Learning to Mod using the Toolset

[Primed58]

To anyone who knows how to mod; I know NOTHING about modding, but have so enjoyed the work of all of you modders out there that I would like to try it myself. I have downloaded the toolset, and it took me awhile to even get it to open but now I have a tool with no knowledge base on which to use it.

 

The modder community seems to be a sharing and helpful one, and I appreciate all you do, especially for answering my silly questions. I would like to begin with modding the character creator options (what you will look like) so if anyone can direct me I would be grateful.

 

Thanks

[amycus]

Hi primed58! :dance:

I'm not sure exactly what you wish to do with the character options, so it would help if you could explain that a little closer (making race restricted tattoos available for all races? New hairstyles? New presets?), so until then I will just give you a link to a video that should help you get started with the .mor files (pretty much the files that contains the looks of your head):

 

There are a lot of other good tutorials for the toolset in other areas if you search on youtube (which might be easier to use when you are starting out).

 

Personally I havn't messed around too much with the character customization, but if there is anything specific you wish to know I can hopefully provide other tutorials on the subject. Hopefully the others on this forum who are a bit more experienced in the subject can help you as well.

Edited July 23, 2011 by amycus

[Primed58]

Hi primed58! :dance:

I'm not sure exactly what you wish to do with the character options, so it would help if you could explain that a little closer (making race restricted tattoos available for all races? New hairstyles? New presets?), so until then I will just give you a link to a video that should help you get started with the .mor files (pretty much the files that contains the looks of your head):

 

There are a lot of other good tutorials for the toolset in other areas if you search on youtube (which might be easier to use when you are starting out).

 

Personally I havn't messed around too much with the character customization, but if there is anything specific you wish to know I can hopefully provide other tutorials on the subject. Hopefully the others on this forum who are a bit more experienced in the subject can help you as well.

[Primed58]

Thank you! I knew someone from this website would be of assistance! I will check these videos out. I am artistically inclined but not computer savvy. I had some trepidations when installing mods when they required editing files, but have since overcome this obstacle. I know nothing of programming but will learn if necessary.

 

I am interested in doing some character presets as well as hair changes for now. More will strike me as I get to know this area better and want to expand. Again, thank you very much for your reply, I am grateful.

[amycus]

Thank you! I knew someone from this website would be of assistance! I will check these videos out. I am artistically inclined but not computer savvy. I had some trepidations when installing mods when they required editing files, but have since overcome this obstacle. I know nothing of programming but will learn if necessary.

You speak as if I was sawy with computers ;D Believe me, my computers hate me, but even an idiot like me can learn with the right motivation. And assuming that you aren't going to do any scripted events in a quests, you will likely just need to copy paste some pieces of code and change the name of the referenced items (at least that's my experience with scripts this far)

 

I am interested in doing some character presets as well as hair changes for now. More will strike me as I get to know this area better and want to expand. Again, thank you very much for your reply, I am grateful.

 

In that case I think just replacing the deafult presets with new faces would be a good start. The video posted before shows you how to make a new head in the toolset.

Note that I've never done this myself (I've so far only made custom armor, but I've been reading in other areas), so I will just try and copy paste what I've found from different forums into a tutorial:

 

In this case, since it's going to be a preset head, you choose to export it as a .mop file. How to do this?

look at the right half of the screen, then look half-way down carefully. Y'know that box that houses all those tabs you've been using to tweak the face? That's the object inspector (says so right on top of it). The tabs go '07. Cheeks, 08.Jaw', etc.

 

You want 14. Export Settings - Change the False to True and you're set.

 

Name the file this way: race/gender prefix_cps_p<number>

So to replace the standard face for human males (preset 1), the name would be hm_cps_p01.

You should find the exported file in either:

 

documents/bioware/dragon age/packages/core/override/toolsetexport

 

or..

 

documents/bioware/dragon age/addins/demo/core/override/toolsetexport

 

Place the new .mop file in your override folder(Documents\\BioWare\\Dragon Age\\packages\\core\\override), and the next time you run the game, that particular character preset should have been changed.

 

Here is also a list to get you an understanding of the naming system for the other races and genders:

human male p01---first preset face

hm_cps_p01

human female

hf_cps_p01

 

elf male

em_cps_p01

 

elf female

ef_cps_p01

 

Dwarf Male

dm_cps_p01

 

Dwarf female

df_cps_p01

 

If you wish to create NEW presets without replacing any, I'm afraid I don't know the relevant files you need to edit. I know that it has been done in this mod: http://dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1917 , but otherwise I will leave it to others reading this that can hopefully give you more info.

EDIT: Found info on that too. Use the toolset to open "misc.erf" located at [installation directory]/packages/core/data, and extract chargenmorphcfg.xml to Documents/BioWare/Dragon Age/packages/core/override. Then just add the name of your new .mop file in this .xml file you just extracted (make sure that the number of the p<number> is higher than 09. So if you name a .mop file hm_cps_p10 and add this name to the .xml file in the override folder, it will make this available at character creation as a completely new preset for human males. As far as I know there aren't any limit of how many presets you can do then.

 

If you wish to add more hairstyles, then you will need to make custom meshes and textures for them. The toolset won't be enough, you will need a software to edit both 2d images and 3d objects.

 

For 2d images, photoshop or gimp works excellent (gimp is free).

For 3d objects, you will need either blender (most common, free), 3ds max (NOT free), or gmax( free, a very stripped down version of 3ds max).

 

Making custom objects is a bit complicated, so I will get back onto that later. You can still try and get used to these programs in the meantime. Try the free versions first (obviously). I will also quickly post this: http://oy-designs.com/imvu/tutorials/tutorial_05.html , that gives you a bit more information about opacity maps, which will be needed when you make hair.

 

Sources:

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/8/index/216416/1

http://social.bioware.com/forum/Dragon-Age-Origins/DA-Character-Creator-Discussion/How-to-replace-presets-1548157-1.html

http://social.bioware.com/forum/Dragon-Age-Toolset/Toolset-Custom-Content/Eureka-How-to-add-new-presets-425983-1.html

Edited July 23, 2011 by amycus

[Primed58]

Thank you! I knew someone from this website would be of assistance! I will check these videos out. I am artistically inclined but not computer savvy. I had some trepidations when installing mods when they required editing files, but have since overcome this obstacle. I know nothing of programming but will learn if necessary.

You speak as if I was sawy with computers ;D Believe me, my computers hate me, but even an idiot like me can learn with the right motivation. And assuming that you aren't going to do any scripted events in a quests, you will likely just need to copy paste some pieces of code and change the name of the referenced items (at least that's my experience with scripts this far)

 

I am interested in doing some character presets as well as hair changes for now. More will strike me as I get to know this area better and want to expand. Again, thank you very much for your reply, I am grateful.

 

In that case I think just replacing the deafult presets with new faces would be a good start. The video posted before shows you how to make a new head in the toolset.

Note that I've never done this myself (I've so far only made custom armor, but I've been reading in other areas), so I will just try and copy paste what I've found from different forums into a tutorial:

 

In this case, since it's going to be a preset head, you choose to export it as a .mop file. How to do this?

look at the right half of the screen, then look half-way down carefully. Y'know that box that houses all those tabs you've been using to tweak the face? That's the object inspector (says so right on top of it). The tabs go '07. Cheeks, 08.Jaw', etc.

 

You want 14. Export Settings - Change the False to True and you're set.

 

Name the file this way: race/gender prefix_cps_p<number>

So to replace the standard face for human males (preset 1), the name would be hm_cps_p01.

You should find the exported file in either:

 

documents/bioware/dragon age/packages/core/override/toolsetexport

 

or..

 

documents/bioware/dragon age/addins/demo/core/override/toolsetexport

 

Place the new .mop file in your override folder(Documents\\BioWare\\Dragon Age\\packages\\core\\override), and the next time you run the game, that particular character preset should have been changed.

 

Here is also a list to get you an understanding of the naming system for the other races and genders:

human male p01---first preset face

hm_cps_p01

human female

hf_cps_p01

 

elf male

em_cps_p01

 

elf female

ef_cps_p01

 

Dwarf Male

dm_cps_p01

 

Dwarf female

df_cps_p01

 

If you wish to create NEW presets without replacing any, I'm afraid I don't know the relevant files you need to edit. I know that it has been done in this mod: http://dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1917 , but otherwise I will leave it to others reading this that can hopefully give you more info.

EDIT: Found info on that too. Use the toolset to open "misc.erf" located at [installation directory]/packages/core/data, and extract chargenmorphcfg.xml to Documents/BioWare/Dragon Age/packages/core/override. Then just add the name of your new .mop file in this .xml file you just extracted (make sure that the number of the p<number> is higher than 09. So if you name a .mop file hm_cps_p10 and add this name to the .xml file in the override folder, it will make this available at character creation as a completely new preset for human males. As far as I know there aren't any limit of how many presets you can do then.

 

If you wish to add more hairstyles, then you will need to make custom meshes and textures for them. The toolset won't be enough, you will need a software to edit both 2d images and 3d objects.

 

For 2d images, photoshop or gimp works excellent (gimp is free).

For 3d objects, you will need either blender (most common, free), 3ds max (NOT free), or gmax( free, a very stripped down version of 3ds max).

 

Making custom objects is a bit complicated, so I will get back onto that later. You can still try and get used to these programs in the meantime. Try the free versions first (obviously). I will also quickly post this: http://oy-designs.com/imvu/tutorials/tutorial_05.html , that gives you a bit more information about opacity maps, which will be needed when you make hair.

 

Sources:

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/8/index/216416/1

http://social.bioware.com/forum/Dragon-Age-Origins/DA-Character-Creator-Discussion/How-to-replace-presets-1548157-1.html

http://social.bioware.com/forum/Dragon-Age-Toolset/Toolset-Custom-Content/Eureka-How-to-add-new-presets-425983-1.html

[ixMugenxi]

Thank you! I knew someone from this website would be of assistance! I will check these videos out. I am artistically inclined but not computer savvy. I had some trepidations when installing mods when they required editing files, but have since overcome this obstacle. I know nothing of programming but will learn if necessary.

You speak as if I was sawy with computers ;D Believe me, my computers hate me, but even an idiot like me can learn with the right motivation. And assuming that you aren't going to do any scripted events in a quests, you will likely just need to copy paste some pieces of code and change the name of the referenced items (at least that's my experience with scripts this far)

 

I am interested in doing some character presets as well as hair changes for now. More will strike me as I get to know this area better and want to expand. Again, thank you very much for your reply, I am grateful.

 

In that case I think just replacing the deafult presets with new faces would be a good start. The video posted before shows you how to make a new head in the toolset.

Note that I've never done this myself (I've so far only made custom armor, but I've been reading in other areas), so I will just try and copy paste what I've found from different forums into a tutorial:

 

In this case, since it's going to be a preset head, you choose to export it as a .mop file. How to do this?

look at the right half of the screen, then look half-way down carefully. Y'know that box that houses all those tabs you've been using to tweak the face? That's the object inspector (says so right on top of it). The tabs go '07. Cheeks, 08.Jaw', etc.

 

You want 14. Export Settings - Change the False to True and you're set.

 

Name the file this way: race/gender prefix_cps_p<number>

So to replace the standard face for human males (preset 1), the name would be hm_cps_p01.

You should find the exported file in either:

 

documents/bioware/dragon age/packages/core/override/toolsetexport

 

or..

 

documents/bioware/dragon age/addins/demo/core/override/toolsetexport

 

Place the new .mop file in your override folder(Documents\\BioWare\\Dragon Age\\packages\\core\\override), and the next time you run the game, that particular character preset should have been changed.

 

Here is also a list to get you an understanding of the naming system for the other races and genders:

human male p01---first preset face

hm_cps_p01

human female

hf_cps_p01

 

elf male

em_cps_p01

 

elf female

ef_cps_p01

 

Dwarf Male

dm_cps_p01

 

Dwarf female

df_cps_p01

 

If you wish to create NEW presets without replacing any, I'm afraid I don't know the relevant files you need to edit. I know that it has been done in this mod: http://dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1917 , but otherwise I will leave it to others reading this that can hopefully give you more info.

EDIT: Found info on that too. Use the toolset to open "misc.erf" located at [installation directory]/packages/core/data, and extract chargenmorphcfg.xml to Documents/BioWare/Dragon Age/packages/core/override. Then just add the name of your new .mop file in this .xml file you just extracted (make sure that the number of the p<number> is higher than 09. So if you name a .mop file hm_cps_p10 and add this name to the .xml file in the override folder, it will make this available at character creation as a completely new preset for human males. As far as I know there aren't any limit of how many presets you can do then.

 

If you wish to add more hairstyles, then you will need to make custom meshes and textures for them. The toolset won't be enough, you will need a software to edit both 2d images and 3d objects.

 

For 2d images, photoshop or gimp works excellent (gimp is free).

For 3d objects, you will need either blender (most common, free), 3ds max (NOT free), or gmax( free, a very stripped down version of 3ds max).

 

Making custom objects is a bit complicated, so I will get back onto that later. You can still try and get used to these programs in the meantime. Try the free versions first (obviously). I will also quickly post this: http://oy-designs.com/imvu/tutorials/tutorial_05.html , that gives you a bit more information about opacity maps, which will be needed when you make hair.

 

Sources:

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/8/index/216416/1

http://social.bioware.com/forum/Dragon-Age-Origins/DA-Character-Creator-Discussion/How-to-replace-presets-1548157-1.html

http://social.bioware.com/forum/Dragon-Age-Toolset/Toolset-Custom-Content/Eureka-How-to-add-new-presets-425983-1.html

 

 

Thanks a bunch Amycus!!! I was straight looking on how to do this for days! I was having trouble figuring out how to add on new presets safely and all that jazz. Now I can finally do this process in peace and actually play my game after hours of trouble shooting haha. Thanks bro.

[Lawlder]

I'm not the one to hijack threads but OP's question was answered and my problem is related:

 

I got a good mic, can open toolset and create a character which are related to my project of creating a new companion, hopefully voiced and lipsynced in the future. I also can do simple dialogues and I'm a good learner. What I don't get is how to merge my mod with vanilla resources? How can I, for example, add vanilla equipment to my custom companion? How to utilize vanilla content in my mod?

 

If you have modded TES or Fallout, I'm sort of having just my plugin activated with no masters, you know what I'm saying? Can create new but can't do anything with it.

 

I open module list, click my module and hit "Hierarchy", check "Single Player" and close window. But nothing happens. Running 1.0 toolset and 1.04 version of game.

Edited September 29, 2011 by Lawlder

[quinnmaster]

how u open ziped filez?

[Thandal]

how u open ziped filez?

With any of the utilities made for handling zipped files.

The most common ones are probably "winzip", "7-zip", and "winrar"

(Newer versions of Windows even have the capability built-in.)

 

See this Wiki Article for information, comparisons, and links: Comparison of file archivers. :thumbsup: