Macintosh Diablo II mods

That page will describe the state-of-the-art of modding Diablo II on Macintosh computers. Only the basics of modding and playing mods will be found there. For more information, go to the Phrozenkeep site. Author email: Souricette

Last updated: November, 22th, 2005

1 - Introduction

1.1 - Diablo II patch version
1.2 - MacOS version
1.3 - Locating the Diablo II Files

2 - Playing Diablo II mods

2.1 - Playing an MPQ archive file mod
2.2 - Playing a -direct mod
2.3 - Playing a -direct -txt mod
2.4 - Non-Macintosh-compatible mods

3 - Creating Diablo II mods

3.1 - MPQ archives
3.2 - Tools to handle MPQ archives
3.3 - Creating a Diablo II mod

Release Notes

1 - Introduction

1.1 - Diablo II patch version

Even if some basics can be applicated to any Diablo II version, that document will concentrate on the 3 last version: 1.09d, and 1.10/1.11. 1.10 and 1.11 are handled exactly the same way - so referring to 1.11 is the same than referring to 1.10.
When appropriate, these 3 versions will be handled in separate paragraphs - if it's not the case, it means that all versions are concerned by the explanations.

1.2 - MacOS version

Another distinction has to be made for the MacOS X Diablo II version, and the Classic (pre-MacOS X) version. Please refer to battle.net to download the appropriate patchs.

The MacOS X application is named "Diablo II (Carbon)", while the Classic application is named "Diablo II". Every time a distinction is to be made between the 2 versions, it will be indicated as follow:
<... replace the "Diablo II Patch" / "Diablo II Patch (Carbon)" file...>
The line in Crimson will be the MacOS X specific case, and the one in RoyalBlue is the one for Classic MacOS users: of course, you should read the one related to your case...

1.3 - Locating the Diablo II Files

An important point is to locate where the files we will be speaking later are located on your hard disk.

All the Diablo II files are located in a folder, named "Diablo II Files". You will find the application in that folder, as well as all the files used by the application (including the important "Diablo II Patch" / "Diablo II Patch (Carbon)" file we will speak more later). Don't be fooled by the "Diablo II Folder" folder, located in your Applications folder (or wherever you installed Diablo II to): that folder is NOT the one we will be speaking of, even if you can find an alias to the application there: we will be speaking of the "Diablo II Files" folder located in that folder all the time!

2 - Playing Diablo II mods

The good news is that it is possible to play Diablo II mods on your Macintosh! The bad news is that all the mods are not Macintosh-compatible, more about that later.
When you download a Diablo II mod, it can be in one of three forms: an MPQ archive file, a list of files in a given hierarchy (-direct), intended to be played as-is, and a list of files in a given hierarchy, intended to be compiled before played (-direct -txt). To make the difference between the 2 last cases, enter the hierarchy, and look in the "global:excel" folder: if there are only files with the ".txt" extension and no files with the ".bin" extension, it is intended to be compiled (it's a -direct -txt mod). If there are some files with the ".bin" extension, EVEN if there are files with the ".txt" extension, the files are already compiled: it's a -direct mod.
IMPORTANT: in the chapters describing how to play "-direct" and "-direct -txt" mods, you are asked to patch Diablo II application. YOU SHOULD NOT APPLY BOTH PATCHS ON THE SAME APPLICATION. If you do so, your application will crash as soon as you start to create-play a character...

2.1 - Playing an MPQ archive file mod

For us Macintosh users, this is the easiest way. The mod consists in a single file, named "patch_d2.mpq". That file is the key of the mod.
The key is that this file is to be renamed "Diablo II Patch" / "Diablo II Patch (Carbon)" and should replace the one present in your "Diablo II Files" folder.

2.2 - Playing a -direct mod

Playing such mod is not possible with the standard Diablo II application: it will require patching it to enable that hidden feature. This can be done using an external application you can download at http://mpqtool.coucou.net/. I will not enter in the details of that application, but just concentrate on the features interesting us. Note for Classic MacOS users: that application was planned to be a MacOS X only application. A Classic version is existing, but it is un supported: the texts are not fitting the windows, etc... But it works as expected, don't be fooled by the "strange" interface appearance...

2.3 - Playing a -direct -txt mod

This is really the worst situation for us Macintosh users. The best bet would be to contact the mod provider, and ask him for an mpq archive of his mod, and refer to 2.1.
If the mod creator refuses so (or is unreachable), and you REALLY want to play his mod, you are up to a very long process...

2.4 - Non-Macintosh-compatible mods

Some mods are not Macintosh-compatible. The Windows modders have access to what is called "DLL-editing": they can change some default Diablo II behaviours without changing the main application. These changes are distributed with their mod, but THEY ARE NOT MACINTOSH-COMPATIBLE.

For example, some mod creators can force the game to distribute 2 Skill points per level. You CAN play such a mod, but it will soon become much more harder than it was intended by the mod creator, since all the balance is based on the fact that you will receive 2 skill points per level - but on Macintosh that change is not taken into account.

If, in the Mod readme or on the Mod website, it is mentionned that some feature has been achieved by using dll-editing, that feature will not be available on Macintosh. You should be aware of that problem, before downloading that 100Mb very promising mod on your 56K modem to realize after that it is unplayable for you because of so-and-so reason...

3 - Creating Diablo II mods

Yes, it is possible to create Diablo II mods on Macintosh!!! But it's really not as simple as it is on Windows...
That document is not intended to explain you the "how-to" of modding (PhrozenKeep is the place for that), but will describe the tools you can use to do that.
Many tools are not available on Macintosh. Basically, only tools to extract-insert files from-to MPQ archives are existing.

3.1 - MPQ archives

An MPQ archive is a compressed file containing different "files" in it. Imagine it's a Stuffit archive in which you compressed files: the single "Archive.sit" file you downloaded will required to be decompressed to have access to the files in it.
The same occurs for Diablo II files: the "Diablo II Patch" file is an archive containing different files in it, so if you want to change something in that file, you will have to extract it from the archive, change it, and them put it back to the archive. The compression format is named MPQ, that's why we are speaking ot MPQ files. Another reason is that, on the Windows version, these files all have the ".mpq" extension...
Let's say you want to change a skill. You know that you will have to change the "data\global\excel\skills.txt" files. So, you will have to extract that file from the MPQ archive it is in, modify it, and then put it back in the MPQ archive: that's what is called extracting files and inserting files from - to an MPQ archive.

3.2 - Tools to handle MPQ archives

There are 2 I know of (and I used):

2 more I never used are located at MacStorm (MPQDraft and DropMPQ). They may be useful for our purpose, please let me know if it's the case and how we could use them...

Using "MPQ2K" or "Diablo II MPQ Tool" to handle the MPQ archive is up to you. MPQ2K handles compression of files inserted in the archive, while MPQ Tool is much more user-friendly to use, but does not compress the files. You could use MPQ Tool while developing your mod, and the MPQ2K to build the final mod when you want to distribute it. But you will need MPQ Tool anyways for the patching capabilities and the .bin conversion! And note that MPQ2K is no more supported by its author(s)...

3.3 - Creating a Diablo II mod

One more time, that document is not intended to explain you all the mod details, but only how to do them on Macintosh. So it supposes that you know what to do to create your own mod, but you just not know how to realize the different steps.

IMPORTANT: you will be asked to patch the Diablo II application during the next steps. There are 2 kind of patchs: YOU SHOULD NOT APPLY BOTH PATCHS ON THE SAME APPLICATION! If you do so, you will crash every time you start that application to play or create a new character.

Modding requires you to work on files (mainly ".txt" files). The first step will be to get the original files!
One way could be by extracting them from the standard files. Courtesy to Phrozenkeep, that job has already been done for 1.09d and 1.10 versions: download the files for the 1.09d version or for the 1.10 version, depending on which version you want your mod to work on.

You have to create a hierarchy of files in your "Diablo II Files" folder. You should create a "data" folder, in which you will create a "global" folder, in which you will create a "excel" folder. All the ".txt" files are to be placed in thet "excel" folder. You probably noticed that that hierarchy is the same as the one mentioned in the modding sites: when they are speaking of a "data\global\excel\skills.txt" file, it means the file located in the corresponding "data:global:excel:skills.txt" file hierarchy from the top of your Diablo II folder.

Once you have changed the ".txt" files to alter what you want your mod to do, you will have to generate the ".bin" files. Here, you will have to use the "Diablo II MPQ Tool" application. By default, while the Windows users have a built-in way to do it, the Macintosh version does not have it enabled. But, by patching the application, we can enable that feature!

Follow the different steps to generate ".bin" files from the ".txt" files you generated:

So we have generated correct ".bin" files. Now, we have to test our mod!
The steps are the following:

So, to test your mod, now you only have to launch the "Diablo II -direct" file, and the ".bin" files present in your "data:global:excel:" folder will be taken into account.

Less steps will be required for the next changes you will apply to your mod. Let's say you changed another ".txt" file: you no more need to do the "Patch" steps, since you already have a "Diablo II -txt" application available. The steps to follow to "compile" and test your last modifications are these ones (the same as before):

Repeating these steps is all what is needed to test your mod. The final step will be to generate a "patch_d2.mpq" file, which is the (Macintosh) preferred way to distribute a mod.

That time, you will use the "MPQ2K" application. The goal is to generate that "patch_d2.mpq" file by inserting your mod files in the original Patch file.

That's all, now you only have to distribute your mod, and advertise it!

Release Notes

October, 26th, 2005 - updated for 1.11, fixed some links
November, 1st, 2003 - updated for 1.10, fixed some links and updated for 1.0a9 MPQ Tool version
September, 27th, 2003 - First document release