The Forge Tools 3 has modding documentation which is a good introduction, but much of the information is outdated and has changed for Entrenchment, Diplomacy and Rebellion. According to the original Sins Mod Set (2008), you will need to copy the 'entire' folder set from your SoaSE install directory to the created mod folder, then convert the files you wish to modify to text. Those which are not included will not be used by the game.
For the Entrenchment, Diplomacy expansions, and Rebellion, you only have to include the files that you want to change and if you want to "remove" an original file you have to remove it from the entity manifest (which is explained in the documentation). Also note that it includes some reference files which are outdated and you will need to create your own or download the archives for Rebellion or Trinity that includes all current versions.
TECH = TEC PSI = Advent PHASE = Vasari
The first thing on a new modder's list should be the Developer.exe's. Weather you are starting to build a new mod or testing a downloaded mod this tool is very useful for finding errors and game testing. If you are not sure about the errors generated or you want to keep track of them you will want to Enable Logging, then you can copy the information to paste into a thread in the modding forum.
See Also:
Install Mods
Getting Your Mod MadeSoaSE Mods on WinCustomizeSoaSE Mods on ModDBSoaSE Wiki
Install and Mod Paths
SoaSE Modders OneDrive CloudRebellion Training Manual pdf
This is excellent for those new modders ??? heh i wish this was up a year and half ago... would of helped alot . hehe nevertheless awsome work dun forget to include my finding for importing nexus ships Major stress
Unfortunately i failed in "exporting" the nexus ships. I couldn't get the tools to work, or the tools dont like vista, or windows 7. Plus there was nothing that exported the textures. Regardless that is another topic.
Bumping this topic because i am seeing too many lost souls on the modding forum.
Thanks for the bump Major. It always makes me want to improve the page if it is not lost to oblivion.
I re-worked your texturing tutorial a little and added screenshots. Having the old info priority then a note to changes did not make sense to me so I prioritized the new info with a note about old version info. A minor change, hope you don't mind.
Also added the convertXSI article to Importing and a few quotes from SuperZero and harpo99999.
Thanks again.
Well, as you can see by the threads title change I am revamping this thread to basically cover everything to do with modding SoaSE.
I added articles on converting bin to text, using convertxsi, embeded a couple texturing videos and added lots of links and other info.
Hopefully I did not miss giving credit to all the helpful modders and will continue to add to this thread with any pertinent information as I find it.
Contributions and questions are welcome.
All these will check if everything is done properly or do it for you.
I love the convert XSI button. It will even move your new files directly to your new mod instantly.
More Toolbars are coming. Importing and Start a New Model will do a lot of the work for you.
This will help myfist, Thanks!
So how soon on the Maxscripts???
I dont have Max - 30 days almost up.
Just wanted Sins models into XSI
But do the model in any program and move to XSI then click each button and your done.
Still workin on a lot of the code.
Yeah same here!
Hey myfist0, how did you go with the Akkan? I haven't been able to get the UV's right on that. The rest are all good though.
Drag this image onto XSI 7.5 and copy the textures from the install directory to your open projects "Pictures" directory.
Full scene with 2 UV sets, tangents, mesh points and cleaned up.
Ya, my toolbar automatically finds the root\textures dir and copies the textures to the projects Pictures dir.
Rotten hell
Looks like my textures are inside out.
The KOL word at the top of the ship is backwards. Oh well back to the drawing board.
yes that's what mine does also, I don't know why the Akkans didn't. The Uv's coordinates don't match. Its not a problem with the textures, more so the imported models UV's. so the drag option you kindly provided doesn't work either.
I'll go over it again. Obviously its something I have done wrong when importing or exporting, Perhaps I didn't tick/un-tick a box some where.
Your normals are inverted by the looks. I have the same problem and inverting the normals in xsi doesn't work either, well it does, but the textures show up on the inside of the model instead of the out.
Hmm! might try inverting the polygons as well.
Yeah, from the looks of it the biggest problem is with normals on this. Those tricky bastages
Yes, they are. I think Aractain is working on a script to fix this issue. I'm not sure, hope so.
Well, at least I did have some success getting the Akkan imported properly. Must have ticked the wrong box somewhere along the line before hand.
"I think Aractain is working on a script to fix this issue. I'm not sure, hope so."
I am working on a script that imports/exports and makes things much easier to work in max (not version 7 unfortunatly it dosn't have a load of code stuff I use).
And that looks like you are indeed using the wrong face winding (i.e. inverted normals). The old x and z swaperoo of each face fun for loop.
Infact didn't those three guns and and the sticky out shelf used to be on the left before? Seems XSI uses the same handedness of max so you need to swap all the points and vert positions and normals etc etc also?
Actually I have just work out an easy way to fix it. When you say the guns and stuff are on the opposite side, well that's because they are. I just made a symmetrical copy of the whole thing and deleted the original and you little beauty its all how it should be.
Its funny how so often the obvious things, staring us all straight in the face, are just not noticed. Well by me anyway.
Can't find the forest cause all the trees.
Yeah, for importing that would be the best solution. Its the same thing its just already coded for you, lol.
I wonder if I can find that symmetrical copy in XSI. Thanks for the heads up.
EDIT: It worked. I wish I notice b4 importing everything. I would have put that in the script.
The symmetrical copy does work but if you need to flip the nulls it inverts them. Weapons and Exhaust point in .
I unchecked "Freeze negative scaling" and the nulls look OK now.
the texturing vids part 1 and 2 no work anymore
EDIT work now nvm
another double post. Thanks again forum boobs
Did you test the model in game? I did the symmetrical copy and fixed all the flipped nulls and exported to game. The ship flies backwards now shooting forward out its ass. Tested the original 1 I did with the backwards writing and its OK but the it is flipped. I guess I need to test more of the optional settings.
What I do is import mesh to max, export straight to obj., import into XSI, rotate X axis 90 deg. so the front of the model points in the same direction as the Z axis arrow, transform model along X axis, symmetrise model, delete original, transform model back to centre, do tangents & what ever other changes intended, export to .xsi, convert to mesh then copy the points from the original SoaSE mesh files into it. Tested and works good, in fact somewhere along the line I end up with less vertexes, triangles and a smaller file size than the original SoaSE file as an added bonus.
This method may be fine for what I was doing, but I can see if you have made a model with max, that no mesh file already exists with the points already done, you are having to do all the nulls again in xsi.
When will that script be done ? Soon I hope
Thanks SuperZ, I did test a few in game b4 noticing the backward writing and it was less polys. I think its the optimize in ConvertXSI. You can also use --nooptimize.
I do like to get the nulls in XSI so I can see wats wat tho. Going to mess with it a little more. Thanks again
I hope its soon too!
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