How are Mods made?

[flamestar]

I know takes a great deal of coding, and most of the time images are needed so the changes will show up. But what programs do you guys use to see the texture and model files? What do you use to change them?

I'm currently taking a "crash course" in coding from a friend, and modding looks like fun and might be good practice for me. How do you guys do it?

There was another guy asking about eggs in the "suggestions" thread again, and then I saw someone else asking about changing the resources needed to make boulders. So I'm thinking, why not just put an "egg skin" on a boulder? And how do you guys make those amazing murals I see when I go lair exploring?

Btw, I looked through all the "decor" files in "resources" I could find- where exactly is that boulder?

[meepsa]

for texture changes to be made, the .agh viewer which can be downloaded Here is used, it is also capable of converting the .agh to .png images so you can edit them with any image editing software. (I do know some extra steps have to be taken to convert it back to .agh and have the game recognise it correctly)

the murals are made using a template and an image editor which gets send in to Virtrium for events or such.

however, any other mods which don't involve texture replacing are most often switching some files around (for example, replacing the hatchling model with that of an ancient to see what a hatchling would look like as an ancient)

[flamestar]

Cool thank you for telling me.

What are all these other files that came with the AGH viewer?

[Raptress]

The "extra files" that came with AGH Viewer I am assuming are the DLLs? AGH Viewer needs those in order to function. Just keep 'em around in the same folder or something, that should suffice.

Mods that are visual usually are all about texture replacing and have little to no "coding" involved. For those, you extract the texture you want to edit from the game files with the AGH Viewer Meepsa linked. In order to change your edited file back into an .agh, you need to use a command in the game. You add this command in the same way you add setscale.

Add this code block before the very last } in a copy of Commands_Player.def that you've placed in resources_override:

//aghConvert
{
string name = "aghConvert"
string abbrev = "agh"
string usage = "<filename>"
string description = "Converts an image to AGH format"
int numParams = 1
int minParams = 0
}

Then place your edited texture in resources_override and use the command in-game with "/aghconvert filename.format". This will convert your file into an .agh. There is supposedly a command to reload your textures without relogging, but it never worked for me so I don't have the code block handy. You'll have to relog every time you want to see an updated texture.

As for the boulder, it depends on exactly what one we're talking about, but perhaps you're looking for resources/textures_agh/terrain/terrain_rock_flat_reg_grey.agh.

And the murals aren't related to modding, really. All the murals you'll see are ones that anyone can make. There's a long list of buildable murals when you own a lair. New ones got added from events a while back, but there haven't been additions in a while. If you want to make your own though, you can either go find the template or pull a mural texture out yourself with AGH Viewer and use that as a guide. You could send it in via support ticket if you think it's really good. Who knows, VI might use it.

It is important to note that all mods are client-side only. That is, only you can see your mods.

There's definitely some coding-sorts of things when you're doing something beyond simple texture replacing, but it gets much harder to explain. That's also assuming that it's possible to begin with, as some thing simply aren't, like editing the 3D models or animations. If you have specifics in mind, maybe I could help.

[Racktor]

There is supposedly a command to reload your textures without relogging, but it never worked for me so I don't have the code block handy. You'll have to relog every time you want to see an updated texture.

It's called /purgetex and it does work if you have the .agh file in the resources_override folder (not added in the current login or the game doesn't notice it) & update it. It's useful if you're fine tuning, but not testing out multiple things at once. Still requires relogging. Also, it only updates your own texture if you have yourself selected.
The code:

}
//purgeTextures
{
string name = "purgeTextures"
string abbrev = "purgeTex"
string usage = "[no parameters]"
string description = "Purges all texture and image resources for immediate reloading."
}

Adding it is the same thing as /aghconvert. =P

[flamestar]

I figured out what the DLLs were for right before I read this, lol. But I also found these in the folder:

com_book_covers_spine.agh
com_book_covers_spine.agh.psd
com_book_covers_spine.agh.Tga
icon_assassin.agh.Tga
icon_barber.agh.Tga
icon_bard.agh.Tga
... etc.

They look like icon textures, but I can't figure out how to use the viewer to look at them. I put them in the same fiolder as the viewer because I didn't know what else to do with them.

When you say editing the 3D models and animations, do you mean like how Solitaire made the dragon models sit and lie down differently? And how those player-made emotes were created? I wouldn't be able to move them around like that?

[Racktor]

You have to navigate the AGHviewer's root to your Istaria base folder (I.E. C:\Program Files (x86)\Istaria). You have to do it eevverryy time you start the program, unfortunately. It should then list all the file directories possible with .agh fiels in them that you can look at in the viewer, and from there, save.

Solitaire is a developer I believe. =P Or something close to it. So he has access to the models and whatnot. Some expensive programs out there will let you modify the animations and things, but right now I don't think a simple player would be able to modify the models. So, in short, no - you won't be able to move them around like that.

[meepsa]

oh yeah, I forgot to mention this! to open the istaria .agh files you have to change the root folder to your main istaria by opening the viewer, going to file and selecting change root folder, the .agh viewer still looks for the old standard istaria (with other words, horizons) folder.

-edit- ninja'd by racktor

-double edit- oh but I do know how the other emotes were made, those are actually files buried within the resources folder of animations that are old or were never used to begin with, for example, dragons have like 3 different animations for spellcasting, you can view these by getting granny viewer ^.=.^ those were just done with a little coding and those older files.

[Racktor]

I wonder if it's possible to edit the program's coding to make it look for the new istaria root folder..

[Solitaire]

Solitaire is a developer I believe. =P Or something close to it. So he has access to the models and whatnot.

Not quite a developer any longer though I stay in touch and would like to continue working on it again sometime. There are a few things that I really feel I left unfinished and am quite unsatisfied about that.

Some expensive programs out there will let you modify the animations and things, but right now I don't think a simple player would be able to modify the models. So, in short, no - you won't be able to move them around like that.

There is no inexpensive way to work with the character models themselves for players. Requires Autodesk Maya and RAD Game Tool's Granny. They are professional level tools so not cheap at all.

[Krinharth]

you can view these by getting granny viewer

mm? what a viewer? can you share link? at least on description of this, please?

[meepsa]

mm? what a viewer? can you share link? at least on description of this, please?

well, when you go into: istaria/resources/characters you will notice the files in there are called .gr2, these are files which contain a converted version of a model (I think, I'm not a guru at this kinda stuf...yet!), and you can view them once you have granny viewer 2, sadly, I can't seem to find where to get it anymore

[Krinharth]

it is sad. but now you mayby can explain, how you've made this colored stripes on your texture? is it jast colored textur, and thus it works with your own dragon, or you make something, like "red tongue" mod, and everione can see it?
if second, can yoyu explain how to do it please?

[meepsa]

it is sad. but now you mayby can explain, how you've made this colored stripes on your texture? is it jast colored textur, and thus it works with your own dragon, or you make something, like "red tongue" mod, and everione can see it?
if second, can yoyu explain how to do it please?

um, I think you've got mods confused there, ALL mods are client sided, meaning only you can see them, both the ones that you described are just texture mods.

but yes, it's a texture mod made using the base texture of a dragon.

[Krinharth]

um, I think you've got mods confused there, ALL mods are client sided, meaning only you can see them, both the ones that you described are just texture mods.

but yes, it's a texture mod made using the base texture of a dragon.

umm. perhaps I tell not so clear. I mean, when you use colored texture instead of grey, it became invisible on some dragons, who use same texture; thus you can see yourself, but you can not see another dragons (or they became particaly invisible and so on. I have this proplem in time, when one dragon looks headless to me, and after I realise, that reason in fact - I've set my modyfied texture colored, and it looks good on me, but on dragon with another tint it looks wierd)

so am I right, you jast make full colored texture? no way make all this scars and stripes, that will looks good on every tint and texture combination?

[meepsa]

umm. perhaps I tell not so clear. I mean, when you use colored texture instead of grey, it became invisible on some dragons, who use same texture; thus you can see yourself, but you can not see another dragons (or they became particaly invisible and so on. I have this proplem in time, when one dragon looks headless to me, and after I realise, that reason in fact - I've set my modyfied texture colored, and it looks good on me, but on dragon with another tint it looks wierd)

so am I right, you jast make full colored texture? no way make all this scars and stripes, that will looks good on every tint and texture combination?

ah I get it.

and well, the armwarmers/stripes I made were made on a copy of the normal dragon texture, on a seperate layer (so everything around the mod would be transparent), after which I sent the file to Blue who then made it possible the be seen, however, as the texture is just an overlay instead of an edit of an already existing texture, it works on every tint and texture

[Krinharth]

oh, that is the point, how work with this overlay, that allows place two textures on object? is it better ask Blue?

[meepsa]

oh, that is the point, how work with this overlay, that allows place two textures on object? is it better ask Blue?

yes I do believe so, I would only be able to help with the art wise aspect of it.

[flamestar]

I got the agh viewer working- and those textures are amazing! I almost can't believe the amount of detail put into them! But I've only ever covered a small part of Istaria compared to the whole, so I'm not even sure if all of those textures are even in-game.

From the looks of things there might have been horses and unicorns in Istaria once upon a time... I wonder where those rugs and such are? It'll be fun trying to find them.

I can't find granny viewer anywhere though. It's like the company just dropped it off the face of the internet. Darn... I really wanted to look at all those animations and models.

[Raptress]

I tried to find the Granny Viewer too. Only site I found that might have had it was going to make me install a download manager and that was none too tempting. Instead, I fired up an old computer that I knew already had the viewer on it. Here ya go~:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/100046924/gr2_viewer_setup.zip