SothiHenson

I'll see what I can do about making the version I use available, but I wouldn't want to step on any toes (specifically the developer's toes) by mass-distributing an old version of his software. I doubt he'd have a problem with it, but it doesn't hurt to be respectful, just in case. We'll see how it goes. Either way, I should warn you that the software isn't terribly stable in my setup - I get a lot of errors and crashes and the like. It's actually quite a pain to use. I'm just doing the best I can with it.

It's been a while since I last posted. I didn't really do much for several weeks, but over the last couple of days I've been hard at work. I'm just about ready to release an early beta version of my Mod if people want to try it out. Here's a sneak peek at what I'm up to: Notice anything different about your party options? More to come... Edit: BTW, I finally figured out how to take screenshots (thankfully!)

SUCCESS!!!! I finally made a breakthrough with dialog editing! I was able to output working DLG files with GFF Editor. In the end, it was the stupidest thing in the world that was preventing me from getting GFF Editor to work right... there's a field for "language" that actives the text field for custom dialog. You have to enter "0" to active it, but it never seemed to work. It turns out it only works if you press the ENTER key. The directions say to click the "Add" button, but that doesn't work for me. Pressing ENTER does, however! Unlike THE GUI-based dialog editors, GFF Editor outputs valid, functioning DLG files in VPC. The bad news, of course, is that GFF Editor is not a tree-based editor, so it's a real challenge creating complex dialog. I'll worry about that when the time comes. For now, I'm just thrilled that my Mod is back in business. More to come

I've seen this issue too. I think it's related to computer speed. When I run the game on my friend's iMac G5, it happens only very rarely. But on my PowerMac G4 Dual-533 (well below the minimum system requirements) it happens constantly. I'm running 1.03c by the way. I would think your PowerBook would be able to handle it though.

Quick update: Much like KotOR Tool, I got an older version of DLG Editor to run. Unfortunately, it also puts out DLG files that mess up the game when I test them. It fails in a different fashion, but it still fails. I took a closer look at the DLG file made with KotOR Tool, compared to the unaltered version that works. One thing I notice is that the modified version seems to have turned all the dialog strings into independent ones (rather than links to the master dialog.tlk file). Maybe this is normal, but it might also point to a problem. I don't really know. I'm exploring the possibility of using GFF Editor for my immediate Dialog needs, but I'm not sure that'll work either. More to come.

Man, I tell ya... all this trouble is almost enough to tempt me to join the darkside... LORD WINDOWS: There is no escape. Don't make me destroy you. You do not yet realize the Star Wars mods you can make. You have only begun to discover the power of KotOR Tool. Join me and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to computer gaming! TONE SKYWALKER: I'll never join you! LORD WINDOWS: If you only knew the power of Microsoft. Steve Jobs never told you what happened to your operating system... TONE SKYWALKER: He told me enough! He told me you stole it! LORD WINDOWS: No. I am your operating system. -- Shocked, Tone looks at WINDOWS in utter disbelief. TONE SKYWALKER: No. No. That's not true! That's impossible! LORD WINDOWS: Search your feelings. You know it to be true. TONE SKYWALKER: No! No! No! ... must resist. I will find a way.

I checked my setup - I'm using version 1.0.1863.39252

Hi again, Here's some general info on what I've done and what I'm trying to do. In Virtual PC, I've been able to use some PC-based tools to do some modding work for Knights. But it hasn't been easy and there are some problems preventing me from doing anything advanced. First, here's my setup: I have VPC running with WinXP Professional. I also installed the .Net framework, which is needed by KotOR Tool, one of the main modding utilities. I have a "Shared Folder" in VPC which points to a folder on my Mac Desktop. This basically shows up as a Volume in VPC (Z: drive in my case). I have my Mac installation of KotOR in this folder, so I can point KotOR Tool to it to access the data files (you could just drag your Mac installation into VPC, but then you'd be adding over 4GB to the size of your PC disk image, so I recommend the Shared Folder method I came up with). In KotOR Tool, you'll need to use "Manage Paths" to point to these files so it has something to work from. ** NOTE: One important issue I ran into is that the most recent version of KotOR Tool will not work this way. It was rewritten to support both KotOR and KotOR II, so it's more specific about where the data files have to live. I assume it would work if you move your Mac data files into the location they would be in a PC installation, but I haven't tested this. I don't have my setup in front of me, so I can't say which version of KotOR Tool I'm using, but I'll post the version number when I have a chance. So with KotOR Tool, you can edit and/or extract files (such as arrays, textures, dialog, etc...). Ocassionally, KotOR Tool has problems and reports .Net errors. *shrug* I usually just ignore them and Click "Continue." Usually it's fine. So here's what I've done successfully: I was able to extract files from KotOR's internal image format to TGA format. These can then be edited with Photoshop (or any image editor that supports TGA) and dropped into your Mac Install's "Override" folder. Luckily, you don't need to convert them back to KotOR's format - TGA's work fine. This is how I was able to do the head texture mod I showed in my earlier post. I also made my own custom Jedi Robes this way. A sweet platinum blue color... Now here's where I'm running into problems: I'm trying a bigger mod, involving new dialog, a newly-recruitable npc, and eventually some sidequests and other goodies. I've created a bunch of files using KotOR Tool and a few other utilities. It *should* be working. All the character info, scripts, and triggers should be in place for the recruiting part to work. But I'm running into a problem with Dialog files (.dlg). I need the custom dialog files for doing the story and for triggering the appropriate scripts. But when I play the game with my files in place, the dialog seems to be getting aborted if I use KotOR Tool to edit it. There's another tool for DLG work - "DLG Editor" - but it won't run at all on my setup (I think it's looking for the PC installation of KotOR, and failing when it can't find the master dialog file). So at the moment, I'm stumped - without these dialog files working, my mod is dead in the water. I'm going to do some research on the topic and see what I can do, but in the end, it may wind up being an issue with using VPC... which would obviously ruin my chances of making a more advanced mod. That would spell doom... More to come,

Hey there, I just wanted to check in and say that I didn't forget about my promise to post more info. I've just been pretty busy and I'd like to experiment with a few more things first so I can make my information more comprehensive. More to come!

Hi there... I just wanted to mention that I've actually been successful at doing a (minor) mod for KotOR on my Mac. I did a texture mod, where I altered the head texture for my character. I got tired of looking at his ugly mug in the cut scenes, so I removed his nasty scar (healed with bacta, perhaps? ) as well as his unfortunate soul patch beard. While I was at it, I also made his eyes green for good measure. Here's the result: Sorry about the poor image quality - for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to take an in-game screenshot, so I resorted to using my digital camera. I'll post more details about how I did it when I get a chance, but I will say that unfortunately, it did involve some work in Virtual PC. If we only had an ERF extractor for the Mac, I would have been able to do the whole thing in OS X. There may be some hope though.... like I said, I'll post back when I have more time. In the meantime, I'm glad to see there are other Mac users interested in game modding. More to come.