[solved] Scaling down Gem placeables

Neverwinter Nights 1 Toolset, Scripting, NWNX
#1

Hello,

in NWN are gem-placeables (ruby, emerald, diamond and sapphire) under Treasure/Unique. They are by far too large for my purpose. So I took the *mdl (i. e. it_midmisc_151.mdl) and scaled them down to 0.3 with the scale parameter.

Looking into the toolset, everything seems to be fine, the new sizes match my expectations. But in the game, nothing seems to be changed. The placeables appear still in the old size! Whats happening here? How can the game engine ignore the override from a hak, while the toolset displays the change correctly?

Another issue with the placeables is, that the texture file (tnp_gcrys) seems to be absend … I can’t find it. It’s the same texture for all 4 models.

Does anybody know, what’s the reason for this unexpected behavior?

#2

If using EE, you can scale placeables in the toolset (or by script) without changing models… if that helps.

#3

Hi Proleric,

scaling down is not the problem, in the toolset I can verify the effect. The unexpected behaviour of the engine is it.

Can you scale down this specific placeable with the EE and have a smaller version of it in the game afterwards? (I don’t have an EE)

#4

I’ve had the same issue in the past. It seems that 1.69 engine sometimes doesn’t honor the scale property in case of placeables (it does for body parts), even though a scaled object is shown in the toolset.

In case of it_midmisc_151 I saw that both the engine and toolset are scaling it (up or down) based on scale. They don’t scale the hitbox, though, so it makes it harder to click on it.

If the model is simple (one trimesh), your best non-EE chance is probably scaling the vertex array using either some scripting tool or manually with a spreadsheet (each trimesh should be centered at origin, so it’s a matter of single multiplication).

EDIT: speaking of tools, @Tarot_Redhand posted one here some time ago:

https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/hakpak/combined/silly-little-utilities

#5

Thanks, I already feared, that it’s a problem with the engine. Sounds rather complicated, to scale the trimesh.
I’ll try the gems from project q fist (they have the desired size), making them a bit more “shiny” with the “selfillumcolor”. (thats something I learned while messing around).

#6

It’s quite easy with a single trimesh:

  1. Decompile the model
  2. Copy all 3 columns from verts section to a spreadsheet (excel, calc, etc)
  3. On paste split by whitespace, which yields 3 columns of real number data
  4. Use =A1*10 formula to scale vertex components (adjust to your needs)
  5. Copy scaled vertexes back to the model, overwriting original verts
Profit (x10, with a proper hitbox)

(text bubble is always so high, even in vanilla model)

scaled_x10
scaled_x10640×800 120 KB

You can also play with orientation to make the diamond properly rest on its side.

#7

Thanks for the explanation, I’ll keep that in mind for similar situations. I guess, this isn’t my last mdl-hack.

What I did is the following: I took all the verts, tverts and faces from a Project Q small gem placeable and replaced the sections in the bio file with them. Done. I just need some colorful static dots on a plate …

It’s notable that the new models appear in-game at the double size as in the toolset (roughly estimated).

Btw. Do you know, where the distance between a placeable and the “hovering - text” is determinated? The text which appears, if the player points with the mouse over an static object?

#8

I’m not exactly sure about the hover bubble. Switching whole model’s content with another one (I used archery target) doesn’t change bubble’s position, but changing model’s name in placeables.2da turns the diamond completely into the target (also lowering the bubble).