Mod Spotlight: Frosty Tool Suite

[TerrorFox1234]

Frosty Tool Suite

The Frostbite Engine is one of the most powerful game engines around, and the backbone of many of the most popular games. Unless you only play indie games, you've likely played a game running on the Frostbite Engine. Up until recently, however, modding Frostbite Engine games was a daunting task (and by daunting I mean near-impossible).

 

When GalaxyMan2015 (known as Ehamloptiran here on Nexus Mods) couldn't find the tools to dig into the Frostbite Engine, he built his own. Enter "Frosty Tool Suite", a tool that has opened new doors for modding Mass Effect: Andromeda, Mirror's Edge: Catalyst, Star Wars Battlefront (2015), and Dragon Age: Inquisition. 

 

With a recent surge in mods for games supported by FrostyTS, we decided to take a minute to catch up with GalaxyMan2015 and get a deeper look at the creation, ongoing development, and future of Frosty Tool Suite.

 

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What was your initial inspiration for creating Frosty Tool Suite? What motivated you?

I love pulling apart games and seeing what makes them tick (sometimes more than actually playing the games themselves). So my original inspiration was to build a viewer to be able to examine the contents of Frostbite games, but figured, why not turn it into a modding tool, and so the Frosty Toolsuite was born.

 

Originally the plan was just to support Mass Effect: Andromeda and Dragon Age, mainly because they were the two games I was most interested in at the time, it's only when I was approached by members of other communities, did I begin to implement support for other games.

Currently, the tool suite supports Mass Effect: Andromeda, Mirror's Edge: Catalyst and Star Wars: Battlefront (2015), with semi-support for Dragon Age: Inquisition.

 

I'm sure that most everyone here can relate to enjoying pulling games apart more than playing. When did you start working on FrostyTS? Were there any major hurdles along the way?

[i started working on it] about two months ago now (just prior to the release of Mass Effect).

 

I think when it comes to the major hurdles, there are all the standard ones when it comes to building a new tool for a new game, that includes deciphering file formats, figuring out obfuscation methods used to hide the data, and just how to get the game to accept mods (considering the games were not designed to be modded in the first place)

 

 

That sounds like a lot of work for one person! Let's talk about what all that work is for. Can you explain the possibilities that Frosty Editor currently opens up for mod authors?

Currently, the feature set is still quite limited. Basically, a mod author can implement texture swaps and implement gameplay improvements, such as rebalancing weapon stats, giving the player access to normally inaccessible armors, or locations, or gameplay mechanics even. 

 

This has not stopped the modding community from creating some truly spectacular mods early on. Below are a few examples:

 

Mass Effect: Andromeda

Iron Man

Asari Ryder

Mirrors Edge: Catalyst

Faith in the Streets

Mars Atmosphere

Star Wars: Battlefront

HERO BLAST

Skirmish AI and Gunplay Overhaul (SAIGO)

 

Given the creativity we see listed above (with a limited feature set), the future looks bright for Frostbite modding! What developments can we expect to see for Frosty Tool Suite in the future?

In the immediate future, I have planned the biggest release so far (v1.0.3) with it will bring quite a few new options for modding to the table, such as

 

In editor mesh previewing (with mostly accurate shader support) as well as mesh importing:

width=600,height=338http://i.imgur.com/bpUAYsI.png[/img]

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In editor sound player, editor, with the ability to export and import sounds:

width=600,height=338http://i.imgur.com/GLaDjZr.png[/img]

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The ability to edit lua script files

width=600,height=338http://i.imgur.com/ERq3bTV.png[/img]

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As well as do more complex edits of assets, such as adding new classes to existing assets, allowing a mod author to build more complex behaviors.

 

Looking further into the future of the Frosty Toolsuite, I want to see that every asset is in some ways moddable, this includes animations, shaders, blueprints, levels, etc.

 

I want people to be able to create any mod they can dream of and to even build entirely new worlds within the editor.

 

As well as supporting more games in the Frostbite lineup, such as the upcoming Star Wars: Battlefront 2, Battlefield 1, Need for Speed, and any others (if members of any communities approach me to implement support).

 

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Thanks to GalaxyMan2015 for taking the time to chat with us and for the continued development of Frosty Tool Suite!

 

You can grab Frosty Tool Suite here or here , though it doesn't matter which game's page you download it from, as FrostyTS will work with all supported games.

 

You can also find a tutorial on using the Frosty Editor and Frosty Mod Manager, along with some handy spreadsheets, here.

 

As of version 1.0.2, GalaxyMan2015 has enlisted the help of another programmer, known as Benji, to push development along a bit faster. We look forward to seeing the progression of these tools and the continued growth of Frostbite Engine modding!

[Cavalier753]

Didn't really enjoy Mass Effect: Andromeda in the vanilla game, but modding gave it a ton of new life for me. Frosty was an integral part of that, so much thanks to GalaxyMan2015 for all his hard work currently, and work yet to come. Really appreciate what a lot of the people on this site do. You all make gaming way more fun than the companies wanted it to be. :)

[Phnx]

Awesome! Can't wait for the new version! :D

[me3deager]

Thanks, GalaxyMan2015! I gather that Andromeda could probably benefit from some modding love. ;)

[deadblood01]

cant wait to see good inquisition mods.

[Luke1987]

Wow, meshes, sound importing and replacing sounds very cool! Can't wait to try it for DAI and MEA :D

[GlennCroft]

This dude is a f genius, with capital g.

[harimau93]

Fantastic & Bombastic!!

[TacticalAce]

I'm pretty impressed hope to see good modders use this more and more especially for the new Battlefront and Dragon Age coming out.

[haydenlake]

This is quite a feat. Hopefully EA can be the good guys at least once by not doing what Take Two has done for the GTA modding community.