safe 2da lines for new horses?

[Legacy_Izk The Mad]

               Hi everybody,

I'm working on releasing my horses soon, and I wanted to get an idea as to what range of 2da lines to use in both appearance and tailmodels. I'd like to stay away from lines being used by some of the big content packs out there, like CEP, Project Q, CCP, and Enhanced, to make merging easier for anyone who'd like to use them.

I currently only have 2das for CEP 2.2. I was looking at maybe starting with line 4500 in appearance, and 5000 in tailmodels, since CEP has "reserved" a huge chunk of the tailmodel #s.

Any help or suggestions with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

-Izk

PS: For those of you not familiar with my Equine Manipulation Disorder, as PHoD calls it, feel free to take a look here: Horses
There's a few there I've updated since those pics were made, and a few that didn't make the final cut. I welcome any feedback or comments, though I don't think I'll be taking any requests at this point. I just want to finally finish what I've got.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Izk The Mad]

               I know I just asked this a few days ago, but to keep it from getting buried, and hopefully get a helpful reply, I'm going to start trying to get somebody's attention. Hopefully, it will work.






Any feedback on 2da lines, from anyone who uses. or is from, any of the previously mentioned content packs, would be welcomed and appreciated.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Eradrain]

               I'd love to give you an answer, alas, I don't know.



I do know that Project Q's published a list of reserved 2da ranges on their forum, though.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy__six]

               

Eradrain wrote...

I do know that Project Q's published a list of reserved 2da ranges on their forum, though.

Which you can find here. Specifically for appearance.2da it's line 5000 and for tailmodels it's 1000.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Izk The Mad]

               Many thanks for the replies, gentlemen. I bookmarked that list for future reference. The portrait row #s are handy to know too.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Izk The Mad]

               Hey, Six! Here's a pic for you. Your mummies are riding in style these days...


               
               

               

                     Modifié par Izk The Mad, 01 septembre 2010 - 04:02 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy__six]

               Hah, that's awesome. I love the headpiece on the right hand horse too. I was also admiring the gold armoured horse you posted. Is it me, or is its skin tone much healthier looking than the default horses as well?
               
               

               

                     Modifié par _six, 01 septembre 2010 - 04:05 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Izk The Mad]

               

_six wrote...

Hah, that's awesome. I love the headpiece on the right hand horse too. I was also admiring the gold armoured horse you posted. Is it me, or is its skin tone much healthier looking than the default horses as well?

Thanks! It is the default walnut skin texture on that gold one. I have the lighting in that area set to white for screenshots, but I screen captured that while in the toolset, so the lighting may not have even been on. The default "outdoor clear" bluish lighting does give them a little bit of a sickly look, I've noticed. It's not so noticeable in game, but it makes for dreary screenshots.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy__six]

               Actually, the lighting may be it - the default horses all have ambient and diffuse values set to roughly 58% values, which are the default Max exports if you don't apply an AuroraTrimesh modifier. Probably due to the assumption that's been around for years that a skinmesh can't also have the AuroraTrimesh modifier (hint: it can). So they do look quite a bit darker ingame than in the toolset.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Izk The Mad]

               

_six wrote...

Actually, the lighting may be it - the default horses all have ambient and diffuse values set to roughly 58% values, which are the default Max exports if you don't apply an AuroraTrimesh modifier. Probably due to the assumption that's been around for years that a skinmesh can't also have the AuroraTrimesh modifier (hint: it can). So they do look quite a bit darker ingame than in the toolset.

 I actually understood all of that. I've been fixing them in Notepad, but that's a good tip about how to do it in NWMax. Thanks! Just add Aurora Trimesh to the Modifier list, correct?

(despite my own stubborness, I keep learning new things here)

I'd already gone as far as adding in an alpha setting for some ghostly transparent horses using Notepad. Now I think I know why Max kept wanting to delete it upon export, even though it worked fine in-game when added manually. I had discovered that amb/diffuse problem a while back because all my early horses had bright shins, hooves and ears. It was a good little learning experience in how those settings worked, and how much you can effect the texture with them. Self-illuminating is quite useful with the right models too.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               Izk,



Enhanced is kind of a greedy project - we don't aim for compatibility with anyone but ourselves '>

Possibly the best thing you could do with your release would be to release a .txt file with the package that includes just the line numbers you are using. That way builders could insert the models into whatever lines in the 2da works best for them.



I know a lot of you are gonna jump all over that, but before you do, think about this. Do you know of ANY project out there that doesn't use a custom top-hak that sits on top of anything else.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Izk The Mad]

               

Pstemarie wrote...

Izk,

Enhanced is kind of a greedy project - we don't aim for compatibility with anyone but ourselves '>
Possibly the best thing you could do with your release would be to release a .txt file with the package that includes just the line numbers you are using. That way builders could insert the models into whatever lines in the 2da works best for them.

I know a lot of you are gonna jump all over that, but before you do, think about this. Do you know of ANY project out there that doesn't use a custom top-hak that sits on top of anything else.

Thanks for the response, Pstemarie. I agree about the custom top-hak. I just figured I'd try to make it as easy as possible for everybody. Sure, it's easy enough to put the lines where you want them, but it can be tricky when using something like CEP for example, and trying to update when they do, when using a program like  Excimer's 2da combiner, especially with thousands of lines to be compared. I usually put any additional content I add to my own 2das in non-reserved lines to prevent future conflicts, and assure easy updating. Then I know it's safe to update everything but that one block of numbers, without having to look at everything.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               Yeah, I see your point about wanting to know the reserved lines. I tend to overlook these since the NwnE Team just plugs stuff in where we need to. Sooooo, in the venue of being more attentive to community needs I guess you could call these NwnE's reserved lines:



appearance.2da = 4000 (should be ample for what we plan)

portraits.2da      = 4000 (ditto)

tailmodel.2da     = 4000 (starting to see a pattern '> )

wingmodel.2da   = 4000 (might as well)



That may look strange, but when you think about the relationship between the 2das it makes sense - a creature model on line 2500 should also have its associated portrait, tail (if any), and wings (if any) on the same line.



Gee, Bioware see that?? How simple a little organization would have made life for the CC Community. But, NO!!! This being said (and rather sarcastically - its hot and I'm as cranky as my wife with PMS - I have NO plans to redo all those 2da files. To be perfectly honest whenever I look at the hackjob done to tailmodel.2da I wanna slap a big WTF sticky-note on someone's forehead.



Cheers.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Gladewatcher]

               Hey Izk, these look amazing.  Do you have an estimated time of release for them?