Mow_tank 模型打包安装工具Mow_tank - Model Packer and Installerv1.0

What it is

Mow_tank is a tank model packer and installer for the Men of War family (Assault Squad 2, Call to Arms, Cold War, Steel Division, Gates of Hell).

One promise: the package format stays byte-compatible with the original. Packages made by the old tool install here, packages made here can still be read by the old tool, and untouched sections are written back from their original bytes.

That claim was measured, not asserted (2026-11-01): 34 real .mow_vlss packages unpacked from 20 RARs on the desktop (both [AS1 2] and [CTA] versions, ship weapons, aircraft, turrets, up to 276 MB) went through two test passes -

• format fidelity: parse with --probe and rebuild as-is - 34/34 byte-identical;
• install -> repack -> reinstall: file-by-file cmp - 16 of 18 comparable packages fully equivalent, the other two differing by very few files; repacked packages vs originals: 3 byte-identical, 27/31 within 0.1%, 30/31 within 1% (worst 6.07%).

Nine classification bugs were fixed along the way, plus one real defect: the original writes an empty [ammo] section with an opening marker only, and the old parser, finding no closer, swallowed every later section into it - mk49 installed just 2 files (89 bytes). The parser now breaks on the next known section marker and remembers "unclosed", so mk49 yields 15 sections and installs 27 files (3 MB).

• One portable file, no installation;
• first start writes conn.ini (GBK; the [配置] section is shared with the original so an old file carries over) and logs\;
• it makes no network requests and never touches game saves - save editing and online download were removed entirely.

Six tabs

Seven sub-tabs follow the selection: weaponry, tank inventory, gun parameters (the nine rows now sit inside a scroll panel so "penetration / muzzle velocity" are no longer clipped on short windows, and a new locate file button opens this gun's set\stuff\gun\<name> in Explorer), linked shells (same locate button - .ammo files are scattered across shell, ammo, -ammo and official folders), tank parameters, INC with syntax colouring, and textures (install / pack / delete paint).

Packing, batch packing, test missions

Pack covers only the selected tank, following the weapon chain barrel -> shell -> ammo model folder plus vehicle sounds, ballistic effects, this model's INC blocks, icons and textures - structurally identical to an original package. It asks whether to compress and remembers your last choice.

Batch pack packs every model currently visible in the list, one package each, into one chosen directory: the scope follows the list (filter by group, then by search, so -tank packs only tanks); same-named models in different categories do not overwrite each other (the second gains the category name); Cancel stops only what has not started; a failure is recorded in the final list and the rest continue. Same code behind --pack <mod> --each --outdir <dir> [--group <cat>] [--compress].

Test missions (right-click "insert test mission A (map\1\0.mi) / B (map\1\99.mi)") write the selected unit into the MOD's own resource\map\1\ mission file, so you can drive the tank out of test map "1" without placing it in an editor. The format was matched against official files: the outer skeleton comes from the game's own 1.mi, the unit block from the official skirmish_units(tutorial).mi read out of map.pak with --pak. The game directory is never touched; re-inserting the same unit does not duplicate it; a non-mission file is backed up to .bak first. CLI: --test-mission <modDir> --name <unit> [--slot 0|99] [--player N].

Installing: just drop the file

Six steps: pick the package -> pick the game folder -> pick the target MOD -> model folder name -> unit name (written to the MOD's localization\desc.lng) -> review "files to be written". Shared assets are offered pre-ticked.

Drag and drop anywhere once the game folder and MOD are selected: .mow_vlss / .mow_bak, archives containing packages or MOD folders, or a MOD folder directly. Compatible install writes the model's own files but only fills gaps in shared weapons, shells, ammo and sounds, keeping existing target files.

Bad entry names are handled (packages are made by other people): characters .NET/Windows rejects become underscores with a warning and the rest still installs; entries pointing outside the MOD (..\..\ or absolute) are dropped with a warning and never written outside; the original packs contain entries padded with thousands of 0x00 bytes (in the real chieftain package, entity\fx\skill\skill1.def is preceded by 3747 of them) which used to abort the whole install with Illegal characters in path - now the real name is recovered and that package goes from 451 to 454 files with zero warnings. All of it is listed in the success dialog (lines starting with !) and in --install output.

Automatic cross-version fixes

On Call to Arms, Cold War and Gates of Hell the installer fixes DEF include paths against the target's gamelogic.pak, comments unusable macros with a ; [compat] note, renames weapons and shells to the target's official equivalents, samples up to 192 official DEFs to flag parameter blocks the target never uses, keeps the target pak read-only throughout, and produces a compatibility report window plus compat_report.txt. Use --no-compat for a literal install; --compat-check is read-only on every version.

Gates of Hell conquest reinforcements

GoH uses a different structure for its reinforcement menu, research unlocks and AI spawning. After installing, the conquest dialog opens: choose a nation (only real factions), pick an official unit of the same kind as a template, fill id / display name / cost, tick research stage and AI purchasing. Entries are cloned in the target's official style; official data is read-only from gamelogic.pak and every write lands in the MOD's own set / lua copies. Deleting a model restores the official text.

AS2, Cold War and Call to Arms use unitset + bot purchasing via vlss_units.set attached to the MOD's own vehicles.set, never writing into the game itself, with every attribute editable and read back.

The UI no longer freezes

Packing (including compression), whole-MOD backup, install writes and cross-version fixes now run on background threads behind a small progress window showing the current step and elapsed seconds, with item x / y for batches. Measured on one 56 MB / 217-file tank: about 0.7 s uncompressed, about 3.1 s compressed - previously the window was dead for that whole time.

Large MODs stay fast

• Virtual model list with parallel scanning and caching: 20,000 models in about 0.8 s;
• rows no longer read files: previously every repaint parsed that unit's .def for a "type" that is hidden in the original, so sorting by size parsed a whole screenful - that was the stutter. Type is now parsed only when actually needed (the reinforcement dialog), ListViewItems are reused, and icon paths are probed once per model;
• level-parallel tree scans: 40,000 files in about 0.8 s, cached 30 s;
• startup builds only the model page and the mount table; the other five tabs and seven sub-tabs are constructed on first view, and the local game scan moved to after the window appears, so a game on a removed USB or network drive can no longer block startup - 3.9 s down to 1.75 s from process start to window (samples 1723 / 1748 / 1749 / 1750 / 1780 / 1795 ms), with per-stage timings written to logs\run-*.log;
• the MOD editor's file list is virtualised too: 40,000 files in about 2 s.

Three tempting optimisations were measured and rejected, and the numbers are kept in the docs: flattening four TableLayoutPanel rows (531 ms -> 531 ms - the half second is the control tree, not layout maths); skipping the theme-colouring recursion (no change); deferring the model page until after the window shows (window at 545 ms but the list ready only at 2230 ms, with a blank that looks like a hang - not done).

Repacking loses nothing

Byte-comparing a package proves the format, not that content survived. So a second criterion was added: compare the file tree of the MOD installed from the original package with the tree installed from repacking that MOD (paths plus sizes). It found and fixed five classes of defects: nested ammo directories being treated as another model (chieftain 188 entries -> 119), shell particle entities dropped (11 files), .dds icons handled by neither rule (8 files vanished), sound file names rewritten in different case (m256 vs M256.wav - invisible on Windows, broken on Linux/Proton), and a section-end marker being stored as texture content (a fake unit_icon2\<model>_03.tga appearing). After the fixes, 33 of the 34 real packages are fully equivalent; the last one (ddg-1000) matches file-for-file and size-for-size with only an -AMMO/-ammo case difference, which Windows ignores - kept as a known difference.

Languages, theme, fonts, command line

Default is English plus automatic system-language detection; 14 interface languages are translated and switching refreshes in place. Themes: follow system (default), light, dark, steel, warm - applied across the main window, installer, MOD editor and reinforcement dialogs without a restart. Settings also expose interface font and size (default Segoe UI 9pt, 8-16pt selectable, clamped to 6-24); open windows re-font in place, titles auto +2pt bold, and the monospace editors keep their family. Note that raising the size reflows some rows, so fixed-width dropdowns can look tight.

Mow_tank.exe                                 start the GUI
Mow_tank.exe --probe <file>                  print package structure, write nothing
Mow_tank.exe --selftest [file]               compatibility self-test
Mow_tank.exe --pack <dir> --name <n> --out <file> [--compress]
Mow_tank.exe --pack <modDir> --each --outdir <dir> [--group <cat>] [--compress]
Mow_tank.exe --install <pkg> --game <dir> [--mod <name>] [--group <dir>]
             [--display <unit>] [--optional] [--yes] [--no-compat]
Mow_tank.exe --reinforce <modDir> --game <dir> --name <unit>
             [--side rus] [--category medium] [--button v3] [--level 1]
             [--cost 350] [--bot] [--remove]
Mow_tank.exe --reinforce <modDir> --game <dir> --name <unit> --ref <officialUnit>
             [--side ger] [--cost N] [--bot] [--no-research]    Gates of Hell conquest
Mow_tank.exe --test-mission <modDir> --game <dir> --name <unit> [--slot 0|99] [--player N]
Mow_tank.exe --list --game <dir>             list detected versions and MODs
Mow_tank.exe --compat-check <modDir> --game <dir> [--model <name|file.def>]

Command-line output is GBK; redirect it and view with iconv -f GBK -t UTF-8.

Getting started

Self-tests now exceed 161 items, covering package round-trips, section classification, install targets, entity.set appends, MOD enable rewriting, offset-based .def writes, weapon mount rebuilds, reinforcement injection, shared-asset retention, all-version installs into empty directories, graphical tables with byte preservation, cross-version fixes X1-X14, GoH G1-G10, load-equivalence P55-P89 and the lower-case mod.info name O15/O16. Protection defaults to Warn and can be set to Block or Off.

Copyright

The program and the package format are written and owned by vlss; you may use, modify and redistribute it freely. Third-party notices ship in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md and are also in Help -> About -> Open source licences.