Any tutorials for a beginning modder?

[H!dden 4]

Hello everyone! So I want  to pick up modding for K1 and TSL, however, I don't know where to start. I have never modded before so this is all new to me but I wanted to give it a shot. A mod I had in particular that I wanted to create is one that would put in more lightsaber colors for K1 as well as attainable custom hilts for lightsabers (since the shiny cylinders just aren't doing it for me). As such, I had a few things I wanted to ask to help jumpstart me on modding:

 

1. What programs will I need in order to start modding K1/TSL?

 

2. Are there any good tutorials out there that can teach me the how-to for modding K1/TSL?

 

I'll take any advice/help I can get, thank you in advance!!!

[screamjetbooster 3]

If you just need a saber hilt and blade color replacements, there are plenty of them here. But if you really mean to do some modding, for starters, you'll need.

 

Kotor tool to extract game source files (.mdl mesh files and .tga textures)

Mdlops to convert extracted .mdl files to readable ascii format

Gmax/3D Max and NWMAX plugin or Blender (though I haven't tried using Blender) to import said ascii .mdl models and do some modeling/tweaking

Various image editing programs (Photoshop, Gimp, etc) to edit .tga textures

 

As for tutorial, you can start from here: http://deadlystream.com/forum/topic/114-how-to-start-modding-kotor/

and here https://web.archive.org/web/20160210162357/http://lucasforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=592

 

Good luck 

[N-DReW25 1,320]

This one really helped me begin with modding Kotor-

[Kexikus 994]

You can also look at other mods that add new lightsaber crystals to the game and see how they work. Then go from there to construct your own mod.

 

One thing to note: In KotOR the hilt model is determined by the color crystal of the lightsaber so it's not possible to have hilts and blade colors that are independant from each other.

[H!dden 4]

If you just need a saber hilt and blade color replacements, there are plenty of them here. But if you really mean to do some modding, for starters, you'll need.

 

Kotor tool to extract game source files (.mdl mesh files and .tga textures)

Mdlops to convert extracted .mdl files to readable ascii format

Gmax/3D Max and NWMAX plugin or Blender (though I haven't tried using Blender) to import said ascii .mdl models and do some modeling/tweaking

Various image editing programs (Photoshop, Gimp, etc) to edit .tga textures

 

As for tutorial, you can start from here: http://deadlystream.com/forum/topic/114-how-to-start-modding-kotor/

and here https://web.archive.org/web/20160210162357/http://lucasforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=592

 

Good luck 

Both actually, creating custom hilts for lightsabers is just my first type of mod that I want to do. Also, thanks for providing the tools Scream!

 

You can also look at other mods that add new lightsaber crystals to the game and see how they work. Then go from there to construct your own mod.

 

One thing to note: In KotOR the hilt model is determined by the color crystal of the lightsaber so it's not possible to have hilts and blade colors that are independant from each other.

Dang, really? I was really looking into trying to replicate this mod for K1 for my own use since Jorn doesn't mod anymore and has left his mods available for editing 

http://deadlystream.com/forum/topic/3273-schematic-lightsaber-mod-slm/

if hilts are dependent on color, is it possible to map a few hilts to a single color or would there be conflict?

[Kexikus 994]

 

Dang, really? I was really looking into trying to replicate this mod for K1 for my own use since Jorn doesn't mod anymore and has left his mods available for editing 

http://deadlystream.com/forum/topic/3273-schematic-lightsaber-mod-slm/

if hilts are dependent on color, is it possible to map a few hilts to a single color or would there be conflict?

 

It's no different in KotOR 2: TSL and SLM doesn't change anything about that.

 

As you probably know, you can change the color in your lightsaber by swapping the color crystal on a workbench both in K1 and in TSL. From the vanilla games, where every saber (of the same type, e.g. single blade sabers) has the same hilt, one might get the impression that this simply swaps the blade texture. However that's not the case. There is one model for each lightsaber type in each color and then there's a 2da file (2d array) called upcrystal.2da that assigns each color crystal the models to use for a standard, short or double saber with this crystal. That's why it's impossible to disconnect color crystal and hilt model. You can of course create two crystals of the same color that link to different hilts to get more variety but something like the system in SWTOR where they're completely independant is not possible. SLM also only adds new color crystals that come with their own unique hilt design and possibly unique color.

 

You could technically replace the vanilla system by doing the following: Add dummy hilt and color crystal items that can somehow be combined to one item that takes the place of the vanilla color crystals and can be inserted into a lightsaber. The problem here is to find a good way of combining these dummy items since we cannot create a new GUI for it or edit the lightsaber upgrade GUI. So this would have to be done with a dialog system on a new workbench which would probably end up being really annoying to use. But if you have a good idea on how to do this, it would be a possibility.

[H!dden 4]

It's no different in KotOR 2: TSL and SLM doesn't change anything about that.

 

As you probably know, you can change the color in your lightsaber by swapping the color crystal on a workbench both in K1 and in TSL. From the vanilla games, where every saber (of the same type, e.g. single blade sabers) has the same hilt, one might get the impression that this simply swaps the blade texture. However that's not the case. There is one model for each lightsaber type in each color and then there's a 2da file (2d array) called upcrystal.2da that assigns each color crystal the models to use for a standard, short or double saber with this crystal. That's why it's impossible to disconnect color crystal and hilt model. You can of course create two crystals of the same color that link to different hilts to get more variety but something like the system in SWTOR where they're completely independant is not possible. SLM also only adds new color crystals that come with their own unique hilt design and possibly unique color.

 

You could technically replace the vanilla system by doing the following: Add dummy hilt and color crystal items that can somehow be combined to one item that takes the place of the vanilla color crystals and can be inserted into a lightsaber. The problem here is to find a good way of combining these dummy items since we cannot create a new GUI for it or edit the lightsaber upgrade GUI. So this would have to be done with a dialog system on a new workbench which would probably end up being really annoying to use. But if you have a good idea on how to do this, it would be a possibility.

Yeah, that would be tedious to try to do. I'll experiment around with the tools and see what I can come up with. Thank you for letting me know Kexi, I had no idea the lightsabers worked like that.

[screamjetbooster 3]

This one really helped me begin with modding Kotor-

 

Never thought someone would actually made a video modding tutorial for a 14-year-old game. I browsed the guys channel and he made several tutorial on some kotor fundamental modding knowledge... Well done sir 

[N-DReW25 1,320]

Never thought someone would actually made a video modding tutorial for a 14-year-old game. I browsed the guys channel and he made several tutorial on some kotor fundamental modding knowledge... Well done sir 

That wasn't made by me. I found that tutorial over a year ago and I used it to start my own modding, The user who did make it is Rece- http://deadlystream.com/forum/user/13280-rece/

[H!dden 4]

That wasn't made by me. I found that tutorial over a year ago and I used it to start my own modding, The user who did make it is Rece- http://deadlystream.com/forum/user/13280-rece/

Yeah, I got Rece's tutorials saved on Chrome to help me, his tutorials are very informative and pretty easy to follow.

[Salk 368]

On 4/29/2017 at 3:50 AM, N-DReW25 said:

That wasn't made by me. I found that tutorial over a year ago and I used it to start my own modding, The user who did make it is Rece- http://deadlystream.com/forum/user/13280-rece/

I have been pestering people in private for help and was trying to get to read some tutorials and someone mentioned Rece's Armor Tutorial but I never found a link for it and the link above is broken.

Can someone help?

Thanks!

[DarthParametric 3,777]

Probably one of his videos I would assume - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgX9Qskh0HfwtUblmhSIpyQ/videos