2da File Problems

[Bobo]

ok i tried reading to see how i can get like 10 appearance.2da files into the game without one of them overriding the other. heh impossible! it was like a 1 year old baby trying to read cursive writing. if someone can help me understand this better id appriciate it. thanks for your help.

 

im not really good at these files and stuff, more of a player not a modder

[Achilles]

Originally posted by Master Bobo

ok i tried reading to see how i can get like 10 appearance.2da files into the game without one of them overriding the other. heh impossible! it was like a 1 year old baby trying to read cursive writing. if someone can help me understand this better id appriciate it. thanks for your help.

 

im not really good at these files and stuff, more of a player not a modder

 

Each character in the game has an appearance associated with it. The attrributes of each appearance is stored in a 2-dimensional array (2da). The line that contains information for a specific character is then stored in that character's utc file (example: Bastila is line 4).

 

If you have 10 mods with 10 different appearance files, you can merge them by opening one, the copying each of the unique lines in the others into the primary table. You will then have to go in to each of the mods and change the Appearance entry to reflect the changes made in the Appearance.2da file.

 

I hope this helps.

[Bobo]

ok i am very stupid when it comes to this, i have 4 appearance files i need to edit (thought 10, but naw lol) i am very confused on merging them

 

 

the mods that these appearance files belong to are

 

Anakin.zip

Bandon_man.zip

Jedi Canderous.zip

Yuthura.zip

 

if there is a preset Appearance file for this, id love to know if there is one. if anyone knows how to merge them, it would be great. thx

[SConrad]

Eventually, these mods could be installed using KISS, and the problem is solved.

[tk102]

Originally posted by Master Bobo:

if there is a preset Appearance file for this, id love to know if there is one. if anyone knows how to merge them, it would be great. thx

So this is more of a request for others to merge the .2da files... and therefore belongs in the request thread.

[Achilles]

Originally posted by Master Bobo

ok i am very stupid when it comes to this, i have 4 appearance files i need to edit (thought 10, but naw lol) i am very confused on merging them

 

 

the mods that these appearance files belong to are

 

Anakin.zip

Bandon_man.zip

Jedi Canderous.zip

Yuthura.zip

 

if there is a preset Appearance file for this, id love to know if there is one. if anyone knows how to merge them, it would be great. thx

 

I just gave you instructions on how to merge them

 

Not sure what is confusing: You take a line from one and you copy it into the other. Please let me know where I am losing you so that I can be more specific

[Bobo]

Originally posted by Achilles

If you have 10 mods with 10 different appearance files, you can merge them by opening one, the copying each of the unique lines in the others into the primary table(<--- And im lost lol) You will then have to go in to each of the mods and change the Appearance entry to reflect the changes made in the Appearance.2da file.

 

I hope this helps. [/b]

 

ok what i am lost about is copying the files then changing every single mod. ok what? lol i dont understand going into each of the mods and chaing the appearance entry to reflect the changes made in the Appearance.2da file

 

i hope this is enuf info

 

--Bobo

[Achilles]

Ok, I'll use the example from my previous message.

 

If you look in Appearance.2da, you'll see that Bastila is line 4. If you open Bastila's utc file, you'll see that her Appearance is set to 4. If we were to change it to 5, 50, or 5,000 in Appearance.2da, we would have to go into to utc file and a mirror the change there as well.

 

So, again, if you have 10 mods with their own Appearance.2da file, the odds are that they've all used line 509 (the default file goes to 508, so they used the next available number).

 

You would then choose one of the files and then add lines 510-519 (for your other 9 mods). You go to one mod and copy all the info from line 509 into 510 on your "new" Appearance.2da file. Now, you open the utc file for that mod and change 509 to 510, save and close.

 

Now you go to the next mod. You copy line 509 into line 511 of your "new" Appearance.2da file, then open the utc, change the appearance to 511, and so on.

 

Is this more clear? Please let me know.

 

Thanks!

 

EDIT: If you don't make the changes in the utc file, all of your mods will look like whatever character you have listed in line 509. So if 509 is a Jawa, all your mod characters will look like Jawas.

[Caerid11]

I'm having the same problem...I installed the Holowan Plug-In, got through half of Taris and waited for your LS Jedi mod to come out Achilles. I installed just the Mendah files (overwriting the original appearance.2da), loaded up my game, and the screen was completely screwed up. I switched my character to Carth and could see everything fine...except my main character...who was invisible.

 

I know what the problem is, I understand your point on how to fix it...but could you please tell me what program you would use to accomplish this? I've seen all sorts of .2da extractors etc., I figure you'd know what's easiest to use for the modding-impaired.

 

Thanks, I'm looking forward to using the new Jedi.

[Darth333]

I've pointed you at some links in the "Guide for the Newbie" sticky under the "conflicts" and "getting started" sections. PLease read the stickies before and if there is anything you don't understand, then post your questions, we will be glad to answer them.

[Achilles]

Originally posted by Caerid11

I know what the problem is, I understand your point on how to fix it...but could you please tell me what program you would use to accomplish this? I've seen all sorts of .2da extractors etc., I figure you'd know what's easiest to use for the modding-impaired.

 

Open KT

Click on File

Select Open 2da file editor

In 2da file editor, click on File

Select Load 2da v2.b File

Select the files you're looking for and go to work

 

EDIT: Oops! Or just do what Darth333 said

[Bobo]

ok i did what u said, but i messed something up

 

oh no, lol all the appearances Flipped! i got Hutt Jedi now! i mean, this is, a disaster! rancors appear as naked women and i look like a Czerka Officer, and all my party members look like Pigs1 (cept for BAstila and Carth who are now Duros)

 

yea its funny to listen to naked women talk in beeps and a pig speaking like mission but i did something wrong! eep! (btw malak is a gizka, kind of like that but all the gizka in my ship look like Shasa, that stoaway)

 

eep!

[Achilles]

Originally posted by Master Bobo

ok i did what u said, but i messed something up

 

oh no, lol all the appearances Flipped! i got Hutt Jedi now! i mean, this is, a disaster! rancors appear as naked women and i look like a Czerka Officer, and all my party members look like Pigs1 (cept for BAstila and Carth who are now Duros)

 

yea its funny to listen to naked women talk in beeps and a pig speaking like mission but i did something wrong! eep! (btw malak is a gizka, kind of like that but all the gizka in my ship look like Shasa, that stoaway)

 

eep!

Sounds like quite a mess

 

Two things that I forgot to mention before:

 

1) It generally a good idea to make a back up of a 2da file before editting it and

2) the options under Tools are your friend

[Darth333]

Originally posted by Achilles

Sounds like quite a mess

Yeah but such a mess is impossible to do...and you cannot edit sounds with appearance.2da...

 

Master Bobo, if you are having problems editing .2da files and if you want us to be able to help you, why don't you explain what is happening exactly.

 

You should start by comparing the original.2da with the modified .2da for each mod to see what was change before editing anything. Begin by verifying if lines have been added to the .2da file. If yes, simply add a line to the other .2da files.

[StoneDragon]

Yep, I revive this thing cause I dont want to make another one considering there is one here.

 

 

I'm having problem too.

 

I have mod.s that have 2da's on them.

 

The list:

Redhawkeitempack1b (Appearance and upcrystal problem)

Redhawkeboostrpack1 (Upcrystal prolem)

Enhancedsithlightsaber

(Upcrystal problem also)

Lightsaber 6 pack 1.2 by T7

(Upcrystal problem)

and Mask plus by T7

(Appearance.2da problem)

 

(I don't know what to to put in the KT tool like this label race modela texa envmap

"509 n_revan n_revan n_revan N_DarthRevan05 CM_MANUN" That is actually from svosh mod Revans robe. And what will I put in the upcrstal.2da?)

 

Sorry if I act a little ignorant but Im confused.

 

And help will be appreciated.

 

Come on, people. I really need help.

[Darkkender]

Originally posted by StoneDragon

I have mod.s that have 2da's on them.

 

The list:

Redhawkeitempack1b (Appearance and upcrystal problem)

Redhawkeboostrpack1 (Upcrystal prolem)

Enhancedsithlightsaber

(Upcrystal problem also)

Lightsaber 6 pack 1.2 by T7

(Upcrystal problem)

and Mask plus by T7

(Appearance.2da problem)

 

Ok as down and dirty as I can get it without being too technical.

 

1st: open KOTOR Tool;

 

2nd: open the 2da editor;

 

2a: load your 1st 2da file from one of the mods into this editor;

(we are going to make this one our base to merge all of

them into.)

 

3rd: open a 2nd 2da editor w/ KOTOR Tool;

 

3a: load your 2nd 2da file of the same type as the 1st (eg. if the

1st is upcrystals then your 2nd needs to be upcrystals)

 

4th: compare the information in the 2 2da files and find the lines

that don't match as this will be where you start at.

(eg. if you look through upcrystals.2da and you get down to

row 10 and the info is not the same you will start with this

data.)

 

5th: switch to your 2nd 2da file and cell by cell copy each cell

using copy/paste to the next row that is empty in your 1st

2da file. (eg. 2nd 2da has 13 rows and 1st 2da has 16 rows.

The last 4 rows in the 2nd 2da do not match the same

rows in the 1st 2da. Copy the first of these last 4 row 10

to row 17 in your 1st 2da file. Continue this process for

each row.)

 

6th: make side notes like on a notepad of which 2da file you

changed and which mod it was from this is important. also

make a note of which mods 2da file you added into this one.

(eg. Redhawkeboostrpack1 is your 1st base changed 2da &

Lightsaber 6 pack 1.2 by T7 is the one you copied into here.)

 

7th: You will now NEED to open a gff editor outside of KOTOR Tool.

each gff file for your changed mod will need to be checked

and probably changed. (A gff file would be a utc, uti, utm &

pretty much any other file thats 3 digit ext start with u for

KOTOR.)

 

8th: At this point I would use KOTOR tool to extract a gff file of

the same type as the ones I will be editing. The reason for

this is to help you figure out which cell in the gff file needs to

be changed. (eg. if I changed upcrystals.2da I will need to

make changes to a uti file this would be an item file. so in

KOTOR tool I would go into the item templates bif and

extract an item for best results if you are changing a

lightsaber gff file you may want to extract another baseline

lightsaber gff file for a good comparison.)

 

9th: compare your gff files you will probably at this point have too

have 2 gff editors open seperatley one is your baseline gff

file the other will be the one you intend to change. it may

be best to open 3 gff editors one is the baseline, one is a gff

file from your 1st mods folder and one from your 2nd mods

folder this way you will likely find fields of data that will start

to corresponde with the original 2da files. (eg. open your

baseline lightsaber uti file, then open a lightsaber uti file

from Redhawkeboostrpack1, then open a lightsaber uti file

from Lightsaber 6 pack 1.2 by T7. Now here is where

having notes on paper is handy because then you should

know which rows you changed in your upcrystals.2da if you

had copied rows 10-13 in our above example too the new

file becoming rows 17-20 then there should be a field that

will correspond to either 10, 11, 12, or 13 in the uti file for

Lightsaber 6 pack 1.2 by T7. you then change that field in

the gff file from the old number to the new number in the

merged 2da file. if the old line was 10 change it to 17, if it

was 11 change to 18, etc.)

 

10th: repeat above 2 steps for all gff files of your 2 mods.

 

11th: repeat any of the 2da editing steps as necessary for each

of the mods you intend to merge.

 

 

Untill you get the hang of 2da editing I would continue to do each one at a time. This method yields best result because then you have less things to try to fix later.

 

Some Of You May Ask; "WHY CAN'T I USE KOTOR TOOL TO CHANGE THE GFF FILES!"

 

Because my young apprentices the method in which Fred Tetra wrote KOTOR tool it makes direct calls to the original 2da files of the game and the data contained within each of the original fields and due to this structure cannot go outside of the original fields defined within the game. Any time you attempt to open a gff file that makes a call out side of the original fields defined in a coresponding 2da file it will pop up a error that you need to choose continue in order to keep running KOTOR tool. A good example would be if you change an upcrystals.2da file from using 9 fields to using 12 fields and your gff file calls lines 10, 11, or 12 it will produce the error. THIS is why we must make changes with an outside gff editor that is not a part of KOTOR tool.

[StoneDragon]

Thanks for the help!

Wait. How do I copy/paste the row to another?