Custom Skin Texture

[Legacy_lksjhfvliauw]

                Well, what I want to do is change the monsters skin color without replacing the old skin or monster, basically i want to make a, for example, snow troll (white skin) without losing the original troll.... if someone can help i'll be grateful... '>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <blanching...>

lksjhfvliauw wrote...
 Well, what I want to do is change the monsters skin color without replacing the old skin or monster, basically i want to make a, for example, snow troll (white skin) without losing the original troll.... if someone can help i'll be grateful... '>

You want to extract the old skin (c_troll.tga) from the original bif and play with it in Gimp or Photoshop...

Here's a quick blanching done on the fly ;-)

(image removed)

<...trollops and other sweet vegetables>
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Rolo Kipp, 17 septembre 2011 - 05:10 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_lksjhfvliauw]

               yeah... that's what I want to do! thx!
but now, I will only need the tga file? and after I change it's color, where do I save the new tga file?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Master Jax]

               The thing is you don't want to lose the other texture, right? You have to rename the modified to something else, and apply it to your model (if you're using a model editor like 3DS Max), or replace the name of the texture in every instance of the model by using a text editor. Also, bear in mind this will only change such model. If you want to have both creatures working at the same time, you need to change the model's name, and make modifications to your appearance.2da file.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_lksjhfvliauw]

               

The thing is you don't want to lose the other texture, right?

Right.

You have to rename the modified to something else, and apply it to your model (if you're using a model editor like 3DS Max)

I'm not using any model editor here, i just extracted the tga file an modified the color by photoshop, the model editor is necessary?

or replace the name of the texture in every instance of the model by using a text editor.

How can I do that?

Also, bear in mind this will only change such model. If you want to have both creatures working at the same time, you need to change the model's name, and make modifications to your appearance.2da file.

That's exactly what I want to do, but I don't know how to do it, how do I do that?

Sorry for all that questions, but I'm very newbie at this, so i ask that you guys be patient with me... 
               
               

               

                     Modifié par lksjhfvliauw, 16 septembre 2011 - 01:15 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

                <waving his wand frantically...>

Try this workflow:
1) Rename the texture to something like c_troll_ice.tga

2) Then convert the default c_troll.mdl to ascii format (I use NwMax, but you can use Torlack's NWMdlComp)
3) Use a text editor to replace all "c_troll.tga" with "c_troll_ice.tga"
4) Save the modified file with a name like (surprise! :-) "c_troll_ice.mdl"

5) Now load your top-most appearance.2da (I do recommend saving the old version somewhere!)
6) Find the default troll line and copy it. (probably at line 171)
7) Find an empty row that you don't think anyone else is using or reserving 
Paste the old troll line. This gives you all the right entries for a troll. Change the name to "Troll, Ice"
9) over in the fourth column, where it says c_troll, change it to read c_troll_ice
10) save your appearance.2da

11) In the toolset, place an ordinary troll. Change its appearance to "Troll Ice", Add it to the blueprint. Viola!

Did I forget anything?

<...and completely missing the pesky gnat bothering him>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_lksjhfvliauw]

               Well... i'm very grateful for your help, really... but i'm still missing some things... =P

--> i'm using the NWNViewer to extract the tga files (is that right way to do it?)...
--> which text editor do you use? when i try to open the bif file where the troll.tga file is located with the notepad it gives me a lot of symbols and nothing more...  =/

I think If someone could do a Step by Step for very newbie ppl it would help me a lot... thx for your patience with me... xD
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <digging through a bin of scrolls he's been meaning to sort...>

lksjhfvliauw wrote...
--> i'm using the NWNViewer to extract the tga files (is that right way to do it?)...

I *highly* recommend NwExplorer Reborn for pulling tgas & mdls out of bifs & haks and stuff :-)

--> which text editor do you use? when i try to open the bif file where the troll.tga file is located with the notepad it gives me a lot of symbols and nothing more...  =/

I use Notepad++, and am experimenting with The Programers Notepad.

I think If someone could do a Step by Step for very newbie ppl it would help me a lot... thx for your patience with me... xD

I think someone has :-) Have you looked at the Custom Content Guide? I love it so much I actually went to Kinkos and printed it out :-) And I *hate* wasting trees!

<...and frowning as half of them crumble to dust>
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Rolo Kipp, 16 septembre 2011 - 04:03 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_lksjhfvliauw]

               
               
               

               

                     Modifié par lksjhfvliauw, 16 septembre 2011 - 06:40 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_lksjhfvliauw]

               I guess i'm finally starting to get it  =D

Try this workflow:
1) Rename the texture to something like c_troll_ice.tga

Just 1 question here, where do I save the new tga file? i mean, in which paste?

2) Then convert the default c_troll.mdl to ascii format (I use NwMax, but you can use Torlack's NWMdlComp)

Done! I used the C-tools for it, apparently it worked well...  '>

3) Use a text editor to replace all "c_troll.tga" with "c_troll_ice.tga"

When you say to replace all the c_troll.tga you mean inside the file you just converted right? the c_troll.mdl.ascii right? if so, then i did it right, i opened the converted file and changed all c_troll to c_troll_snow... if wasn't it, well, enlighten me pls... xD

4) Save the modified file with a name like (surprise! :-) "c_troll_ice.mdl"

Done! (if i didn't make the step 3 wrong off course...  =P).

5) Now load your top-most appearance.2da (I do recommend saving the old version somewhere!)
6) Find the default troll line and copy it. (probably at line 171)
7) Find an empty row that you don't think anyone else is using or reserving 
Paste the old troll line. This gives you all the right entries for a troll. Change the name to "Troll, Ice"
9) over in the fourth column, where it says c_troll, change it to read c_troll_ice
10) save your appearance.2da

11) In the toolset, place an ordinary troll. Change its appearance to "Troll Ice", Add it to the blueprint. Viola!

I have to extract the appearance.2da too right (i'm saying this because the appearance.2da file is inside 2da.bif and I don't know how to modify it without extracting it)? and where do i save the new appearance.2da file?

Thank you very much for the tips!  '>

Edit: If someone could delete my post above, i double posted for stupidity... LOL
               
               

               

                     Modifié par lksjhfvliauw, 16 septembre 2011 - 06:45 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Master Jax]

               You've got it mostly done. It seems your only doubt now is where the frak to save all this in order for it to work, right? Ok, there are two ways you can do this. You can either put the files in a hak by using the "haker" tool included in your game's installation folder, under tools, or simply put the three files (texture, model and 2da) in your override folder. If you do it by hak, you would need to add such hak through the aurora toolset to every module you want it to work with. If you place them in the override, they will show in any module, as long as there are no conflicting haks added to such modules.

The bearded guy has pretty much explained it all, so I'll just wish you good luck, and may this be the start of your career as a NWN modder!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_lksjhfvliauw]

               Thank you very much guys! You helped me a lot!  =D
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <thoughtfully combing through his beard...>

Where to get the 2DA?
+  Are you using an otherwise vanilla set of content? Get it from the most current location (HotU, SoU, whatever the last update was that included an appearance.2da.)
+ Are you using custom content (haks) already? Look in the top-most hak of the module properties -> custom content. Extract that appearance.2da

Where to put it? I *strongly* recommend starting to begin to think about considering getting in the habit of creating a top-level hak for each module you create. Try to *never* use the override folder except for quick tests (and *immediate* deletes!).

The way I do it is to create a folder in the hak directory with the module name.  I store all the custom bits & bytes in there to play with (sub-directories in the hak folder are ignored by NwN).  I often divide *those* folders into separate "project" folders, like my "Gaian Avatar" project.

When you have a set (mdl, tga, 2da, etc.) of stuff you want to test in the toolset, compile the .hak file using nwhak.exe (in the nwn->utils folder).

In the toolset, load your module and add your hak to the top of the custom content list.

Pro: Your hak doesn't interfere with other custom content, it's all in one place and easy to update as you add more content.
Cons: Your hak only applies to modules you add it to. (A pro, IMO, but some people want to change everything :-)

Caveat: I have three haks I add to all my modules. The third is rk_amethyst.hak and contains content that applies to any Gemworld of Amethyst modules. The second is rk_"module-name".hak that contains module specific content. The first is rk_"module-name"_p#.hak; an empty (except for readme.txt) patch hak that will make updating or fixing modules a lot easier.

<...for a snack>
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Rolo Kipp, 17 septembre 2011 - 05:34 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_lksjhfvliauw]

               Thank you very much guys! I finally did it! Thank you for your patience and tips!  =D

I'll need just 1 more tip, I want to make a new portrait for my snow troll (well, the portrait is already made  =P), i want to know if it's possible to use it for monsters portraits... if it is, where can I save the new portraits? i already tryed on the portraits paste (but this paste only works for player portraits... =X), the override paste (didn't worked too) and I tryed to use it as a .hak file too, nothing worked... any suggestions?
               
               

               

                     Modifié par lksjhfvliauw, 17 septembre 2011 - 08:20 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Zwerkules]

               I assume you have already changed the appearance.2da to add your new troll. That file also points to the portraits for the creatures. If you named your creature c_troll_ice or something like that, name your portraits po_troll_ice_l, po_troll_ice_m, po_troll_ice_s and po_troll_ice_t. Look for the column in the appearance.2da that has the portrait names and change the name for the portraits if your ice troll to po_troll_ice.

If you just made one portrait, make sure you resize it to have all 4 portrait sizes (large, medium, small and tiny). The letters at the end of the portrait file names indicate what size they are (l for large, t for tiny and so on).

A large portrait is 128x256, middle sized one is 64x128, the small one 32x64 and the tiny portrait is 16x32. There are some pixels of the bottom of each portrait that don't show up in game because of the 256 pixels it only shows 204 or something like that - I don't know the exact number.

So if you changed your entry in the 2da file and add the portraits (saved as 24 bit tgas) and the new appearance.2da to yor hak, the portraits should show up in game.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Zwerkules, 17 septembre 2011 - 09:22 .