I was thinking whether in the EE it will be possible to add Armour with the new textures. Is there a tutorial for it somewhere?
However, I was also interested in adding armour that comes “as is”, with no part variations. Is that a thing?
I don’t think there are tutorials for this topic specifically, but - sure it is.
To add normal and spec maps to a model, find the “bitmap” line (bitmap name_of_the_original_texture) and replace it with
renderhint NormalAndSpecMapped
bitmap insert_name_of_the_diffuse_texture_here
texture1=insert_name_of_the_normalmap_here
texture2=insert_name_of_the_spec_map_here
(edit note: Updated for Symmetric’s advice on maintaining backwards compatibility with pre-EE tools)
And one-piece armours are a thing, yep, via robes. Check out parts_robe.2da - you can individually set other armour parts hidden while the robe is equipped. I’ve experimented with adding normal and spec maps to robes, and can confirm that it worked fine.
2 Likes
Thank you very much. Now I only need a tutorial on how to add a custom “robe” (even if it’s mail armour)
hmm! I haven’t found a robe-themed one, but it’s largely the same thing as in this tutorial for a skinmeshed goat creature: https://neverwintervault.org/article/tutorial/goat-walk-skinmesh-turtorial
I’d suggest exporting one of the existing Bioware robes and deleting their skinmesh to reuse the bones as they’re already set up in those. If you’ve already got the armor model, what you need to do is rig it (see tutorial), rename the new robe, and add a row in the 2da.
The robe name needs to match the row it’s on in the 2da - the 2da data for robe model 007 will be taken from row 7 in parts_robe.2da. Be aware that new robes are sorted by AC value rather than by their number, in the toolset dropdown, so your new robe may not be on the number you’ve given it.
Crafting and then rigging the mesh is the biggest part. Getting the animations to look right can take a good deal of fiddling.
Once that’s done, you’ll want to create the other races and phenos. There’s a tool for batch generating them in NWMax, under Robes\Armour\Skin -> Armour Maker. Craft male human and female human defaults (and, for best results, preferably also pheno 2 male and female human), batch generate the other races.
And then for the last step, you can use NWN Armory or the NWN Model Renamer to create the mounted phenotypes. pmh0 needs to become pmh3 and pmh5, pmh2 needs to become pmh6 and pmh8, and the same thing for all the other races and genders. Open the pheno 3, 5, 6, 8 models and ensure that the “setsupermodel” line also matches the new phenotype.
2 Likes
I found this a bit more confusing than I hoped, I guess that practice makes perfect doesn’t it?