so many requests about installing the new packs. lot of you want to make your own personal mods, but seem to be a little unsure on how to add anew horse, shield, armor, or weapon (also known as items in m&b parley).
i know there are tutorials out there, and i myself have explained it in a couple of threads. but, since i'm the type of guy i am, i'll do it here, for you, my loyal fans, my people. can we do it? YES, WE CAN!
maw's step by step adding items to m&b
1. locate and make a copy of your Native mod. it is found in the m&b directory under Modules. i usually make two copies, and change the name to the mod i will initially work in as Test.
2. there are two subdirectory's within you working mod, locate them. they are Resource and Textures.
3. open the Textures directory under your mod. this is where all related graphic files for the skins are to be placed, also called dds files (direct draw surface). open the pack you want to add, and copy all the dds files to this location.
4. next, open the Resource directory under your mod. this is where the three dimensional mesh is stored for your mod. many meshes are held collectively in a file usually referred to as a brf file. in the case of what i release, it is usually the file that starts with mod_whatever (mod_armors.brf, mod_horse,brf, mod_shields.brf). copy that mod_whatever file here.
i usually, at this time, open up that brf file using the mighty Thorgrim's brf editor found here: http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,8771.0.html. then i check all the meshes to insure they have dds matches - they should all look nice and pretty, if any pop up white, it usually means a dds file is missing, or that the dds and texture are improperly addressed within the mod. we're not gonna address that here - the easy fix is to delete the white meshes for now, to get the non-problem, meshes in game. NOTE: if you click on any of the fields that can be edited in the brf file, like Name or Material, the material usually defaults to nothing. don't panic - just close the file without saving, and re-open it - it'll come back. at worst, just reload the brf file from the source.
5. next, you must add the new brf file to your mod addressess. if you've opened the brf, and everything checks out, just save it - the first time the brf file will check and see if the mod file has been added to the module's Module configuration settings, a text file found in the module's main directory among all sorts of text files. open that up, and you should see something like "load_mod_resource = mod_whatever" appended to the last line of the file. if you don't see it, add it manually (whatever being the name ofthe mod file, though it has to be the same name of the brf file in your Resources directory). this calls out and opens the file within m&b when it starts, telling m&b all the cool items, the skins, and where they're found.
6. next, you gotta add the items through the module item_kinds1.text file in your mod. be careful - iusually make a copy of this file within the directory so i have a clean base to go back to as i edit, and as i get items in there and they work, i save a working copy so if i screw up i don't redo 100 meshes later. i usually add my new items in batches of 20. this is the step that two things gotta happen.
first, copy an existing item of the type you're adding. in this example, we're going to add a new warhorse. so - search for 'warhorse' and you'll find....
itm_warhorse Warhorse Warhorse 1 warhorse 0 65537 0 724 41876193280 0.000000 50 0 52 0 4 135 34 36 0 0 18 0
0
this is what we need to copy and edit. it is called a line item. open up an editor, like Notepad, and copy 20 of them into a new notepad, making sure you add no additional lines or spaces - its gotta have the same format as item_kinds1.txt. don't copy it into item_kinds1.txt yet as you may make mistakes.
now, first change the item name to a unique name for each warhorse. i use warhorse_01, warhorse_02, etc to 20.
itm_warhorse_01 Warhorse Warhorse 1 warhorse 0 65537 0 724 41876193280 0.000000 50 0 52 0 4 135 34 36 0 0 18 0
0
itm_warhorse_02 Warhorse Warhorse 1 warhorse 0 65537 0 724 41876193280 0.000000 50 0 52 0 4 135 34 36 0 0 18 0
0
etc.
next, change the mesh name, which in this case is 'warhorse' to one of the meshes in the brf file - which should be open for review on your system. we'll add the first two horses in maw's Horse Pack as an example.
itm_warhorse_01 Warhorse Warhorse 1 black_hunting_horse 0 65537 0 724 41876193280 0.000000 50 0 52 0 4 135 34 36 0 0 18 0
0
itm_warhorse_02 Warhorse Warhorse 1 cataphract_gold 0 65537 0 724 41876193280 0.000000 50 0 52 0 4 135 34 36 0 0 18 0
0
you can at this time, rename them to whatever you want by changing the first 'Warhorse' to whatever. make sure you add no additional spaces or lines or it'll hose up the program.
now, the second part...
copy your 20 new horses, edited, to the item_kinds1.txt file AT THE END maintaining the space between items - make it look like all the other items. if you add it anywhere else it shifts the line count for other items. m&b interprets each line item as a line item number, so if 272 is a sword and you add 20 horse before that, sword becomes 292 - and every number after the horses installed hsifts, which changes what items the troops are assigned. just, for right now, add it to the end.
finally, change the line count number, in this case, by 20. the line count number is found before the first line item in the item_kinds1.text file. in native, it looks like this:
itemsfile version 2
421
where the blue 421 is the line item count indicating all the lines (items) in the file (and in m&b). since you added 20 items, the number needs to go up 20 to 441.
7. save the edited item_kinds1.txt
8. start m&b and play mod whatever you called it
COMMON ERRORS:
redundent texture, material, or mesh warning - usually 'error trying to re-register (whatever) just open up the brf file and delete the offending mesh, texture, or material. it happens. in the first release of maw's Armor Pack there are two costume3_maw textures - so this will be good practice. make sure there is at one and only one costumes3_maw file in each texture and material. i also have a costumes2 in there that supercedes the game defalut costumes2.dds - delete that outta the mod_armors textures and materials, too.
missing mesh, texture, or material - like 'mesh whatever not found' or 'unable to find material whatever'. if its a mesh, the mesh name was usually not copied properly from the brf file to the item_kinds1.txt file - double check it, and make sure the brf mesh name and line item mesh name exist and match exactly, no spaces or whatever. if a material or texture is missing, it has to be added or the item will show up white in game.
after this, you can experiment with editing the values - which don't even ask me about. i think the unoffical Troop and Item editor works for 1.003 - but ask somewhere else. my fingers are tired.
that pretty much does it. play with it. if you screw it up, go back to the last workable saved (you did save a copy of item_kinds1.txt, didn't you?) and don't worry about screwing it up.
you can always re-install. maw
