[Tutorial] Space Marine Character Modding 101

[soulshudder]

Ok I am Still noobing out here. How do I get the SM's bodies back? I didn't fully understand Crow's instructions or could you just put the files up to download. thanks

[Sun]

Thanks for the tut, been working on my own chapter atm. Still unfinished but ive hit a problem that i cant seem to fix. Was hoping for some pointers from more experienced modders.

Managed to do the helmet no probs.
imageshack.us/photo/my-images/855/unled1eok.png/

Ive got the relic backpack into the game and it works up to a point, the problem is that the texture seems to be wrapping round incorrectly, it shouldnt do as i have followed all the same procedures for everything else ive done, im at a loss to understand the reason for it.

imageshack.us/photo/my-images/842/unledpcy.png/

I have the same problem it's getting really really annoying, that no one can help us.

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http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/9095/problemhm.jpg

here is my problem, I get black wrapped patches around the shoulder pad, and I've been trying all day to swap the legs with Titus with Multiplayer legs.

[LoweGear]

Ok I am Still noobing out here. How do I get the SM's bodies back? I didn't fully understand Crow's instructions or could you just put the files up to download. thanks

Here's a quick download for all the files necessary, should make the bodies work right:

Download Quickfix Here

[DeusImperator]

Looks quite awesome!

I mixed the normal Blood Ravens helmet part with the veteran armor mod, and for some reason when I try a new campaign, the space marine just falls in a black emptyness when i start it up.

For some reasons enemies do not spawn either if I continue a non-modded campaign save.

Edit: Never mind, I fixed it.

[Sun]

I'm trying to change the ThunderHawk & Drop Pod Color, and the IG armor body. Here is the folder I have for the thunder hawk but it aint changing colors?

C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\warhammer 40,000 space marine\preview\art\race_marine\vehicles\thunderhawk\armour\hbolter_thunderhawk\hbolter_thunderhawk_front

also I can't find either Imperial Guard armor texters or the Drop Pod so I can change the textures. Can anyone help me on this.

[Mangoose]

Majic seems to have figured out that digging into the wargear attr_pc files are not necessary. In vanguard.attr_pc, you can directly substitute in wargear names for Titus's default wargear, with the additional stipulations that dynamic_wargear is "true" and that you start a new mission. Reloading a checkpoint doesn't work, which apparently flew over my head for like a week until now.

[TrashMan]

I got a question - I can change the armor of Titus, Leandros and Sidonis wihotu problems. I can also give Titus any helment I want.


but every time I try to give Leandros or sidonis a helmet, they end up having no head in-game.

[Don the Oiler]

Hmm it works for me, which approach do you use for helmets?

[TrashMan]

Edited the "in-game" folder's files for each character. (sim/characters/space_marine....heads ..or something like that. I'm on another computer ATM, can't check the path.)

Either way, titus file points to csm_mp_ironwarriorhelmet, and Liandros and Sidonis point to sm_armor_leandros_helmet (normal SM marien helmet) and sm_armor_sidonis_helmet (corvus pattern helmet).
Those fodlers are in their respective armor folders, where other armor parts for the characters reside.

EDIT: Hmm...I'll have to double-check something..I think I know what might be the problem...

[Mangoose]

You don't need to change the wargear files anymore. Go straight to the ebps\race_marine\units folder (or whatever it is, if I messed it up) and just change the default wargear for each character (ai_leandros, ai_sidonus, vanguard). Start a new game at a checkpoint and voila.

[TrashMan]

ai_leandros points to the wargear file:

<Key>default_wargear_entry</Key>
<Type>String</Type>
<Data>wargear\wargear\race_marine\heads\in_game\leandros</Data>


and that's the file I edited.
Inside leandros.attrib_pc I changed to this:
<Value>
<Key>visual_name</Key>
<Type>String</Type>
<Data>sm_armour_leandros_helmet</Data>
</Value>
<Value>
<Key>visual_package</Key>
<Type>String</Type>
<Data>sm_armour_leandros_helmet</Data>
</Value>

the helmet is in the sm_armor_leandros folder along with all other parts of leandroses body.

Maybe a different folder???

[Mangoose]

The texture and/or model might be unfinished. The helmeted Leandros in game actually uses powerarmour_basic for the helmet.

Anyways like I said, you don't have to edit the wargear attr_pc file. You can change the wargear pointer in ai_leandros. So (for powerarmour_basic) wargear\wargear\race_marine\armour\powerarmour_basic\head.

[TrashMan]

Powerarmor basic would change all unltramarines in-game IIRC, right?

Gah..Will upload what I have in a new thread...we cna work from there :P

[Cookery]

As with the warboss/mira etc head change, is there any way to switch their body parts too?

Either way keep up the sweet work bros

[Mangoose]

Not easily. The body parts don't exist as equipped/default wargear for them (only the head is "wargear").

I tried half-heartedly trying to make Titus load as different models like an Ork but nothing really panned out. Just changing "visual package" under "renderable_ext" (in the ebps attr_pc for the unit) results in errors. To tie it to the above, FYI Mira's body exists as the visual package "mira_body", not as separate wargear.

[Ogachi]

Alright, now I've changed the head and armor using the method described by Mangoose. I switched it to the Battle Damaged armor as well as some other pieces in the same way. Once I got in the game, the models worked perfectly (Other than the floating teammates, but I know how to fix that), the only thing that was a problem was the "Enviro Textures" (The textures switch depending on the environment, usually a brown or grey, the texture of the floor.). So I thought, "TIME TO TEXTURE!" and then I stared at my screen for 5 minutes. Is there a way to texture without modeling programs using that method, or is it for single player armor only?

If there is not, how can I change the helmet and the left shoulder in the original style without them being a mess (The helmet actually working and the left pauldron not floating a meter above Titus' shoulder)?

Sorry about the lack of pictures, when I run it, the print screen button and steam overlay don't believe me and wont take the picture.

[TrashMan]

pauldron floating? Happened to me once when I had two different shoulder plates assigned to the same place....

[mastersaim]

where is the file???

[Khyron]

Hello

I have been struggeling to get helmets added for Titus, Sidonus and Leandros. I would simply like them to wear Mark 7 helmets in Ultramarines blue.

If anyone can give me pointers I would be much obliged....

Many thanks,
G

[cerberos008]

@Khyron
Adding a helmet to Titus isn't hard. I'm assuming you have the tools to edit .attr_pc files and extract .oppc packages. So just find his Ingame and Cinematic head attr_pc file and change both the "visual_name" and "visual_package" to "sm_armour_basic_001_helmet". Do not include any quotes.

A little more work is required for Sidonus and Leandros, so bare with me. You'll have to find a couple files from the "ebps.oppc" package. Once you've extracted the entire package, go to "sim\attributes\instances\ebps\race_marine\units" and look for "ai_sidonus.attr_pc" and "ai_leandros.attr_pc". Go into each file and under the "wargear_ext" branch, change the "cinematic_head" value to "wargear\wargear\race_marine\armour\powerarmour_basic\head". Then just under that, go into "default_wargear" and find the entry for his in-game head. Change that value to "wargear\wargear\race_marine\armour\powerarmour_basic\head" as well. Again, no quotes.

Put all that into your preview folder with the exact same file and folder organization, and your command squad should have their helmets.

[XRuinX]

Sorry if this has already been answered but how do you the customizable multiplayer gear (color swaps, not designated ones like space wolves and iron warriors) to show up on any of the three heroes?

I use the 2nd method: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\warhammer 40,000 space marine\preview\sim\attributes\instances\wargear\wargear\race_marine\heads\in-game\titus.attr_pc
and i change the "visual name" and "visual package" to point to csm_armour_mp_havoc_02_helmet. Now this works and all but i get the environment texture as others here have. I know Tin mentioned:

Edit the attr_pc to point to the librarian model
Copy over the torso.bmat file from basic_upres
edit the torso.bmat to point to the lib textures
rename to lib_torso.bmat

but im lost when it comes to editing the bmat file. I also assume he meant copy the bmat from upres into this folder:
preview\sim\attributes\instances\wargear\wargear\race_marine\armour\powerarmour_basic_upres

and when it comes to the texture itself, the texture files are located in "packages\csm_armour_mp_havoc_02_helmet_tt1" correct? So if im pointing to the csm_armour_mp_havoc_02_helmet folder in the packages folder, theres no textures in there. So i tried just sticking them in and of course that didnt work but would editing the BMAF file located there and changing all csm_armour_mp_havoc_02_helmet_nrm to csm_armour_mp_havoc_02_helmet_dis work? I only guess that since nrm is the only DDS file in there and was wondering if maybe thats whats causing the enviro texture.

and another thing:
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How can you implement the hellblade into the game? I managed to do that with the first method that used the "art" folder but not sure how to do it with this new method im trying(#2). And how can you attach loincloths? Is it only limited to Space Wolves and Lowegear just recolored the space wolve armour torso to look like blood ravens?
To get a clear picture, i intend to make Titus a chaos marine, with as many loinclothes as possible (if they can be moved on other parts and change texture to make them flayed faces), multiplayer armour, and all chaos weapons, including a hellblade in place of the power axe (change the radiating blue to red if possible)

[cerberos008]

I'm not too sure why the enviro texture happens, but it only appears if you try to put MP gear into SP. The only way to fix it is to replace the MP bmat file with an SP one, like the one from basic_upres.

First copy all files, including the texture dds files, into the same folder. In your case, copy everything to "preview\art\race_chaos\characters\chaos_marine\armour_mp\csm_armour_mp_havoc_02\csm_armour_mp_havoc_02_helmet". The bmat file from basic_upres goes into the same folder as where your texture files are, so put it into the csm helmet folder too. Remember to rename the basic_upres bmat file so that it will replace the existing one in the helmet folder (Eg. rename "torso.bmat" to "standard_3.bmat" and replace the old one).

After the bmat file is copied over, you must edit the bmat file so that the correct textures are listed in the bmat file, else the textures won't show up ingame. Or you can just rename all your texture files to the same naming as the ones in basic_upres.
For example, your "csm_armour_mp_havoc_02_helmet_dif.dds" can be renamed to "sm_armour_basic_upres_dif.dds" without having to edit the bmat file.

For adding the hellblade into the game, find the attr_pc file for the weapon you want replaced, then just change the "visual_data" to point to hellblade. Ideally it should work, but I haven't tried editing the hellblade yet, so I do not know for sure. Getting the effects that comes with a hellblade will take a little more work if you're interested.

For getting loinclothes, just take the torso.attr_pc of the armor you're editing, go into the visual_data branch and copy and paste an existing attachment entry into the same branch. This should give you 2 entries under the "visual_data\attachments" branch. Now edit one of those entries so that its visual_name and visual_package points to the loincloth you want on your armor. Keep in mind that Titus automatically uses a set loincloth for the main menu cinematic. If you don't want an extra loincloth to show up in the main menu, use the 1st method to replace "sm_armour_basic_upres_belt_fe" in the art folder with your loincloth, then edit your torso.attr_pc to point to "sm_armour_basic_upres_belt_fe" using the method I just mentioned.

[XRuinX]

Thanks for the clarification, i got it running and working

Now for my question on coloring. Theres got to be a way to assign the color templates used in multiplayer unto the armor for singleplayer. I've spent quite some time experimenting with no results other than my conclussion that something must be changed to Titus's code (sorry cant remember the file, on another computer). I tried assigning the color straight to the armor but couldnt get it to work, not meaning its impossible, but it just looked to me like the code for the campaign character doesnt have any inputs for coloring since Titus's skining is pre-coloured.
Anyone have any ideas? Sorry i cant provide examples, i only have internet on computer at work.

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EDIT:
So far it is my believe that the code that prevents Titus from being a customizable character is in his titus head attr_pc. While all the other wargear have attr (in the preview folder) that include everything that makes titus work such as camera settings and weapon slots, Titus's head is the only gear that actually has that code in the original since his actual wargear (torso, legs etc.) dont contain any attr files.
I then looked at the mp_wargear_set folder and the blood ravens DLC attr_pc specifically. It contained code to assign specific armor pieces and also contained a directed custom_paint_scheme.

Then I attempted to implement the code i thought valuable from the mp_wargear_set files into both the torso and titus attr_pc files in my preview folder but nothing changed. Actually when i tried to convert the xml back to an attr_pc file for Titus (head) the converter froze everytime.

[cerberos008]

Editing the attr_pc files might require access into the MP customizer coding to figure out the value names for each color. Without it, you're basically blind to the colors available, because the only ones you can probably find from the armor attr_pc are the default Ultramarines and Black Legion coloring. Not to mention that every piece of MP armor is colored gray to begin with and has a specific texture file attached that points out which part of the texture is colored primary, detail, and pattern. The SP armors don't have this because, as you said, they're pre-colored. I'm not really certain how to get it to work with SP armors, cause it seems like it'll take more than just simply getting the right texture files and the proper coding to the attr_pc.

I'm not one to mess with heavy coding, so I'd much prefer to just plain edit the texture files directly. At least this way I'd have much more control over what the results will be. It's working well so far, I might add.

[XRuinX]

Well Im horrible with coloring the textures so im not giving up yet. I am not almost certain the answer is In the bmat files. I compared multiplayer,Titus and precolored doc armor and it looks as if the bmat is what gives the texture color. T hat and the whole code that says paintmask-(untranslated code) and texture package etc.
So are there any tools for opening up the bmat files without all the nonsense code?

[cerberos008]

You may have something with the .bmat files there. I've never messed with the MP .bmat files cause they're always corrupted when I try to import them into 3ds max, so I usually just replace the MP armors with the SP .bmat files. But now that I've converted one of them into xml using Santo's smbod tool, there's quite a lot of data that's different compared to the SP bmat. One interesting coding that sticks out is the shader name that's referenced in the MP bmat: "character_wargear". The SP bmats have shader names that's assigned to something like "diff_norm_spec_reflect_lp_lgchar", but the MP bmat uses something else entirely.

Just from briefly skimming through the rest of the text, though, I can't seem to find anything else that might point to which color is which. That doesn't necessarily mean it's not there though. So there might still be hope.