Creature overrides - how does it work and how do I make my own?

[Legacy_olivier leroux]

               First, let me say that I'm a complete noob at handling haks and 2da.

To enhance my experience when playing the OC, I'd like to put together my own override compilation (for personal use only, not release!), in part using the suggestions from jmlzemaggo's sticky and in particular the creature overrides by _six, Worms, diademus etc.

I've noticed some of them come with their own appearance.2da which leads me to the suspicion that it might not be enough to copy all that I want into my override folder because they might override each other then. Am I right in assuming that they're not all compatible with each other without any 2da editing or other modifications?

Would it be easy for me to make them compatible? What would I need to do? And if I want creature overrrides that are not included in the available compilations, would it be possible to add them in the same way or would it be very complicated? Let's say, I'd like baba yaga's ettercap model from improved creatures to override the default BioWare model with appearance and animation and add it to my persoanl mix of worms' and _six' creature override compilations - is that possible?

Thanks and hats off to all the great custom content creators who make this so much fun! :happy:
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Bannor Bloodfist]

               You have to merge the 2da's.  There is no way around that.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jez_fr]

               The copy models in the override could work if the replacement models had the exact same name as the models you want to replace.

It's easier and more safe, to just replace the model you want to use for a given creature in the appearance.2da. Open it in a decent text editor, look for the line of the creature appearance you want to change (1st column), let's say Lich for exemple, line #39, look for the 4th column "Race" and there replace the model name (c_Lich) with the one of the model you want to use, say "my_lich"., without the ".mdl" .

Include both the 2da and your model in the override and that should be all.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               For the override folder, if the new models use the same file name as the original model, there's no need to use appearance.2da.  As long as they're not overriding the same creature models, you should be able to mix in updated creature models from different content makers.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_B_Harrison]

               What Dragon says will often be the case, but note that some overrides will require alterations to the original creature's appearance.2da entry to work correctly (most likely the ENVMAP column). In the case of less like-for-like overrides (eg, a large serpent creature replacing a humanoid), there'll certainly be many other necessary differences between their 2da entries.

Copying and pasting the rows from the originals' appearance 2das to your merged 2da would probably be easiest. I think there are still 2da tutorials around somewhere; if needed, I/we can post more specific instructions too.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par B_Harrison, 09 août 2010 - 12:06 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_olivier leroux]

               Thanks for the help everyone! Seems easy enough, cool. I'm looking forward to try it. '>

Since Jez said "a decent text editor", is there anything to be said against using the standard Windows Text Editor? What - if anything - do I need to consider when saving the 2da (except for nor using the line break function)?

I think I'll have enough information to go on for the moment but if anyone wants to point me to the 2da tutorials that would be welcome, too.
'>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Eradrain]

               Textpad is pretty good for 2da editing.

http://www.textpad.com/
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Eradrain, 09 août 2010 - 12:06 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               Alternatively I would suggest notepad++ (aka npp) the links in the custom content tools sticky and I'd also suggest getting the cc essentials package (link in same forum) for the excel spreadsheet that explains what all the columns mean in virtually all the 2da files there are. Don't worry if you can't read xls files as there is a free reader from microsoft and I think the spreadsheet program in open office can read them too.



TR
               
               

               
            

[Legacy__six]

               Just FYI, the only thing the appearance.2da in my creature override changes is removing the shiny effect from some of the creatures, namely the skeleton priest and lich (I think that's all of them). I seem to recall if you use Worms' 2da from his larger creature pack his 2da file includes my changes - it should do, a bunch of his undead were based on my models.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_olivier leroux]

               Thanks for the info, six! '>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Vipre]

               It hasn't been mentioned here that I see, maybe it's out of vogue, but when I started learning this Excimer's 2da Combinulator was a great help because it puts one appearance.2da above the other and highlights all the differences.

It makes merging creature packs so much easier imo. Just my two coppers.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Vipre, 10 août 2010 - 05:49 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_olivier leroux]

               Thanks, Vipre! Much appreciated.