tsanford01 Posted October 28, 2012 Author Share Posted October 28, 2012 I am going to call it a night for today, but will be glad to try it myself tomorrow. The first thought that comes to mind however is the textures are hiding your changes. Best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted2725050User Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 Ok man sounds good, I'll try and mess around with the textures, thanks for your help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsanford01 Posted October 28, 2012 Author Share Posted October 28, 2012 Please explain how you are swapping the models in the UPK..I can import the PSKs and such but havent figured out how to swap the contents of the UPK..I have models ready to try Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daemonjax Posted November 2, 2012 Share Posted November 2, 2012 (edited) Try using XCOM Mod Manager to create differentials of the upk data you want to change. I made it with bytecode changes in mind, but the program doesn't care what the data actually is... as long as it's the same size as the original data (which reminds me of another sanity check I should put in ;)). I'll try and work with you to make it work if it doesn't work already. Textures are stored in the UPKs, right? EDIT: Ahh.. tfc files... but they're probably just upk by another name... checking them out. Looks like they're compressed with lzo (or unreal's implementation of lzo): Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F 00000000 C1 83 2A 9E 00 00 02 Áƒ*ž... ... but I can't uncompress them... bummer. Even if we can't unpack them, I might be able to find a way if we could uncompress them at least. Maybe Gildor could help. EDIT: Found this thread here: http://www.gildor.org/smf/index.php/topic,1602.0.html It looks like they can be uncompressed, but I can't find any more information about this. I guess it's time for me to register on Gildor's site. Maybe the only way to do this is through a program like texmod. Edited November 2, 2012 by Daemonjax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted2725050User Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 Hah, I saw where you got to see what a big help Gildor is when you ask a question. Hey Daemonjax, I've pretty much given up on mesh editing at this point, I've tried everything I can think of, and it looks like its a wash until mod tools, if they ever come. I have to ask though, half-hoping you say no so I don't have to dive back into this.... That stuff you're talking about up there, basically changing .upk files on a bytecode level, is there any chance that would work? Basically just changing the code to have a different mesh that still interacts with the textures and the engine in the same way, that would pretty much bypass all the brick walls I ran into trying to get new meshes in the game. Is there a chance that is possible? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kayttaja Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 Hah, I saw where you got to see what a big help Gildor is when you ask a question. Hey Daemonjax, I've pretty much given up on mesh editing at this point, I've tried everything I can think of, and it looks like its a wash until mod tools, if they ever come.Lol, I like how he answered you "Sorry?" You should really go and answer him with "Ok, I forgive you." or something. :devil: But really, I don't know which is Gildor's problem, is he really a dick or is it just that he's russian and doesn't speak good english. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsanford01 Posted November 3, 2012 Author Share Posted November 3, 2012 The problem i see is that so far the byte code method has involved just simple swapping of several bytes at a time to change perk trees and such. Even if Gildor said sure i can help you decompress it, you are this stuck with very limited byte code changes. You will never have a complex game objects such as AI or meshes that are exactly the same size as the original hence the need to be able to recook the entire package, and yes I realize the hash can be recalculated but are you really going to rewrite AI scripts in byte code? I'm not. So, I too am scraping the modding until a proper set of tools is available, If ever. Great work on trying to get something out of this one, my hat is off to all of you talented folks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daemonjax Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 (edited) That stuff you're talking about up there, basically changing .upk files on a bytecode level, is there any chance that would work? Yes, it will work. XCOM Mod Manager doesn't care if it's one byte or a million. It'll patch whatever file you want -- as long as you give it the original and modified data in files so. The file could be the entire upk. It doesn't care. I'm pretty sure you could do that right now (EDIT: You can but it's very cumbersome) with XCOM Mod Manager... although actually doing it would kinda suck. BUT, there's a better way which would make distributing texture mods so that they would all be compatible with one another. If what Gildor told us is true (that the tfc files are uncompressed), that better way is possible and relatively straightforward. The problem i see is that so far the byte code method has involved just simple swapping of several bytes at a time... We can swap as many bytes as we want... I wouldn't want to do that by hand, but I already wrote the program to automate that for us. Anyways, it's been a good day. :D I don't have the time to look into it much more right now, but I will soon. Edited November 3, 2012 by Daemonjax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted2725050User Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 But really, I don't know which is Gildor's problem, is he really a dick or is it just that he's russian and doesn't speak good english. I know right? I'm sure he's a smart guy, but everytime I've asked or even seen someone ask a technical question on his forums he just tries to beat them down with condescending, snide remarks. So, I too am scraping the modding until a proper set of tools is available, If ever. I feel your pain man, I think if I ever get a single mesh in game I'm just going to take a screenie, declare victory, then shoot myself. I'm pretty sure you could do that right now. Oh man, ok. :wallbash: I have to figure out how to do that. Now where did I put that folder containing all my other folders with the shortcuts to the folders full of folders with decompressed stuff in them...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daemonjax Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 (edited) Oh man, ok. I have to figure out how to do that. If you were talking about meshes in particular, I haven't even considered them yet... I was just talking about textures. :D I don't know how meshes are handled in the Unreal Engine. EDIT: Oh, I read your post more carefully and you were being specific about meshes. Usually tampering with a mesh changes its filesize. That alone would make it a no-go at this point as far as I know. Sorry to get your hopes up. ;) Textures on the other hand... that's different. When you extract a mesh from a upk, can you find the bytes in that mesh file within that upk by searching via copy/paste with a decent hexeditor? Or does whatever program you use to extract it change the format? If that's a yes, then... If you then just load and save the mesh (in whatever program you'd use to edit these meshes), is it still the same exact file? If that's a yes, then there's no problem. :D If it's no to both, I think you're hosed. Again, I haven't looked into modding meshes in this game, so I dunno. Edited November 4, 2012 by Daemonjax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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