[wip] Modified Longsword

[NightHammer]

Hello everyone, as you can see I'm new to Lucasforums. I have decided making mods for KOTOR would be a great and fun expirience, so here I am. Seeing what you guys can do these last few days I've been here has inspired me, so here's what I've decided I'll try first.

 

This new longsword I'm trying to create will replace the short sword you get in the beginning of the Endar Spire in the footlocker by your bed. I have reskinned it already (I have yet to see how it looks though) and am planning to bump up its stats slightly. The stats I will most likely add are the ability to poison an enemy, +2 strength, and +2 dexterity.

 

I looked around the tutorials areas and picked up the word docs for Achilles tutorials which have to do with placements, editing the item, and creating custom items. No doubt I'll have to use these. I'll post screenshots once I figure out what I'm doing lol.

 

Any and all support/help/suggestions you can give would be great and if I get totally lost I'll ask you guys. You all are my more advanced peers and I hope to join you soon in the modding of the KOTOR series.

[Marius Fett]

Hello everyone, as you can see I'm new to Lucasforums. I have decided making mods for KOTOR would be a great and fun expirience, so here I am. Seeing what you guys can do these last few days I've been here has inspired me, so here's what I've decided I'll try first.

 

This new longsword I'm trying to create will replace the short sword you get in the beginning of the Endar Spire in the footlocker by your bed. I have reskinned it already (I have yet to see how it looks though) and am planning to bump up its stats slightly. The stats I will most likely add are the ability to poison an enemy, +2 strength, and +2 dexterity.

 

I looked around the tutorials areas and picked up the word docs for Achilles tutorials which have to do with placements, editing the item, and creating custom items. No doubt I'll have to use these. I'll post screenshots once I figure out what I'm doing lol.

 

Any and all support/help/suggestions you can give would be great and if I get totally lost I'll ask you guys. You all are my more advanced peers and I hope to join you soon in the modding of the KOTOR series.

 

Always nice to see a new modder on the block.

 

Good luck in your mod.

[NightHammer]

Thanks for the welcome Marius Fett

 

Ok I got the .uti working correctly with the correct stats and I edited the skin in GIMP. Now how do I make the new skin my sword's skin? If there is a tutorial for it please tell me or just explain it here.

[Marius Fett]

Extract a longsword model using KotOR Tool, then either using a Hex Editor or MDLOps Renamer, you need to open that model (make sure it's an ASCII) and rename the texture names in the model to make the mdl point towards your new skins.

[NightHammer]

By longsword model do you mean the .uti file?

 

EDIT: nevermind I found the .mdl files I just have to find the right one.

[NightHammer]

I've got the mdl & mdx for the longsword, my new skin which is called w_modswrd_001.tga, w_lngswrd_001-acii.mdl, and w_lngswrd_001-textures.txt

 

Using the MDLops Renamer got me the acii.mdl file and the txt file. How do I make it the new skin now?

[Marius Fett]

Here's a sort of walkthrough.

 

(Use a Hex Editor)

 

1) Extract a sword MDL and MDX.

 

2) Open the MDL in your Hex Editor.

 

3) Search for the texture names.

 

4) Replace the old texture names with your new ones. (KEEP TO THE SAME NUMBER OF CHARACTERS).

 

5) Save your file.

 

6) Get a sword uti file, set the model variation to a two digit number.

 

7) Rename your MDL and MDX files to w_lngswrd_0XX. (Replace the XX with the two digit number you used in the Model Variation field of the UTI file.)

 

8) Chuck em in override and test it out!

 

~M

[NightHammer]

I put the longsword model in the Hex Editor and I got this.

 

Where do I find the textures?

[Sithspecter]

Here's some easy steps that I've used before to explain how to retexture your item.

 

It uses MDLOps renamer function.

 

1. Extract the .mdl and .mdx of the model you want to use ( don't double click the model file in KT)

2. Read and write the model file you just extracted.

3. Open up the modelname-ascii with MDLOps.

4. Click 'renamer.'

5. Change the name on all of the parts to your texture name.

6. Click 'write model.'

7. In your model folder, find the file, modelname-k1-r-bin.mdl and modelname-k1-r-bin.mdx.

8. Delte modelname.mdl and modelname.mdx.

9. Rename modelname-k1-r-bin.mdl and modelname-k1-r-bin.mdx to modelname.mdl and modelname.mdx.

10. Drop the new files in your override folder.

[Quanon]

I put the longsword model in the Hex Editor and I got this.

 

Where do I find the textures?

 

You have to use the Search function now, its in the top menu bar.

 

If you open that up you should be able to type in a word to search for in this file.

 

Use the old texture name of the longsword you're working on.

Then to easly go throw the file in big jumps, hit F3 to look for the same name further down.

 

Keep doing this untill windows makes that "toink" sound, indicating there's nothing more to change or it can't do this "look further down function".

 

 

Just make sure, like MF said, to keep the same amount of characters.

Else you'll get freaky results and you'll have to start over again

 

It looks quite daunting the first time, but don't give up, modding often requires to test things out multiple times before it really looks and works well.

 

Or ofcourse follow SS advice and use MDLops.

 

Goodluck !

[NightHammer]

Thanks Quanon, I'll save yours and MF's advice on the Hex editor for later. For now though MDLops seems simpler to me, so I'll learn more about the Hex Editor some other time.

 

I ran into a problem while reskinning though. Once I had gotten the new models into the Override folder, I started my game, but the sword was blank white. Is there a certain place I have to put my new texture for it to be read properly? Or does it need to be back in TPC format? (currently it's a TGA)

[Sithspecter]

You have to put it in the override folder as well.

[NightHammer]

........ wow I feel smart now. Thanks SS.

[Sithspecter]

Oh, you might want to check in-game the original model and see if it has the same texture just to be sure.

[NightHammer]

The normal Longsword DOES have the same texture. How do I get rid of that? Do I change the .mdl & .mdx to the name of my new sword?

[ForeverNight]

Yes, to the best of my knowledge. Just remember to keep the same amount of characters.

 

since you're using a longsword, just keep it simple and call it: w_lngswrd048 or something using the same naming convention. (Changing the 48 to your model variation (Or is it texture variation?) on the Longsword)

 

Hope this helps, I'm just trying to figure out modelling also... (Check my location)

[Sithspecter]

Alright, you need a modeling program to fix this (to the best of my knowledge), or you might can hex edit it. Anyway, you can get GMax and it'll work just fine. You don't need any modeling knowledge to fix it. Also, you'll need the GMax NWMax plugin. Once you get these (they're both free) I'll walk you through it.

[NightHammer]

Alright, I have both programs.

[Sithspecter]

OK, this shouldn't be too hard. What you have to do is re-name the aurora base. Open up the .mdl that you put in your override with MDLOps and read and write it. Next, open up NWMax (the green icon on the desktop) to bring up Gmax with NWMax plugin. Now, go to MDL loading in NWMax. Hit browse, goto your override folder and select 'modelname-ascii.' Hit import. Your sword will pop up. Find the aurora base: the large helper that's at the bottom. Should bear the name of the original sword model that you changed the name of. Then, change the number to your number. While you've got it selected, on the modifiers tab, set the export to whatever folder you want, and hit 'export geom only.' Pull MDLOps up again. Find the file that you just extracted, should be 'aurorabasename.mdl.' Read and write it, rename to your new .mdl and .mdx (that are in your override currenty) and drag and drop into override to replace the old ones. You have to do this because apparently KotOR looks for the aurora base name before checking the filename when it's in override. Not sure why you have to do this, but I discovered it when I made a new mask.

[Thankteamgizka]

is this gonna ve kinda like naga sadows poison blade?

[NightHammer]

is this gonna ve kinda like naga sadows poison blade?

 

Only in the fact that it will cause enemies to be poisoned. This blade also gives a +2 strength bonus and bonus damage against droids via ionic effect or w/e you want to call it. Also, the skin will be different. Funny thing is the current skin has a transparent blade. It actualy looks kinda cool. Dunno if I'll try to keep it that way though

[Sithspecter]

Oh, you'll need a .txi for that. Find the original texture and there's a text box at the bottom of the box that says something to the effect of "envmaptexture CM_Baremetal." Put that in a text file and save as the modelname.txi (or would it be texturename.txi?) not sure there. Just try both and see what works.