need help modding a non-companion NPC

[Lumisol]

hi,

 

here's my problem. i'm really hoping someone can help me. i have no idea why it doesn't work.

 

goal: i wanted to create a custom head morph to be used by the npc anora.

 

- i created the .mrh file in the toolset and exported it into a .mor

- i saved the .mor as hf_den510_anora.mor after changing the name tag value within the file to hf_den510_anora.

- i moved the file into my override folder.

 

unfortunately anora looks the same as before when i load up dragon age.

 

can anyone tell me what i am doing wrong? i'm willing to provide more info or even the .mor file i have made if needed.

 

thank you and i will appreciate any responses.

[DarkeWolf]

Ok, at first I thought that it was your filename that was wrong. But I just checked, and hf_den510_anora is indeed, spot on.

 

Only one thing I can think of. did you open up her .chr folder, and extract her .mor file from there? If so, did you clear the toolset cache afterwards?

 

Granted....I'm about 4 hours past my bedtime right now, but maybe the toolset still has a copy of the original morph in the cache, and thats maybe overriding the new one, in the override folder. To clear the cache... in the toolset it's either in the EDIT menu, or the TOOLS menu. Or as long as you havent got any active projects going that you havent moved out of there yet, you can just go into the dragon age folder, and clean out any folders that are named ToolSet /cache (clean meaning delete it's CONTENTS, not delete the folder itself.) and then have windows search for any instance of toolset in the dragonage folder. clean out any of the folders that it finds.

 

thats all I can think of, everything you've posted sounds right.

[Lumisol]

thanks so much for your reply, but i found out what was wrong...

 

i was checking to see if the mod of anora was successful by loading a cut scene. the cut scene is of anora and loghain only without my pc and party there.it turns out that there are "pre-recorded" scenes that do not reference the override folder. these are only scenes in which the pc and party aren't present. in cut scenes where my pc was with anora, and when i was with anora in-game, my mod worked just fine.

 

it's very frustrating. i really like the modded version of anora and it's breaking the immersion to suddenly have those scenes (2 or 3) that are pre-recorded and suddenly she looks like the old anora.

 

if anyone has suggestions about how i could use the toolset to modify the cutscenes, i would be willing to try. thanks!

[DarkeWolf]

you could TRY throwing a copy of the morph into documents/bioware/dragonage/AddIns and see if that solves the problem. I dunno if it will or not, but it couldnt hurt to try.

The only other thing that I can think of.... and this is one of those cases of knowing that it can be done, but not how to do it.... is to open the scene up in toolset under open local copy, then get all the placement/animation information from the current amora actor.

Then create a new actor/dummy, throw all that information into it. Remove the original amora dummy from the scene and put the new one in it's place.

 

It sounds simple enough, but I've failed often enough with cutscenes to know that VERY LITTLE about complex scenes are "simple". So it would definitely be a spot of work that would keep a person busy for a while, if they wanted to try it.

[Kilrogg00]

The cutscenes between Anora and Loghain are pre-recorded Bink videos, there is no way to modify them. There's a couple cutscenes like that in the game.

[DarkeWolf]

OUCH. Well, from a modders standpoint, that really blows. Most likely the ones that are binks are the ones that dont feature the player, or any of the team?

 

About the only silver lining that I can see in that, is that if a person, really, really wanted to, they could make a copy of it, rename it, and use it for the video that plays when the game starts. Otherwise, that sucks. :sad:

[Lumisol]

that's exactly the case DarkeWolf =(

 

thank you for your advice, if i'm feeling gutsy i may try to do what you suggested, but i'm not sure i'm capable of it without specific instruction.

 

it's disappointing that the DA team seem to be so pro-modding and yet there's something "hard coded" (not sure if that's the right term) like this in the game files.

[Lumisol]

PS. for fun, here's loghain vs my anora vs old anora. i wanted to make her actually look like she was related to him by blood.

 

http://www.dragonagenexus.com/imageshare/images/906156-1272036120.jpg

[DarkeWolf]

Oh wow, that is a HUGE change. Yeah, I can see now, how this could be so much of an aggrivation. That would be a very big transformation between scenes!

The morph looks pretty good, tho after having worked around hairstylists for 4-5 years, I keep hearing echoes in the back of my head going "Lets play around with some makeup". Maybe just a bit of color around the eyes . But yeah, nice work there!

 

I take back what I said before. to change the starting movies, it would be easier to just open the dragonage.ini folder, and then edit these two lines to "whatever_name.bik" (very general example there!) and save.

0=dragon_age_ea_logo.bik

1=dragon_age_main.bik

 

First, open up the location on your hard drive where your DA GAME files are stored. Should be something like C:/ program files/ bioware/ dragon age

or just C:/ program files/ dragon age

if you have the default installation (meaning you didnt tell the game to install on a different hard drive or in a custom folder). Sorry, I DO have mine set up in a custom folder on another HDD, on my system, so I have to guess at the default install.

Run a search of that folder for "bik" without quotes. That will come up with ALL the bik files that the game uses. Which are the prerecorded vids.

 

Now go to documents/bioware/dragon age/settings. In there, you'll find a file named dragonage.ini

right click, or hold shift + right click on that file, and choose open with, then pick notepad.

 

after you've got the file opened in notepad, click on Edit, then Find. type in bik, and it will find the lines that you need to edit. Change those two filenames to the one(s) that you want to use, and then File-Save.

Again those lines are

0=dragon_age_ea_logo.bik

1=dragon_age_main.bik

 

However, as these scenes are larger than the logo screens, they will increase the amouont of time that it takes for the game to start up on it's boot up.

 

IF you wanted to cutdown the amount of time the game takes to load, and just get RID of the splash screens that load up at the game start, you would edit THIS line, which is about two lines above the ones that I quoted.

DisableIntroMovies=0

You would change the 0 to a 1, and then file-save

 

OR, if you wanted to say, change it so that it displays the DA logo, then the scene from the game, change 0= dragon_age_ea_logo.bik to dragon_age_main.bik and then change 1=dragon_age_main.bik to the name of the movie you wanted to play.

 

OR if you wanted All three to play, you would go to 2=(unassigned) and change the (unassigned) to whatever_name.bik (Whatever_name.bik is just an example, it doesnt exist).

Just make sure not to use any spaces in those lines.

[DarkeWolf]

technically, its not hard coded. If a person wanted to, and knew how (knowing how, and having the patience to do so, is the big issue) a person could create an all new cutscene to replace the bink file with. And then name it something that they would remember. After that, they would have to find the file that controls when the cutscene plays, and change the name of the file that would be played.

 

Now, however.... creating all new cutscenes from scratch is a ROYAL CHORE, and an endeavor NOT to be taken lightly. http://social.bioware.com/wiki/datoolset/index.php/Cutscene_tutorial

 

UNFORTUNATELY, the file that would have to be edited that controls when this cutscene plays..... I do NOT know :sad:

 

After that, you'd just need to extract the .cut and/or .cub files into your override folder.

 

I know, that makes it sound simple, but honestly....it would be a heck of a lot of work. As you'd have to be essentially creating a movie, and since the other files are not editable, you'd have to be working without any references for placement, backgrounds, character references, animations used, etc.

I dont really recommend it for the novice. And only mention it because they technically....could be.... changed.