Warband enhancement mod

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media_evil

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It happened so that M&B is one of the few games that I can run on my current machine at reasonable frame rate. After installing Warband and playing for a couple of hours like in good old days I decided to buy a new weapon - War Hammer. It happened to be broken, and unfortunately, the latest patch does not fix it, so I ended up getting into the Warband modding to fix the thing. Then I thought that it would have been cool if War hammers and some other items were usable in two modes: hammer and beak, so I added that (via WSE). At the end, I started creating a mod before I even realized it.

Now about this thread. I want to get certain features implemented and I am certain that I would be able to get it done, but I am not ready to commit too much time to learning all peculiarities of modding tools. I just want to get this done ASAP and play. Among the features:
  • balance, as close to native as possible [✓]
  • alternative modes for some weapons (balanced) [✓]
  • deployable pavise shields with proper UI interaction dialog and IA support [WIP]
  • shield bash [haven't looked at it yet]
  • new, balanced, chest armors, based on models from this mod [✓]
  • new, balanced, helmets, based on models from this mod (involves adjusting compatible vanilla meshes to prevent clipping) [✓]
The main threat to the balance is coming from helmets that should be granding some extra body protection. Add armor modifiers (e.g. 'Lordy') on top of it and you will understand why it is a problem. I am looking into ways to overcome this without changing armor rate of troops.

So what is this thread about: I have questions. Not terribly much, but more that I feel comfortable asking on forums. On the other hand, I don't want to spend weeks of my life to come to those answers that someone more experienced can give in minutes. All this essentially boils down to either starting such thread of to give up on modding.

What would I give back? Credit? I can make the whole thing public on github (once I make sure that TaleWorlds and authors of some other resources are cool with it).
 
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Now I am working on remodelling ~34 native helmets that seem compatible with meshes from this mod. Among issues that I encountered is the one that causes some helmets to look transparent in openBRF. Any ideas why? Any recommendations regarding generation of LoDs for new meshes?
 
media_evil said:
  • deployable pavise shields with proper UI interaction dialog and IA support [WIP]
Click to expand...
media_evil said:
shield bash [haven't looked at it yet]
Click to expand...
forums.taleworlds.com

OSP - Code - Combat - Shield Bash (OSP)

I know it's been done before, but I figured that it'd be best to just write one from scratch, since it was fairly easy and I wanted a very specific effect. The results are really cool and feel pretty good, in SP. Players get the ability to semi-heroically shield-bash enemies to their front...
forums.taleworlds.com forums.taleworlds.com
media_evil said:
Among issues that I encountered is the one that causes some helmets to look transparent in openBRF. Any ideas why? Any recommendations regarding generation of LoDs for new meshes?
Click to expand...
Check the material and texture entries and which format the texture has (should be DXT1). Lods can be created with OpenBRF.
 
Hi. I've seen both pavise implementations and shield bash implementation. I am going to iterate on both to make them playable (though here I would probably have most of questions). Regarding transparent models from the screenshot: that is how i see some models when I open Warband/CommonRes/helmets.brf, (e.g. spiked_helmet_new). It is unclear to me which texture path to use or which preparations are required prior to opening a standard .brf. Any more ideas?

I tested everything in native (untouched) module.
 
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Uh, I can see all Native resource in a normal way, there are no transparent models for me (except the heraldic armours). Can you make a screenshot of what see and write down which OpenBRF version you use?
 
Are you perchance using windows 10? I have the same issue with that texture (helmets_b) showing transparent in openbrf but fine in-game.
My solution was to edit the dds file itself in my Warband folder, just saving it as DXT1 format as suggested by Earendil, after using tools to remove the weird transparency from it.
 
Ok. It was a looong night. I have adjusted ~30 helmet meshes in blender. Unfortunately I don't know how to edit UVs in blender, so I ended up editing meshes only, trying to make sure that I don't distort them too much (however multiple times I wanted to add polygons here and there).

the result looks OK.
Are you perchance using windows 10? I have the same issue with that texture (helmets_b) showing transparent in openbrf but fine in-game.
My solution was to edit the dds file itself in my Warband folder, just saving it as DXT1 format as suggested by Earendil, after using tools to remove the weird transparency from it.
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Yes. I am running win10. About your solution:
- could you briefly explain to me what DXT1 format is, or maybe give some links?
- how exactly do you remove "weird transparency"?
- why some textures are .dds and they look fine in openbrf?
- why all transparent helms have _new suffix at the end?

Common question: what exactly is the order in which resources linked in module.ini are loaded?
 
media_evil said:
Common question: what exactly is the order in which resources linked in module.ini are loaded?
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Textures -> Materials -> Meshes
media_evil said:
- could you briefly explain to me what DXT1 format is, or maybe give some links?
Click to expand...
DXT1 is basically a dds file format for textures.
media_evil said:
- how exactly do you remove "weird transparency"?
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Convert the dds with Gimp or such to a dxt1 dds texture.
media_evil said:
- why some textures are .dds and they look fine in openbrf?
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Because they are probably stored as DXT1 textures already
media_evil said:
- why all transparent helms have _new suffix at the end?
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TW developers added some few times new assets to the game, you can also find brf files with "new" in the name.
 
Eärendil Ardamírë said:
Textures -> Materials -> Meshes
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Did I get it right that resources that are loaded first (at the top of module.ini) shadow everything that follows?

Now I am writing a script that would generate records for new types of helmets for module_itmes.py. The idea is that versions padded with leather, gambeson, aketon, and hauberk offer a small increase to head and body armor rating, but also increase the weight, difficulty and price. The resulting stats of armors however should not exceed the stats of the strongest items of corresponding type.

Also. I updated to the latest version of the openbrf which solved the problem with transparent textures.
 
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I mean if after load_resource declaration in module.ini there is another declaration that loads some resource with the same name, the first declaration will prevail. Consider the following structure:

Code: 
// brf_a.brf 
  texture_1
 
// brf_b.brf 
  texture_1
  texture_2

// module.ini
load_resource = brf_a
load_resource = brf_b

// What game loads
  texture_1 (brf_a) // becase texture_1 from brf_a was encountered first and shadows texture_1 from brf_b
  testure_2 (brf_b) // because testure_2 wasn't shadowed
 
that loads some resource with the same name

that loads another .brf containing a resource with the same name* (see snippet in my previous comment).
 
media_evil said:
War Hammer. It happened to be broken
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What is wrong with it?
media_evil said:
hammer and beak
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You mean two-handed and polearm?
media_evil said:
Among the features
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I advise you not to spend time on making your mod but to make use of already-published mods which have all the features you mentioned.
media_evil said:
So what is this thread about: I have questions. Not terribly much, but more that I feel comfortable asking on forums. On the other hand, I don't want to spend weeks of my life to come to those answers that someone more experienced can give in minutes. All this essentially boils down to either starting such thread of to give up on modding.

What would I give back? Credit? I can make the whole thing public on github (once I make sure that TaleWorlds and authors of some other resources are cool with it).
Click to expand...
Modding is very time-consuming so you may make use of many OSP/ LSP mods to begin with (https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?threads/list-osp-lsp-modifications.377920/). That way you will save lots of time and spare yourself unnecessary trouble you would have if you started with less-polished codebase. Make sure to credit OSP/ LSP authors after you have finished your mod.
media_evil said:
that loads another .brf containing a resource with the same name* (see snippet in my previous comment).
Click to expand...
Use OpenBRF's function to scan a module for errors, that should give you a fresh look at what should be improved.
 
Veledentella said:
What is wrong with it?
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Was not able to do side attacks.
Veledentella said:
You mean two-handed and polearm?
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No. Polearm (blunt) / polearm (piercing)
Veledentella said:
I advise you not to spend time on making your mod but to make use of already-published mods which have all the features you mentioned.
Click to expand...
I am not happy with the implementation as it is. So I either forget it and quit or do something with it.
Veledentella said:
Modding is very time-consuming so you may make use of many OSP/ LSP mods to begin with (https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?threads/list-osp-lsp-modifications.377920/). That way you will save lots of time and spare yourself unnecessary trouble you would have if you started with less-polished codebase. Make sure to credit OSP/ LSP authors after you have finished your mod.
Click to expand...
Will definitely check as a reference. Credit will certainly be given to anyone who helped directly or indirectly.\

Regarding load order and "shadowing". ATM I don't have any issues with loading resources. I just discovered that it is a thing and wanted someone more competent to confirm this. Today've been learning about UV maps in blender. I wanna add some more polygons to those chainmail helmets. The script for generating item entries is also finished now.
 
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