Mass Effect Andromeda Modding

[DeltaType90]

 

 

 

Correct. Basically in order to mod the game, you have to add the new files as if it were a patch from BioWare. With that however, came some issues. You couldn't go certain places with mods on. Some cutscenes caused CTD. Etc. People were saying this time around it should be faster/easier for the modding community, but I don't think that's the case. Either that or there's less interest in modding MEA.

 

Gah! dealt with this kind of modding before with WoW, not going through that again it's way too circumstantial and you end up spending more time troubleshooting than actually playing and enjoying the game :laugh:

 

All I need is the ability to modify the occasional textures like I did for ME2 and 3, made a world of difference :confused:

 

Besides BioWare actually seems to be listening to the community (unlike a lot of other developers), making changes to the game based on the feedback we give them to improve aspects that they may have overlooked, so I'm staying patient when it comes to the major things, but I don't expect them to make changes to minor things like textures based on the whim of a single player which is why I want to be able to work on that part myself :happy:

Edited April 11, 2017 by DeltaType90

[NoireWidow]

The inquisition modding scene prospered after a while, and some fantastic mods did come out. However it will be within that same vein I suspect. I hope I am wrong, and we see texture overhauls like we did for ME 1 and 2. Though BioWare did a great job with environments, armors, and objects. It's the NPC and the PC that need help, badly.

[UhuruNUru]

 

 

 

Anyone know if somebody is working on a new TexMod tool?

Doubt this will use TexMod. It's the same Engine as Inquisition, so we will probably see the whole fake patch system applied to this game as well.

 

 

Haven't played Inquisition, but I imagine "fake patch system" is one of those things where you need to update it every time the developer updates the game?

 

Correct. Basically in order to mod the game, you have to add the new files as if it were a patch from BioWare. With that however, came some issues. You couldn't go certain places with mods on. Some cutscenes caused CTD. Etc. People were saying this time around it should be faster/easier for the modding community, but I don't think that's the case. Either that or there's less interest in modding MEA.

 

Originally yes, but later on the DAIMod Maker Team learned how to separate the Mod patch.

Now you can update the game, through Origin, without touching your mods, I suspect MEA will start that way, due to lessons learnt.

I doubt there's any less interest, indeed, more thing to fix, is likely to insopire more to mod, not less, but first the tool makers need to get that working, and that likely won't be any quicker

[Ethreon]

Curious - is the DAI tool able to extract meshes?

[UhuruNUru]

Curious - is the DAI tool able to extract meshes?

I'm no expert, but I think it works like this.

Take hair mods for instance, they are made by altering the existimg meshes, but limited by requiring the same number of nodes and Vertices, it's a more complicated procedure than a simple replacement.

So they can be altered, within limits.

 

Everything in DAI had to be reverse engineered, and now MEA gives another example, they can be compared, and new things discovered, plus the DAI tool is supposedly being updated, and all that will help.

Simple fact is modding any game without official tools, is much harder, but not impossible, the more games that use the Frostbite engine, the more we can learn, about all of them.

 

Good MEA mods won't come quick, and like DAI will take some time. It took a month before simple recoloured textures were possible, and even that required the DAI tool first.

[NoireWidow]

 

 

 

 

Anyone know if somebody is working on a new TexMod tool?

Doubt this will use TexMod. It's the same Engine as Inquisition, so we will probably see the whole fake patch system applied to this game as well.

 

 

Haven't played Inquisition, but I imagine "fake patch system" is one of those things where you need to update it every time the developer updates the game?

 

Correct. Basically in order to mod the game, you have to add the new files as if it were a patch from BioWare. With that however, came some issues. You couldn't go certain places with mods on. Some cutscenes caused CTD. Etc. People were saying this time around it should be faster/easier for the modding community, but I don't think that's the case. Either that or there's less interest in modding MEA.

 

Originally yes, but later on the DAIMod Maker Team learned how to separate the Mod patch.

Now you can update the game, through Origin, without touching your mods, I suspect MEA will start that way, due to lessons learnt.

I doubt there's any less interest, indeed, more thing to fix, is likely to insopire more to mod, not less, but first the tool makers need to get that working, and that likely won't be any quicker

 

I hope that's the case. Would make things interesting to say the least.

[cossayos]

 

I hope that's the case. Would make things interesting to say the least.

 

 

I guess it depends on how many modders are actually interested and invested in the game. Modding is a labor of love and so they're doing it for their own satisfaction primarilly.

[Ethreon]

 

Curious - is the DAI tool able to extract meshes?

I'm no expert, but I think it works like this.

Take hair mods for instance, they are made by altering the existimg meshes, but limited by requiring the same number of nodes and Vertices, it's a more complicated procedure than a simple replacement.

So they can be altered, within limits.

 

Everything in DAI had to be reverse engineered, and now MEA gives another example, they can be compared, and new things discovered, plus the DAI tool is supposedly being updated, and all that will help.

Simple fact is modding any game without official tools, is much harder, but not impossible, the more games that use the Frostbite engine, the more we can learn, about all of them.

 

Good MEA mods won't come quick, and like DAI will take some time. It took a month before simple recoloured textures were possible, and even that required the DAI tool first.

 

I don't want to mod DAI, at least not now. I just wanted to extract static meshes for reference when remaking them for F4.

[SnakeOne]

Hi guys! Before anything, sorry my english is not so good.

I was searching on game folders some files with the character creation instructions and I found this folder:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Mass Effect Andromeda\Data\Win32\game\levels\charactercreate\

 

There are 02 files inside:

- charactercreate.sb

- charactercreate.toc

 

I´m not a Modder or Programer, but opening the file "charactercreate.sb" with notepad, I have noticed instructions like these:

 

‚À‰bundles ³‰‚®‰path 2win32/game/levels/charactercreate/charactercreate magicSalt mcepebx ×Ê‚šname Tanimations/antanimations/game/levels/charactercreate/charactercreate_win32_antstate sha1 Îgàš§Ê&†éxÍ“âú›ª[Ì size originalSize ° ‚|name 6dev/characters/player/player_chargen_paperdoll_female sha1 [íósïv%ýkÙÞä›[äì size +ù originalSize 0\ ‚ƒname =dev/characters/player/player_chargen_paperdoll_female_iconic sha1 û¸å­ì1¶)5Åžs ƒ¨ size Ûù originalSize À\ ‚zname

1game/characters/_skeletons/hmm_skeleton_degraded sha1 §UÄXÛutúp;¬›$…oȘê size ð` originalSize ðß ‚ƒname =game/characters/customization/playerpresets/playerpreset_amy sha1 å]çÆìļ—

U’òIf¥ê>U¶³ size G originalSize À ‚ƒname =game/characters/customization/playerpresets/playerpreset_ana sha1 ¶éìÔd,zmìÞêáÄ‘W size G originalSize À ‚…name ?game/characters/customization/playerpresets/playerpreset_biftu sha1 èšK-p™@‚…mV’á$o½ºž size H originalSize À ‚…name ?game/characters/customization/playerpresets/playerpreset_caleb sha1 ?T­1ñúš)£z@ÛÅQ€T¶ size H originalSize À ‚„name >game/characters/customization/playerpresets/playerpreset_cora sha1 ñQAótbèÙh˜zÒaGÒ%O size H originalSize À ‚‡name

I guess this is all the information of my customized character. I dont know what kind of program can be used to edit this file, but i belive that, if you change these information, probably, you could change the character after the creation´s stage.

Maybe I'm crazy, but maybe someone can answer that question.

Thanks!

[DarthParametric]

No, your character appearance is stored in your save file. What you are seeing there are references to asset data stored in other bundles that is used during character creation. Gibbed has an empty repo for a MEA save editor, so eventually he may release a tool that will allow you to edit your character's appearance. I would suggest though that something end-user ready is probably months away given that he hasn't finished his main MEA tool code or (seemingly) even started work on the save editor yet.