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Creating a new item from an existing mod item


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OK, I managed to do this once, and wrote down the steps I followed on a piece of paper that I have subsequently lost, so I know that it's possible and that I figured it out at one point. Now that I'm trying it again I can't seem to get it to work. I know that there are various tutorials around the internet but I'll be damned if I can find one that covers this topic from start to finish that doesn't have nineteen broken links in it thanks to Bioware and various other sites going down or changing their naming conventions sometime in the past eight years.

 

In the first case, I created a Cousland version of the DAI Fereldan noble gown from Ladyofpayne's Ferelden Pack and it worked perfectly. Stuff I'm pretty sure I did:

  • Copied and renamed the PHY, MMH, and MSH files for the original gown
  • Created a new GDA file that references the new variation number and renamed MMH/MSH files
  • Created a new UTI file that references the new variation number
  • Created new DDS files
  • Created new MAO file that references the new DDS files
  • Created new MET file that references the renamed PHY, MSH, and MMH files and the new MAO file

So now I'm trying to create a copy of the Carver outfit from Back to Ferelden so that I can have more than one color from tsm's gorgeous Natural Dye Carver mod available in the game at the same time. (This is for personal use, not distribution.) I've done all of the stuff I listed above, and it appears in the toolset with the correct model, item name, etc but is still calling the DDS file from the original Carver instead of the renamed redyed DDS from the set of renamed files. I've quadruple-checked that I've got the right DDS file names in the MAO file, and other than that I don't know quite what to check.

 

Does anyone know wtf might be causing this? Did I miss a step somewhere that I obviously managed in the first attempt but missed in the second? Once I've got this figured out I plan to create a tutorial for doing this so that nobody else has to run into the same dead ends I did, but if I can't figure out what I screwed up it won't be very helpful.

 

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I'm sure you did, and just didn't mention it, but did you also edit the references and cross-references inside the PHY/MSH/MMH files?

 

It's been a good long while since I messed with anything DAO, but as IIRC, for the first two (PHY/MSH) it's usually just edits to the first couple of indexes, to reference your new files. The MMH edit is that + a similar edit under the 'MMH CHILDREN' tree, again to call your new file.

 

Other than that omission, nothing in your checklist (or not in it!) jumps out at me. :-/

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  • 11 months later...

These are the things I want to do I just don't understand any of it really> Unfortunately I'm A hardware guy where Computers are concerned and just trying to learn all this.

SO i hat to be a bother but is there a way I can convince either of you to maybe link me to some tutorials for these steps I would really be grateful .......

BD

On A side note theskymoves must really be good at this because it seems like all of the posts I'm trying to get info from or almost anyway there she is...

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These are the things I want to do I just don't understand any of it really> Unfortunately I'm A hardware guy where Computers are concerned and just trying to learn all this.

 

SO i hat to be a bother but is there a way I can convince either of you to maybe link me to some tutorials for these steps I would really be grateful .......

 

BD

 

On A side note theskymoves must really be good at this because it seems like all of the posts I'm trying to get info from or almost anyway there she is...

 

Heh! I don't know that I'm actually good at any of it, but since I don't mind answering questions and helping when people have problems modding, I pitch in when I can.

 

I don't think I've ever seen a proper tutorial on creating reskinned standalone versions of items, and it's something I mostly puzzled out for myself, by just opening up lots and lots of files and comparing them until I understood how the pieces fit together. :confused: For other tutorials, though, a good place to start is the DA Toolset wiki, though I suspect that most of the offsite links are dead, as many of the best tutorials/explanations for modding DAO were on the now-defunct Bioware Social Network.

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I hear that I don't mind answering questions myself just right now I don't seem to have the answers for the questions. Right now I am waiting on my Draw Pad to arrive to allow more precise editing. Even then I will need to learn the best way to create the MMH MSH Phy and MET files as well as the 0n 0s 0t but it looks like those are mainly setting to alpha though I can't remember which one right now and then resizing to scale basically and setting transparency. and I have learned that from yours and Lady Honor's discussion so you know way more than me.

BTW Thank you for all your help I've been reading the forums for a few days and your input has been a great deal of help.


BD

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