miro42 Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 Hey all here's my first tutorial. I used Trex's tutorial and streamlined it for people who think like me. You can find his tutorial here http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=193025 I do have permission from Trex to release this, by the way. So I just copied and pasted from notepad. Here it is! HOW TO MAKE NEW HEADS FOR KOTOR (and presumably TSL) When I first played KOTOR I fell in love. However the very first thing that popped out at me and said that something needed to be changed was the fact that Juhani the Cathar did not look like a Cathar. She looked like a human with pointed ears. She had really no cat-like qualities about her. Sylvar (from the old Tales of the Jedi comics published by Dark Horse) was one of my favorite characters and to see her race destroyed by lazy modelers pissed me off. So I took it upon myself to make Juhani look the way a Cathar really should and taught myself to mod (well, sort of). I still don't know how to get her to have hair without it completely screwing up the model, but I'm just a beginner so hopefully it'll come with time and the next release will be Cathar Juhani with hair!. LET'S BEGIN! create folder \newHead inside \newHead create folder \output //START HERE if you don't know which filenames to look fo //SKIP DOWN to next "//START HERE" if you know the names open kotor tool bifs\templates\blueprint, character find head "p_juhani.utc" //to replace for specific moduels go to rims\modules\'mod_name'\blueprint, character click on "p_juhani.utc" click extract and save to \newHead open kgff editor open "p_juhani.utc" look at # (8) next to appearance in kotor tool bifs\2da.bif\2d array double click appearance.2da in row # (8) find column \normalhead look at # (5) double click heads.2da in row # (5) find column \head look at name "P_JuhaniH" //START HERE if you already know which files you are looking for \bifs\models(party/player).bif\aurora model extract *.mdl "p.juhanih.mdl" \bifs\models(party/player).bif\aurora model extension extract *.mdx "p_juhani.mdx" \erfs\texturepacks\swpc_tex_tpa.erf\ extract *.tpc as *.tga "P_JuhaniH01.tpc" open mdlops select either KOTOR1 or KOTOR2 click \select file *.mdl file "p_juhanih.mdl" check \extract animations if not done so already uncheck \convert skin to trimesh if not done so already click \read and write model make sure it says \finished processing model this creates an ascii file open gmax/3dsmax with NWmax installed in toolbar click mdl loading browse *ascii.mdl "p_juhanih-ascii.mdl" check import geom+anims if not done so already //AFTER DONE MODELING or COMPILING click select and move tool click green box on line click browse in \mdl base parameters\export\dir make a new folder in head folder click export geom only in head folder add -ascii_new to the .mdl file you just exported copy original *.mdl and *.mdx and original ascii files into new folder with the -ascii_new file open Taina's replacer tool click \open ascii models open old ascii open new ascii //do it twice in a row to get it to work check anything that needs to be replaced (for me I only changed "headnew") click Start Replacing make sure the \save as type is on *.mdl go to the old *.mdl file and click open on the next dialog box type in p_*h_new.mdl "p_juhanih_new.mdl" click Start Replacing make sure the \save as type is on *.mdx this time go to the old *.mdx file and click open on the next dialog box type in p_*h_new.mdx "p_juhanih_new.mdx" //VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!!! you HAVE to type the ".mdx" extension or it will try to //save it overas a ".mdl"!!!!!! in explorer you should now have one new *h_new.mdl and one *h_new.mdx the fun part //alright! now that we're done with that, let's hope it all works! copy your new *.mdl and *.mdx files into your override (x:Program Files\LucasArts\SWKOTOR rename them both by taking off the "_new" ending (remember to leave the "*.mdl" extenstion on) load KOTOR and see magic before your very eyes! a word about texturing Texturing is a fun and easy way to add just a little bit more to your model. I'm not that well adept in 3ds so I export my 3ds model into *.fbx format (the autodesk universal) and check my work. I know how to use the texture editor in maya so that's what I use. If there was a nwmax plugin for maya I would never touch 3ds. *Sigh* Anyhoo, I use photoshop to paint my textures and then save the *.tga file into the override folder and BAM! finished. Finished at least until you realize you did something wrong and you have to restart all the way from the beginning because you didn't save multiple copies of what you were working on. Tools Used //kotor tool "http://www.starwarsknights.com/tools.php" //mdlops "http://www.starwarsknights.com/tools.php" //kgff editor "http://www.starwarsknights.com/tools.php" //3dsmax w/ nwmax plugin 3ds - "http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=5659302" nwmax - "http://nwmax.dladventures.com/" //photoshop CS4 "http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop/" //maya 2009 "http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=7635018" //Taina's Replacer "http://knightsoftheoldrepublic.filefront.com/file/ Tainas_Replacer_for_KotOR_and_TSL;95792" //BORING STUFF I would also like to take the time to thank everyone at "http://knightsofhteoldrepublic.filefront.com" for giving me inspiration to actually do a mod as well as "http://www.lucasforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=324" for giving me the know how. I borrowed Trex's tutorial here "http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=193025" and basically just put it in list form. I hate all that reading. Also writing as I'm working through it helps me to understand and remember faster so I don't have to read tutorials every single time I try and do something. I actually wrote this little tutorial as I was learning it. I'm pretty sure there are no mistakes but please let me know if there are by emailing me at ashortfilminc@hotmail.com. Please put in the header KOTOR_TUT so I don't throw it out! Getting this to work has basically consumed the time I usually reserve for sleep. And while I didn't get Juhani to look exactly like I want (no hair) I think it's a pretty good first try. Ben Floyd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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