Re-editing SAS mod Trying to move skins around

[callmehobbes 0]

Hi,

Sorry to ask what is probably a stupid question but I'm trying to re-edit an existing mod (I have permission and will keep it for my sole use unless the original mod creators decide otherwise). What I intend to do is keep the original standard character skins but remove the sniper with the ghillie suit leaving only the sniper with the bush/boonie hat. I also want replace six of the specialists with the ghillie suited sniper skins but equip them as snipers/riflemen and demo teams(for close target recces and covert demolition work.) The final part of the editing process will be to remove all weapon restrictions so as to allow the mod to be used with the various weapon mods out there.

Can anyone point me towards the right tutorial - I've searched through them but have no real idea of what I'm looking for as I've never done any real modding before. Hopefully this will be relatively simple to do as I'm as thick as two short planks when it comes to computers. (I was brought up on BBC's playing Granny's Garden - this may mean something to the British modders out there of a certain age!)

Oh, and I deliberately didn't mention the name of the mod out of respect for those who made it.

callmehobbes

[callmehobbes 0]

Hi,

Modding is too hard for me! (I did try but failed and crashed my whole GR folder.)

What I was aiming at was to create two separate mods from the 22nd SAS mod by El Patrico and Pyro Monty , one standard, one arctic warfare.

The standard was to remove the Arctic skins and two beret wearing specialists as well as the ghillie suited snipers from the original mod and replace them with 6 ghillie suited specialists kitted out as snipers, riflemen and demo experts. The remaining specialist would be an extra member of the Urban (black) skinned CRW team.

The 2nd part would be all standard characters in Arctic gear (taken from the original) and the CRW team as specialists. (or import with permission SBS and diver skins from existing mods) This mod would be have to compatable with Op Frostbite and the snow missions from Swedish Force.

I have Pyro Monty's permission but am waiting for El Patrico's response but in the mean time if anyone out there thinks this is a good idea and would be willing to give it a go please let me know.

As all the work was done by El Patrico and Pyro Monty the mod would still have to remain creditted to them.

Cheers

Callmehobbes

[callmehobbes 0]

Hi, I've posted this cry for help in the skins section but with no luck so I'm trying the general section to see if anyone can help me. I'm trying to adapt the 22nmd SAS mod for my personal use (I have Pyro Monty's permission but am still waiting for El Patrico's). I want to split the mod into two, one standard for woodland, desert and jungle and the other a pure Arctic mod that will be work with Frostbite and the snow missions from the Swedish force mod.

Can someone tell me which tutorial to read, I've read quite a few so far and haven't really understood them as they are all a bit technical - All I want to do is remove the weapons restrictions from the mod and move some characters from specialist to standard (Arctic skins)-this will also mean I need to duplicate some characters.

Can anyone just point me in the right direction?

Cheers

Callmehobbes

(PS- Sorry for repeating this request but I'm getting nowhere by myself and am resolved to do this!)

[Admin Edit: Duplicate threads merged - Please be patient and do not raise multiple threads for the same subject]

Edited October 11, 2004 by Pave Low

[callmehobbes 0]

Hello. Hello. Is anyone there? I'm not trying to butcher a classic mod- I love these Arctic skins (still the most authentic to my mind, you can even see the dpm camo beneath the white snow suit.) and simply want to be able to use them on a greater range of snow maps/missions. As for the weapons, all I really want is to overlay this mod on top of DTD's IDF mod to get the mortar, the scoped minimi and a few modified M4's/Diemaco's(?). I tried to re-arrange the files as they exist so that the Arctic characters were transfered from the specialist file to the standard and somehow ended up crashing GR and was unable to restart it so had to wipe it (along with all my mods/campaigns) and reload all of it.

Is my idea to convert the original 22nd SAS mod into two separate mods really complicted or is it something suitable for a beginner (myself). All the tutorials seem to tell me how to make skins, textures etc. but I can't find anything to help me.

Any advise/comments/criticisms are welcome, anything at all!

Cheers

Callmehobbes :'(

(I'm not too proud to beg and grovel!)

[JTF-2 0]

ok, sorry, explain exactly what you want to do?

-make two mods:

-one with just arctic skins that can be activated with other mods

-the other with the SAS woodland skins and weaps only right?

ok, if i've got that right, then both are doable, just painstaking

-NOTE- make backups of the Frostbite and DTD IDF mods before doing this

the thing is, most mods have slightly different ways of doing things. I don't know exactly how Frostbite's file structure works but... The best way to do this i think, would be just to copy/paste the .chr and .rsb files (in the character folder) from the SAS mod to Frostbite's/DTD IDF's character foler. then you have to do the actors (in both mods respective Actor folders). The safest way is to open the specialist actor files you want to change in the FB and IDF (using notepad). Then simply copy the contents of the actor files from the winter SAS guys into the FB/IDF actor files.

there could be other things you need to do. It might be best just to take everything in the SAS's Character folder and c/p it into the Character folder of DTD/FB. I don't think they would overwrite to much.

TIP* there's no need to re-install GR. I think the reason GR wouldn't start for you is because the mod you made was crashing, all you have to do is re-activate the normal GR files (called origmiss). So if GR crashed and won't start: open your modsset.txt in the main GR folder. make it look like this:

// MODS SETTINGS - LIST OF MODS ACTIVE ON THIS SYSTEM

"\mods\origmiss"

What you are trying to do is gonna be a lot of trial and error. Just get used to the file names and extensions and folder structure in GR. They are all pretty straight forward. good luck. if you need more help, (which i'm sure you will), you know where to ask.

[callmehobbes 0]

Thanks JTF-2.

This is my first attempt at modding and so I want to start with something simple. Of the two proposed mods (the Arctic and the woodland/desert/jungle) which would be the simplest to begin with? The main problem I can see with the Arctic mod is that the maps used in Swedish Force are from DS and that complicates things (I think).

The woodland/desert/jungle/mod needs the ghillie suited sniper transfered to the specialist file and changed into 6 different charactor/actors (not sure which) 2x sniper, 2xrifleman and 2x demo. These specialists will replace the Arctic skinned specialists and the two beret wearing specialists. A final specialist will also need to be added to make up the missing space - a duplicate of one of the urban skins.

I hope this makes sense to those reading this.

I'm going to try out this "re-editing" but if you think this is a bit too challenging for a first attempt, please let me know.

Thaks again!

Callmehobbes

[JTF-2 0]

well, the best way to do this is in steps. so pick something you want to do first. This way you can test the mod at each step and when it crashes you will have a better clue as to why.

So first let's do the arctic skins thing. Which mods do you want to be able to use the Arctic skins with? It might just be better to put the arctic skins spererately into each mod instead of trying to make it one big mod (things tend to conflict if it's too big).

let me explain the main file types and structure [all in a mods main directory]:

Actor folder - contains .atr files (can be opened in notepad). these have tell the game what skin and face texture to use for the characters. Also how many skill points they have and what kit they use.

Character folder - contains .chr and .rsb files. The .rsb's are the texturesfor the characters, these can be edited in photoshop. The .chr's are the 3d models of the characters.

Equip folder - contains .gun files. (can be opened in notepad). These tell the game all of the information for a specific weapon: name, accuracy, magazine size, what texture and 3d model to use etc.

Model folder - contains .qob's. 3d models for guns, items in levels, and effects

Sound folder - contains .wav's. Also the effects.xml. If you want a sound in game you have to add not only it's wav to this folder, but you also have to put it in the effects.xml

Texture folder - rsb's. textures for levels and non-playable characters mostly.

Kit's folder - contains .kit files. editable with notepad. contains information about what guns go in what kit, how many magazines to give them, and what texture to use with the kit.

Map Folder - contains the textures and 3d models for the maps.

Mission folder - contains the missions with written briefings, fog details etc.

Edited October 9, 2004 by JTF-2

[callmehobbes 0]

Huge thanks to JTF-2, Things are starting to make a bit more sense now. This project may take some time as it is mostly trial and error but I least I'm now heading in the right direction!

Callmehobbes

[JTF-2 0]

hey, no problem. keep asking questions, the people around here seem to always have an answer. that's the only way you learn. good luck!

[callmehobbes 0]

Just letting you know I've been able to transfer all the Arctic skins from the specialists file into the different classes of standard character. I was able to change skin colour on some faces, when I tried on some of the others, the face went completely white/blank so I had to revert to originals. At present the characters have only 3 different faces (apart from masks) and so I'll try to add some further variety if I can.But so far so good, they are all now working on Frostbite and Swedish Force with no problems. (Whayhey!)

When I get the weapons sorted (still causing problems) and have organized the new specialist file I'll see what El Patricio and Pyro Monty think-after all they did all the real work.(Now my confidence is building I'm tempted to see if Bajabravo will let me use his SBS characters for the specialists-That would be brilliant on the Ice Breaker mission from Op. Frostbite)

I think I'm on my way to having the ultimate British team for Frostbite!

Thanks again

Callmehobbes

[JTF-2 0]

Nice! good job with the arctic skins. if it's just for a personal mod you don't even have to ask permission. As long as your the only one who'd going to use it.

good to see things are working out for ya. it's all about messing around. trial and error. you just get better.

anyway, what kinds of problems are the weaps causing? One thing i didn't mention was the strings.txt file. It associates all the .gun file names with the gun name you see in game. it is the reason that ing game you would see some garbage where the weapon name should be. The strings.txt in in the Shell folder, if i remember correctly.

[callmehobbes 0]

I think I've sorted the weapons-as you say it's all about messing around with the files (I had to rename a few bits and pieces and the related kit files). The only problem now is the white/blank faces when I try to add a bit of variety. But I'm sorting it slowly.

Incidently I've almost completed the woodland/jungle SAS mod with 6 specialists in ghillie suits equipped as snipers, riflemen and dems. When used with DTD's IDF mod the snipers take on a new ghillie on top of the dpm and it looks amazing. As it's for personal use only I also stuck in the SAS specialists from Genstars British mod (just to see if I could) and the result is far better than I could imagine. With a bit more time/practise and support I'd be tempted to release these if all concerned gave their permission-but thats something for the future.

Thanks again to JTF-2 and to Lancer & Pyro Monty for the PM's, I couldn't have done it without you.

callmehobbes

[JTF-2 0]

nice! sounds like it's shaping up to be quite a nice compilation mod.

about the faces. there could be tons of things causing it. First check you don't have duplicate files in different folders. (even in the origmiss folder maybe??) The best thing to do would just be to use faces that you know work on the .chrs. Or are those the ones that aren't working?