the in the way, decided to get back into it using the laptop I had acquired in the years since. However, when I munge any map (tried munging with several different ones), nothing is actually munged. The three-letter folder is created in addon but for whatever reason it is empty. I use Windows 7 and so have tried using the vistafix files to fix this but to no avail.
Anyone come across this problem and succeed? Help would be much appreciated.

I can help you there.

I have Windows 7 64-bit, so I've had a lot of quirks to deal with. My recommendation? Stop using VisualMunge to munge your files. It's really easy to do it manually, and then copy all the files over. I'll write up a mini-tutorial on everything you need to munge (in the next few minutes), and how to set up your hierarchy in your addon folder properly.

-EDIT-

This tutorial will be a little sloppy since I'm helping my mom out at the hospital right now and I have limited time.

This tutorial assumes you have your Mod Project Folder created already and you have some basic modding knowledge. Please ask away if you have any questions I will be more than glad to help. I'm not going to teach you how to mod, just how to manually munge your files and copy them over manually.

Okay, first off let us make sure you will have no "shadow files" as I call them. See, my Windows 7 64-Bit computer has this funny little quirk that I'm bettings yours does as well. Alright now, go to C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\LucasArts\Star Wars Battlefront II\GameData and delete the "Addon" folder if it exists. See for some reason, it wants to put some of the munged files here instead of their proper place causing lots of issues.

Alright now, let's start simple and create our Addon Folder for the mod. We shall refer to the Mod ID as ABC for the duration of this tutorial, replace all instances with your Mod's ID.

1) Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\LucasArts\Star Wars Battlefront II\GameData\addon and create a folder there called ABC (if it doesn't exist already).

2) Inside this ABC folder I want you to create a folder called Data.

3) Inside the Data folder, I want you to create a folder called _LVL_PC.

Congrats! You now have the basic folder setup each and every mod has to have. Any new folders added will depend on the type and scale of your mod. Let's just assume you are making a map for this tutorial.

4) Inside the _LVL_PC folder lets create the map folder, in this case the folder will be your Map's ID. Again lets just call it ABC.

5) Now let's get mungeing. First off head to C:\BF2_ModTools\data_ABC\_BUILD\Common and double click munge.bat in the folder. This munges your mission scripts, your localiztions, your common files, and your ingame. It's the most important of all the munges. Matter of fact, you can NOT munge your munge untill your Common has been munged at least once.

6) Now let's munge your map. Go to C:\BF2_ModTools\data_ABC\_BUILD\Worlds\ABC, now right click the munge.bat and click edit. I should look like this,

Mr. Mungey wrote:@call ..\munge_world.bat YAV %1

Now change it to reflect your map's ID. In this case,

Mr. Mungey wrote:@call ..\munge_world.bat ABC %1

Now save and exit. Then double click it to run it.

7) Now let's say you have custom sides in this map as well? Let's assume for this tutorial we shall say you are replacing the Republic side in your map with a custom on of your own. Let's go to C:\BF2_ModTools\data_ABC\_BUILD\Sides\REP and double click the munge.bat there.

Now where have all these munged files gone? Head on over to C:\BF2_ModTools\data_ABC\_LVL_PC. You'll see all your files there. I'm sure you know them but let's go over them really quick, the important ones anyway. The Mission.lvl contains your mission Lua scripts, very important. Your core.lvl has all the localiztions, also important. Inside the ABC folder is your map we munged. Inside the SIDE folder is your custom Republic side. Now time to start copying, or rather cutting them if that's what you prefer(I prefer it myself anyway). Copy/Cut both the Mission.lvl and the Core.lvl to your C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\LucasArts\Star Wars Battlefront II\GameData\addon\ABC\data\_LVL_PC (that you had created in step 3).

9) Now lets Copy/Cut both the SIDE folder and the ABC folder from C:\BF2_ModTools\data_ABC\_LVL_PC into the same C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\LucasArts\Star Wars Battlefront II\GameData\addon\ABC\data\_LVL_PC folder as before. You're almost done, one last important thing to do.

10) Now lets go to C:\BF2_ModTools\data_ABC\addme and double click mungeAddme.bat to run it as before. Go into C:\BF2_ModTools\data_ABC\addme\munged and copy the addme.script to C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\LucasArts\Star Wars Battlefront II\GameData\addon\ABC.

11) Now as long as the munge is working properlly, which depends on whether the Vista Fix was installed properlly or not, you're all done. Test!

Note: Every time you update your mission Luas or your Localizations you need to munge the Common again and copy the files over as before. Same goes for any side, map, addme, etc changes.

This may seem really complicated, but trust me, if I can do it you can do it. You get used to doing it really quick and it's personally a lot better than using VisualMunge. I still use VM, but only for creating Project Folders.

Let me know if you have any questions, I or any of my modding associates will be happy to answer your question(s).

Actually I have Win7 64-bit and, after I installed the Vista fix, everything munges fine. You've got to make sure you're running VM as an administrator, BF2 isn't installed somewhere strange, and checking some XP compatibility ticks never hurts. I'm sure there's no need to work through an 11-step tutorial on manual munging, though I'm equally sure Wulfman's tutorial works just fine. The only thing I'd contest would be

TheWulfman wrote:it's personally a lot better than using VisualMunge

I've always used VM and have never been inconvenienced by it. Perhaps it's not your Win7, but something else, that's causing the issue?

Fiodis wrote:

TheWulfman wrote:it's personally a lot better than using VisualMunge

I've always used VM and have never been inconvenienced by it. Perhaps it's not your Win7, but something else, that's causing the issue?

It's really a matter of personal preference. I know most people will just want to use VM, and that's fine. It's just I went through a two month break from modding because of issues on my new computer including but not limited to problems with VM. VM has been more hassle than it's worth in my 18+ months of modding, since it had this fun little habit of not copying over the newly munged file on my old computer sometimes. Because of that I've been manually munging since January of 2011.

Also, remember 10 different builds with Windows 7 64-bit will all function very differently. For instance Zero Editor runs perfectly, so does Particle Editor, on this computer. It's like this variation of a joke I love, not everyone with Win7 64-bit will have this exact issue, but everyone with this exact issue has Win7 64-bit (I know not literally, just trying to convey my point across text).

Of course it could be something else altogether. I only know so much from what he's told me.

Peace, and thanks for helping out.

THEWULFMAN wrote:This tutorial will be a little sloppy since I'm helping my mom out at the hospital right now and I have limited time.

Whoa. Is your mom going to be okay? Is it serious? I earnestly wish her the best of luck, I hope she gets better from whatever ailment she may have.

I've just been sorting this out myself just then, and if you can't get it to work with the modtools installed, reinstall the modtools and the fix SHOULD work. I can't guarantee it will, but it did the trick for me, as we speak...

yuke5 wrote:

THEWULFMAN wrote:This tutorial will be a little sloppy since I'm helping my mom out at the hospital right now and I have limited time.

Whoa. Is your mom going to be okay? Is it serious? I earnestly wish her the best of luck, I hope she gets better from whatever ailment she may have.

Thanks for your concern, I appreciate it. She'll be okay, it's just going to take a few days in the hospital to get better. Hopefully she'll be out in a week.

Thanks a lot, got everything working now
I actually agree that once you get used to it it's surprisingly easier than using VisualMunge, especially when only making small changes that don't need the whole map to be munged.

Thanks again, and I hope your mother makes a full recovery soon.