Seeking help - combining haks

[Legacy_shin-zan]

               I'm running a server which uses cep2.3, and would like to add a custom clothing hak to it (http://nwvault.ign.c....Detail&id=2853). How do I go about combining the two so they don't overlap? I was able to edit the 2da from the cep tophak and include entries from the clothing hak into free slots to get some of the new clothing pieces to appear, but I don't know what to do about ones which have the same label in both cep and the ss clothing hak.

Any help would be appreciated, and thanks for reading.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TheSpiritedLass]

               The clothing hak is one of the few hak types that is model name specific.  In cases where you have overlapping 2da lines, and you want to keep the content from BOTH haks, you will have to rename one of the two versions of the model.  There are several tools on the vault to do this.  Then add the renamed version into the 2da as a new line.  It is totally possible to do, just a bit on the tedious side.  '>

Granted, it has been several years since I updated the clothing haks for our server, so there may be a different/better way to do it now.

Good luck,

-- Mistress
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_shin-zan]

               Thanks, that sounds like what I am trying to do.



I'm not sure about what the ''model'' I need to rename is though? When I unpack the hak I am trying to add stuff from, there's a bunch of files like pmh0_chest113 etc... So I just change the file name to something not already used in cep? Like in this case I would find all the parts that have chest113 in it, rename it to chest125 and add a line into the 2da on position 125?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TheSpiritedLass]

               Yes and no.  *sassy grin*  Isn't that just a super helpful answer?  That method should work for everything BUT the torso models.  Torso are kind of a pain.  The toolset re-orders them by AC value.  So what looks to be model 5 in the toolset may not be the actual model file named 5.  

There is some good advice in the Custom Content guide that you might find useful.

http://nwvault.ign.c...585865411.shtml

Particularly the following sections:

Part 2:  That Rose Thing Again - this is good for understanding the file naming conventions.

Part 3:  Finding the Armor Model and Texture.



Start out trying this on any other body part BUT the torso (chest), none of the other ones care about the AC value in the toolset.  Rename one, add it to the 2da file, dump them both in a test hak, and make sure it responds how you expect in the toolset with the other hak material.  



It really has been a *long* time since I've done this.  So I'm not totally sure that just renaming the file itself is enough.  I don't know if there are internal ... references? to the model name within the model itself that would need to be changed as well.  Thus the suggestion to use one of the renamer options off the vault.  



Then there is the issue of making sure you have the textures for the armor pieces... if the model shows up as kind of a silvery color (or is it pure white?  Hmmm that might have been placeables) in the toolset, you are missing the texture.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Calvinthesneak]

               The ACBONUS column is always how a part is ordered in the toolset actually.  Just for torso parts, it actually determines the AC for a piece.  So anything with 0 is cloth/clothing, 2 is leather, etc etc.



The links you have is the best resource to understand how it all works.



There are fun exceptions of course.  Robes deviate slightly from standard clothing, as do head parts.  (Robes replace body parts, and the robe 2da simply says which standard parts to hide.  Heads need textures for each phenotype, race, gender)



Standard clothing parts however are all based off the human model.  So long as you have the texture for the human model of the appropriate gender, it will scale the texture for your MDL for other races.



So for a human female pelvis where you have a duplicate at 239, you would need the following steps.

• 1.  find a blank line in the 2da (parts_pelvis.2da), and fill all values in for the line. I'll use 172 as example (172, 0, 1.72).
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 2. Extract your duplicate human mdl and texture from a hak. (I really recommend not changing CEP items as they're widely used).
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 3.  Edit the filenames on both the MDL and PLT file so they read pfh0_pelvis172.MDL, pfh0_pelvis172.PLT.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 4. Open the MDL with notepad, provided the model is not compiled into binary ASCII, you should see a bunch of numbers and text.  Select the find and replace option and replace pfh0_pelvis239 with pfh0_pelvis172.  Replace all. Save file and close.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 5. Repeat these steps for each male and female part you want done.  Store them in a folder as you complete each set.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 6. Download NWNArmoury 1.2 (easily findable on the vault).  Start the program.  Choose the standard.ini for conversion filter.  Load all the MDL's you need to convert to other races, select your destination directory, hit go.  Click, whirr, it pumps out MDL's for all your other races.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 7.  Pack all you new clothing items in a hak, put the modified 2da file into your top hak.  Play and enjoy

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_shin-zan]

               Thanks a ton everyone. No wonder I couldn't get this to work on my own, didn't know of half this stuff.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Calvinthesneak]

               Welcome, voices of experience, be poor community if we didn't teach others.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TheSpiritedLass]

               *whew*  Thanks Calvinthesneak for stepping in and making sense out of my very rusty memories on how to work with this type of hak.  

As Calvinthesneak so eloquently said, your welcome shin-zan.  Lisa, THE Goddess of Clothing, is the one that helped me to learn this stuff, long long ago.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TheSpiritedLass]

               Heya shin-zan,

Here is a handy dandy program that combines Calvin's steps 3 and 4.  The help option explains how to configure the settings so it changes both the file names and any instances of the file names within the file.  Just started using it myself yesterday. =)

-- Mistress
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Calvinthesneak]

               What program is this.  I'm old fashioned and I just use a mass search and replace, though it doesn't help so much when I have to convert files to new numbers.  When I do conversion of robes to different phenotypes I typically do mass batch replace to new phenotypes in batch of full phenotype sets.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TheSpiritedLass]

               *STARES at my previous message*  Well that was useless wasn't it?  *wry laugh*  Sorry, the link is to Phalzyr's RenameIt 1.2 is here:

http://nwvault.ign.c...r.Detail&id=420



I have not tried it in batches, so no clue if it can handle that.  Aside from user error, one file at at time has worked fine on heads and helmets.

Lessons re-learned in the last 2 days of working with heads:

1.  Use a longer replacement string rather than a shorter one.  I started out just using the 3 numbers at the end of the file.  For example:  with head pmo0_head016, I would just use "016".  BAD idea... The resulting models looked... quite interesting.  Using "head016" solved that problem.

2.  It does not work on compile files.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Calvinthesneak]

               To deal with compiled files i use this http://nwvault.ign.c...r.Detail&id=936

It's definately a handy little program and one that should be had if you have to deal with clothing files. I'll try that program out for sure.

For batch rename/replace I use a utility I listed in in the sticky at the top,  useful file utilities
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Calvinthesneak, 23 octobre 2010 - 10:25 .