Modding Q&A [For Quick Questions and Answers]

[NPC99]

I just noticed that speculars (or any black/grey areas) are not entirely black.
Zooming in shows that there are green and pink areas.

Spoiler

And sometimes even zooming in is not necessary. After saving a nice grey&black texture becomes some green&pink trash.

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What's funnier in this example is that diffuse that has much more shades

Spoiler

is fine. But blurring&darkening it (which kinda should make it easier for the computer to process it) suddenly fawkes things up.

With GIMP which I mostly use the effect is more pronounced but Photoshop does it too.
Why is this happening and is there a way to avoid it?
I took a look at different OSP textures and they have green/pink areas too, but the one above I'm working on became a real problem. The effect is too pronounced when I make it darker (it's not that there is a problem in the game, its lighting is terrible in any case, it's just now I can't get it out of my head).

In GIMP you could try Image>Mode>Grayscale to get rid of any colours from your specular.

 

[Leonion]

In GIMP you could try Image>Mode>Grayscale to get rid of any colours from your specular.

Nah, those things don't work. GIMP (and, as I mentioned, Photoshop too) creates colored areas when it saves the file as .dds (if I reopen it as a new file and just compare the one I was working on and the product of saving, it becomes clear), so no regular b/w filtering before saving solves this.

 

[NPC99]

In GIMP you could try Image>Mode>Grayscale to get rid of any colours from your specular.

Nah, those things don't work. GIMP (and, as I mentioned, Photoshop too) creates colored areas when it saves the file as .dds (if I reopen it as a new file and just compare the one I was working on and the product of saving, it becomes clear), so no regular b/w filtering before saving solves this.

Try saving the grayscale as a JPEG file and using ConvIm to convert it to DDS. It only converts to a DXT1 but that should be fine for a specular.

http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/programs/convim.htm

 

[Leonion]

Try saving the grayscale as a JPEG file and using ConvIm to convert it to DDS. It only converts to a DXT1 but that should be fine for a specular.
http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/programs/convim.htm

Spoiler

A program that uses a .ddl pack from late 90s - early 00s? Oh, I'll try it on my virtual XP.

Interesting, it doesn't create colored areas. But it blurs the image:

Spoiler

 

[NPC99]

Try saving the grayscale as a JPEG file and using ConvIm to convert it to DDS. It only converts to a DXT1 but that should be fine for a specular.
http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/programs/convim.htm

Spoiler

A program that uses a .ddl pack from late 90s - early 00s? Oh, I'll try it on my virtual XP.

Interesting, it doesn't create colored areas. But it blurs the image:

Spoiler

Really? I suspect the grayscale conversion may have blurred the image. Maybe the grayscale needs to be darkened before using ConvIm, but I'm just guessing.

 

[Duchess Skye]

I have yet another question

I have seen some mods use the same arabic/middle easter armors but I cannot find the OSP for it. I'm assuming it's an OSP since so many mods use them. Anyone know where it is?

 

[Red Serf]

I have yet another question

I have seen some mods use the same arabic/middle easter armors but I cannot find the OSP for it. I'm assuming it's an OSP since so many mods use them. Anyone know where it is?

It may be the Crusaders: Way to Expiation (or CWE for short) osp. It was a nice mod about crusades that ended up going OSP. Here, I will even give you the link for the pack: https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?topic=337081.0

 

[Iron Sight]

Looking for a lil guidance, on how to write a script that loops until a certain parameter, or variable is met. Specifically, I'm trying to write a script that creates a player party with troops up to a certain number, say an "ideal" size, like in the create lord party scripts. Any help is appreciated. And again, not looking for a written script just some direction, advice, hints... but if you did happen to have a loop script, that would be nice.

 

[kalarhan]

Looking for a lil guidance, on how to write a script that loops until a certain parameter, or variable is met

(assign, ":end_loop", 9999),
(try_for_range, ":var", 0, ":end_loop"),
   # something happens
    (assign, ":end_loop", -1),
(try_end),

that is how you break out of a loop

 

[Iron Sight]

Looking for a lil guidance, on how to write a script that loops until a certain parameter, or variable is met

(assign, ":end_loop", 9999),
(try_for_range, ":var", 0, ":end_loop"),
   # something happens
    (assign, ":end_loop", -1),
(try_end),

that is how you break out of a loop

Dang you're quick. I had literally just figured it out and was on my way to delete my hasty request. Thanks.

 

[Duchess Skye]

It may be the Crusaders: Way to Expiation (or CWE for short) osp. It was a nice mod about crusades that ended up going OSP. Here, I will even give you the link for the pack: https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?topic=337081.0

Ah yes that's the one. I don't know how I missed it. Thanks

 

[kraggrim]

Is there a way to attach/rig a scene prop to a specific bone of an agent? AFAIK agent_set_attached_scene_prop just attaches it to the center of the agent.

(can use WSE if necessary)

 

[KnightV]

Can anybody provide me a link to a tutorial which tells all about water in scenemaking

How does random scene depend on global map place ?


Can i make from hardcoded factions full factions with its lords without castles towns villages and make them walking through the Calradia and make/declare pieces/wars with other kingdoms, attack and siege castles and towns ?

 

[kalarhan]

How does random scene depend on global map place ?

it doesn't. Your code makes the connection (selects the scene, which has the terrain+border), which can be one of the random scenes. Back track your code and see how it is doing the selection of mission template, scene, etc, and change to whatever you want.

Native, as a example, uses the terrain (global map) where your party is. Other modules can use distance from locations (like the sea or bridges), etc. Up to you.

Can i make from hardcoded factions full factions

see modules/OSP for invasion factions. You will need to change how the game decides if a faction was destroyed or not, how it selects a military target, and how it does diplomacy. Again, all done on the modsys, so not a issue with hardcoded rules.

 

[DerGreif]

Is there a way to attach/rig a scene prop to a specific bone of an agent? AFAIK agent_set_attached_scene_prop just attaches it to the center of the agent.

(can use WSE if necessary)

Could you not just use the mesh of the scene-prop also for an item and move the scene-prop out of sight and replace it with the item, which you can mount on any bone?

 

[KnightV]

How does random scene depend on global map place ?

it doesn't. Your code makes the connection (selects the scene, which has the terrain+border), which can be one of the random scenes. Back track your code and see how it is doing the selection of mission template, scene, etc, and change to whatever you want.

Native, as a example, uses the terrain (global map) where your party is. Other modules can use distance from locations (like the sea or bridges), etc. Up to you.

Can i make from hardcoded factions full factions

see modules/OSP for invasion factions. You will need to change how the game decides if a faction was destroyed or not, how it selects a military target, and how it does diplomacy. Again, all done on the modsys, so not a issue with hardcoded rules.

What do you think of creating a double faction , for exampe, bandits, but with different id? But i have some doubts about balance and how it will look like in game , when you have relationship with hardcoded bandits -10 and you are vassal of bandits (of course, two different factions but with same name

 

[kalarhan]

What do you think of creating a double faction , for exampe, bandits, but with different id? But i have some doubts about balance and how it will look like in game , when you have relationship with hardcoded bandits -10 and you are vassal of bandits (of course, two different factions but with same name

there is no hardcoded rule here, even the relation between player and bandits, so you can do whatever makes sense to your mod. Just keep in mind that changing AI behaviour and base factions requires a lot of small changes on Native code, so you will need to do those changes.

 

[DerGreif]

What do you think of creating a double faction , for exampe, bandits, but with different id? But i have some doubts about balance and how it will look like in game , when you have relationship with hardcoded bandits -10 and you are vassal of bandits (of course, two different factions but with same name

As kalarhan said, there are no hardcoded factions. You can change all factions, their starting relations with other factions including the player and their behaviour in module_factions.py. Kingdoms are defined via a range, that is a list of factions between two specified factions, which in turn are defined in module_constants.py. Search for kingdoms_begin in your module files (use notepad++ to search easily the whole directory). Using this method you will find all important dialogs, scripts and so on which are related to specific kingdom behaviour and options.

If you want to see how to code a bandit faction you might want to look into these threads:
https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,231383.0.html
https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,186488.0.html
https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,271951.0.html

 

[kraggrim]

Is there a way to attach/rig a scene prop to a specific bone of an agent? AFAIK agent_set_attached_scene_prop just attaches it to the center of the agent.

(can use WSE if necessary)

Could you not just use the mesh of the scene-prop also for an item and move the scene-prop out of sight and replace it with the item, which you can mount on any bone?

Apparently this would require more complex coding, attaching the scene prop could have maybe been a simpler work around. But looks like we may just have to go for it. Thanks.

 

[Duchess Skye]

So i tried to Modmerge the Formations and Ai mod to my module sys. When I did it on native it worked, but when I tried to do it on the Diplomacy base it didn't, and I got a lot of errors. Does this mean I'll have to manually install it?