The Harvest Moon Consortium

[Wyldhunt]

I'm not sure if this is something that you guys do a lot of, but it's close enough that I decided to ask.
Keep in mind that I'm a 15th level programmer, 10th level 2da/tlk wizard, and a 1st level modeler.
I can find my way around 3ds max just well enough to break things. I know how to open an ascii mdl in notepad, but I don't know what anything means once I get there... or the best way to convert a binary mdl in to ascii.

With that in mind, I've decided to do a proper merge of PRC, CEP, CTP, and alternate combat animations since no one else really has, beyond the most basic of 2da merges.

I've finished properly merging the scripts to make sure they're all talking to each other and all of the functionality exists from everyone. I've recreated all of the default items that got scrambled from 2da changes. I've made proper merges of the tlk and 2da's except for phonotypes.2da. In fact, merging the phenotypes.2da would be easy. The hard part is making all of the phenos work after I change their pheno reference line.

I've read that I can find 2da row references in the mdl file and change those to match the new 2da row. I also have to change the mdl name to match. Apparently, I also need to do this for every cloak in the game that references that pheno 2da line? So, I actually need a copy of every cloak for every row in the phenotypes.2da?
With CEP/PRC/Alternate Combat Anims, I have a lot of rows...

So, my question is thus:
Since my research has only found vague references to updating row references in the mdl, does anyone have any other pointers or instructions for what would be needed to move a phenotype to a new line and make all of my custom cloaks work with it? Are there any handy bits of software or anything that may speed this up?

Right now, I think I may be looking at manually copying and updating hundreds of mdls, which is not how I really want to spend my holidays.

Thanks for any help or ideas

[Winterhawk99]

If your looking for an ascii file editor obsidian has a good one that can translate everything for you. I've often edited ambient/diffused lighting with it before I knew how to do 3Ds. It's also a good tool to quickly change up textures on a model blind without changing UVW points. You should be able to edit the ascii file in any way you want with it.

WARNING: Anytime you change the ascii file outside of 3ds you make it so you cannot import the model back into 3dsMax. I'm not sure why. It may have something to do with x-forms but you cannot import after using obsidians tool. I have used this in the past to try to protect my models from being stolen by someone else. its alittle sneaky but works.

[Winterhawk99]

Sorry I did a quick reply before work the tool is called

ObsidianSS

There are very few people that have the tool. I happen to have it in my editors if you want I can e-mail it to you and you can try it out.

[Wyldhunt]

That would be great. I'll just be careful to make a backup of my mdl's before I edit them in case someone else ever wants to do anything fancy.

Do you happen to know of the best way to decompile mdl's that have been compiled? A quick check on 5 mdls found 3 compiled and 2 not compiled.

Thanks!

[Bannor Bloodfist]

That would be great. I'll just be careful to make a backup of my mdl's before I edit them in case someone else ever wants to do anything fancy.

Do you happen to know of the best way to decompile mdl's that have been compiled? A quick check on 5 mdls found 3 compiled and 2 not compiled.

Thanks!

I use NWN Carrottes Spelling might be wrong.

Warning, the actual program is in french, but there are only a couple buttons, and it is fairly easy to figure out.

Create a folder, extract that file there, then create 2 sub folders, called input and output, and direct your compiled mdls into the input. I think the program can also compile the mdls, but I typically use something else for that side of things.

[Wyldhunt]

Thanks again.
If you guys ever find yourselved in need of any fancy code for whatever reason, let me know.
I'll try to return the favor.