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Creating new creatures?

Débuté par Guest_dewkl_* , juil. 22 2010 04:45

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16 réponses à ce sujet

#1
Guest_dewkl_*
Posté 22 juillet 2010 - 04:45

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I've edited a creature in the game. I've changed the texture(s) and the scale of the model. Currently it's overriding the original creature rather than being an additional appearance. I need the original and the new one simultaneously, so I need to create a new one instead. I have some questions regarding this:

1. Any tutorials? I couldn't find any and I have the impression there's a lot of variables that have to be edited to make this happen. Just how much will I have to edit?
2. If I edit APR_Base and add another appearance, will it appear in the toolset as well? Does the toolset catch custom 2da data? Or will I have to script to enable it?

Modifié par dewkl, 22 juillet 2010 - 04:45 .

#2
Talisander
Posté 23 juillet 2010 - 06:00

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Is this what you're looking for?

http://social.biowar...2935/blog/1633/


It doesn't seem to be linked on the main wiki tutorial page...  maybe it's out of date or something?  Seems like it should work.

#3
Talisander
Posté 23 juillet 2010 - 06:02

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about the 2DA question, do you know how to use M2DAs? If not, read up on 2DA editing on the wiki.

Not 100% sure that I understand what you're asking, though.  Hope I helped.

Modifié par Talisander, 23 juillet 2010 - 06:03 .

#4
Guest_dewkl_*
Posté 23 juillet 2010 - 06:23

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I'm familiar with use of M2DA, I've created M2DA's for vfx, areadata, apr_base, abi_base, guitypes.Though I'm not sure of all the different 2DA's that are required to make up a new creature.

The tutorial you linked seems to be focused on retexturing and not re-modeling. At glance, however, it seems like the tutorial also exports the model along with the texture. So maybe this works after all, I'll try it out and report back. It's too bad his images aren't working.

What I'm asking is if anyone could give some insight into what is required to create a new creature (appearance). Thanks for your reply, I'll look at the tutorial.

Modifié par dewkl, 23 juillet 2010 - 06:24 .

#5
Talisander
Posté 23 juillet 2010 - 06:41

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I think that tutorial talks about editing the appearance 2DA to get a new appearance you can select when creating a creature in the toolset. I haven't gone through the whole process myself though, so no promises :)

Hopefully it works for the rescaled creature mesh as well. Let me know if it works for you, will save me some time later on if it's a dead end... and we could also add it to the wiki.

Modifié par Talisander, 23 juillet 2010 - 06:44 .

#6
Guest_dewkl_*
Posté 23 juillet 2010 - 08:08

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I've tried the tutorial but it creates a problem that I've experienced before. When you export models from DATOOL, it doesn't update the .mao file. You get the original .mao filename and data. The data is fine as I can just edit that through notepad or something, but it's still using the old filename (in this case c_corspidr.mao instead of c_minspidra.mao).

However, that might be an unrelated problem. This fails when I attempt to open the creature appearance (after adding it in apr_base) and there's no model. After a short while, the engine.dll crashes.

This is what I've done so far, to make everything clear:
1. open Corrupted Spider model in datool.
2. scaled it down, 0.5 + 0.5 
3. save all
4. rename c_corspidra_0.mmh to c_minspidra_0.mmh (Through DATool)
5. rename c_corspidr_0.msh to c_minspidr_0.msh
6. 7 files saved as: c_minspidr_0.msh, c_minspidra_0.mmh, c_minspidra_0.phy, c_corspidr.mao, c_corspidra_0d.dds, c_corspidra_0n.dds, c_corspidra_0s.dds
7. create a new row in apr_base and use c_minspidra_0.mmh as model
8. move to respective folders, compile etc. (specifically moved c_minspidra_0 to my module\\core\\data)

I can rename the textures in the .mao file, so that's fine. It seems like it's failing somewhere else. Any idea why it's failing? I tried renaming the .mao file, but I have no idea how this file is connected to the rest...other than setting textures.

edit: what's with linebreaks and this forum?

Modifié par dewkl, 23 juillet 2010 - 08:14 .

#7
-Semper-
Posté 23 juillet 2010 - 09:22

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don't know what renaming with datools means. anyway i would not do that. i am using datool only for instantly saving the core game files so that i don't have to browse through the erf and collect them by myself. you can rename the files like every other file within you os (right click and rename). after this you have to drag'n drop your mmh and msh files into your toolset and rename the nodes there so that they point to the correct files. browse through the single nodes and you will see what needs to be relabeled. could be that you will also need a meta file. the core meta files can be found here > game installation/core/data_tools/arttools.erf. now you can add a new line within the apr_base.

Modifié par -Semper-, 23 juillet 2010 - 09:23 .

#8
Guest_dewkl_*
Posté 23 juillet 2010 - 09:31

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don't know what renaming with datools means. 

When you save something in the program it prompts that you rename/set name for your files. It does the same you are doing manually, naming the nodes to their new path. 

could be that you will also need a meta file. the core meta files can be found here > game installation/core/data_tools/arttools.erf. now you can add a new line within the apr_base.

I'll look into that, thanks.

Modifié par dewkl, 04 août 2010 - 07:14 .

#9
-Semper-
Posté 23 juillet 2010 - 09:34

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i would guess that the datool only resaves the file's name and not the pointer that controlles which files are loaded. drag'n drop the mmh and msh into the toolset and control it manually ;)

#10
FergusM
Posté 23 juillet 2010 - 11:17

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I don't think that's correct, Semper. The idea of the tool is basically:



1- Extract textures.

2- Edit textures, and of course give them a new name.

3- Tell DATool what the new name of each texture is, at which point it updates the model files with that information and saves them.

4- You take your texture files and your newly changed model files and put them in override.



I'm not fully clear on this sort of stuff, but I'm fairly certain that when it is asking for a name it is changing the pointer (the new name has to be the same length as the old one).

#11
-Semper-
Posté 23 juillet 2010 - 11:43

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dunno. as i said never it used it that way^^

#12
mikemike37
Posté 25 juillet 2010 - 01:37

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share up your files, I'm sure we'll be able to spot the problem. As with Semper, I do this stuff manually. If DATool does it, thats great... but if things go wrong... we need to open up the mmh, msh and mao in the toolset and take a look.

#13
Guest_dewkl_*
Posté 04 août 2010 - 07:30

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Just to be sure I'm placing these files correctly:
.mmh + .mao + .phy -------> [addon name]\\core\\data\\
.dds files -------> [addon name]\\core\\textures\\medium\\
APR_base_id ------> [addon name]\\core\\override\\

Is this right? Where does the .msh go? 
Another question; What references the .mao file? I don't see this file being referenced anywhere.

I'd share the files but they are Bioware assets.

Modifié par dewkl, 04 août 2010 - 07:44 .

#14
Nattfodd
Posté 05 août 2010 - 03:36

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have you edited with notepad your renamed .MMH file to let it point to the renamed .MSH and .MAO?

#15
Guest_dewkl_*
Posté 05 août 2010 - 04:16

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Yes, I don't think that's the problem. Do you know answers to the questions I posted above?

#16
Eshme
Posté 05 août 2010 - 04:23

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All model and texture files can go into youraddon/module/override

2DA go into youraddon/core/override



or any sub directory from there, it doesnt matter as far i know.

#17
Nattfodd
Posté 05 août 2010 - 09:58

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All new files can go to newmodule/core/override.
In your questions you asked what references the .mao file: so i mentioned the .MMH.

]Posted Image

Modifié par Nattfodd, 05 août 2010 - 09:59 .

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