Anyone found a way to mod NPCs?

[nightscrawl]

No idea, sorry. All I did was edit the colors on all of the armor meshes. For that one where I swapped Dagna to a light variant of the Inquisition armor, it was a simple thing to point it from one armor to another. In that case, Dagna is a specific NPC, with her own files, that uses a single body armor, so telling it to point to some other armor is relatively simple.

 

I don't know how the person did the Blackwall mod. I didn't think that was possible since follower NPCs have multiple pieces (arms, legs, torso) for all of their stuff, just as the Inquisitor does (which is why you can Live Like Viv, or wear Dorian's clothing). Your best bet would be to import that mod into the Mod Maker, see what files were altered, and then make comparisons to the default to see what was changed.

[ethicalinfant]

I will try that. I tried swapping out a few numbers in the mesh appearance but I'm not able to fire up the game where I'm at right now and test it.

[sapphim]

This mod to put Blackwall in an NPC model only works at Skyhold (as stated in the description) because party members at hub areas (Skyhold, Haven, Halamshiral) are treated the same as every other NPC. This mod to change the appearance of Blackwall's equippable model only works outside of hub areas (as stated in the description) because it's a model that is also equippable by the Inquisitor, and most likely uses the same process as all those mods that let the Inquisitor equip companions' models.

 

The main issue with swapping models around is that Frostbite has to be told in a very specific way which models to load or it won't do it, and the big hurdle is that equippable models (the Inquisitor and active party members) and normal NPCs (pretty much everybody else) use entirely separate systems that don't interact at all.

 

Equippable models by necessity will always load regardless of area, though we have no way of adding new models to the delay load bundles that are responsible for telling Frostbite to load them. Especially since they're not directly referenced but use hashes, so figuring out which model is which is very abstract.

 

NPC models are currently limited to models that are loaded in the current chunk. This is why most of the time when you try to swap one model for another, as OP has noted, you end up with an invisible body. You'd need to add new models to the mesh variation database before the model will show, and nobody's had success with that. The truism, for example, that you can't get rid of party members' nutcracker outfits at Halamshiral isn't entirely true. I've messed around with it. But in practice, being able to choose only from loaded models that will be loaded in every area and cutscene that NPC appears in using that template is extremely limiting.

 

It's possible that when Frosty implements automatic bundle editing that a lot of these restrictions will be lifted, but while that's on the to-do list it's probably a long way off.

Edited November 10, 2017 by starrarte

[nightscrawl]

<snip>

 

Thanks for all this. I guess that explains why, when I tried to have Dorian use a different set of gloves in hub areas (in reality, different arms), his arms just disappeared altogether.

[ethicalinfant]

This mod to put Blackwall in an NPC model only works at Skyhold (as stated in the description) because party members at hub areas (Skyhold, Haven, Halamshiral) are treated the same as every other NPC. This mod to change the appearance of Blackwall's equippable model only works outside of hub areas (as stated in the description) because it's a model that is also equippable by the Inquisitor, and most likely uses the same process as all those mods that let the Inquisitor equip companions' models.

 

The main issue with swapping models around is that Frostbite has to be told in a very specific way which models to load or it won't do it, and the big hurdle is that equippable models (the Inquisitor and active party members) and normal NPCs (pretty much everybody else) use entirely separate systems that don't interact at all.

 

Equippable models by necessity will always load regardless of area, though we have no way of adding new models to the delay load bundles that are responsible for telling Frostbite to load them. Especially since they're not directly referenced but use hashes, so figuring out which model is which is very abstract.

 

NPC models are currently limited to models that are loaded in the current chunk. This is why most of the time when you try to swap one model for another, as OP has noted, you end up with an invisible body. You'd need to add new models to the mesh variation database before the model will show, and nobody's had success with that. The truism, for example, that you can't get rid of party members' nutcracker outfits at Halamshiral isn't entirely true. I've messed around with it. But in practice, being able to choose only from loaded models that will be loaded in every area and cutscene that NPC appears in using that template is extremely limiting.

 

It's possible that when Frosty implements automatic bundle editing that a lot of these restrictions will be lifted, but while that's on the to-do list it's probably a long way off.

thank you for your response! While I was waiting to hear back, I did some testing and discovered some of this, but it's really nice to have information to fill in the gaps. It's weird, though, because those npc outfits that you call for him in the unequipped appearance mod are actually present in haven, so it doesn't make sense to me why they would not work. I will continue to play with it, though.

 

Also, don't the party members have bundled hashes for their formal outfits? I was under the impression that you could swap out those hashes for other equippables and have them wear whatever, but I guess I will have to play with that as well.

[sapphim]

If the mod changing Blackwall's appearance works at Skyhold but not Haven (I haven't installed it myself, I've just been going off what the description says) despite that outfit being present in Haven, as far as I'm aware that's because loading is handled for separate chunks within a larger area, so the entire area doesn't have to be loaded all at once.

 

Party members have bundled hashes for their formal outfits when they are wearing them as equipment within the active party. But when they are just ambient NPCs standing around the winter palace they load them as models from their formal spawn templates.

 

Edited to add: all the files putting areas together are in layouts, so for example, (most of) the (most relevant) files for the chunk where Blackwall hangs out at Skyhold are in da3/Layouts/InquisitorBase2/MainBase/DSG_Courtyard_Lower_Main/ where you'll find the mesh variation database and a few world part data files.

 

Now that I've finally got Frosty loading Inquisition again (had to restart my poor computer) I'm taking another brief stab at editing entries in the mesh variation database, but so far all that's occurred is a CTD when the game tries to load the chunk.

Edited November 15, 2017 by starrarte

[ethicalinfant]

wow, well, I typed out a big long response and then the forum ate it :( I will take a look at the mesh variations today but I can't load the game to see if any changes take place until I'm home from work later. I really appreciate all of the information! I wish I hadn't come to the modding game so late for Inquisition. I feel like I missed the wave and now I'm just hunting through forums to piece together what people discovered.

 

One of my other standing projects is the removal of flair from the armor in game, and I've run in to all kinds of trouble with it. At this point, I think the mod maker is bugging out and not loading my mesh, because it says it imports but the preview doesn't show any changes. I found a thread on the mod maker forums where someone got that edited mesh to load in game, so it must be possible, but I'll be damned if I know how he did it.