[Help for TSL] Lightsaber Hilt mod flaking out on me

[aslanruler 1]

I run with the Steam version of KOTOR:TSL and tonight (07/21/2015) Steam updated the game.  I'd disable updates if I could but Steam no longer allows mere users that luxury.  Talk about a pain in the butt.  So I checked override, made sure nothing got overwritten and then when I got in game, the default saber hilts were all blue.  I have a mod by oldflash that mods the appearance of the default 'saber hilts.  Last night it was working just fine and tonight everything is a shade of blue.  I know the hilts are still modded because when I got the camera 'close' the hilts were still in the modded shape and not just the usual tube of silver/white.

 

I did a little playing around with my PC and I found that the proper texture reappeared when I had the camera facing my PC's face and tilted slightly toward my PC's right shoulder (for a 'saber in the offhand).  Any other position and the hilt turned blue again.

 

As an experiment, I downloaded Jorn's hilt mod and installed it to see what would happen.  The hilts did not turn blue, but I immediately noticed that the texture vanished as soon as the camera was 'out of position' so to speak.  The hilts went to the default silver color instead of blue.

 

I honestly don't know what on earth in the update caused this reaction and I would appreciate the far more experienced modders giving me a bit of advice.  I don't want to loose the texture modding if I don't have to, but at the moment I'm stumped.  Honestly, I didn't even want this lousy update and I'd toss it out if I could, but I'm stuck unless I want to buy the game again and get it to play nice with my Win 7 installation.

 

 

Thanks in advance for your advice and time.

[Kaidon Jorn 204]

I wish I could help but if it involves this Steam thing,(which honestly I dont know what that even is)

So you're saying that when you turn the camera to look at yourself the blades change color? That *is* weird

[l2daorch 19]

Have you tried reinstalling your mods?

From what I could tell the update didn't do that much (I downloaded it from steam to check out controller/widescreen support) and only few things were put into override, most of which are images for controller buttons.

I guess reinstalling the game (any other version that is not steam), reinstalling your mods and then copying over your save files might work. You could try the same for the steam version. This is really weird, as I don't see what that update might have done to change lightsaber models.

[scoutception 17]

I wish I could help but if it involves this Steam thing,(which honestly I dont know what that even is)

So you're saying that when you turn the camera to look at yourself the blades change color? That *is* weird

Wait, you don't know what Steam is? ... How are you liking living under a rock?  

But anyway, as somebody who uses it, I'm pretty sure that the way the CD version of KOTOR and the Steam version of KOTOR are basically identical when it comes to handling mods. Probably. I hope.

[Fair Strides 510]

Wait, you don't know what Steam is? ... How are you liking living under a rock?  

But anyway, as somebody who uses it, I'm pretty sure that the way the CD version of KOTOR and the Steam version of KOTOR are basically identical when it comes to handling mods. Probably. I hope.

Just a word of advice before he bites your head off...

 

I think he was referring to either the Steam Workshop deal or the new KotOR 2 update...

[DarthParametric 3,795]

I'd disable updates if I could but Steam no longer allows mere users that luxury.

A trick I have heard of, although haven't tested myself, is to copy the game contents from <Steam dir>\steamapps\common\<game dir> to a folder outside the Steam directory, then in Steam add it as a non-Steam game. That way you can launch it via Steam and it should satisfy any DRM without it updating it like a Steam game. You won't get Workshop support, but by the sounds of things that is basically pointless for KOTOR modding anyway.

 

As to your mod problems, as is ever the case, revert to a clean install and add all your mods again. Trying to troubleshoot mod collisions/screwups is far too much hassle to bother with.

[Kaidon Jorn 204]

I dunno, isn't Steam some kind of online shop for games? Pay to download or something?

I'm an old man, I don't use any of that stuff. 

Reinstalling TSL right now with the 4 discs that I bought at Target years ago.

[Guest]

Same for me, lightsaber mods don't seem to work with the new update.

[aslanruler 1]

*sigh*  I've never had to 'reinstall' texture mods, because they don't use the patcher, they are just files one puts into Override and hey, Presto, something changes in game. 

 

For lightsabers, I actually have two mods: one mod that changes the blades to be thinner and a bit more 'movie-like'.  I got that mod here on Deadlystream: http://deadlystream.com/forum/files/file/241-lightsaber-blade-replacement-pack-tsl/ .

 

The other mod I got on Filefront, which seems to have gone down in the past couple days *le sigh*, and that mod (by Oldflash) changes the hilts of the lightsabers...it does have files for the blades, but since I already had that covered, I just tucked those files back in a buried folder and went with the hilt specific files.

 

It's specifically the hilt mod that's having these problems, not the bladed ones.  I suspect, though I don't know for sure, that the problem is somewhere in either the .mdl, .mdx, or the .txi files.  I have a few of the mod tools on my computer, but nothing that will open those types of files so that I can provide more information to you all.

 

One thing that I have noticed, and may provide some insight, is that whatever this...issue is, seems to be restricted to the game provided 'sabers.  I also have Jorn's SLM installed and my PC's Jorn 'saber does NOT have this issue as far as I can tell.

 

My suspicion is that a fresh install from Steam will keep this problem, since Steam is going to download the 'new' exe and files and folders.  I may attempt to see if I can pull my backup in and try this workaround trick, but I've never tried that before.  *sigh*

 

I did look at my entire KOTOR: TSL folder and they did not 'just' put files in override.  There are brand spankin new folders, the exe has been updated and several existing folder have also been 'updated'.

 

As some further information for Jorn:  Steam is an online store for games, mostly PC games.  Once you buy them, the games are downloaded via Steam's own application to your computer.  They then launch through Steam and operate as normal.  Steam adds a social component but for both KOTOR games, it's best to disable that, because it can seriously mess with the games.  While the games will run on a Win 7, I have found that I must run them in windowed mode or some of the cutscenes go black.  This is the first time I've had trouble with mods because of Steam and not my own user related idiocy.

 

EDIT: 7:00PM Central Time Zone 07-22-2015

 

A trick I have heard of, although haven't tested myself, is to copy the game contents from <Steam dir>\steamapps\common\<game dir> to a folder outside the Steam directory, then in Steam add it as a non-Steam game. That way you can launch it via Steam and it should satisfy any DRM without it updating it like a Steam game. You won't get Workshop support, but by the sounds of things that is basically pointless for KOTOR modding anyway.

As to your mod problems, as is ever the case, revert to a clean install and add all your mods again. Trying to troubleshoot mod collisions/screwups is far too much hassle to bother with.

 

I'm going to have to be verrrry careful, but this trick, with some modifications, actually worked.

 

Steps for anyone who wants to try.

1. Pray to the Lord that you have a backup of this game from before yesterday's update

2. Restore the backup to another location:  Based on my own experience, another drive will be required (I restored from backup to the backup drive in question)

3. I personally relocated the game to a different location on the same drive that it is currently installed in - I do advise the same for others

4. Add the new location to Steam via the "Add a non-Steam game to my library" option, you may have to browse to the new location

5. Bring up the Steam location on one explorer window and your new location in another window.  Delete all of the folders the Steam update added and the folders down to the Modules folder (Delete them all if you want a fresh install, as even my backup was modded, I did not have that option)

6. Copy over the folders from the backup to the Steam folder, make sure that your folder list is identical between the two locations

7. Copy over all the non folder items from the backup...the exe WILL be smaller, you want that!

8. If you did not copy over the Module folder, you may have to either live with the files or reinstall any mods that change the module folder (I'm honestly not sure, as I've never peeked in the modules folder before installing mods - but I did have a backup of my modules folder in a third location)

9. Enjoy!

 

Reasons behind the steps:

1. While the backup location will launch just fine, the exe defaults to the Steam location (to my dismay).  I immediately noticed that although the backup had different saves and different mods, the game launched with the Steam saves and mods

2. I first attempted to simply copy over the exe, the game refused to launch

3. I then copied over the non folder files, the game launched but threw at least five error windows before launching and no longer let me skip the opening credits

4. I finally removed all the folders (with the exception of Modules, Override, and Saves) that had an update date of 07-21-2015 and copied over the folders from my backup

5. The game then played without errors and my hilt mod was back and fully intact

 

Therefore:  It is clear to me that something in the Steam updates did indeed screw up the texture mods (and their update was not confined to the Override folder).  Unless some of the modders figure out a way to get the hilt textures work with the new exe, folders, etc, it is highly likely that anyone running with Steam will either have to pull some shinanigans or accept that some texture mods will not work with Steam any longer.

 

I wish I knew what caused this reaction but I didn't and still don't.  I extend my deepest sympathies to my fellow Steam users...some may celebrate, but Steam sure dropped a doozy on us, too bad we can't push it back at 'em.

 

As a further note:  While I only tested my texture mods, there may be other mods that Steam has managed to ruin with their little update.

[Kaidon Jorn 204]

Ok, so you have Oldflash's default replacement hilts, SLM, and Marius' blade replacements.

I think the problem is more than likely the .txi's

 

Marius' blades have only 2 frames. all of mine have 4, and I'm not sure about Oldflash's, but you aren't using them so that dosen't matter.

The default game sabers aren't animated and have just the one frame. But using Marius' blade replacement would override that. 

 

If you could screenshot one of the hilts with the problem it would give more insight.

 

Other than that, what I would suggest is, (and I know it would be defeating the purpose of using Marius' blades) but going into SLM's tslpatchdata folder and replacing all blade texture tga's and txi's in your override with SLM's. Just to see if that will fix it.

Models dont dictate the number of frames used for any given lightsaber - tga's and txi's do that.

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, nevermind all that then. Good you got it working.

Edited July 23, 2015 by Kaidon Jorn

[Guest]

For me the problem was having multiple Lightsaber mods, delete them all install one you like and it'll work fine.

[aslanruler 1]

Appreciate the troubleshooting Jorn...I may deliberately reduplicate the problem so I can screenshoot it and provide more info for people who don't want to go through all the complicated steps.  I do have an unrelated question...does a fresh install have files in the Modules folder?  I wanted to check but one thing TSLRCM doesn't have is an install log.

[Kaidon Jorn 204]

a fresh install of SLM? Yes, SLM adds and edits files within TSLRCM's original modules then replaces them. Original TSLRCM modules are backed up in SLM's backup folder.

 

...if that's what you meant.

[aslanruler 1]

lol  I guess I'm not the only one who doesn't worry about what a folder has until things go south.  Don't worry about it, I found my answer with the fresh install I did to duplicate my issue.

 

I have four screenshots of the saber hilts to show you.

 

Single Hilt:

1. Blue Effect:   (You can sort of see how the hilt itself has a different shape, which tells me that the mod is there and 'working')

2. Angle at which Texture reappears:

 

Double Hilt:

1. Grey Effect: (Once again you can see how the hilt has a different shape)

2. Angle at which Texture reappears:

 

For all the screenshots, the 'saber in question was a blue hilted 'saber.  The icons in the bag were accurate.

 

The 'saber textures and other files are specifically from Oldflash's FinalTouch mod.  I did NOT install that with the Patcher.  The mod itself changed so much, I didn't want that.  I went through the patcher folder and found the 'saber files, then lifted them to the override folder.

 

If you want me to upload the .mdl, .mdx, .tga, or .txi files, I can do that.  I just don't want to step on Oldflash's toes or Filefront's toes...I know Oldflash doesn't have his mods on Deadlystream...or at least I've not seen them.

 

Please let me know if you need any other information.  I might have found a solution, but it's rather cumbersome and I'm sure folks would prefer a simple and sweet answer.

[Kaidon Jorn 204]

Yeah, I'm sorry man, I've never run into that problem, hilt textures disappearing with certain camera angles? :/

  

PM me all of Oldflash's saber files in a zipped folder I guess. .mdl's, mdx's tga's and txi's

[Hassat Hunter 571]

The new Steam version of TSL doesn't quite work the same way as the original.

 

Instead of dropping them in TSL's folder, drop the textures in the TSLRCM workshop folder. AFAIK they should appear properly ingame then, no issues.

 

Let us know how it goes!

 

EDIT:

If all doesn't work you can always opt for the "legacy beta"... it's the original version. No need to go around copying files and stuff.

[DarthParametric 3,795]

The problem is each Workshop mod gets its own folder. TSLRCM is Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\208580\485537937 and M4-78 is Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\208580\485560877 so how is that supposed to work?

[Bas Qui-Xoi 6]

It's definitely a problem. I had to unsub to m4-78 to get the "badass bastila' mod to work properly. When I pointed the tslpatcher to the TSLRCM workshop folder it installed and  gave no errors but instead of Bastila I got a droid. I then tried pointing the patcher to M4-78 workshop folder, after unsubbing, deleting the TSLRCM override that was left over and resubbing to both mods, and that didn't work. I got an error from the patcher. So ultimately to get it to work I had to ditch M4-78. I'm at a loss as to how I'm going to get all these mods to work and still get the droid planet as well. 

[DarthParametric 3,795]

I think ditching Workshop altogether is probably the most expedient way. At the very least only use TSLRCM, then install all mods over the top of it's Workshop folder, starting with the regular standalone installer for M4-78.

[Bas Qui-Xoi 6]

I'll give that whirl and see if it works.

[Bas Qui-Xoi 6]

So am I pointing the installer for M4-78 to 208580 or 485537937?

[DarthParametric 3,795]

485537937. That's TSLRCM's mod folder. 208580 is TSL's Steam AppID.

[Bas Qui-Xoi 6]

Ok thanks

[Hassat Hunter 571]

Probably seeing that since M4's appearance.2da overwrites TSRLCM's appearance.2da.

 

Installing it on M4 has little use since most files of the main game are missing, it's just about the added planet after all.

[aslanruler 1]

Pardon the utterly idiotic noob question, but how does one opt for the legacy beta in Steam?

 

'Cause that sure sounds like a much simpler solution to me...especially since I have zero interest in the Steam workshop at least as regards to KOTOR:TSL.