25 réponses à ce sujet

[Sunjammer]

As part of my "state of the nation" investigations into the various aspects of the Dragon Age Modding community I would like to know how far Custom Content Creation (CCC) has progressed since the release of DA:O; what the challenges stil have to be overcome and what obstacles are preventing you reaching your goals?

I'm normally a scripter (please be gentle) so I've been browsing the forums, projects and external sites to try and get a basic understanding.  From my relatively uninformed perspective it seems that there has been some progress in several areas: file formats have been documented (to a degree); some tools exist; creators are producing several different types of content. But what is missing?

From what I've seen  it is appears we (well technically you) can currently modify and/or create the following:

• textures (skin, eyes, diffuse maps, tint maps, terrain, etc)
• props (i.e. models for levels)
• placeables (i.e. models for areas)
• hair and beards
• simple items (weapons, shields)
• complex items (cloths, armour)

Is this accurate?  Are there any caveats to the above, for example is it only inanimate placeables? Would I be right in thinking that a) new creatures/phenotypes aren't possible and that  armor and clothes can only be created for existing creatures/phenotypes?  Also it possible to create entirely new animations?

Similarly how strong is the CCC community at the moment? Who are the key CCC people and are they still active?  What are the key projects that are currently pushing the boundaries of what can be done? How is information being shared?

Finally what are the main obstacles that need to be overcome?  Are these things that the community can address or are they entirely within BioWares control?

Modifié par Sunjammer, 26 février 2010 - 06:30 .

[hunharibo]

props are possible, but as of yet, they get excluded from the lightmap generation process, rendering them almost useless.

[DarthParametric]

hunharibo wrote...

props are possible, but as of yet, they get excluded from the lightmap generation process

Ditto level models. Chewy Gumball has speculated on the cause, but I'm not sure when (or if) it will be possible to export the necessary data for light maps to be functional.

As far as other models go, static models (like weapons) are a non-issue. Animated models are possible (armour, bodies, etc.), but the tools do need to mature a bit more before it's straight forward.

Modifié par DarthParametric, 24 février 2010 - 02:33 .

[Hel]

DarthParametric wrote...

hunharibo wrote...

props are possible, but as of yet, they get excluded from the lightmap generation process

Ditto level models.

Are they not one and the same?

DarthParametric wrote...

Animated models are possible, but the tools do need to mature a bit more before it's straight forward.

I concur.

Having to take three steps for one operation is not particularly troublesome if you know what you are doing. But it is definitely a time-consuming and error-prone process to partake in. I am hoping that we will see one-step importers and exporters in the near future.

Modifié par Helekanalaith, 24 février 2010 - 03:44 .

[Craig Graff]

If props aren't getting lighting, I assume it's only community made ones? That would indicate we haven't provided you with enough information on the file formats. I'll talk to Bryan Derkesen and see if we are able to release a bit more of the internal .xml files we have for props and such, since they are an easily interpretable middle step towards the compiled game files.

[DarthParametric]

Helekanalaith wrote...

Are they not one and the same?

Level models are floors, walls, ceilings, etc. Props are things like barrels, etc.

Craig Graff wrote...

If props aren't getting lighting, I assume it's only community made ones? That would indicate we haven't provided you with enough information on the file formats. I'll talk to Bryan Derkesen and see if we are able to release a bit more of the internal .xml files we have for props and such, since they are an easily interpretable middle step towards the compiled game files.

There's some info on it here - http://social.biowar...g-524815-1.html - it's the "meta data" issue.

Modifié par DarthParametric, 24 février 2010 - 04:08 .

[Sunjammer]

Ouch: things aren't quite as far forward as I thought. Is the following a more accurate summation?

• textures (no issues)
• hair and beards (no issues)
• simple items (no issues)
• complex items (process needs streamlining)
• props (light map issues)
• placeables (light map issues)
• creatures (not currently possible)

Is anything missing from that list?

I've seen that the ChewyGumball is quite active but are the likes of Adinos and tazpn still working these issues? I didn't notice any recent activity from them on Social, DA Nexus or DA Mods.  Are there other toolsmiths working on these issues?

[CID-78]

terrain mesh tools would be usefull. the toolset is very basic on that and ther is much that can be done to speedup and simplify level making with those.

[BioSpirit]

Are there other toolsmiths working on these issues?

There is Blender Import-Export script (social.bioware.com/project/899/) that could be a potential development tool but unfortunately I couldn't get it to work. There seems to be somekind of python conflict issue between the lightmapper and blender. So, I wrote my own exporter that did the things needed and allowed to proceed with the main project. There is no project defined for the exporter at a moment. (It's only for non-animated meshes like placeables)

I have spend a lot of time with the lightmap problem in custom models. But it just doesn't make any sence. Everything seems to be fine but it just won't work. The lightmapper says that it's lacking a meta data. But nobody seems to know anything about the meta data.  What is it lacking of exactly ?

There are some lightmapping related parameters in *.mmh files but is there something else elsewhere that is also required by lightmapper ?

Is the physics file *.phy just about collision geometry or is there something else ?

P.S. There are many critical issues in this list those are greatly effecting in productivity.
social.bioware.com/wiki/datoolset/index.php/Category:Toolset_bugs

Modifié par BioSpirit, 25 février 2010 - 08:28 .

[Eshme]

Im currently working on the Animation export part of chewy's 3ds exporter, especially character animation. Currently it is pretty rigorous in that regard, and some stuff needs figuring out.

[Sunjammer]

I hope you'll all pardon the thread name change but my attempt at humour meant it was a little too cryptic.

I appreciate all the information you've provided so far. I guess the big questions, which Eshme just touched on, are a) what do you guys need in order to put entirely new creatures into the game and based on the progress so far what sort of timescales are we looking at?

[BryanDerksen]

I've rustled up the .meta files that go with the .mmh and .msh files I posted a few months back and updated the package to include them. They're at http://social.biowar...m/project/2122/

Hope the .meta files are helpful, I'm afraid I don't really know how the details work myself.

[Sunjammer]

Cheers Bryan

[gordonbrown82]

replacing loadscreens must be added. do you realize the possibilities?

[ChewyGumball]

Tee hee, bryan forgot to make the files public again

[Adinos]

As most of the regulars here know, I wrote a small tool a while ago, which has (I hope) been of some use.



Now I'm looking for something else to do - does anybody have some suggestions for a bored toolsmith?

[BioSpirit]

Working mesh exporter/importer for level models and props between Blender and DA:O would be great and appriciated !!

[Eshme]

How about the 2DA bugs, for example for items the ID is max 255.

[Craig Graff]

For item what? Properties? Sets? BITM_base?

Modifié par Craig Graff, 01 mars 2010 - 06:45 .

[nezroy]

Craig Graff wrote...

For item what? Properties? Sets? BITM_base?

All forms of ItemVariations.xls M2DAs not working with IDs > 255 because the toolset saves the variation field in the UTI as a single byte instead of a DWORD.

http://social.biowar...but_not_in_game

EDIT: Though I guess that link is confusing since it's mixing several bugs in one. The thread here is more specific to the item variation IDs > 255 issue: http://social.biowar.../index/722622/1

Modifié par nezroy, 01 mars 2010 - 09:48 .

[Nattfodd]

New creatures are now possible if they are morphologically similar to the existing ones. I succesfully created a new Human Female Model.
A complete new creature, surely needs a working custom animation exporter. I'm thinking to develop horse riding/horse fighting.

Modifié par Nattfodd, 01 mars 2010 - 02:34 .

[BryanDerksen]

Whoops. Made the files public now. I guess it's good to have them default to the "safe" setting like that, but hrmph.

[TimelordDC]

If we are talking about 2DA bugs, there are a few more -

1) CLA_data is read sequentially.

2) The formula for arriving at a unique race/class/background combination can do with a change since it currently assumes 99 background variations for a race/class combination while the usual case is more classes than races or backgrounds (which are anyway module-specific). Current formula requires having class IDs in the multiple of 100 (assuming races are not added in which case multiples of 1000) to ensure uniqueness.

3) chargen_preload worksheet is not treated as a m2da while all other class related worksheets are treated as such.

[BioSpirit]

I am still not able to get a lightmaps to work for models I have build.



I created a meta file based on the examples in the package and placed it in the following folders
/Dragon Age/AddIns/MyModule/core/override/
/Dragon Age/packages/core/override/

I tested several different combinations of file extensions but it's not working.

Does the meta filed need to be passed through some MetaProcessor ?
Is the lightmapper able to find the data from the core/override/ folder or does it need to be placed in the SQL database ?

Any ideas what's the meaning of the ID string like "_47n" in *.mmh files?

Modifié par BioSpirit, 02 mars 2010 - 10:28 .

[ChewyGumball]

I would assume so that in the meta data names can be duplicated without ambiguity.