New Head Cloning Problem

[N-DReW25 1,336]

So I have successfully created a new NPC head with a custom texture, though I have encountered a problem. The new NPC uses a reskinned Republic Soldier head with the helmet, so when I have the new reskinned NPC in-game with a vanilla Republic Soldier also in the module the vanilla Soldier will have the same texture as my new NPC. However, if I have a module with just the vanilla Soldiers they all have their normal vanilla texture.

 

How do I fix this problem? If it can't be fixed, can I avoid this problem if I instead have multiple reskinned Republic Soldier heads in a module and completely remove the vanilla Republic Soldiers?

[DarthParametric 3,785]

You'll need to create a new heads.2da row and a new appearance.2da row. Reference the row ID of the former in the latter. Point your NPC UTC/s at the new appearance.

 

K1 or TSL? If TSL you can specify a texture override in heads.2da, which makes things easy. For K1 you will need to have a custom head model edited to point to your custom texture.

[N-DReW25 1,336]

You'll need to create a new heads.2da row and a new appearance.2da row. Reference the row ID of the former in the latter. Point your NPC UTC/s at the new appearance.

 

K1 or TSL? If TSL you can specify a texture override in heads.2da, which makes things easy. For K1 you will need to have a custom head model edited to point to your custom texture.

Ok, I've already done that but I may have done it wrong. It's for K1 btw

 

So my new texture is "N_RepHB02.tga" and the model is named "N_RepHB02.mdl" and "N_RepHB02.mdx". I've used mdledit to edit the model to point to my texture. I've created a new row in both 2da's. 110 is the row in the heads.2da and in the appearance.2da the new appearance row is set to 110 as well. In game the vanilla Republic Soldier's works if my new NPC isn't in the module. If my NPC is in the module with the vanilla Soldiers there heads will appear exactly the same as my new NPC.

[DarthParametric 3,785]

the new appearance row is set to 110 as well

I assume you mean the normalhead value for your added row in appearance.2da is 110?

 

If my NPC is in the module with the vanilla Soldiers there heads will appear exactly the same as my new NPC.

Does your UTC have a unique resref/tag?

[N-DReW25 1,336]

I assume you mean the normalhead value for your added row in appearance.2da is 110?

Yes

 

 

Does your UTC have a unique resref/tag?

By unique, there is only one of my NPC in the module. The rest of the Republic Soldiers use a different resref.

[DarthParametric 3,785]

I think you need to provide a detailed step-by-step description of everything you have done. You may also need to provide the files so they can be checked.

[JCarter426 1,215]

Did you hex edit the model's Aurora/Odyssey base name as well? If the game spawns in different models with the same base name, it can get confused about their properties, resulting in problems like you're describing.

[DarthParametric 3,785]

Look for a file named AR_ERROR.LOG in the game's base directory. It should list model name errors if they exist.

[N-DReW25 1,336]

Did you hex edit the model's Aurora/Odyssey base name as well? If the game spawns in different models with the same base name, it can get confused about their properties, resulting in problems like you're describing.

I bet that is the problem. Someone mind checking my model to see if this is the problem?

 

RepHead.zip

 

@JCarter426 I'm also using a reskin of the Republic Soldier Helmet from your Modder's Resource btw.

[DarthParametric 3,785]

beginmodelgeom rep_soldier

Yeah, there's your problem. Try this:

 

K1_N_RepHB02_Renamed.7z

[N-DReW25 1,336]

beginmodelgeom rep_soldier

Yeah, there's your problem. Try this:

 

K1_N_RepHB02_Renamed.7z

That worked! Thank you so much!

 

For when I do make another custom head what did you rename "rep_soldier" to?

[JCarter426 1,215]

You should change it to whatever the model name is. Well, you don't have to, but it's a good idea to because then you know nothing else will be called that.

 

But if you're only working with retextures, you don't actually have to make new head models at all. You can use the same model for everything but specify the textures in heads.2da.

[N-DReW25 1,336]

But if you're only working with retextures, you don't actually have to make new head models at all. You can use the same model for everything but specify the textures in heads.2da.

Does this also apply for K1?

[DarthParametric 3,785]

But if you're only working with retextures, you don't actually have to make new head models at all. You can use the same model for everything but specify the textures in heads.2da.

Only in TSL. There's no provision for a texture override in K1's heads.2da, so you have to edit the model.

 

For when I do make another custom head what did you rename "rep_soldier" to?

The OdysseyBase/AuroraBase name must match the filename. MDLEdit will only allow you to change the textures in a binary model. To change the name of the OdysseyBase (or anything else), you'll need to either decompile the model, edit the ASCII and recompile, or hex edit the binary model. It always used to be wiser to do the latter, since ye olde MDLOps would typically break a lot of models in the decompiling/recompiling process, but that's not as much of an issue with MDLEdit and new MDLOps. MDLEdit does still have some bone index issues though, messing up skin weights in some cases, so that's something to keep an eye out for.

[JCarter426 1,215]

Only in TSL. There's no provision for a texture override in K1's heads.2da, so you have to edit the model.

Ah, of course. I see now you already went over that. How embarrassing.