** Adeptus Modificatus is the games modifications subforum for Dawn of War **
Welcome! This FAQ is here to provide you with the basic shortcuts and links required to help you modify any of the major facets of Dawn of War, as well as laying down a few guidelines.
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Useful Links:
- The forum rules and guidelines - PLEASE ENSURE YOU READ AND ARE FAMILIAR WITH THESE RULES.
- The Resource Management Thread - to list and organise what UCS (more on this later) lines are in use in the community, as well as showcasing textures released for community use!
- Mod Tools for Dark Crusade - pretty self-explanatory (these also work with Soulstorm - see here).
- Updated LUAs and Model Exporter for Soulstorm [download] - again, self-explanatory (click here for updated model exporter scripts [download]).
- Useful Macros for CMS 0.5.5 - a handy thread for people doing lots of work with Corsix's Mod Studio!
- Information about our IRC server!
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Forum structure:
This is the main subforum for Adeptus Modificatus - is it here you ask all of your questions related to general modding and more advanced topics such as AI, SCaR (more on that later), the Object Editor and similar topics.
Important note: if you wish to ask a question related to map-making, ask it in the DoW Maproom. This allows veteran map-makers to spot your thread quickly and provide assistance. This is not a forum rule, and moderators will generally move map thread to the Maproom; however it's a useful note to bear in mind if you want swifter feedback.
The DoW Maproom - your stop for all subjects related to map-making. The tool used in map-making is the Mission Editor, can be found in your Dawn of War folder (usually Program Files/THQ/Dawn of War) and is named W40kME.exe.
DoW Modding Tutorials and How-Tos - this subforum contains tutorials and guides written by past and present modders to help you create your modification!
DoW Mods in Progress - the place for all modifications currently in development. Please do NOT ask questions in this subforum; they will be moved or deleted without notice (also note the DoW Completed Mods Discussion subforum - mod threads will be moved here by a moderator once a mod is deemed "complete" by the mod team).
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Common modding tools:
- Relic's Attribute Editor, used to modify the LUA files provided with the Mod Tools package. This tool also comes with the package. Has a user-friendly interface, but can take forever to load (and can crash on older systems). You have been warned.
- Relic's Object Editor, required to get your 3D models into the game. This tool comes with the Mod Tools package. This is a complex, powerful tool with a decent amount of documentation on the subject. Has a decent interface, is rather repetitive, and has no issues that I am aware of.
- Relic's Mission Editor, used to make, edit and view maps. This tool comes with the Mod Tools package but is not installed to THQ/Dawn of War/ModTools. Instead, it is found in your Dawn of War folder. Again, this is a moderately complex tool that isn't that easy to understand at first. Thankfully, there are tutorials on how to use it.
- Relic's Mod Packager, used to extract files from the SGA archive that Relic use to store their game files. Comes with a nifty interface, but unfortunately you can't extract individual files. You CAN however hit the Cancel button during extraction once you see your file name extracted - the process will halt but the files extracted thus far will remain extracted.
- Relic's Fx Tool, used to create and modify game effects (stored as .LUA files, but using a different language to the Attribute Editor LUA files). There isn't a great deal of documentation on this subject, despite the tool being powerful and relatively easy to get the hang of.
- Also included in the Mod Tools package are the Audio Editor and the Chunky Viewer, however I have little experience with these tools. If anybody is familiar with them and is willing to give me an overview, PLEASE SEND ME A PRIVATE MESSAGE. Thanks!
Other community-created tools exist, such as:
- Corsix's much-praised Mod Studio; an alternative for the Attribute Editor that loads much faster and has other functionality to boot (it also works for Company of Heroes modifications!).
- Corsix's SGA Reader; an alternative to the Mod Packager.
- Corsix's (yes, him again. Corsix has been a great boon to the modding communities of Relic's games) Lightweight LUA Burner - a simple LUA-to-RGD converter that I personally find amazingly useful.
- Dark40k's Advanced Mission Editor - an improved Mission Editor with tonnes of additional functionality!
- IBBoard's Texture Tool - an amazingly useful tool that allows you to decompile Relic's texture files into an editable format, and vice versa!
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Scripting and coding for Dawn of War:
Relic uses a few (pseudo) languages to define Dawn of War unit information. Here is a brief overview:
- Attribute files (file extension: .lua). These are prefaced with the following text when opened in a text editor like Notepad:
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-- File: 'abilities\ability_strategic_point_bonus.lua'
-- Created by: AttributeEditor v2.0
-- Note: Do NOT edit by hand!
-- (c) 2001 Relic Entertainment Inc.
They can be edited by hand, but consequently can easily be broken. Stick to the Attribute Editor or Corsix's Mod Studio if you're not comfortable editing the code itself.
- AI files (file extension: .ai). These are written in a similar language to the Attribute files, however the syntax (/structure & naming conventions) are slightly different. They will often reference Attribute files. Can be opened in Notepad or the like.
- SCaR - SCripting at Relic - files (file extension: .scar). These again have their own defined language which is quite similar to any simple object-oriented programming language (clicky for details - warning, only for nerds). Can be opened in Notepad or the like.
- UCS files (file extension: .ucs). These hold the lines used by the game's tooltip feature - each line is a plain English text line detailing the text to be displayed ingame, with an associated number for insertion into Attribute files. Can be opened in Notepad and the like.
Also seen, but very-rarely used (perhaps DoWPro makes use of these) are the CSV files found in ModTools/DataGeneric/w40k/AI (only under the DoW v1.41 Mod Tools release though, I think). CSV is a defined and recognised format that can be opened in Notepad or the like.
Additional game file formats include:
- SCREEN files (file extension: .screen). These define how the ingame screens are displayed, and can be opened in Notepad. WARNING. These files are very easy to break, due to their extensive formatting. However, once you figure out how they work, you can change a massive amount of the game's interface.
- WHE files (file extension: .whe). These define the Object Editor data for the game model, and are created by creating a new OE file using the existing WHM file.
- WHM files (file extension: .whm). These define the model data for the game model, and are created by the export scripts provided by Relic with your modelling software.
- RSH files (file extension: .rsh). The default texture file format used by Relic. Can be decompiled using IBBoard's tool into the TGA file format for editing in other programs.
- RTX files (file extension: .rtx). The texture file format used for Single Player faction textures by Relic. Can be decompiled using IBBoard's tool into the TGA file format for editing in other programs, however more these files contain additional information that I'm not sure about. If anybody could enlighten me, PLEASE SEND ME A PRIVATE MESSAGE. Thanks!
- WTP files (file extension: .wtp). The texture file format used for team-colourable textures by Relic. Consists of several images compressed together into a single file. Can be decompiled using IBBoard's tool into the TGA file format for editing in other programs, however said decompilation generates several TGA files. Please read the Tutorials and How-Tos subforum for more information on creating/editing a WTP file.
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Commonly-asked questions:
Where can I find the installed Mod Tools package?
- in your Dawn of War directory, under ModTools
What program would I need to alter unit models?
- 3D modelling software is required to alter models; in this case 3DS Max is the only software that the DoW export scripts work with.
What program(s) would I need to alter unit textures?
- Textures can be extracted from Relic's texture files (WTP, RSH or RTX) using IBBoard's Texture Tool, linked above, and then edited in any advanced image editor (Photoshop, the GIMP, and so on).
[FAQ] Welcome to Adeptus Modificatus!
