Gaonengs Emitter Shields

[Legacy_Ulo Ironbeard]

               I downloaded gaonengs emitter shields a long time ago and absolutely love them. In the readme he says that editing the colors is very easy using only a text editor, but I can't find any tutorial on how to do it. Anyone out there know how it is done? Can you point me in the right direction for the tools needed? Thanks in advance.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Xenovant]

               Tools needed? only the notepad

For editing a model, open it in notepad and search the emitter (the string "node emitter **** "), under it, you will see the strings "colorStart" and "colorEnd", you only have to change these values to change the colors.

  Of course, changing the colors in nwmax is easier because you will see the color not just numbers '>
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Xenovant, 07 décembre 2010 - 03:53 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Ulo Ironbeard]

               Thanks for the reply, but excuse my ignorance(!). What file to I edit?

EDIT: Also, is nwmax available for download?
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Ulo Ironbeard, 07 décembre 2010 - 04:04 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Rubies]

               http://nwvault.ign.c...r.detail&id=626

http://social.biowar...-4842319-1.html

I'd recommend using the first link if you're new to editing, but the latter has some great features, too!
You'll need a copy of either 3ds Max or Gmax, the latter of which is free, if you don't have either.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Rubies, 07 décembre 2010 - 05:12 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Ulo Ironbeard]

               Wow. I downloaded everything, opened it up... Good Lord! Its awfully cryptic, I don't know how you guys do it.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Xenovant]

                 I have uploaded an image with the steps for loading the model and changing the emitters colors. You can see it here: http://i53.tinypic.com/2mxljs5.jpg


   When you have finished editing the model, to save the changes: click in the green square (the aurorabase), click the rainbow again, click the  "export model+anim" button or the "export geom only" one** and you are done, it will overwrite the original model file.

**the first button is for exporting the model and the animations, the later is for exporting only the model, but since the shields don't have animations except those of the emitters... it doesn't matter which button you use.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Xenovant, 07 décembre 2010 - 11:37 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Ulo Ironbeard]

               Thank you! I will check this out. One more question - should I copy/edit the original models in my mod before I add these, or is there a way to change the resref of the model in nwmax?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Xenovant]

               The resref is module dependant, has nothing to do with the models. What do you want to do? overwrite the default shield models? to add the shields to one module?  ...?



 If you want to overwrite the gaoneng shields with yours, you only have to overwrite his models with your new ones (the .mdl files) in the override folder or the .hak, depending of what are you using.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Ulo Ironbeard]

               I simply want to add new color variations to the existing models. During a testing session my PC was using a green colored emitter shield - because of the area lighting (or a bug, I'm not sure which) the shield turned red for a few minutes - it looked great, and I thought it would be nice to have more color variants in the shield models. In his readme file, goaneng said it was an easy thing to do... I opened a model in a text editor, but have no idea what I'm looking at and the editing tools are just as cryptic to a noob like me.



I did have some success with the tips in your post. I was able to change the colors, but it would not allow me to export - I guess I have a trial copy of Gmax.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Xenovant]

               Ok. I'll explain this with an example.



 You want to add a shield of yours, the name of the .mdl file is "ashsw_040.mdl". The first thing that you have to do is to know the number of the latest shield that you already have in your mod (for example the latest one ot these models in the gaoneng .hak is "ashsw_049.mdl"). For knowing that, you could: browse the gaoneng's hak or looking in the toolset the shields' models that you have.



 You know now that the latest model is "ashsw_049" so, your model must be the next: "ashsw_050". To rename your model with nwmax you only have to rename the "aurorabase" object (the green square) and then click one of the export buttons. To rename the model with the notepad you must rename the filename AND replace all the strings inside the file with the name (all the "ashsw_040" strings).



 Finally you have to create a new inventory icon for the new shield. The icons are in .tga format and their names are the same of the models, BUT with a "i" before the name, for example for this shield the file must be called "iashsw_050".



 If you don't know how to create a new icon, just copy a existent icon from other shield changing the name properly
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Ulo Ironbeard]

               Thanks for your patience. I understand everything you said. I'll play with this for a day or two and see what I can come up with. I hope my creativity doesn't kick in too hard and I become as addicted to this as I already am with other aspects of the game. I'm short enough on time as it is! '>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Xenovant]

               Good luck!  



If  you have any other doubt, feel free to ask '>