What am I doing wrong with MDLops?

[Mephiles550 227]

I've actually used MDLops successfully several times in the past, but that was only for porting weapon models. I must've ported dozens of hilts, swords and blasters from Kotor 1 to TSL and vice-versa. However, that was several years ago and I only yesterday relearned many things about the program. With that being said, I am clearly doing something wrong because I am not getting any results.

What I'm trying to do is port this awesome little guy from the Kotor 2 mod "Final Touch", released around 2006 iirc, to Kotor 1.  The mod included several awesome models that went subtly under the modding community's radar, and I say subtly because these models are so awesome I'm surprised I don't see them used more often.

Here's the model in question:

 

I have used MDLops 0.5 and the newest versions available to see if it was just a build issue since most people say 0.5 is the only one that works usually for stuff like this. Eitherway, I got the same (lack of) results.

Here are the steps I've followed to do this, let me know if I did something wrong. 

1. Since I'm porting a TSL model to Kotor,  I also need a Kotor 1 vanilla variant of the model via Kotor Tool, which I extracted both the MDL and MDX files for it. (N_Mandalorian in this case, was I supposed to use a TSL vanilla model?) I don't think I even need the MDX file but idk.

2. On MDLops, I have the Kotor 2 button selected, I choose the model from the Final Touch model, I read and write the model which gives me a new ascii MDL version of the model.

3. I then press the Kotor 1 button, click replacer, my binary model is the vanilla model I ported from Kotor 1, my ascii model being the one I just made on step 2.

4. I click read, it shows me a bunch of meshes I can choose to replace on the default model with the new one. I think this is where I'm doing something wrong, but I don't see how. There's no single N_Mandalorian mesh unfortunately, just divided into around 50 parts, from the thumbs and neck to the neck and shoulderpads. They really divided this one up, weapons were so much easier.

Here's what that page looks like before I start matching up meshes. I always make sure the replacer target matched the original mesh name, so it all lines up perfectly. This part takes a few minutes...

Now when I click "Do it!" I get the new K1-bin model files I needed, I renamed them to get the new gunk out of their names (now it's just N_Mandalorian again) and put it in my override folder. No change present at all.

Could someone tell me what I did something wrong?

[DarthParametric 3,785]

Do not use v0.5. That is the old redundant version from years ago. Download either MDLEdit, or MDLOPs v1.0.

What you need to do is decompile the source model to ASCII, find the appropriate binary K1 supermodel (S_Female02 in this case) and put it in the same folder, then load the ASCII and compile as a K1 binary model.

[Mephiles550 227]

Thank you for your help!  I will also give MDLedit a try as well, but why would the supermodel be S_Female02 for the Mandalorian model?

[DarthParametric 3,785]

S_Female02  is the supermodel for most male models. S_Female03 is the supermodel for females.

[ebmar 893]

Quote

...matching up meshes.

Bit of suggestion; I'd recommend to match/editing meshes' names using Notepad++ or anything that is similar. You can use the "Find and Replace All" feature there; which is very useful. I found it easier than to right-clicking each meshes using MDLedit.

Actually, in my recent attempt there are models that can only be compiled/decompiled exclusively to MDLOps, or MDLedit; for example- TSL's PFBIM [female Jedi robe]. I can't get the said model to be decompiled using MDLedit; there was always an error message on my end. Different story with N_UthuraH [Yuthura Ban's head model], it can only be successfully compiled/decompiled with MDLedit. The MDLOps result leaves the head detached from the body model. So, sometimes should've adjust accordingly.

Edited December 6, 2018 by ebmar

[DarthParametric 3,785]

MDLOps requires you to manually enable the head fix flag in its "Write Binary" settings.

PFBIM decompiles fine with MDLEdit for me. You must be using an old version.

[ebmar 893]

Just now, DarthParametric said:

MDLOps requires you to manually enable the head fix flag in its "Write Binary" settings.

Haven't thought of that... Thanks!

[Mephiles550 227]

MDLedit will not let me even let me load the mod Mandalorian model, something about it exceeding the buffer size. I'm kind of confused. 😕

[DarthParametric 3,785]

Old MDLOps did some hackery to get models to compile. MDLEdit generally doesn't like anything compiled by it. Use MDLOps v1.0 to decompile it. It should retain backwards compatibility.

[Mephiles550 227]

I'm using MDLops 1.0 now, with Kotor 2 selected and "Write ASCII" highlighted, I then selected my mod Mandalorian model. The read and write model option gave me the needed ASCII model file. I then highlighted Write Binary and checked the box for the "head model fix link to neck_g" option. Then I click replacer, choose my Supermodel as the binary option and the ASCII model as the newly made Mandalorian ASCII model. I then get taken to the list of meshes to replace. A few of them cannot be matched up and matching up all the ones that are even available still gets me the same "error - handler" error I always get. What step here am I doing wrong?

[DarthParametric 3,785]

You don't use the replacer function. And the head fix is only for head models, not body models.

If you want to use MDLOps, simply set the Target Game to K1, hit the Select File button, change the drop-down to ASCII Model Files and load your ASCII, then hit Read and Write Model. That's it.

If you want to use MDLEdit, set the game to K1,  File -> Load, select your ASCII, wait for it to load into memory, then File -> Save -> Binary.

[Mephiles550 227]

Ah yes, it's working perfectly now. Initially I was getting some abnormalities in the animation, but I quickly figured out that was because that JC' Kotor 2 robes to Kotor 1 mod includes a bunch of new player animations via the S_female02 files so there were animation incompatabilities. After using the S_female02 mdl file provided by JC instead of the vanilla S_female02 and repeating the process, it works perfectly now. Thanks for all your help you two! Any "problems" I have now are strictly texture incompatabilities with other Mandalorian mods, which is a very easy fix I will do later and am already seeing success with.