Changing the color of Malak's saber

[RedHawke]

Originally posted by ChAiNz

I read that thread tk102, did a way of changing the color of Malak's model saber the same as normal sabers ever discovered?

 

It's easily done hex editing the Malak's saber model to use the standard color textures. Achilles has a lightsabre creation tutorial here that can point you in the right direction.

 

I did it in my Revan/Sith/Bastila's Item Pack with the Jedi Revan Sabers. I have the Darth Revan Saber standard Red, and the Jedi Revan Sabers Blue, Green, Yellow, and Violet. And I added a White one in the revan The White/Star Forge Booster Pack. If you get stuck, you can take a peek at those, and see what I did.

 

I hope this helps!

[Achilles]

Kudos to you ChAiNz. Most people come in here, rattle off their 5 or 6 obligiatory New Republic mod request and then disappear after the forum veterans explain that they're all either impossibe or already finished.

 

You on the other hand appear to have some interest in figuring things out for yourself and tinkering until you get a project right.

 

I hope that you decide to stick with it.

[ChAiNz.2da]

Originally posted by RedHawke

It's easily done hex editing the Malak's saber model to use the standard color textures. Achilles has a lightsabre creation tutorial here that can point you in the right direction.

 

I did it in my Revan/Sith/Bastila's Item Pack with the Jedi Revan Sabers. I have the Darth Revan Saber standard Red, and the Jedi Revan Sabers Blue, Green, Yellow, and Violet. And I added a White one in the revan The White/Star Forge Booster Pack. If you get stuck, you can take a peek at those, and see what I did.

 

I hope this helps!

 

 

I remember that tutorial quite well...I made my first saber (Revan's Items) following that thing word for word hehe (great job Achilles). I also have your RSB Item Pack RedHawke (prime mod there indeed).

 

What I think tk's linked thread was trying to do was making Malak's saber model into a fully upgradeable lightsaber (like standard), but be able to remove the center crystal (to change colors, upgrade etc.) without it reverting to a standard length / stat saber.

 

I had made an upgradeable Malak model saber (Revan Longsaber) but would've loved to have been able to give players the option to change the color just by placing a color crystal in it and not lose the benefits. Of course, that makes for a whole new thread

 

 

Kudos to you ChAiNz. Most people come in here, rattle off their 5 or 6 obligiatory New Republic mod request and then disappear after the forum veterans explain that they're all either impossibe or already finished.

 

Thanks Achilles! I have to admit when I first started, it was a VERY daunting task. I lurked here (Holowan) at first just "lost" in the terminology "uti, utp, ncs, nss, 2da, blah blah." I just thought to myself "what the hey, I'm a media editor, I hack stuff up an re-piece it for a living". Worse came to worse I just kill the override and start over.

What definitely was the turning point for me was seeing how this community really pooled it's resources and jumped in to help a person with their problems. Noobie or not, everyone helped. I've never honestly seen that kind of support in a forum and well I'm glad to say it's my new "home" on the net. I look forward to becoming a more active member and hopefully will be able to return the favor one day

 

To anyone out there wanting to mod but are a little afraid...Don't Be. Take it from me, you can ask for help and actually get it. Oh...and read the tutorials hehehe

[Achilles]

Originally posted by ChAiNz

I remember that tutorial quite well...I made my first saber (Revan's Items) following that thing word for word hehe (great job Achilles). I also have your RSB Item Pack RedHawke (prime mod there indeed).

 

What I think tk's linked thread was trying to do was making Malak's saber model into a fully upgradeable lightsaber (like standard), but be able to remove the center crystal (to change colors, upgrade etc.) without it reverting to a standard length / stat saber.

 

I had made an upgradeable Malak model saber (Revan Longsaber) but would've loved to have been able to give players the option to change the color just by placing a color crystal in it and not lose the benefits. Of course, that makes for a whole new thread

I recently tried to do something like this but on a much larger scale. You've stated that you read my tutorial (I'm assuming the lightsaber tutorial), so I might go a little fast, but feel free to stop me if you need me to.

 

Ok. You have a saber and you have a crystal. You cannot have a saber without a crystal in it and all the hilts are the same.

 

You can take the blue crystal out of "juhani's" lightsaber and replace it with the green crystal from "jolee's" lightsaber, right?

 

Well not really. Think of the crystals as the actual weapon or as a key. Putting a crystal into saber unlocks the properties for that crystal in that saber. With all the hilts the same, it's easy run around without ever taking stock of this.

 

However, now you're talking about being able to change colors for Malak's saber. You have 7 colors that his saber could be, so you're going to need to build 7 models. Each one will have to be hex edited to include a new successive version of w_lsabrered01. Now you will need w_lsabrered02, w_lsabrered03, w_lsabrered04, etc.

 

Now you need to extract each of the colors files and rename them w_lsabrered01(stays the same), w_lsabrered02 (blue), w_lsabrered03 (green), and so on.

 

Not only that but each of the models must be numbered differenetly to differentiate themselves.

 

Now you get to create a lightsaber uti file for each of these sabers. You can even use the saber files for HotG and MotF to ensure that power crystals have super-duper effects in your weapons.

 

Then spend about an hour making sense of all this in Upcrystals.2da so that you can upgrade your sabers (btw, make sure that you didn't forget to create new color crystals for each of these sabers).

 

Once all this is done, then you can start testing to make sure that you didn't miss any steps.

 

As a word from someone who's tinkered with this, you may be able to do with one saber fairly painlessly, but multiple sabers will be too confusing to keep track of in your workbench gui.

 

I hope this has helped.

[ChAiNz.2da]

Originally posted by Achilles

I recently tried to do something like this but on a much larger scale. You've stated that you read my tutorial (I'm assuming the lightsaber tutorial), so I might go a little fast, but feel free to stop me if you need me to.

 

Ok. You have a saber and you have a crystal. You cannot have a saber without a crystal in it and all the hilts are the same.....

... ... ...

I hope this has helped.

 

Stop. Just kidding

 

Actually I understand what you're saying (I have the Little Orphan Annie decoder ring by golly!) I had to consult the Grand Grimoire of CodeFaq for examples, but yeah, I had noticed that the cheat codes gave "lightsaber with green crystal, etc." and it just dawned on me that you can't get a lightsaber without a crystal, so the 'crystal as weapon' reference makes sense.

 

Basically, when you change the "color" of a lightsaber, the game is really just replacing your saber with xx-color lightsaber.

 

I can deal with the 7 models, Hexing stuff, etc. I've learned that's a given if you use that cursed "u" word (upgradeable). So the REAL task is the upcrystals.2da table (hours....greeaat). Making sure that when a player changes a yellow crystal into a blue one, my table sees that yellow crystal version Malak saber needs to be replaced with the blue crystal version Malak saber...

 

I've looked at the upcrystals table, and there's a few minor questions that I'm going to experiment on first before I start Hijacking my own thread but you've definitely set me out in the right direction. I'll play around for awhile and when I get deep into it, THEN I'll refresh the subject with a clean thread.

 

Thanks so much for everyone's help and ideas! I'm off to finish what I 'first' started and then set my goals on this little beast...

 

Hmmm... methinks I have my first "long term" mod in the works. Thanks Achilles...now I'll never sleep (but it will be worth it)

[tk102]

Originally posted by Achilles

Now you need to extract each of the colors files and rename them w_lsabrered01(stays the same), w_lsabrered02 (blue), w_lsabrered03 (green), and so on.

What a horrible naming convention! I certainly hope you use suffixes like grn, blu, vio instead, Chainz.

 

Anyway, this thread has completely changed into a different topic. Maybe a friendly moderator could split this thread and retitle the second half so that others may find it. Or... better yet... needle those admins into turning the Search function back on! <mode=rant>

[Darth333]

Originally posted by tk102

Anyway, this thread has completely changed into a different topic. Maybe a friendly moderator could split this thread and retitle the second half so that others may find it. Or... better yet... needle those admins into turning the Search function back on! <mode=rant>

 

Done Splitting a thread is exceptional but since the search function has been turned-off temporarily I agree with you that it will make users' "lifes" easier . Please try to keep one topic by thread and use descriptive titles to facilitate the finding of relevant info

 

The admins are aware of the problem tk102.

[ChAiNz.2da]

Originally posted by Darth333

Done Splitting a thread is exceptional but since the search function has been turned-off temporarily I agree with you that it will make users' "lifes" easier . Please try to keep one topic by thread and use descriptive titles to facilitate the finding of relevant info

 

The admins are aware of the problem tk102.

 

 

Thanks for doing this Darth333, I left one last message on the other thread, so please feel free to lock it. I believe it served it's purpose

 

So....now that we have a new thread, I guess I'm obligated to see this mod through huh? hehehe I'm always up for a good challenge... especially since this one is personal

 

::: putting on my game face now :::

[RedHawke]

Originally posted by Achilles

However, now you're talking about being able to change colors for Malak's saber. You have 7 colors that his saber could be, so you're going to need to build 7 models. Each one will have to be hex edited to include a new successive version of w_lsabrered01. Now you will need w_lsabrered02, w_lsabrered03, w_lsabrered04, etc.

 

Now you need to extract each of the colors files and rename them w_lsabrered01(stays the same), w_lsabrered02 (blue), w_lsabrered03 (green), and so on.

 

This is one way to do it. But you don't really have to do all that, if you look at my Revan sabers that use Malaks saber model, I hex edited them to use the standard stock game saber textures, I added a character to the 4 texture refrences and they worked just fine. So you can simply hex edit 6 Malak's saber .mdl's to use w_lsabreblue01, w_lsabregren01, w_lsabreyelo01, w_lsabreturq01, w_lsabrepurp01, w_lsabregold01. Create the upcrystals.2da, the color crystal and saber .uti's for them. Drop all of the .mdl files (7, the 6 you edited and one renamed standard red), .mdx files (7 renamed files only), .uti files (7 for crystals, 7 for sabers), and the upcrystals.2da into override and there you go.

 

NOTE: Hex editing and adding a character to a saber model texture only goes for the Malak's saber model, not the standard saber models.

[Achilles]

^^^^

 

Interesting. I always thought that adding characters was a big no-no, but who can argue when you've shown that it works. Thanks for the info, Redhawke.

 

@TK102

What a horrible naming convention! I certainly hope you use suffixes like grn, blu, vio instead, Chainz.

Well that may be, but since I've never given any serious thought to doing something like this myself, I didn't spend a lot of time pondering the best way to name the files before I posted that

[ChAiNz.2da]

Originally posted by RedHawke

This is one way to do it. But you don't really have to do all that, if you look at my Revan sabers that use Malaks saber model, I hex edited them to use the standard stock game saber textures, I added a character to the 4 texture refrences and they worked just fine. So you can simply hex edit 6 Malak's saber .mdl's to use w_lsabreblue01, w_lsabregren01, w_lsabreyelo01, w_lsabreturq01, w_lsabrepurp01, w_lsabregold01. Create the upcrystals.2da, the color crystal and saber .uti's for them. Drop all of the .mdl files (7, the 6 you edited and one renamed standard red), .mdx files (7 renamed files only), .uti files (7 for crystals, 7 for sabers), and the upcrystals.2da into override and there you go.

 

NOTE: Hex editing and adding a character to a saber model texture only goes for the Malak's saber model, not the standard saber models.

 

 

This was the route I was going to try, but can you change the center crystal without it going all batty. And if so, is it the in-game color crystals, or a custom crystal that represents the color? (methinks I'm going to have to dissect your mod RedHawke if that's ok with you)...

 

My goal, which I think you may have already accomplished is to have a Malak model saber that you can use the in-game color crystals to change color...

[RedHawke]

Originally posted by Achilles

Interesting. I always thought that adding characters was a big no-no, but who can argue when you've shown that it works. Thanks for the info, Redhawke.

 

You are welcome Achilles!

 

And good luck on your saber mod ChAiNz.

 

Originally posted by ChAiNz

This was the route I was going to try, but can you change the center crystal without it going all batty. And if so, is it the in-game color crystals, or a custom crystal that represents the color? (methinks I'm going to have to dissect your mod RedHawke if that's ok with you)...

 

My goal, which I think you may have already accomplished is to have a Malak model saber that you can use the in-game color crystals to change color...

If you want to look at what I have done feel free! I made custom color crystals for my mod.

 

Replacing all the standard sabers with Malak's in the game is easily done, you just simply hex edit the 7 Malak's saber models (One for each color, and a renamed stock red one) (mdl and mdx files) and name them the same as the standard lightsaber models in the game, use the following filenames;

 

w_lghtsbr_001.mdl (Blue)

w_lghtsbr_001.mdx

w_lghtsbr_002.mdl (Red)

w_lghtsbr_002.mdx

w_lghtsbr_003.mdl (Green)

w_lghtsbr_003.mdx

w_lghtsbr_004.mdl (Yellow)

w_lghtsbr_004.mdx

w_lghtsbr_005.mdl (Violet)

w_lghtsbr_005.mdx

w_lghtsbr_007.mdl (HOTG, Gold)

w_lghtsbr_007.mdx

w_lghtsbr_008.mdl (MOTF, Turqoise)

w_lghtsbr_008.mdx

 

when you drop them into override then all the standard lightsabres in the game will be overwritten with the Malak's version, you hex edited and renamed, of the same color. And you use the standard color crystals to make them, just what you wanted to do.

 

The following is just a suggestion, if you are going to replace all standard lightsabers with Malak's longer model you might want to extract and rename the standard lightsaber models to replace the shortsaber model, as they look real puny compared to a Malak's saber.

 

Just extract the w_lghtsbr_00x.mdl and .mdx files (all except #6 which is Malak's, and the colors are all identical to the list above) with KT and rename them to the following;

 

w_shortsbr_001.mdl (Blue)

w_shortsbr_001.mdx

w_shortsbr_002.mdl (Red)

w_shortsbr_002.mdx

w_shortsbr_003.mdl (Green)

w_shortsbr_003.mdx

w_shortsbr_004.mdl (Yellow)

w_shortsbr_004.mdx

w_shortsbr_005.mdl (Violet)

w_shortsbr_005.mdx

w_shortsbr_006.mdl (HOTG, Gold)

w_shortsbr_006.mdx

w_shortsbr_007.mdl (MOTF, Turquoise)

w_shortsbr_007.mdx

 

This is just a suggestion. And, once again, you use the standard color crystals to make them.

 

I hope this helps!

[ChAiNz.2da]

Originally posted by RedHawke

when you drop them into override then all the standard lightsabres in the game will be overwritten with the Malak's version, you hex edited and renamed, of the same color. [/b]

 

 

Ahh I see...this was the dilemna I had encountered though. I wanted to keep the standard sabers in game and just have this particular malak lightsaber exist AND able to be upgradeable with standard crystals (color and powers)...

 

I'm beginning to think this isn't going to happen, that or I'm over-thinking things...(too many what if's going on in my mind). Common sense isn't my forte, and I'm beginning to question my inner-geekness. That pretty much leaves me with a half pot of coffee, a few smokes and alot of 4-letter words

 

--------------

Another option would be to make "Malak Color Crystals" to be used exclusively for this saber, trouble is...if you take the center crystal out...things usually go awry... not sure even referencing them in the .2da would overcome this bump...

 

What about in Hex using "color02's" rather than "color01's" for the entire 7 sequence... anyone think this trick would work or have any bearing whatsoever?

 

::: confused but determined :::

[RedHawke]

Originally posted by ChAiNz

Ahh I see...this was the dilemna I had encountered though. I wanted to keep the standard sabers in game and just have this particular malak lightsaber exist AND able to be upgradeable with standard crystals (color and powers)...

 

The only way to do this using the normal color crystals is as I described above. The only other way is like how I did it in my mod, that requires custom color crystals, and a upcrystals.2da entry.

 

Originally posted by ChAiNz

Another option would be to make "Malak Color Crystals" to be used exclusively for this saber, trouble is...if you take the center crystal out...things usually go awry... not sure even referencing them in the .2da would overcome this bump...

 

The only way to make a saber upgradeable is to refrence the upcrystals.2da file, linking your custom color crystal to its custom saber, once you do the saber will be created when ever you place your custom color crystal in a standard lightsaber changing it to your custom saber model, it will change back again when you take your custom crystal out and put a normal one back in.

 

Originally posted by ChAiNz

What about in Hex using "color02's" rather than "color01's" for the entire 7 sequence... anyone think this trick would work or have any bearing whatsoever?

 

You want to use the standard saber colors right? Because there are no 02 blade textures.

 

You should just Hex edit the Malaks .mdl files and use the standard blade texture names. Anything else is when you have made a completely custom blade texture, and wish to add it in the game.

 

I hope this helps !

[T7nowhere]

Originally posted by RedHawke

The following is just a suggestion, if you are going to replace all standard lightsabers with Malak's longer model you might want to extract and rename the standard lightsaber models to replace the shortsaber model, as they look real puny compared to a Malak's saber.

 

Ya the short Sabers probably would look smaller, but the normal sabers are garbage. Who ever made the UVmap for that model was drunk. It's hard to believe Bioware would allow such shotty work On an Item that is so important in the game. Its almost impossible to get a decent detailed texture to show on that thing(hilt that is) without making the textures hilt complete Alpha. Which is what they did All it would have taken would have been an hour if that to redo the UV.

 

The Double saber and short saber are the only ones that have a decent UVmap and thankfully Malaks saber is just a short saber the has been stretched(verts moved) so even though the texture will be streched on the model it's not a big deal if you keep that in mind when making the texture.

 

Anyway ChAiNz what you want to do is fairly easy to do it just takes a bit of time

[Achilles]

Originally posted by RedHawke

You want to use the standard saber colors right? Because there are no 02 blade textures.

It would take less than 30 seconds to make some

[RedHawke]

Originally posted by Achilles

It would take less than 30 seconds to make some

 

Very true, but not really necissary with what he is wanting to do, from what I understand at least. And from his last post we should try and not confuse poor ChAiNz any more than we have to!

 

We don't want him using a bunch of smily's in his posts do we?

[Achilles]

Originally posted by RedHawke

Very true, but not really necissary with what he is wanting to do, from what I understand at least. And from his last post we should try and not confuse poor ChAiNz any more than we have to!

 

We don't want him using a bunch of smily's in his posts do we?

I think he's still trying to figure that part out

 

The only reason I commented at all was that he may end up using 02's to get there. I wanted him to know that they are an option as opposed to saying "they don't exist".

[ChAiNz.2da]

Originally posted by RedHawke

The only way to make a saber upgradeable is to refrence the upcrystals.2da file, linking your custom color crystal to its custom saber, once you do the saber will be created when ever you place your custom color crystal in a standard lightsaber changing it to your custom saber model, it will change back again when you take your custom crystal out and put a normal one back in.

 

You want to use the standard saber colors right? Because there are no 02 blade textures.

 

Then you should just Hex edit the Malaks .mdl files and use the standard blade texture names, nothing more, nothing less. Anything else is when you have made a completely custom blade texture, and wish to add it in the game.

I hope this helps !

 

 

THIS I think answered a MAJOR question that was swimming around in my head... good things will come from this I hope...

So I assume since the hex model is referencing the in-game textures (01's), it doesn't cause the saber to magically transorm into a null grenade or outright disappear exchanging with similiar "01's", because they're already referenced in the un-modified 2da (ie-a freshly extracted upcrystals table has the standard 7-crystals and 3 styles of saber in it already)

 

SO, in theory (or factual as the case may be) I could double reference (add a line) a color and having it point to my "01" modeled Malak saber instead of the 3 other models and it would work...

 

ie in the upcrystals.2da table

 

ROW 0 is the BLUE crystal template, it points to shortxx, lightxx, dblxx (abbreviated for convenience)

 

If I added say ROW xx using the BLUE crystal template, but pointed it to just my malak"01 modeled" saber, it should work?

Will the game recognize my model AS WELL as the others, or does it cause conflicts?

 

Sorry I'm sounding so 'simple' and "why'ing" everyone to death, I just like to understand the mechanics of it. I really do understand all of this and am 'following' what everyone is saying...

 

Plus I'm trying to put this in err..?easy? terms for hopeful-modders that were intimidated by the structure as I was when I first started. Maybe this will be a kickstart for some

 

 

::: EDIT :::

LOL!! I just previewed this response and saw everyone's comments *smirk* just kidding so to make everyone happy

 

:headbump :headbump that should do me for at least 2 more posts hehehe

 

Thanks everyone for your help so far...the project is coming along rather nicely...and yeah Achilles I had already extracted the "01" color tga's/txi's and re-named to 02's (which I may keep for the backup-plan)

 

I still have some coffe left, not completely lost yet

[RedHawke]

Originally posted by ChAiNz

THIS I think answered a MAJOR question that was swimming around in my head... good things will come from this I hope...

 

(Edited To Save Space)

 

If I added say ROW xx using the BLUE crystal template, but pointed it to just my malak"01 modeled" saber, it should work?

Will the game recognize my model AS WELL as the others, or does it cause conflicts?

Think of the color crystal as a key that unlocks your saber in the game, upcrystals.2da points the game to what .uti (And its corrisponding model) that color crystal .uti key unlocks when used.

 

The game will recognize your new saber on your new upcrystals.2da line as well as the other game sabers, as long as the color crystal is not the same as the other ones already in the game, you have to make a new specific color crystal for your new saber (One for each color/line you add in upcrystals.2da), this is a simple .uti edit, as a color crystal has no properties at all, you can even copy the standard ones, just be sure to change the color crystals .uti tag, templateresref, and filename to match what you have in the corrisponding line in upcrystals.2da, and give it a distinctive name so you can pick it out of your invantory.

 

Also on your new line in upcrystals.2da since you have no Short or Double saber models (Yet!) you can just put "****", without quotes on those cells on your new lines, this will prevent you from potential problems, and it will also allow you to go back later on and add a short and double variant that use your new custom color crystals as well.

 

When you are all said and done, for an upgradeable Malaks' model saber using the standard blade colors you will need the following in override;

 

- upcrystals.2da

- color crystal.uti (one for each color)

- saber.uti (The modelvariant in the uti is the same as the XX in the mdl and mdx files, one for each model/color)

- w_lghtsbr_0XX.mdl (hex edited to new blade texture, one for each color)

- w_lghtsbr_0XX.mdx (simply renamed, one for each color)

 

I hope this helps and is not confusing!

[ChAiNz.2da]

Originally posted by RedHawke

The game will recognize your new saber on your new upcrystals.2da line as well as the other game sabers, as long as the color crystal is not the same as the other ones already in the game

 

Yeah...just finished testing that theory...ouch... I think I almost lost an eye with all the null grenades (word of advice to other potential modders...DON'T try the double-referencing trick and take the crystal out...)

 

you have to make a new specific color crystal for your new saber (One for each color/line you add in upcrystals.2da), this is a simple .uti edit, as a color crystal has no properties at all, you can even copy the standard ones, just be sure to change the color crystals .uti tag, templateresref, and filename to match what you have in the corrisponding line in upcrystals.2da, and give it a distinctive name so you can pick it out of your invantory.

 

yeah, I figured as much, I was just hoping there was an alternate way. That was my back-up plan if this first theory didn't work... So...cue up Plan B, which now that I think about it...I just thought of something "different" to spice this "mod to be" up a notch...oohh the cogs are cranking now...

 

Also on your new line in upcrystals.2da since you have no Short or Double saber models (Yet!) you can just put "****", without quotes on those cells on your new lines, this will prevent you from potential problems, and it will also allow you to go back later on and add a short and double variant that use your new custom color crystals as well.

 

I hope this helps and is not confusing!

 

The "****" trick I've used before for my Revan's Items/Longsaber mods so I at least knew that one (yay)

 

And you're not by any means confusing, informative is more appropriate. I'm really grateful for all the help! I'm feeling guilty hogging most of the 'support' here lately, but I do appreciate it

[Raveth]

well this is interesting