How to create unique Disguises? (Kotor 1)

[blcv2 1]

Is there a way to create a new Disguise that I can apply to a unique or created piece of gear to put onto one of my party members? Specifically I am trying to create a 4th Mandalorian Alien disguise to which has a unique armor/color and then apply the disguise to a piece of armor that Canderous can use. I'm not exactly sure how this process would work.

I tried creating a new row in appearance.2da and I copied and pasted one of the mandalorian rows and just went up 1 number. I then put the mdl/mdx/tga files in override and I tried to create an armor using kotor tool but I couldnt add the new disguise as it wasn't an option. Is there something I can do to make it show up on kotor tool or is there a way to manually edit it and create the uti file? I got the idea from JC's mandalorian mod:

 

[DarthParametric 3,783]

KTool has an option in the settings to read from the Override folder. That needs to be enabled if you want it to see custom appearance.2da entries.

[blcv2 1]

On 5/20/2024 at 8:56 PM, DarthParametric said:

KTool has an option in the settings to read from the Override folder. That needs to be enabled if you want it to see custom appearance.2da entries.

So it seems the mdl and disguise loaded up correctly but for some reason it isn't loading the new texture even though in my appearance.2da I labeled that line that is being used with all the same number (alien_mandalorian04) any reason why it isn't loading the new texture in my override folder?

 

I think maybe the problem is that it doesn't recognize the new row as an actual NPC. What is the proper way to go about creating a 4th Mandalorian in kotor?

Edited May 22 by blcv2

[DarthParametric 3,783]

You'd have to post your appearance.2da, UTI, and texture.

[blcv2 1]

On 5/21/2024 at 10:51 PM, DarthParametric said:

You'd have to post your appearance.2da, UTI, and texture.

These are all the files I'm trying to make work

g_a_class9014.uti appearance.2da Mand04_Body.tga Mand04_Helmet.tga N_Mandalorian04.mdl N_Mandalorian04.mdx

[DarthParametric 3,783]

Here's your first problem:

You're assigning an override texture that doesn't exist (N_Mand0401).

Your second problem, the Mando model you're using (taken from someone else's mod) uses two textures. You can't use an override texture with it, even if it was named properly.

Also, you just renamed the N_Mandalorian02 model to N_Mandalorian04 without editing it. That by itself is a problem, since internally the model is still named N_Mandalorian02 (and you'll have an error text file about it in your game folder). The correct approach is to rename the OdysseyBase and rename the texture assignments to point to your new textures. You could do that either via a hex editor, or by opening it with KBlender. Although in this case since the model is so old, it's partially broken, or at least non-conformant, so KBlender doesn't recognise the base name properly. But it's any easy fix. I've attached the fixed model for you. Just null out that texture field in your 2DA and it should work as intended.

Fixed_Mando_Model.7z

[blcv2 1]

Thanks for your help, since I'm a complete amateur at this but really want to learn I have a few questions if you have the time.

• What is an OdysseyBase? Is that related to KBlender? (I assume this is KBlender?)
• Assuming you used a Hex editor, what is the process of using one to rename files to make it work like you did?

[DarthParametric 3,783]

The base is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It's what is often known as the "root" in other game models, the base object that everything else is a child of. Here's the hierarchy of the Mando (in Max, since it's a bit clearer than the way Blender displays it):

The "OdysseyBase" is what determines the internal name (i.e. stored in the model data not the filename) of the model. N_Mandalorian04 in your case. In terms of KMax/KBlender, it's also where you define the major properties of the model, like the model classification (Character, in this instance), whether it has a supermodel (an external model it pulls animations from), what (if any) animations it has directly on the model and what their names are, etc. Everything else in the model - the bones, the rendered meshes, the hooks, etc. - will all be children of the base.

For hex editing, it's typically not a thing you should really need to resort to these days now that the model format is properly supported and Blender is available for free. There are other threads for years gone by that you can search for if you want to get some examples of how it works, but the gist is that you do search and replace operations on ASCII strings. In your case the base (N_Mandalorian02 -> N_Mandalorian04) and the two textures (Mand02_Body -> Mand04_Body and Mand02_Helmet -> Mand04_Helmet). What you might need to change would vary depending on the model, but like I said you should rarely ever need to hex edit now outside of some large batch operation perhaps.