Author Topic: Newbie here. I could use help from you all.  (Read 580 times)

Legacy_Tonden_Ockay

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Newbie here. I could use help from you all.
« on: May 01, 2015, 03:09:54 am »


               

Ok


I really know nothing at all about haks, tiles, or scripting. However I would like to try and make my own hak/override.


I would like to do a reskin of the trees for the default forest tileset.


So my question to you all is what do I need to do this?


Where and I find a guide to help walk me through doing this?


I would be grateful for any and all help.


Thanks for your time


Tonden



               
               

               
            

Legacy_Tonden_Ockay

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« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2015, 03:17:14 am »


               

For starters how would I take and replace the NWN default forest trees with say the NWN default rural trees?



               
               

               
            

Legacy_TheOneBlackRider

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« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2015, 07:57:09 am »


               

Greetings!


 


OK, to keep things together, Fester Pot linked you to facelifts here:


http://neverwinterva...me-help-you-all


 


Retexturing is kind of easy to accomplish: Find the textures you want to replace (eg. with the NWNExplorer1.69), extract them (that explorer can extract/save files for you to other locations - if available, use the DDS version of the texture as a base). Edit them and place them in the NWN override folder (or in a HAK and load that HAK into your module). Your edits should replace the original ones. Some textures use an alpha channel = transparent parts (eg. foliage textures) - don't loose it!


To be on the safe side, convert your edits to the DDS format (cause DDS tends to override TGA versions). Tools for that can be found on neverwintervault.org.


 


NWNExplorer: http://neverwinterva...explorer-reborn


 


Now replaceing models (eg. the trees itself) is a whole different story! You'll need to load the tile mdls into Gmax or Blender and reexport them. Much to learn here, but do-able! '<img'>


 


Links for a start:


http://neverwinterva...ate-cc-and-more


http://neverwinterva...om-content/gmax


 


There are more usefull links on neverwintervault.org.



               
               

               
            

Legacy_Estelindis

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« Reply #3 on: May 01, 2015, 04:31:07 pm »


               

Just to add a couple more comments that I hope will be helpful, when using NWN Explorer you can find non-1.69 tileset textures in the subheading "NWN Texture Packs."  For the base game tilesets, like the forest, highest quality textures are found in "Tiles_Tpa".  Textures are organised by prefix.  All the files related to the forest begin with "ttf01".  For trees, look for the bark textures.  Export them as TGA so that you can edit them (e.g. with programs like Gimp).



               
               

               
            

Legacy_Zwerkules

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« Reply #4 on: May 01, 2015, 04:48:51 pm »


               


Retexturing is kind of easy to accomplish: Find the textures you want to replace (eg. with the NWNExplorer1.69), extract them (that explorer can extract/save files for you to other locations - if available, use the DDS version of the texture as a base). Edit them and place them in the NWN override folder (or in a HAK and load that HAK into your module).




It can be as easy as that, but the results you'll get will be bad. If you want to make a proper override you have to make sure some of the textures match in tone. For exterior textures you have to make sure that they don't have too much detail if they are used repeatedly on rockface and ledges or on the ground. Especially grass and rock textures with a lot of detail don't work well in NWN. Less detail is better here.


 


Next make sure the textures aren't too photo like or too picture like. Also too saturated textures look completely out of place with other content, use them and you might get an area that looks good without placeables, but it all falls apart once you add placeables with different colours.


Especially too green tree foliage doesn't work. When using foliage textures and sometimes flower textures the most commonly made mistake is that the colours on them are too uniform. The same green on every leaf or red on every petal will make your areas look like a child's picture where the sky is blue, clouds are white and grass is the same kind of green everywhere.


 


If the tileset uses grass on different textures, make sure the grass textures match, like the main grass texture has to match the grassrims and other textures where grass is blended with dirt (like the anthill texture), rock or gravel.


 


For interior tilesets make sure you don't use too many different materials on the same tile. If a wooden doorframe has a different texture than the wooden floor which is different from the wooden roof which is different from the wooden pillars, you are using too many different types of wood. The textures can vary in appearance, but the colours should match so that at least some of them appear to be made from the same wood. The richer the inhabitants of a house the more different kinds of wood you can use for it.


 


All this means that you can make a texture override without editing the textures you use - but it won't look good! To get a good texture override just replacing textures isn't enough. You also have to edit them to match tones, to blend grass with gravel, etc.


               
               

               
            

Legacy_Jedijax

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« Reply #5 on: May 02, 2015, 05:26:14 am »


               

Precisely my point. If you really want things to look amazing, you can't just use a reskin, you need to get your hands dirty and edit the models themselves. Some fancy people go as far as to add texture modifying files (.txi) adding transparency and reflections and whatnot! So much pretty! Very mod edit! Such nice!




               
               

               
            

Legacy_Tonden_Ockay

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« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2015, 02:29:08 am »


               

I used NWNExplorer and exported the grass out of the face lift hak but I don't know how to import it into the CEP tile hak.


 


When using NWNExplorer I only see an export option and no import.



               
               

               
            

Legacy_Estelindis

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« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2015, 06:21:14 am »


               

NWN Explorer doesn't import at all.  You import a file into a hakpak with the official Bioware utility, nwhak.exe - it's in your NWN utils folder.  '<img'>



               
               

               
            

Legacy_NWN_baba yaga

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« Reply #8 on: May 25, 2015, 10:35:30 pm »


               

"For starters how would I take and replace the NWN default forest trees with say the NWN default rural trees?"


 


you need something like 3dsmax and a lot of PATIENCE '<img'>


If you have learned the patience then you need ... yeah. modeling skills öhö '<img'>


 


in short you can just import a .. now i just realized that this makes no sense. Best way is to use a tileset that has the rural trees in the forest tileset or the other way around.... OR... use zwerkules forest tileset!