6497 réponses à ce sujet

[ElectronicPostingInterface]

Eric243 wrote...

Any chance you guys would do 2048 versions of your mods for those of us who don't have quite enough horsepower to use the 4096 resolution of your mods? At least it would be a step up from the 1024 default textures.

MM

That's probably not likely to happen (it would be very tedious given how many mods there are), but to do it yourself to relieve some processing usage would be very easy.

That process is really simple - extract the files out of the .tpf (http://www.tombraide...ad.php?t=162333) and open up the images in virtually any editing program. Then resize them by half, save.*

When you extract the file, you'll get a .def file.  For each file extracted, there'll be a line like this:

0x62F08FB8|MASSEFFECT3.EXE_0x62F08FB8.dds

the first part, the "0x62F08F8F" is the checksum Texmod uses to find the texture. The second part after the "I" like symbol is the filename. You're going to want to put where the file is located before the filename, or Texmod won't be able to compile it.

If you're going to be messing with these a lot, I'd recommend Notepad++ to do the editing in. 

so perhaps 0x62F08FB8|C:\\Documents\\Texmod Projects\\MASSEFFECT3.EXE_0x62F08FB8.dds

and then when you finish that, save the file as Texmod.log

In Texmod, there's three tabs: package mode, logging, package build. You're going to want package build.

For the definition file, find your Texmod.log file you created. Add a creator name and description to keep track of what the file exactly is. Then click build - if you did it wrong, it'll say "invalid definitions" _or_ you'll see the number of textures added is too low meaning you made a mistake somewhere. Anyway, it'll prompt you to save your .tpf file somewhere - name it anything you want to distinguish it from other files.

Run it in your game and test it to see if it worked correctly.

*** If you make a pack of several textures and it does not compile, you may have made the pack too large. I'm not sure of the exact problem but I kept getting errors over and over and it was because I was trying to stuff way too many files into one .tpf Experiment and see what you can get away with.

** It's important you keep the files as .dds or it will actually make your performance worse to resize them. For whatever software you use to resize, you'll want to find a .dds plug in. I believe GIMP is free and has a free. dds plug in.

If you do intend to make your files public for others to use, please make sure to accredit the original creators and describe clearly what's in it if it's a pack.

* The only thing this won't work for is the normal maps - they're the blue textures that look like this: http://planetpixelem...sample.jjpg.jpg They tend to be smaller in size anyway, but if you want to halve them down to 1024, you can  It is more complicated though, because it can mess up the file if you do it wrong via color change.

You'll need to install the latest Microsoft DirectX SDK Base. (http://www.microsoft...ls.aspx?id=6812) If you have troubles installing it, follow these directions: http://blogs.msdn.co...1023-error.aspx

Anyway, you just load up the .bmp file in the DirectX Texture Tool and change the surface format to Signed 16 Bit: V8U8. Then save as a .dds file. That'll preserve the normal map's "construction."

If any part of this was unclear, try looking at SaltisGood's blog: http://social.biowar...m/3688931/blog/
or his video tutorials:  , which I personally used to get a grip of things (among help from others).

It may sounds very complicated, but once you do it once or twice you'll realize it's actually incredibly easy and simple. I did something similar myself because there is a limit to the number of mods Texmod will let you run at once, even if you can handle all the files. There's an upper limit to files and combined texture amount (around 1.0 GB)

....

Alternatively, I separate my mods into four different categories for each "quarter" of the SP game. That way I don't run a bunch of redunant things. A lot of guns, armors and such I don't need don't get run either. Saves a lot of space and enables me to run the game at a flat "beautiful" level without running into ugly textures or instability.


@Dead Meat: Yeah I was gonna just recompile that myself in two minutes - EDIT: and...compiled. : D

Modifié par PKchu, 14 octobre 2012 - 08:19 .

[ElectronicPostingInterface]

OldRebellion wrote...

Silly and absolutely non-important suggestion: recolor Abominations into Creepers from Minecraft.
http://media-mcw.cur...4px-Creeper.png

Yes, I know, absolutely stupid.
P.S. Do possessed abominations, troopers etc. share same glowing texture?
P.P.S. Great job with Scion.

This OK?



Download: http://www.mediafire...ynfugjpwefy1mo 

[Eric243]

Thanks very much for the in depth explanation. I have already been studying up a little on doing it myself. Have you tried the ME3 Explorer route? Where you bypass using texmod all together?

MM

[ElectronicPostingInterface]

No problem. I or anyone else would be very happy to answer any questions you have.

I haven't personally tried it but from what I understand the problem is the interface to find the textures is terrible - it's hard to know what you're looking for and if you've replaced the right textures. When they make the interface better, it's possible we'll all switch away from Texmod.

[Eric243]

I understand. This link shows how this guy used me3 explorer to add already done mods.

http://me3explorer.w...textures in ME3

MM

[ElectronicPostingInterface]

Yep. You can totally do it right now.

This is the part that's scary: "- That's the hard work: you have to find the correct location of your replacing texture inside pcc file (Mine is in BIOG_ASA_ARM_LIA_R -> LIAa -> Textures)"

I imagine things get awfully confusing trying to find various types of maps among alternate outfits, finding what exactly your environmental textures are, etc.

Modifié par PKchu, 14 octobre 2012 - 10:02 .

[Eric243]

Right. That's why I was hoping for the modders to do some in 2048. I can still use a few in 4096 with texmod, but it's like a teaser, because I can't use more than a dozen or so, and I see all the nice environment mods that I would like to use, but can't.

MM

[ElectronicPostingInterface]

Downscaling's easy. Upscaling is hard. "Doing" existing mods in 2048 is, again, just resizing and saving, then putting it back together in Texmod. The only reason 2048 mods don't exist is because there isn't a significant demand for them - there's no real skill involved, but a great deal of tedium and repetition as you've got to open up each individual file and resize it, and then mess with normal maps. For example, I believe Smarteck's Citadel and Normandy environment mods combined have at least 100 textures. For just two files. There's no "mental effort" here, but you'd have to go through all those files, resize, repackage and then make sure to accredit correctly, then you'd have to upload all of them. For hours, given how many files currently exist. To make the same thing (most) users already have in a worse quality.

I wonder if you could make a script or something since all you want to do is halve the size of the files. Would be a lot quicker than manually editing.

...

What are your system specifications and how many mods (and what) are you running at a time?

Modifié par PKchu, 15 octobre 2012 - 12:40 .

[Eric243]

I understand very well the work involved in doing more than 1 resolution. And it's not a big deal really. I need to invest in a new PC. MY main problem with this PC is I only have 3 gig of memory and can't upgrade this asis motherboard anymore. So no worries. I will either down scale the ones I want or get a new PC. New PC sounds like less work. Though.....more expensive. ;-)

MM

[Dead_Meat357]

I can't speak for the others, but this topic has come up before. I will not be doing versions in less than 4096 resolution. Though some items like weapons, and some armor parts are done at 2048 anyway. The typical rule that at least Smartek and I follow is 4x the original resolution for each texture. I'd honestly go to 8192x8192 sized textures if I could. The engine supports it but unfortunately we'd run out of resources with Texmod in half the mods and sadly most of the mods don't look any better for it.

It depends on the mod and how it was done, but most do still contain parts of the original texture. When they do they only upscale so well. Near complete texture replacements like Ashley's armor and the Defender armor could be made at such resolutions, but again it would be even more taxing on the system than the current 4096 versions are. As for arguments against it for reasons like diminishing returns I can prove that's not true and that the only reason against it when most of the texture is brand new is due to memory constraints with what Texmod itself can handle. 

Take my version, or Smartek's version of Shepard's default N7 armor. You'll notice that the quality and fidelity of that mod FAR outstrips anything else in the game. Here's the funny thing that most of you don't know. The mod actually has the least amount of changes to it out of all the mods I've ever seen Smartek or myself put out with regard to squad mates, Shepard's armors, or characters with few possible exceptions. Weapons sometimes have far less changes, but they are small on screen anyway.

Believe it or not most of those textures are upscaled versions of the originals with parts that didn't scale well or upconvert well being replaced and redone by hand. But the bulk of the texture is actually unmodified. Also keep in mind that each piece of Shepard's armor is 2048x2048 or 4096x4096 in size. Essentially 4x the original resolution. Long story short is that these default armor mods look so good because each piece of armor is 2048x2048 or larger. This makes for a combined size of 12,228x12,228 when the helmet is included. Compare that to the N7 Defender or other armors which are done at 4096x4096 at most. You'll note that from a sheer quality perspective the default armor has higher fidelity. Despite the fact that some of the other armors are 90% new textures and the N7 Default armor is probably only 30-40% new but with upscaling. More resolution is always better. Again I'd go higher resolution with the mods if I could, but there are problems with that given the original textures degredation being so bad and the resource issues with Texmod coming into play.

In fact I may try doing mods at 8192x8192 and seeing how that goes, then scaling those back to 4096x4096 for release. If I ever offer multiple resolutions, it will be at 8192x8192 and 4096x4096. Never less. (Except for things that when quadrupled in size equal 2048x2048.)

As for ME Explorer, the interface sucks. I hate to be mean as I know there was a lot of work put into it but until the problem of identifying the textures that need to be replaced quickly has been resolved, the work necessary for even adding a few mods, much less all the needed textures from each mod is simply too time consuming. There are around 100 mods. Many of the mods have 3 or more textures in them. Packs like the Zona C environments can have 256 textures in them. Shepard's default armor has 19 textures in my version. I think Smartek's has two less than mine does. Do the math. Your looking at hundreds of texture replacements in a program that makes doing one texture replacement a pain in the ass.

It's not worth it. And many of us didn't know crap about texture modding when we started and we've all had to learn as we've gone and thus we've all gone back and improved older mods to bring the quality up even further. So updating a mod you like becomes a huge pain in the ass when using ME Explorer. Right now through Texmod, that part is really easy.

Modifié par Dead_Meat357, 15 octobre 2012 - 06:17 .

[saltisgood]

I'm not sure why people always rip on ME3Explorer for having a bad interface. I've always found it pretty easy to navigate once you understand what it can do. The problem that I've found is that the texture replacement process isn't perfect yet. Certain files (BIOG_*.pcc for instance) if modded tend to crash the game no matter how I go about it. Once they can get it so that it no longer crashes the game I'll absolutely be replacing everything.

Incidentally one of the initiatives that they've just introduced which you might not of heard of is the ability to make patches for files. So say you wanted to mod a particular file in some way and share that mod, you can just make a small patch file instead of sharing the whole game file itself. Interesting stuff.

[Dead_Meat357]

saltisgood wrote...

I'm not sure why people always rip on ME3Explorer for having a bad interface. I've always found it pretty easy to navigate once you understand what it can do. The problem that I've found is that the texture replacement process isn't perfect yet. Certain files (BIOG_*.pcc for instance) if modded tend to crash the game no matter how I go about it. Once they can get it so that it no longer crashes the game I'll absolutely be replacing everything.

Incidentally one of the initiatives that they've just introduced which you might not of heard of is the ability to make patches for files. So say you wanted to mod a particular file in some way and share that mod, you can just make a small patch file instead of sharing the whole game file itself. Interesting stuff.

The interface lacks the ability to easily preview textures and find what your looking to replace. The bottom line is, the thing borders on useless until they can resolve that.

[MACharlie1]

Dead_Meat357 wrote...

saltisgood wrote...

I'm not sure why people always rip on ME3Explorer for having a bad interface. I've always found it pretty easy to navigate once you understand what it can do. The problem that I've found is that the texture replacement process isn't perfect yet. Certain files (BIOG_*.pcc for instance) if modded tend to crash the game no matter how I go about it. Once they can get it so that it no longer crashes the game I'll absolutely be replacing everything.

Incidentally one of the initiatives that they've just introduced which you might not of heard of is the ability to make patches for files. So say you wanted to mod a particular file in some way and share that mod, you can just make a small patch file instead of sharing the whole game file itself. Interesting stuff.

The interface lacks the ability to easily preview textures and find what your looking to replace. The bottom line is, the thing borders on useless until they can resolve that.

The ME3Explorer I've recently seen had a preview texture feature. In fact, I think they just fixed their norm map viewer. 

[Dead_Meat357]

MACharlie1 wrote...

Dead_Meat357 wrote...

saltisgood wrote...

I'm not sure why people always rip on ME3Explorer for having a bad interface. I've always found it pretty easy to navigate once you understand what it can do. The problem that I've found is that the texture replacement process isn't perfect yet. Certain files (BIOG_*.pcc for instance) if modded tend to crash the game no matter how I go about it. Once they can get it so that it no longer crashes the game I'll absolutely be replacing everything.

Incidentally one of the initiatives that they've just introduced which you might not of heard of is the ability to make patches for files. So say you wanted to mod a particular file in some way and share that mod, you can just make a small patch file instead of sharing the whole game file itself. Interesting stuff.

The interface lacks the ability to easily preview textures and find what your looking to replace. The bottom line is, the thing borders on useless until they can resolve that.

The ME3Explorer I've recently seen had a preview texture feature. In fact, I think they just fixed their norm map viewer. 

I'll have to check it out. But the last time I saw it I'd hardly call it ready for prime time.

[DrRandle]

Hey! My apologies if this has been covered elsewhere... I've followed the instructions as best as I understand them, and when I go to launch ME3 from Origin, I get the TexMod, I select the MassEffect3.exe (not the temp that keeps popping up, right?) then I select the mods I want to use, but when I hit run, it just pops up a new TexMod window.

I've tried running the batch file as admin as well as running the temp ME3.exe which just doesn't do anything. What might I be missing?

[Spectre-61]

Well, I finished my first own texture yesterday. I gave the Cerberus Harrier a digital camo in Hi-Resolution and removed the Cerberus logo. I'll upload a picture and the file very soon.

BTW: Special thanks to "saltisgood" for those great tutorials!

[saltisgood]

DrRandle wrote...

Hey! My apologies if this has been covered elsewhere... I've followed the instructions as best as I understand them, and when I go to launch ME3 from Origin, I get the TexMod, I select the MassEffect3.exe (not the temp that keeps popping up, right?) then I select the mods I want to use, but when I hit run, it just pops up a new TexMod window.

I've tried running the batch file as admin as well as running the temp ME3.exe which just doesn't do anything. What might I be missing?

If another Texmod window pops up when you hit run it means that your renaming process isn't working and instead of having the ME3 executable with the name MassEffect3.exe it's Texmod.

Before you try and launch it next time go and look in the binaries directory. I'm sure you'll find that the executables aren't being renamed correctly. I'd then go through your batch again and check spelling, that's always the number 1 problem with writing programs.

variobunz wrote...

BTW: Special thanks to "saltisgood" for those great tutorials!

Cheers mate.

Dead_Meat357 wrote...

*snip*

MACharlie1's correct, it does have a preview feature. If you grab the latest copy of the program you'll want to have a look at "Asset Explorer". It's designed to be easier to use and has the texture replacement features built in (though as I said earlier it's kinda buggy depending on the texture).

As for finding the texture you're looking for, yes that is a problem. But it's a bit much to ask of the developers to go and list the filename of every single texture in the game. The method I use is to extract all of the game files using Gildor's tool UE Viewer and then I just learnt their naming conventions. Once you get used to it it's not too big of a deal. It's also handy to do since you have copies of all the stock textures used in the game, so if you want a texture but don't want to find it and rip it with Texmod you can just grab it straight away.

[ElectronicPostingInterface]

variobunz wrote...

Well, I finished my first own texture yesterday. I gave the Cerberus Harrier a digital camo in Hi-Resolution and removed the Cerberus logo. I'll upload a picture and the file very soon.

BTW: Special thanks to "saltisgood" for those great tutorials!

Ah yeah.  I remember you asking about that! Awesome that you did it. I'll have to try it out in my game.

And yeah, SaltisGood's tutorials are a life saver.

[DrRandle]

I appreciate the help! It turns out, what I was doing is not ending the dos prompt window's command. So every time I launched it, it was still telling the ME3 launcher "Launch textmod". Once I hit enter a second time to close it out, it launched perfectly. Thanks again, though!

[MACharlie1]

DrRandle wrote...

Hey! My apologies if this has been covered elsewhere... I've followed the instructions as best as I understand them, and when I go to launch ME3 from Origin, I get the TexMod, I select the MassEffect3.exe (not the temp that keeps popping up, right?) then I select the mods I want to use, but when I hit run, it just pops up a new TexMod window.

I've tried running the batch file as admin as well as running the temp ME3.exe which just doesn't do anything. What might I be missing?

Be sure to rename them back to their original names after TexMod launches via Origin. 

EDIT: See, Charlie. This is why you read threads all the way through before posting. D'oh. 

Modifié par MACharlie1, 16 octobre 2012 - 06:51 .

[Spectre-61]

 Here is the link for the download of the Harrier texture:

http://www.mediafire...pmef4xmsf52ap3o

Hope you like it! I'm open for suggenstions.

Modifié par variobunz, 16 octobre 2012 - 08:50 .

[HellBovine]

Has anyone made a HD Brute? I thought I recalled seeing an in-progress shot a while back but can't remember whether it was ever released.

[AnubisOnly]

Is there ANY HiRes mod's for underwear male/female Shep? Vanilla is ''little'' ulgy for me ;-)

[ElectronicPostingInterface]

@Salt and Others: I don't have anything personal against ME3 explorer. I support their work heavily - I'm excited to see it happening. Last I heard the texture replacer was too hard to actually use. If it's changed that's exciting. I'll check it out later.

HellBovine wrote...

Has anyone made a HD Brute? I thought I recalled seeing an in-progress shot a while back but can't remember whether it was ever released.

It wasn't finished but the in-progress one was released.

I use it personally. Improvement over the default: http://social.biowar...92/104#13647579

...

IIRC, no high-res skin mods available for naked male or female shepard so far. Someone requested maleshep before and I think Smarteck looked at it but editing skin textures can be extremely confusing.
"

Modifié par PKchu, 16 octobre 2012 - 09:32 .

[HellBovine]

PKchu wrote...

HellBovine wrote...

Has anyone made a HD Brute? I thought I recalled seeing an in-progress shot a while back but can't remember whether it was ever released.

It wasn't finished but the in-progress one was released.

I use it personally. Improvement over the default: http://social.biowar...92/104#13647579

Thanks

Modifié par HellBovine, 16 octobre 2012 - 09:40 .