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Cigol1234

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May 30, 2013
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I've never seen it done before here so I am in doubt whether it's even possible. But what I want to do is change the Byzantine Heavy Infantry model from the vanilla Varangian Guard style model and replace it with a rerigged model of the Scoutatoi from the M2TW mod Stainless Steel (http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af229/austinte/ScoutatoiSpearmen.jpg and http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af229/austinte/Scoutatoi.jpg).
Is such a thing possible and if so does anyone know of any tutorials that could help me out in doing it?
 
Well I'm far from being a good modder (or even a modder per se) but, does that model have a .xac file? this .xac file IIRC is the 3d model, that scoutatoi model should also have .dds with the texture, most of them have the name "name"_diffuse.dds.

Now I do have an idea of how you could replace the vanilla model with your scoutatoi model, but it probably won't work and should try it AT YOUR OWN RISK.

1.back up everything just in case
2.go to your dlc folder and copy only the .zip files
3.create a new folder in your desktop and place those copies there
4. Uncompress each dlc.zip (cuz I don't remember which one it is)
5.Once uncompressed, find the dlc folder which has an "interface" sub-folder and inside that has "byzantine_avatars.gfx"
6.MAKE A BACKUP OF THAT FILE just in case
7.put your scoutatoi .xac and .dds files (and other files if it applies) inside installation folder/gfx/models
8.open the "byzantine_avatars.gfx" with notepad
9.inside that file find the line "name = "byzantinegfx_HEAVY_INFANTRY" and below you'll see another line which is actorfile = "gfx\models\Byzantine_Heavy_Infantry.xac"
10.substitute that .xac file with the one you just put in your CKII folder so it should look like this: "gfx\models\scoutatoi_or_whatever.xac"
11.save the modified "byzantine_avatars.gfx" and put it in your interface folder
11.run the game (there is a chance that your game will crash, if it happens just delete the "byzantine_avatars.gfx" that you put in your iterface folder and all should be back to normal)

anyone with more modding experience than me is free to tell me these are not the correct steps....I'm just going by a lucky guess here since I have done a little modding to my medieval 2 and CKII games

Out of topic, I've been waiting for someone to make a thread like this because I would like to change and mix so many of the models to give each culture some flavor

Here are pics of some little personal modifications I've made for myself so you can see for yourself that you can modify the sprites to a certain extent:

Ugric units (mongol unit with norse attachments)
2013-06-19_00001.jpg

Baltic units (Russian units with norse attachments)
2013-06-19_00003.jpg

Hungarian,Croatian, Serbian and Bulgarian units (byzantine units with vanilla-western attachments)
2013-06-19_00005.jpg

unfortunately this is the most I've been able to mod without the game crashing or the units looking weird.

(of course the historical accuracy of my little modifications is far from 100% but I think it's better than having them with vanilla units)

And since this thread is about changing models and all, may I ask to those who have more modding experience than me, is there a way to...for example, give a russian heavy helmet to the byzantine heavy infantry or something along those lines?
 
1.back up everything just in case
2.go to your dlc folder and copy only the .zip files
3.create a new folder in your desktop and place those copies there
4. Uncompress each dlc.zip (cuz I don't remember which one it is)
5.Once uncompressed, find the dlc folder which has an "interface" sub-folder and inside that has "byzantine_avatars.gfx"
6.MAKE A BACKUP OF THAT FILE just in case
7.put your scoutatoi .xac and .dds files (and other files if it applies) inside installation folder/gfx/models
8.open the "byzantine_avatars.gfx" with notepad
9.inside that file find the line "name = "byzantinegfx_HEAVY_INFANTRY" and below you'll see another line which is actorfile = "gfx\models\Byzantine_Heavy_Infantry.xac"
10.substitute that .xac file with the one you just put in your CKII folder so it should look like this: "gfx\models\scoutatoi_or_whatever.xac"
11.save the modified "byzantine_avatars.gfx" and put it in your interface folder
11.run the game (there is a chance that your game will crash, if it happens just delete the "byzantine_avatars.gfx" that you put in your iterface folder and all should be back to normal)

This is fantastic. I've uncompressed all the files and are ready to start experimenting however I've run into a major problem.
All the unit models are in a .xac format which my Autodesk 3DS doesn't import and I cannot find a plugin anywhere to import this kind of file. Does anyone know of any?

And since this thread is about changing models and all, may I ask to those who have more modding experience than me, is there a way to...for example, give a russian heavy helmet to the byzantine heavy infantry or something along those lines?
Well from what I'm looking at here. The helmet models are all included with the model of the entire soldier. So I may be able to help you if I can get my hands on a .xac converter.
 
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It's EMotion FX and it costs some $10k to licence. If you're willing to cough out a smallish fortune, sure why the hell not :laugh:
 
1.back up everything just in case
2.go to your dlc folder and copy only the .zip files
3.create a new folder in your desktop and place those copies there
4. Uncompress each dlc.zip (cuz I don't remember which one it is)
5.Once uncompressed, find the dlc folder which has an "interface" sub-folder and inside that has "byzantine_avatars.gfx"
6.MAKE A BACKUP OF THAT FILE just in case
7.put your scoutatoi .xac and .dds files (and other files if it applies) inside installation folder/gfx/models
8.open the "byzantine_avatars.gfx" with notepad
9.inside that file find the line "name = "byzantinegfx_HEAVY_INFANTRY" and below you'll see another line which is actorfile = "gfx\models\Byzantine_Heavy_Infantry.xac"
10.substitute that .xac file with the one you just put in your CKII folder so it should look like this: "gfx\models\scoutatoi_or_whatever.xac"
11.save the modified "byzantine_avatars.gfx" and put it in your interface folder
11.run the game (there is a chance that your game will crash, if it happens just delete the "byzantine_avatars.gfx" that you put in your iterface folder and all should be back to normal)

One thing aswel. When you've done all this are you supposed to repack it again?
 
One thing aswel. When you've done all this are you supposed to repack it again?
No, you just put your edited "byzantine_avatars.gfx" in your interface folder and it should "in theory" overwrite the actual dlc set, if not other option is to copy the contents of the byzantines units dlc into your installation folder, edit it, and then disable the dlc in the launcher, so the game only has access to the edited version.

I've also been wondering if there's any program to edit .xac files, I've never heard of that program that Darkgamma mentioned but I would try it (if it was free). Does anyone know of any other program to open and edit .xac files?
 
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No, you just put your edited "byzantine_avatars.gfx" in your interface folder and it should "in theory" overwrite the actual dlc set, if not other option is to copy the contents of the byzantines units dlc into your installation folder, edit it, and then disable the dlc in the launcher, so the game only has access to the edited version.

I've also been wondering if there's any program to edit .xac files, I've never heard of that program that Darkgamma mentioned but I could try it. Does anyone know of any other program to open and edit .xac files?
The programme Darkgamma mentioned is the only source of .xac files, and it's locked up tighter than HoI4 beta testing. It costs $10k and if you're willing to try it, please, would you convert my files too?
 
It's EMotion FX and it costs some $10k to licence. If you're willing to cough out a smallish fortune, sure why the hell not :laugh:

Yeah I looked it up. It's professional gaming company tier equipment. But if it costs so much just to import and export .cas files. How come all the mods like The Elder Kings use custom models? Do they have this thing?