-= Gametoast.com =-

If you can all handle answering a newbie, please do so.

I have modded other games heavily, including modelling, texturing, scripting etc. So I am no newbie to modding in general, but this is the first time I've tried to mod a FPS game, and the tools that I am trying to use are stumping me.

What I want to do at the moment is change the look of the Rebels and the Imperial Stormtroopers. Just the textures right now, I'll worry about the models later. So, I figured using the BViewer 1.44 would work. I can sucessfully unpack (or whatever the correct term is) a .lvl file and see the individual texture files in the window on the right-hand side of BViewer. Then I can extract a particular texture and get it's .dds file. However, no matter what plugin I use, I can't get Paint Shop Pro 7.04 to open the .dds file. (And yes, it's a legal copy)

Am I going about it correctly? Honestly, I haven't read any tutorials, I'm more the 'jump-in-sink-or-swim' type, which has worked fine in the past...

Also, I can't open the .lvl files in the Battlefront/GameData/Data/_LVL_PC folder, it gives me an "Run-time error 9, subscript out of range" error message.

I have BViewer in the Battlefront main folder, I think it's suggested to put it elsewhere, but I can't recall.

Also, at some point in the future I want to change the sounds of the laser fire and such, is that possible/easy/etc?

One final thing, what is the best way of creating/editing a map? I haven't founf much out about that yet...

Thanks for your patience, as a vetern modder of other games, I know how much of a pain us newbs can be.

Go to gametoast's front page, look for the link for the modding kit, download it and spend plenty of time reading the documentation. If you have access to a printer, print out the docs and put it in a folder, and write notes on it as you find your way through.

The mod kit includes all the assets for the game (models, levels, textures in .tga format etc) so you don't need to decompile and convert them.

The Battlefront mod tools are officially unsupported, but there's lots of information in the documentation, including crucial information about installing the tools... for example, you must not install them to a directory with a space in it

READING THE DOCUMENTATION IS VITAL IF YOU WANT TO MAKE ANY PROGRESS WITH THESE TOOLS.

sorry to shout, but there's been a flurry of posts recently that, had the posters followed this simple advice, would have saved them a lot of pain.

I haven't read any tutorials

There really aren't that many tutorials. You could look at this simple intro to mapping tutorial at my site to get you started: http://www.saturnlabs.net/Tutorial_Lava ... ge_00.html

Also look for the psych0fred link in the side bar here at Gametoast. Psych0fred is an official developer who maintains a board that has a lot of information about every aspect of modding SWBF. The board is divided into categories and is fully searchable, and also has downloads of updates for the tools - get these too before you start mapping, as they address some bugs that can cause the mapping tools to crash. There is also information there about modding sides which will help you on your way.

And this forum has a powerful search function too, use it well. The answers you need to get up and running have already been covered (the tools were released last December so there is 6 months of research and experimentation documented). There is a wealth of knowlege here for those who are willing to seek it.

If you have experience of modelling and texturing, you will find lots of opportunities for your talents in the SW Battlefront community.

Good luck, and May The Force Be With You

<edit> heh, 'fred posted while I was typing this up

Ahh, I see. Much easier now... Thanks men!

However, now I have a new problem. When I try to run the ZSeroEditor, it keeps telling me that I have to have Battlefront installed to run ZeroEditor...

why would u ask that. do u not own swbf?

Uhh....yes... It's installed in the standard directory. That's why I'm perplexed. Why would it act like I don't have it installed when I do?

well...i can't tell u that. u should be most spesific (BAD spelling,sorry)

Uhm, how much more specific can I get? When I click on "Edit 'ModName" in BfBuilder, it says "You must have Star Wars Battlefront installed to run the ZeroEditor". Period. End of story...

If you have not run the game with the launcher yet, it will not register. If you stick your cd in and the window pops up to start the game, that is the launcher. start the game with it. OR go to the SWBF folder and double click on LaunchBf.exe and start the game.

I had the same problem. that fixed it.

Steve

Yup, that did it! Thanks!

You said you wanted to skin right? do you have photoshop (if you mod other games you probly should)?

Actually, I use Paint Shop Pro 7.04. Never had the money for Photoshop...

hmmm than you might have some problems skinning but... i want to check in on that

ahh wait here we go! you see skins/textures are in .tga format. this is not a normal format that comes with paintshop. however, use this converter http://www.gold-software.com/tgaconverter.html what you want to do is go into you assets folder and look under sides. Under sides there will be all the factions listed. click on one and then on MSH folder. then you should convert the .tga texture (nothing else) into .jpeg and edit them through paintshop. then covert them back

I use Paintshop pro on all my textures. Just make sure that under the save options that you uncheck the compressed tab. Otherwise you will get an error in munge that targa type x and 10 are not supported at this time. Otherwise, paintshop pro works to edit the tga files.

Steve

I got a tga plugin for Paint Shop Pro a long time ago, when I was modding Star Trek: Bridge Commander. PSP handles tga files fine now. And yeah, I unchecked the compress thing too. But thanks for the heads up anyway.

Now, I have another question: Is there some way of viewing the .msh files? I mean, I know there has to be, but what's involved? I thought I had a converter to make them a format for importing onto Milkshpae 1.7.4, which I have, but now I can't find it, or even remember if that's actually what it was... (Sorry, all the stuff I've DLed lately has gotten a bit confusing)

Bconstructor will convert .msh files to Milkshape ASCII.