Question: > Please could you teach me how to make my own breed names. :) Answer: Sure, what's the problem exactly? To make non-overwriting breedfiles which are not external-lnz, you only _need_ to change two things; the Byte, or ID number, and the Name. If you're using a hex editor, here's how to do the Name: THE NAME -------- So, you want to rename the breed. Say you want to hex a "Minifluff" breed. First off, you'll need to physically name the breedfile, so save what you've done so far and exit from the hex editor. Name the breed Minifluff.cat and re-open it into the editor. Now search for the Hex string: 50004600 This gets you down to the bottom of the file, where the bit that looks like P.F.M.a.g.i.c starts, and just above the breed name which looks like ..H.o.m.e.b.o.d. y...P.e.r.s.i.a. n...P.r......... Don't touch the ...H.o.m.e.b.o.d.y or ...P.r unless you know exactly what you're doing; changing the first can crash the game right away, and changing the second causes a crash just as your pets are about to make a Happy Announcement. It's possible to change them if you change _every_ reference to Homebody or Pr earlier in the breedfile, but you don't need to do it and it's more bother, more things to go wrong for a hexer who's just beginning to make separate breedz. Replace the letters of P.e.r.s.i.a.n with those of your own breed. Don't go changing the dots in between the letters -- those _have_ to be null bytes (hex 00). Now, Minifluff is two letters longer than Persian, so you'll have to add the final two letters to the end of the name, with 00 between each letter, and we end up with what looks like M.i.n.i.f.l.u.f.f. Now, this makes the breedfile four bytes longer than it was so, in the area of null bytes directly after P.r. delete four bytes. Also, the letter count is wrong. "Eh? Wot letter count?" I hear you cry... Well, take a look at the three dots between H.o.m.e.b.o.d.y and M.i.n.i.f.l.u.f.f, in the hex section of the editor. You should see 00 07 00. This tells the program that Persian is 7 letters long. You need to tell the program that Minifluff is 9 letters long -- so, change that 07 to 09 and the letter count is correct. Remember, when putting in the letter-count, that the number is in hexadecimal, so that if your name is 12 letters long, your number is 0C. If the new breed name were to be shorter than the original (i.e. just "Mini"), you could if you wished leave the letter count alone and simply fill in the unused letters with null bytes (...M.i.n.i.........P.r), or you could change it to ...M.i.n.i...P.r, change the letter-count to 04, and correct the file size by putting 6 null bytes in after the P.r. The latter is the more elegant thing to do. If you _have_ decided to also change the pet name and/or 2-letter mnemonic P.r, do that in the same way, but remember that you're going to have to also change them elsewhere in the file The instances of pr here: Liveliness..\Ptz Files\cat\BEvent _cat_Mixed.txt.. \Ptzfiles\cat\pr \BEvent_cat_pr.t xt..\ptzfiles\ca t\pr\pr.lnz.\ptz files\cat\cat.sc p...\ptzfiles\ca t\pr\pr.scp..... and P.R here, plus here is where you would change H.O.M.E.B.O.D.Y ..........B.M.P. ..H.O.M.E.B.O.D. Y...L.N.Z...P.R. ..P.R.K.I.T...S. C.P...T.X.T...B. E.V.E.N.T._.C.A. T._.P.R...P.R.S. N.D...W.A.V...C. and Homebody here, where the ID number is ....PersianSprit e............... ....Homebody.... If you're using Resource Hacker, the naming is simpler; go to String Table, 63, click on 1033 and type in the name you want instead of the breed name. However, to change the ID number I believe you still need to alter something in a hex editor even if you use ResHacker to save out the RCData resources (using the Action menu) then, after editing, from the Action Menu choose "Replace other Resource" to put it back in. So as far as I know, you need a hex editor or LNZPro 2 for this: THE BYTE, or ID NUMBER ----------------------- This is very important if you want your breed to show up separately in the Adoption Centre. It's the offset byte/number. Don't panic! This is actually very simple when you know what to look for. In a breedfile which has not been ResHacked it comes just before the section which starts with BM, so search for the uppercase letters . In a breedfile which has been ResHacked, it comes just after the naming area of the file, so search for the hex string 50004600 go get to a few lines above it. The original Bunny and Pig are the only breeds which look a little different at this point, because there is a larger gap between the list and the BM. The reason for the gap is because there is a small, headerless bitmap tucked in there, but it's not important to the hexer and the offset byte is still in the line above the first bitmap to start with BM. In the Bunny, you will see BunnySprite, then Cotton, then BM4, and the offset is between Cotton and BM4. In the Pig, you will see PigSprite, then Wilbur, then BM, and the offset is between Wilbur and BM. In a non-ResHacked Persian, therefore, the list ends with what looks (in the ASCII part of the hex editor) like 00033456 4500 5700 5400 4900 3800 0000 0000 0000 E.W.T.I.8....... 00033472 0100 0000 5065 7273 6961 6E53 7072 6974 ....PersianSprit 00033488 6500 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 e............... 00033504 0000 0000 486F 6D65 626F 6479 0000 0000 ....Homebody.... 00033520 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................ 00033536 0000 0000 EB03 0000 0100 0000 0000 0000 ................ 00033552 424D C029 0000 0000 0000 3204 0000 2800 BM.)......2...(. Now, look at the line just above BM.) in the _hex numbers_ section -- highlight that line by clicking the left mouse button at the beginning of it, holding the button down while running along the line, then lifting your finger. The line will look very like this: 0000 0000 EB03 0000 0100 0000 0000 0000 Either or both of the two bytes EB and 03 can be changed to any other hexadecimal number. In case you're not familiar with the way Hex numbers count upwards, here's a table of our normal Decimal system alongside the Hexadecimal: Dec Hex 0 00 1 01 2 02 3 03 4 04 5 05 6 06 7 07 8 08 9 09 10 0A 11 0B 12 0C 13 0D 14 0E 15 0F 16 10 17 11 18 12 etc If you're still not sure, use the calculator that comes with Windows; choose View > Scientific. You can then put in a number in Decimal (Dec) and see it converted to Hex. Although you can easily choose a number that won't clash with other breeds on your computer, if you want to make your breed available to others, you're going to come up against one small problem that we all have; making sure that our breeds don't clash with anyone else's. In the past, the PetzGallery doled out numbers to people who wanted to conform to the "PetzGallery Standard". Nowadays, the best thing to do is to pop along to the P.O.N.D. site http://zeva.sphosting.com/pond/ and see what numbers are "taken". Of course the numbers list isn't complete, but it's the best you can do. Some sites have their numbers listed, such as Vickie's Petz zoo and mine (in the Infobits page). Mine are simple; the ones I was given by the PetzGallery are: all of 0009 to FF09 all of 0040 to FF40 and these are the ones I've used for my breedz as well as for many other people's breedz. Good numbers to avoid are those ending in 03 or 04, since in the early Petz 3 days those were the numbers most used. If the file had been edited with Resource Hacker at some time in the past, and you're looking for the ID number in a hex editor, you'll find it below the naming area (search for the hex string 50004600) and below the words PersianSprite and Homebody. Look in the hex numbers section on the bottom line of this example and you'll see EB03. 00719552 2900 2000 3100 3900 3900 3700 2000 5000 ). .1.9.9.7. .P. 00719568 4600 2E00 4D00 6100 6700 6900 6300 2C00 F...M.a.g.i.c.,. 00719584 2000 4900 6E00 6300 2E00 0000 0000 0000 .I.n.c......... 00719600 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................ 00719616 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................ 00719632 0800 4800 6F00 6D00 6500 6200 6F00 6400 ..H.o.m.e.b.o.d. 00719648 7900 0700 5000 6500 7200 7300 6900 6100 y...P.e.r.s.i.a. 00719664 6E00 0200 5000 7200 0000 0000 0000 0000 n...P.r......... 00719680 0000 0000 0100 0000 5065 7273 6961 6E53 ........PersianS 00719696 7072 6974 6500 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 prite........... 00719712 0000 0000 0000 0000 486F 6D65 626F 6479 ........Homebody 00719728 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................ 00719744 0000 0000 0000 0000 EB03 0000 0100 0000 ................ You should now be able to open your breedfile and the Persian in the same game. "Still won't show up" Troubleshooting ------------------------------------- The first thing is to remember, for each letter you add there must be a null byte (Hex 00) after it -- even if that letter is a space such as you would have between "Minifluff" and "Puff" in a "Minifluff Puff.cat" breed. Second, that letter count must be right! (Also, by the way, _don't_ remove the letter-count of 02 from in front of the P.r. or you will have troubles later.) Third, you did name the breed the exact same name as you're entering into this area, didn't you? Fourth, check that your Offset Byte (see first section above) is different from the other breeds you've got in your Resource directory. Fifth, if you hexed this breed in a hex editor is that you need to end up with the .cat or .dog file exactly the same length as before, so that for every byte you add in the name, you must delete a byte in the area of null bytes which comes after the name and two-letter mnemonic (P.r in the case of the Persian). And for every byte you delete in the name, you must _add_ one in that area. Sixth, if you edited it in Resource Hacker, check that the program didn't corrupt the file. Resource Hacker corrupts files very easily. You might find that the file won't open again in Resource Hacker, or you might find that something has corrupted in the String Table section. Simply re-type the information that should be in there, compile, and save. With any luck, if that was what was wrong, the breedfile will now work. All that's left after that is to change the Adoption centre bitmap if you want to. I'd wait until you've got the naming and ID right before tackling that, but I do have information on how to do that in my old breed-editing tutorials. Hope that helps Carolyn