[TSL] Blaster Bolt Re-Texturing & New Blaster ammunitiontypes and baseitems Tutorial

[Mav]

If applicable could a moderator please move this thread to the proper tutorials section, thank you

TSL Custom Blaster Bolt and Blaster baseitem Tutorial

First of all you need Fred Tetra's Kotor Tool:
Download Here

and a .tga file supporrtive image editor, e.g. Photshop

and a Hex editor, I use this one, it has a nice "find" feature:
http://artemis.wszib.edu.pl/~mdudek/

You should have comprehensive .2da editing, hex editing, re-texturing and .uti editing knowledge before you try and follow this dense tutorial

Step One: Locating Necessary Files

Open up Kotor Tool and following the following path:
Kotor II --> BIFs --> 2da.bif --> 2D Array

and extract the following files: ammunitiontypes.2da and baseitems.2da
(or just use the .2da files currently in your override)

Now open up ammunitiontypes.2da and take note of the following columns:

(model, model0, and model1)

Now choose which basic ammunitiontype you want to base your new ammunitions type on, for this tutorial I'll base mine off of the "Ion" line, row 2. Now take note of the model names from the columns I told you about. In this tutorial they are: w_laserfire_b and w_lfire_pb_b1.

Now, back in Kotor Tool follow the following path:
Kotor II --> BIFs --> models.bif --> Aurora Model
and search for the model files that you "named" above

Note that Kotor Tool isn't in alphabetical order so it may be hard to find.

Repeat the above step except find the .mdx models:
Kotor II --> BIFs --> models.bif --> mdx
Note that they should be in the same area you found them in the Aurora Model section

While you are extracting model files extract the blaster model files, both .mdl and .mdx, there wont be a picture, but they are near the bottom, I will be using w_blstrpstl_003.mdl/.mdx

Now extract your .uti file:
Kotor II --> BIFs --> templates.bif --> Blueprint, Item
and extract: w_blaste_03.uti

You should now have the following files:
ammunitiontypes.2da; baseitems.2da; w_laserfire_b.mdl/.mdx; w_lfire_pb_b1.mdl/.mdx and w_blstrpstl_003.mdl/.mdx and w_blaste_03.uti these are all the files you need except for the texture files which we will get later.

Step Two: Hex Editing the Blaster Bolt Models

Now open up w_laserfire_b.mdl with your hex editor and search for the line that contains the

"word" Fx_laser_01

You need to do two things with this; firstly you need to rename it, for this tutorial we'll rename

it this way "Fx_laser_98", you may rename it to whatever you want however even,

blasterbolt aslong as the same number of characters is maintained i.e. 11. Secondly just

remember it for when you extract the texture using Kotor Tool. Now after changing the "word" to

what you want, save your .mdl file and rename it, for this tutorial it will go from

w_laserfire_b.mdl to w_laserfire_m.mdl

Now open the w_lfire_pb_b1.mdl file with your hex editor. Now look for "fx_laser_02" and

"fx_flare01" and rename them to, for this tutorial, "fx_laser_99 and

fx_flare99". Also remember them for later extraction, now save and rename your .mdl

file to, for this tutorial, "w_lfire_pb_mv.mdl, also be sure to rename the .mdx files to

match their corresponding .mdl files.

Now open up both of the model files you just edited, one at a time and locate and change all of the

lines that say "w_laserfire_b" to the same as the name of the file e.g.

"w_laserfire_m", do the same for "w_lfire_pb_b1" and change the lines to

"w_lfire_pb_mv" and save your files.

NOTE I'm not 100% sure this is necessary, but better safe than sorry.

Step Three: Extracting and Editing the Texture Files.

Open up Kotor Tool again, but this time take the following path:
Kotor II --> ERFs --> TexturePacks --> swpc_tex_tpa.erf --> F
and extract the aforementioned files: fx_flare01; Fx_laser_01; fx_laser_02

Also follow this path:
Kotor II --> ERFs --> TexturePacks --> swpc_tex_gui.erf --> I
and extract iw_HldOBlst_001 your icon.

Now open them up in Photoshop and re-texture to your pleasure, from what I observed, Fx_laser_01 is the normal blaster bolt; fx_laser_02 is the power blast bolt, and I can't put my finger on what fx_flare01 does . Now save them as the new names you gave them, e.g. Fx_laser_98; fx_laser_99 and fx_flare99, be sure to save them as 32-bit .tga files. That's it for texture editing.

[Mav]

Step Four: Editing the .2da Files

Open Kotor Tool and click the .2da button and open up the ammunitiontypes.2da file. For this tutorial locate row 2, and right click and select copy, now go down to the bottom and right click and select paste. Now change the (Row Label) to 6 or the next number, cahnge the label to whatever you want I changed it to Mav_Ion. Change the model and model0 column to the edited w_laserfire_b.mdl that you made, so for this tutorial w_laserfire_m. Do the same for the model1 column except using the w_lfire_pb_mv.mdl file. You are done with the ammunitiontypes.2da file so take note of your (Row Label) number in this tutorial: 6 and save.


Now using the Kotor Tool 2da editor open the baseitems.2da file and locate row number 14 and again right click and select copy, scroll down to the bottom and in a new row right click and select paste. Now change the (Row Label) to the next number (111 in the screen), change the label to whatever you want, I will change it to Mav_Hold_Out_Blaster. Scroll over until you hit the column named "ammunitiontype" and insert you ammunitiontypes.2da (Row Label) number, e.g. 6.

Now comes the cool part, locate the columns "itemclass" and "defaultmodel" change them to something unique, I used "w_Mavhld" and w_mavhld_001. "itemclass" is your "tag" if you will for your menu icon, so now I can change it from "iw_HldOBlst_001" to "iw_Mavhld_001". "defaultmodel" is the model variation, so by renaming it I can change the extracted "w_blstrpstl_003.mdl/.mdx" to "w_mavhld_001.mdl/.mdx. Anyway be sure to save your .2da file and to change the name of your icon.tga and your blaster.mdl/.mdx to accomodate your new names.


Step Five: Editing the item .uti

Open Kotor Tool and hit Ctrl + O to open a GFF file, select your .uti file and follow the guide pic or you may enter your own info into the fields: THIS IS NOT AN ITEM EDITING TUTORIAL, you should really know how to edit an item before you attempt this tutorial. Anyway click on the baseitem scroll down and scroll all the way down to "Hold Out Blaster" *NOTE* for you to see this make sure that Kotor Tool looks in your override folder for 2da files and make sure that the .2da files we edited are in there. To do this go to Tools and Options and click the "other" tab and then check the "Look in override for 2da" box. Also change to modelvariation to 1 if it isn't already and the rest is up to you, e.g. properites, name, description, ResRef, tag. etc.


I hope that some of you find this rather dense tutorial helpful.

Mav

[Jeff]

Great tutorial Mav! This should definately go in the tutorials sticky. Great job figuring all of this out!

[Mav]

Well, I actually didn't figure any of it out it was more T7 and stoffe -mkb-, I just sort of compiled all of it into a dense tutorial, I just finished giving it another read over, and I must apologize, because it is rather hard to follow.

[RedHawke]

Originally posted by maverick187
I just finished giving it another read over, and I must apologize, because it is rather hard to follow.

Hardly Mav... you gave pictures as well as instructions. And Pics are worth a thousand words especially when trying to show people how to do something.

[Jeff]

Originally posted by maverick187
Well, I actually didn't figure any of it out it was more T7 and stoffe -mkb-, I just sort of compiled all of it into a dense tutorial, I just finished giving it another read over, and I must apologize, because it is rather hard to follow.

Well, still, it is a first for us, to be able to change that stuff, and its good that you put this together so everyone can do it now.

BTW, good job T7nowhere and stoffe -mkb- for figuring all this out.

[Lorden Darkblade]

Great tutorial mav

[Darkkender]

Hey Mav this is great work. I wouldn't worry about the content being hard to follow. You warned everybody that this was comprehensive and it works.

[Mav]

I just hope to see some exciting new mods.

[ChAiNz.2da]

Originally posted by RedHawke
Hardly Mav... you gave pictures as well as instructions. And Pics are worth a thousand words especially when trying to show people how to do something.

My sentiments exactly!

Very nice work on the tutorial Mav, VERY nice indeed... I've already made my offline copy from it

[Colma Adawin]

WOW! i think I should give this a go it looks so damn easy.

MattCole

[Jeff]

Well, I tried it out, basically just making the blaster the way that the tutorial said to, and it didn't work for me. The blaster had the new name and properties and stuff, but the blaster fire was still red, and I made it green. Hmm. I'm sure I did something wrong along the way, I'll have to go back and see what it is.

[General Kenobi]

Thanks for the killer tut Mav GOOD JOB

I'm gonna give this a go myself

DM

BTW: Thanks for being detailed Gotta Love details

[Mav]

Originally posted by DarthMoeller
Well, I tried it out, basically just making the blaster the way that the tutorial said to, and it didn't work for me. The blaster had the new name and properties and stuff, but the blaster fire was still red, and I made it green. Hmm. I'm sure I did something wrong along the way, I'll have to go back and see what it is.

That's the one problem, this process is very detailed.. the slightest mistake like mis-naming a line while hex editing or in the .2da file and it wont work. The other thing is that I didn't do it the way I wrote the tutorial, what I mean is that I had my own model that I made, but I don't think that really matters. Well good luck, I'll try and re-run through the tutorial myself and make sure it is spot on.

Mav

[Jeff]

Well, I thought I found the problem, but I didn't. You don't have to hex edit the gun model, do you? Just change the name to what i made in the baseitems.2da? There must be something that I'm missing.

[Mav]

Originally posted by DarthMoeller
Well, I thought I found the problem, but I didn't. You don't have to hex edit the gun model, do you? Just change the name to what i made in the baseitems.2da? There must be something that I'm missing.

You may have to hex edit the gun model file, this part I wasn't sure about because, again I used my own model, but if you hex edit the gun model tha only thing you would need to change are the lines related to the name:
i.e. I fyou extracted... w_hldoblstr_001.mdl and changed it to w_hldoblstr_055.mdl, then when you hex edit change all the w_hldoblstr_001 lines to w_hldoblstr_055.

Again, I'm nnot sure if that's the problem, it may even make it a bigger mess, but I don't have the time to test the tutorial, sorry

Edit: another thing to make sure you do, is when you are hex editing DO NOT change the length of a line, for example if the line says "fx_flare01" you can't change it to "flare" or to "fx_superflare5000" , only something like "mav_fire01" same # of characters

[Jeff]

OK, well thanks for helping Mav. I understand you don't have time to test everything out. I'm sure I'll figure out, especially since we know it works since you did it.

[Mav]

Originally posted by DarthMoeller
OK, well thanks for helping Mav. I understand you don't have time to test everything out. I'm sure I'll figure out, especially since we know it works since you did it.

Well good luck, just a good idea for a test , is to see what is wrong your baseitems.2da row or your ammunitiontypes.2da row, you can do this by changing the ammunitiontype of the regular blaster, to the custom ammunitiontype that you created and see if it works, if it does then the error is somewhere in your baseitems.2da if it doesn't work than it is in your ammunitiontypes.2da file.

If you still can't get it send me the files next week whne I'll have more free time.

Mav

[tk102]

How pretty! Well done Maverick187. This will make a nice addition to the tutorials (as soon as a mod adds it. )

[Jeff]

Originally posted by maverick187
Well good luck, just a good idea for a test , is to see what is wrong your baseitems.2da row or your ammunitiontypes.2da row, you can do this by changing the ammunitiontype of the regular blaster, to the custom ammunitiontype that you created and see if it works, if it does then the error is somewhere in your baseitems.2da if it doesn't work than it is in your ammunitiontypes.2da file.

If you still can't get it send me the files next week whne I'll have more free time.

Thanks a lot Mav. I really appreciate your offer for help. Hopefully I will be able to figure it out before next week

[Fallen Guardian]

I know this thread is quite old but I thought it would be useful to point out that BioWare made the blaster bolt models themselves determine the color of the blaster bolts. (Hence why there is only one blaster bolt texture and one power blast texture) So, in order to make sure your blaster bolt is the color you want it to be always use the w_laserfire_w and w_lfire_pb_w1 models. They do not modify, at least to my understanding, the base texture at all so they'll reflect your modified texture's color. However, if I remember correctly, certain blaster bolt models (like the Bowcaster) have a different shape than just the standard blaster bolt models. Therefore, if you want the bowcaster's model, you'll have to color your unique blaster bolt texture to a color that, when mixed with green (or whatever the blaster bolt's color in-game normally is), makes whatever color your actually trying to get.