An update to the Starsiege TRIBES Status Page by Mitch "Skeet" Shaw gives the skinny on what to expect from the tools that will be released with the upcoming TRIBES 1.4 patch (now in Q/A). Thanks Datumplane::Starsiege.

Welcome back to Skeet's Update Corner (the acronym says it all). By now, you probably all know that the 1.3.12 patch is finished and distributed, and now we're getting busy working on 1.4. The tools package is in QA right now, and we should be edging ever closer to giving that bundle over to you folks. I've heard some concern over what might or might not be in this tools release, so here's a quick rundown: MakeSkin -- the utility we released a couple of months ago to process your custom skins (just in case you didn't grab it the first time)

Matilda -- this creates DMLs, which ZED and other utilities use.

MaxShapes -- contains the 3DStudio Max plugins to export DTS shapes, along with a heaping helping of the MAX files and bitmaps we used in TRIBES.

Missionlighting -- the executable and script file needed to relight missions. These were also in the 1.3.12 patch, but in case you didn't get that patch, here they are again.

PicaNew -- an advanced utility that allows you to process 24-bit textures into 8-bit textures, create palettes or remap textures according to an existing palette.

VolumeTools -- utilities for manipulating .VOL files. Includes VT (create volume or add file to volume), VMerge (add the contents of one volume to another), VTList (list contents of a volume), and Extract (I think you can guess what this one does).

ZEDTools -- the set of programs that allow you to create interiors (buildings, rocks, etc) and process them for use. Includes ZED (actual interior editor), ZEDbuild (interior processor), ZEDlight and ZEDshape (two programs called internally by ZEDbuild), some example shapes, and a nifty HTML manual cooked up by Diamondback himself. Consider yourself warned.

MiscTools -- all the stuff that didn't get lumped in somewhere else. Includes Mipmake (create mipped versions of bitmaps), TexTable (generates a DML and lookup table for terrains), and a HTML manual for the mission editor.