amycus

Well it definitely gives you more appreciation for the work modders put in and I've wanted to learn how to do this for a long time so Im extremely happy i've even gotten this far but I wouldnt have gotten past "cut skins,unwrap UVW and edit normals" without you ahh wheres the hug emoticon when ya need it?? EDIT: This is really strange no matter where I run the processor or where them xls is im not getting a gda??Imk getting the success message but no gda?? Keep your pants on :P And you obviosly want to finish what you have started before considering anything else, but just in case you ever want to - This tutorial pretty much covers everything else you need to know to make your own custom armor: http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/joanofarc/joanmenu.php Just remember that you can save a lot of time on the skinning process by just copy paste the "skin" modifier from an existing vanilla mesh. Just shamelessly throwing it out there to you and any other who might be reading this thread. This game seriously deserves more custom armor in my opinion.

Success!but I cant find it where do they usually save to after running the processor? It saves it to the folder where the original .xls file was - so if you have the file xxx.xls saved to your desktop and pull it to the excel processor in an open window, it should create xxx.GDA on your desktop And in case you think that all this is a lot of work, think that this is the hardest part. When you have done this modified mod you are not too far to know how to make your own custom armors made from scratch - provided that you have any interest in that of course

Ok I've tried saving it in every different file type in Excel with the same result the closes I get is .XLSX is there any other file type Excel processor will accept?? I don't think so, and don't know how much help I can offer in this case where I have never had the same problem, added to the fact that I can't test my own excel processer ( me bein overseas and all), but can't you use a convertor? I just quickly googled ".xlsx .xls" and found a buch of links to convertors. I got the idea since I have often used .docx to .doc convertors... EDIT: This page might help you: http://www.killertechtips.com/2009/04/23/xlsx-to-xls/ 2nd EDIT: further search found me this, thought it would be weird if you can't choose to save as .xls just because you have a newer version: Click Office > Excel Options (in 2007) or File > Options (2010) Click Save Select "Excel 97-2003 workbook (*.xls)" from the "Save files in this format" dropdown. Click OK.

Only one way to find out, but most likely. Mine always save as a .xls by deafult. I personally never had to make a bat file, for me it works by just drag and drop. EDIT: Oh, and it is supposed to be done in seconds, so if it keeps working in more than a minute there is most likely something wrong

Glad to hear. Just post here again if you get stuck on something else.

Glad that I could be of any help. The part you are confused about is probably largely bacause of my bad memory where I don't use the exact terms. Fortunately the same guy who made the previus video I linked also did this one: The only difference will be that you need to choose "character" as material type (if you do choose "weapon" here the mesh won't follow the skeleton and will instead just hoover above the body in a weird way). And then under "render semantics" (I think that's what it says? Like I said, I don't have access to 3ds max now, I'm just looking at the vid now while trying to remember), you will have a buch of choices. I don't remember them all, but it should be something noted with armor and [additive tint] [no alpha] [no emissive]. That's at least the one I used for my custom armor. Oh, and those "9 balls" I spoke about earlier are the ones on 0:23 in the vid (though he only have 6 shown at a time), just in case you are confused.

It's not impossible to recreate armors from scratch, but you are more likely to have any responce to your request if you post some pictures of the armors in question.

Hi, I also got one of your messages but you never specified exactly what you were trying to do (new helmet or edit an existing one), but reading this I will assume that the question was in regard of this specific problem (editing a custom helmet you downloaded, and make the face visible). Note that I've never done this specifically myself, and that I'm on vacation overseas without 3ds max in front of me and will have to write from my experience and memory. Also note that If you are goint to work from somethign someone else have done, you will need permission if you wish to share it later on (shouldnt be a problem if you only wish to use it for yourself): .You will need: 3ds max Eshme's tools (plugin to 3dsmax) The toolset Winrar/winzip The mod you wish to modify Start my downloading the mod "underworld armor" (I think that was the name?), and you should have a dazip. CHange the ending ".dazip" to ".zip" and you should be able to open it with either winrar or winzip (your choice). Go through the different folders and try to find the ".erf" files. Assuming they have put the meshes where I usually do, you should go to Contents\packages\core\data and then extract the .erf file there to you desktop. Run the toolset and select file -> open file. then choose the .erf file you just extracted, and the toolset will show you a long row of files. Right click one of them and choose "extract all" to a folder of you choice. Now run 3ds max and use eshme's tools to import the helmet. I dunno what exatcly the creator of that mod might have called them, but it should be hm_hlh_xxxxxx or something like that (note that "hm" stands for human male. if you want to play as an elf female you should instead look for ef_hlh_xxxxx - the mesh itself should be the same, but the skeleton and the height differs depending on that. So if you want to make the helmet look as you want ti to for all races and genders, you will need to repeat the process below 7 times) Note that you can ignore any messages about textures at this point. When the mesh is in 3ds max, select it and look in the upper right white field, where you should see something like: Skin Edit normals Unwrap uwv +Editable poly Hold "CTRL" and select "skin", "edit normals" and "unwrap UWV" at the same time. Then right click and choose cut. You should now only have "+editable poly" visible. Press the "+" sign in "editable poly", and choose "element". Then press the deafult human head that is visible inside the helmet itself. Delete it, and any parts that you might not get on your first try. Now go back to the white field in the upper right corner, press "editable poly", and right click just above that text to choose "paste". It should again look something like: Skin Edit normals Unwrap uwv +Editable poly Now it's time for the textures, You already have them extracted as .dds files, but you need to tell the game to use them. Go to the material menu (button somewhere in the upper row in case you are new to 3ds max). You see initially 9 grey balls. Select one of them. Press the "material" button below the 9 grey balls, and a menu will pop up. Choose "dragon age material" (should have been added when you installed eshmes tools. In the bars below (don't remember their names, sorry) Choose "character" in the first one, and in the second bar you should choose something with no emmissive (once again, don't remember the exact one. Hard when you don't have it in front of you. Hopefully someone else can add that information for you below). Then if you scroll down further, you should see a list with diffuse, normal and specular maps. Thes maps should also have been extracted from the .erf file earlier. If you can't figure o which is which from the naming, try to differ them from the looks. The diffuse map gives the map it's color. The normal map is usually purple in other games, but in DA they are apparently in greyscale. It is there to give the mesh the illussion of structure that isn't there (like cracks or smaller details. The specular map tells the game how glossy all the parts should be. Is USUALLY only lightly coloured. Might look like a "washed out" version of the diffuse map. When that's done, pull thetextured "ball" in the upper part of the menu on to the mesh. Also, right below the 9 initial ablls you should decide on a name. This name is suppossed to only be read by the game, and that's why you get it right from the beginning. If you make a human male it hsould thus be something like "hm_hlf_uw1a_0" Where "hm" means human male, "hlf" means (if I remember correctly) medium armor class, UW1 is just used in the toolset as a name on the item variation. I just wrote UW for short for underworld and added a 1 as the first type. The "a" in the end should always be there. Same goes for the "_0". Now it's time to export it. Make sure to give it exactly the same name as when you named the texture in both rows (in my example, hm_hlf_uw1a_0), and yes you want a new .mao file. Go to the folder where you exported it, and then add the 3 .dds files you extracted earlier. From here on you should be able to follow this video tutorial: Just remember that when you do the .GDA file you will need to set it as a heavy helmet. Otherwise you will just get some floating eyeballs in the helmet. If you wish to know the reason for this: The game will automatically render the PC's custom head when the helmet type is either light ot medium. When it is heavy it just shows the face, it won't tender the throat. If you make a massive helmet it will refuse to render the head at all, it will only render the eyes. That's why the helmet you now orked on, and all other massive helmets have a deafult, black head inside their own mesh. If we take my own mod, the armor "warden's burden", you can see on the item stats that all arnor pieces are "massive", except from the helmet. It originally was, but then it just showed some floating eyeballs in the head. So if I later plan to change my helmet to massive, I will first need to add a black custom head inside the mesh itself. Now you know the reason for the "cartoon eyes".

As many others have said, there is a difference between CGI movies and real-time rendering. However the graphics are still improving year after year. I don't know about humans, but they seem to have gotten forests to look pretty neat for the next generation of games here: You also have to remember that the games released today uses the technology from about 5 years ago when they first started to work on the game. I also saw some vidoes on real impressive physics for hair and clothes while searching information on the "world of darkness" mmo, but can't find them now. If someone have an idea of what I'm talking about it would be appreciated if you could post it here.

http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1110

Try to search on youtube for the ME2 mods, actually a lot easier to find some there. Not too many mods last time I checked though. The only mods I was interested in back then was one that unlocked all (as far as I know) clothes in the game to be wearable by sheppard when being on the Normandy. ANother was one that maxed the renegade/paragon bars and unlocked all the weapons for all classes.

As Thandal says it helps if you explain the problem a bit more. But if you really can't install Dazips, you should still be able to do it manually if you change the extension ".dazip" to just ".zip" and then extract the contents to your override folder.

well here is how I would do it, in order to not risk ruining anything that's already there (It's a lot easier than it looks when reading this wall of text, I'm just trying to be as descriptive as I can): 1) start the toolset 2) Go to File --> manage modules. A new, small window should pop up 3) press the button "new" on the right. Another small window will pop up. 4) The only rows you need to fill in here is "name" and "UID". Then hit OK. (In your case I would put in "cheat_mod" in both of those rows, since that appears to be the kind of items you wish to do?) 5) Make sure that the above frame says something like Dragon age toolset vX.XXXXX - cheat_mod - if not, go back to FIle -->Manage modules, select your module "cheat_mod" and push the button "open" on the right. 6)Now go to File-->New-->Item. A small window pops up. Put in something in "resource name" like in this case "cheat_robe". Put in "cheat_mod" as the folder and then hit OK. 7) A new window pops up. The deafult item is a longsword. Go to "Base Item Type" And change to robes. Make sure to use the item variations to decide the look of the robe in-game. Don't change the resource name, but otherwise you can give it whatever "name" and "properties" you wish. 8 ) When you are satisfied and want the new item in-game, press the save button and close this small widow with the item preview. 9) Go to File -->New--> Script. Give it the same resource name and folder name as the item you just created had. 10) Copy paste this in the big, white, empty window that pops up: void main() { object oPC = GetHero(); CreateItemOnObject (R"cheat_robe.uti",oPC); } 11) Remember to change "cheat_robe" to whatever resource name your new item has. Do NOT Remove the quotation marks in the script though. 12) Save the script and close that small window. 13)Now it's time to export this to the game itself. In the palette window to the far right, select the "ALL" icon, and then select your newly created folder, "Cheat" or whatever you called it. You should have 2 things in here, the newly created item and its corresponding script. 14) On the item file, right-click and choose "check-in". A windows pops up, select "I do not wish to enter a comment" and hit OK. Right click the same file again and choose "properties". A new window pops up. Change the row "module" to be "Core Game Resources". Hit OK. Right-click again and go to Export-->Export without dependant resources. 15)Repeat the above process for the script file in the same folder. 16)Close the toolset and run the game (with the console enabled of course) 17) While in-game, open up the console and type in "runscript *newitemsresourcename*". If you used the resource name in the example above you would thus write in the console "runscript cheat_robe" and hit enter. That will spawn the item in your inventory.

Hi, I've run into a bit of trouble that I THOUGHT would be easy to fix, but after a couple of hours I feel that I need some help if I'm not to go bald from tearing my own hair... I've done the weapon models, got it to work in the toolset and game. Everything is as it should be... except the size: http://www.dragonagenexus.com/imageshare/images/804796-1304445356.jpg Scaling it by normal means seems to have no effect, but I somehow managed to scale it down a lot since then after using "reset xform" (max user), but now it's to small instead... (want to make it a long sword, at the moment it looks like a dagger). Using "reset xform" seems to only reset the size if I try to reuse it now, And yes, I've imported a vanilla sword and compared the size. Any idea what I can do to scale the sword properly? Managed to find a thread on the bioware forums that linked to this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLEwTruV59o Turned out that I used the wrong "collapse" button...

I would also like something like that. The closest thing I've heard about something like this is in this thread: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/307/index/6614930/4 though in this case it seems to be about the qunari (and I think they all use the same model as Sten, so that shouldn't be as difficult to change as the elves).

erf files can be extracted by using the toolset. 1) start the toolset. 2) select file -> open file. then choose the .erf file (whether it's from a mod or the vanilla ones), and the toolset will show you a long row of files. There you can either right click on one single file and choose to extract that specific one, or select "extract all" to a folder of your choice after right-clicking. That should give you the dds files you need. EDIT: hm, did I really need to break that down to 2 steps? ah, whatever :wacko:

Hmmm. Check your normals and you normal map. Also do you think I could see your mao file. :woot: What the...? You think you can borrow me that crystal ball sometime sir? exporting all the files from max with no normal map at all actually fixed the problem. Will take a look at my normal map now, but I'm confident I can make it work from here. Thanks again rainshock, hopefully I won't need to depend on you as often from now on :sweat:

well, since you offered to help once more if you could.., :whistling: I have run into a texture problem. I did search around on the words "armor + texture" in this troubleshooting forum, but found no one else with this problem. Every time I have done textures the parts of the armour seems to get different shades. I didn't think of it much before, but now when I did a simple, grey texture it became quite troublesome. All the "hard" unbendable steel parts are supposed to have similar texture, and the shades of grey varies depending on the camera direction and light. How does one get a more "unified" colour? The greaves are a good example on the problem: http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x367/amycus_89/textureissue.jpg?t=1303348321

Just uploaded the first version here: http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2706 And no, I didn't forget to add your name in big shiny letters :teehee:

From what I can tell, the mmh, msh, etc. files are all fine. Is the model pale white and stuck in the arms-out pose, because I think I may have figured out the problem by going through the included MAO files. You didn't change the Material or Semantic when you created it. It was left as Weapon.mat and Default. You might want to fix it in notepad or change it and re-export it from max. Pic attached for reference. Wait.. you mean THAT was the problem? That explains a lot then... started to use "weapon" as choice in the texture menu half-way, so it can't have been the only problem, but it DID look EXACTLY the way it did on your "original" pic when i tried it the last times (after eshme's tools seemed at least to reinstall itself on its own and work properly again). Will try and fix it right a way. Will post the news on whether I might be able to do it on my own now or not. EDIT: ... IT WORKED IT FRIGGIN WORKED!! Well kinda... the armor moves like it should FINALLY, but the textures still "glow" as in your above "original" pic. This time I used material type: character, render semantics: [additive tint] [no alpha] [no emissive]. Will try some other "render semantics" and see if that resolves the issue. Thanks once again, and don't worry: You will get your spot in the credits with shiny letters and sparkles :teehee: 2nd EDIT: Got the textures working now too. Just changed the render semantics to some "armor" noted ones. Will continue on the other parts now :biggrin: 3'rd edit: JUst thought I should add... THANK YOU RAINSHOCK! Thanks for putting up with all my problems, otherwise I would have given up long ago

Okay, that's weird (don't think I have changed anything from last time). I can export it as obj or fbx, but doesn't that ruin preyy much everything in the scene except the mesh and skin modifier? Can of course try again, and I will. However since I managed to at last export the mmh files today with the weight paint intact I might as well upload those first: http://www.mediafire.com/?xaocjygwlr22man (didn't include the helmet here since that one should be unchanged from last time) I still couldn't get the armor to move in game though, but that must be because of another mistake on my part, since It looks the same when I import it again as it did when I exported it now. Just in case, I will try and export some versions of fbx and obj formats, if the above doesn't work. Will put a link here soon. Here, fbx format http://www.mediafire.com/?m3n02emdb628i01 (still think that the above should give you less hassle though)

Alright! Thanks once again then :happy: I think I have managed to fix the weight paint now (the boots also needed to be fixed apparently), it looks fine at least when I import a running and falling animation: http://www.mediafire.com/?adwg978fozbq63z Havn't changed the textures, but included them again so you can find everything at one place. I'm off to make some icons now for the armor :biggrin: (I know how to implemet that myself later at least :sweat: ) EDIT: I just started max again when esheme's tools suddenly acted as if I had just reinstalled it (even though I hadn't, this time at least), and I thought that it woulodn't hurt to try the export, even though I wasn't expecting anything... but what do you know, NOW the weight paint was the same as before when I imported the same model as soon as I had exported it. The weight paint SHOULD then still be on my new mmh file, so I will try adding it all to the game again. Might take some time to test it though, so I thought I would just ask you to wait doing anything until I have checked it out (so that you don't have to do the work unneccesarily again...). Will update again soon with news False alarm, same problem as always... should have known it was too good to be true... :wallbash:

o_O By the maker, you actually got it working!! *sheds tears of joy* THANK YOU RAINSHOCK! WHen I finally release a finished version of this armor I will make sure to give your name proper credit in the description. Shiny letters. With sparkels. I do see the clipping issues though, so I will try and fix that. Is it too rude of me to ask for a week though? Don't want to bother you more than necessary, so you don't have to go through the same process more than necessarry. I promice that I will post an update either this weekend or the next. As for the name on the armor, I wanted it to be "helmet of the wardens burden", "gloves of the wardens burden", etc (name shamelessly taken from Trauma3x's suggestion that I found while looking for reference pictures, http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/9/index/634204). Edit: assuming you meant the file name used on the mmh, mao, etc files, then the same name as the .max scenes were named (cuirass was hm_arm_wb1a_0 for example) No need to waste any more time on the armour at the moment though, since I plan to try and fix the clipping issue (looked on the armor in max and noticed the weird... movements when making the skelleton walk). Hopefully I won't need to take advantage of your kindness after this armor. Now when I am 100% certain that the problem lies in the exporter, I will try to reinstall dragon age, the toolset, and max after this project is finished (something I wouldn't want to do voluntarily otherwise... especially the toolset that always manages to be a nightmare... already reinstalled that one 2 times just this month) EDIT: Oh right... KUDOS TO YOU!!

Awww, Don't give up. If you want I could take a look at the files and see If I can help you out. I would be really grateful for that. Believe me, I really would like to get this working and then move on to other projects like stens trailer armor. The main thing that bother me is that I'm not completely sure if the error I get depends on me or some error in my installation somewhere. Can I just get one part working I should be able to get the rest (whether it be cuirass, helmet, boots or gloves) one way or another. I will try and write the steps I would take from the files I have uploaded (maybe a bit too detailed, but whatever): 1) open up the mesh (warden.obj) and put on its textures with dragon age material (from eshme's tools) 2) Delete the part that you are currently not going to export (that is, if I'm doing the cuirass, I delete everything besides that and save as a new scene) 3) Use eshme's tools to import a corresponding, similar vanilla item (when I do the cuirass I import hm_arm_dwpa_0.mmh - doubt it means anything but I never bother importing its textures) 4) Use "smooth" modifier on the custom mesh, collapse the stack. Use "unwrap UVW" 5) Select vanilla mesh, cut its "skin" and "edit normals" modifiers. Delete the vanilla mesh. 6) select the custom mesh, and paste the 2 earlier modifiers. 3 active modifiers are now present ("unwrap uvw", "edit normals", and "skin"). 7) Use "select and link" tool on the mesh and the "GOB" (found at the very center of the scene.) 8 ) Use "model manager" in eshme's tools. Find the name of my custom mesh, and edits its parameters to "mesh". 9) export it with eshme's tools, with the option of creating a .mao file too (world scale is set to x100). 10) locate the exported files, and then I continued from there with this walkthrough to get it in the game itself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvJ8yhGborY&feature=related And the result you could see above... If you can't find any error in the steps above, might I just ask you to do step 1 to ten with one part and then send me the files? That way I would at least be able to tell if the problem lies in the exporter itself. EDIT: I actually managed to conclude that there is SOMETHING weird that happens with the skin modifier when I export it. when I imported the same model I had exported before (now .mmh file) I noticed that the skin modifier was still there, but when I select, there are barely any vertices that are weightpainted (just one shoulder and the area around the throat, after looking through all the parts in the list). So if you are still interested in helping (and it isn't because I did something wong in the process above), it would be a big help if you could just import it, and then export it to create the mao, mmh, msh,met, and phy files. In that case I will make sure that all the parts have gone through part 1-9 now (with dds versions of the textures) and upload it here again. Should mean less hassle for you. The rest of the files and the toolset is something I should be able to handle myself. UPDATE: Here are the files, as I prepare them before export (textures in .dds format, mesh had to be saved as a .max file to preserve the bones). Assuming that I didn't do anything wrong in my description (step 1-10), you should only need to load it, put on the textures and export it. http://www.mediafire.com/?61lemt3rp2rocrh Thanks once again for any help

I'm sorry to say that I'm giving up. I still don't know what the heck I'm doing wrong. Still, I think it would be a little sad to just delete all my work, so I've decided to upload the files (scene is now .obj) in case anyone wishes to continue the work. And no, I don't care one bit about credits, you are free to edit them as you like, whether it is the textures or the mesh. UW mapping is obviously done, so all that is left should be to rig and export it to the toolset. Mesh: http://www.mediafire.com/?n936darw12kp84b Textures: http://www.mediafire.com/?rc1hs3k91uroipr