#1037 2006-04-12 20:47 GMT      

Warnings: 0

Okay, I've gotten a lot of requests to help people with their troubleshooting lately. Unfortunately, I'm so busy with school, I just don't have the time to answer them all. So here's a basic, all-you-need-to-know, tutorial. (It's huge, I know...)

-First off, here's all the links you should need to start up .dat editing.

GIMP Image editing program:

Photoshop tutorials:

Original VRS page:

English Translation of VRS (sign up for the forums there to be able to download):

Metasequoia:

English Model Viewer:

Graphics Converter 3:

Phabin's Site: (And thank you, Phabin for being the one to start me off on all this.^^)

(Note: I haven't ever tried GIMP, but it's free, so hey...)

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Basic Overview of the Model Viewer



[Controls]
Move: Left drag or Arrow keys
Rotate: Right drag or Ctrl+Arrow keys
Zoom: Right+Left drag or Page Up/Down
Light: Ctrl+Right drag or 2,4,6,8
Right: F1 or D
Left: Shift+F1 or A
Top: F2 or W
Bottom: Shift+F2 or Z
Front: F3 or S
Back: Shift+F3 or X
Reset: F4 or Space
S.Shot: F11

Now to start editing!

-Step 1 (This is a biggie.)

BACK UP YOUR FILES.

After you choose what model you want to edit, look up in the upper-right-hand corner of the model viewer. You'll see a number that says something like: 1-52-19. That means your .dat is in ROM >>> 52 >>> 19.



If your .dat says 100-#-#, that means it's in ROM3. (These are mostly CoP .dats.) Find your dat, copy it and paste it someplace else. Preferably someplace you'll remember.

Nothing is worse than suddenly realizing that your Taru looks like a hedgehog that swallowed a hand grenade and there's nothing you can do to fix it.

Now, both VRS and the Viewer itself will automatically try to back up your files. But things can and will go wrong.

If something really screws up, you can ask the nice folks at whichever .dat forum you frequent for a copy of the original. But honestly, that's a ton of trouble that can be prevented by a simple copy and paste. So, once again:

BACK UP YOUR FILES.

-Step 2
Okay, after you've found and backed up your .dat, you can begin to edit it. GO down to the "DAT to MQO" button and hit it. It will bring up a menu. Select the armor piece that you are editing and click "OK." This will prompt you to save the file someplace. Do so (make sure you can find it^^).



Go find your file. Depending on the model you saved, you'll have at least four files. Some models, especially the NPC ones, may have more.



To change the skin, you'll want to open the .bmp file up in your favorite image editing program. I use Photoshop, personally, but anything that opens and saves .bmp files will work. Layers will help a lot, though.

Once you open the file, you can't save it again at a larger or smaller resolution than it is now. It won't load back up in the viewer. The layout for each of the skins is more or less the same for every race. (Tarutarus tend to be somewhat different bodywise, and Mithras/Galkas have tails, though.)

Edit your skin however you want. For an example, we'll use my lizard armor.



Once you're ready to see how it looks, save it again as a .bmp. (If you're using Photoshop, make a backup in .psd format to preserve your layers.) Now, open up Graphics Converter 3. In there, open your .bmp file. Go to Format >>> ST3C Format (My Encode Engine) >>> DXT3(4-bit alpha non-premult).



This will convert it into a .dds file. The .dds file is the one that gets wrapped around your mesh. Save it.

Go back to the Model viewer and make sure that the model you have up is the one that you converted. Go up to "File" and hit: "Convert MQO to DAT." Now load up your .mcd file, and voila!



If you don't like what you've done and want to go back to your original armor, just go to File >>> Restore DAT from Backup, and choose your .dat number from the list.

-Step 3
Now, you'll notice on the .dat I just did that there's some strange, blackish-gray blotches. We don't want these. Thus, in order to get rid of then, we're going to use Alpha Mapping.

An alpha map tells the program that you want a section of the skin to be totally transparent. Don't worry. It's tons easier than it sounds.

Open up your .bmp file again. Then, save it with a different name. I use Phabin's suggestion and call it "myskina.bmp". It makes it a lot easier to find then.

Here's where you really need a program that will do layers. In Photoshop, the easiest way to do this is to create a new layer, fill it in with white, and set the layer's blending mode to "multiply." This will turn the white transparent.

Take your pencil tool (A sharp, pixilated edge makes this much easier) and, with black, color over the area you want to be transparent. Save it again. Make sure it is also a bitmap, and that it is the exact same size as your original .bmp file.



Go back to Graphics Converter 3. Open up your original .bmp (myskin.bmp). Go up to File >>> Open as alpha channel and chose your alpha map (myskina.bmp). The parts that were black on your alpha map should now be transparent.



If you chose the wrong file, you'll either get an error message, or your whole skin will go kinda see-through. Not what you want.



Convert it once more to .dds. Be sure you use: Format >>> ST3C Format (My Encode Engine) >>> DXT3(4-bit alpha non-premult). The alpha map has a very good chance of not working otherwise. Back in Model Viewer, convert your .mqo to .dat, and you're done!



(Note: Stromgarde has explained to me that alpha maps will not work on things that have a material attached to them, i.e. shiny stuff. So shiny armor/pauldrons/shield cannot be alpha mapped.)

If you want to edit a skin that already has an alpha map of some kind, open up the original .dds file in the Graphics Converter and select: File >>> Save As Alpha Channel. (You wouldn't believe how long it took me to figure this out...) It will save the transparency for you.

-Step 4
Finally, you can edit the mesh itself. There are two different programs that I know of that allow you to do this. One is Metasequoia, and the other is Virtual Reality Studio, also known as VRS. Each is really a tutorial all on it's own, so I'll only discuss them briefly here.

There are plusses and minuses to using each of the 3D programs.

Metasequoia can:
-Easily move vertices/lines/meshes
-Easily resize meshes
-Show relationship between mesh and unwrapped skin (Doesn't really work for merged meshes)
-Quickly show top, front and side views simultaneously.

Metasequoia cannot:
-Delete vertices/lines/meshes
-Add vertices/lines/meshes
-Allow you to edit skeleton weights
-Allow .dat porting (switching a .dat from one race to another, or from NPC to PC.)

VRS can:-Delete vertices/lines/meshes
-Add vertices/lines/meshes
-Allow you to edit skeleton weights
-Allow .dat porting (switching a .dat from one race to another, or from NPC to PC.)
(In the new, untranslated version):
-Allow you to change animations
-Possibly allow you to edit the skeletons themselves. (Not sure on this one.)

VRS cannot:
-Easily move vertices/lines/meshes
-Easily resize meshes

Note that "cannot" doesn't necessarily mean that's it's impossible to do in the program, it just means that it will not render correctly in-game or it's clunky and difficult to do.

To really be able to edit .dats thoroughly and easily, you should learn use both of them.

-Step 5
If you want to see what your .dat looks like, but don't necessarily want to replace some in game armor/weapons, here's how to edit your Model Viewer lists.

Make a new folder in ROM of your FINAL FANTASY XI file. I call mine "Fan." Take your newly edited .dat (Or the .dat that you plan to edit) and copy it into the folder. If you've already finished your editing of an in-game .dat, don't cut it out of its original file, your game will crash.



I like to rename them to something recognizable, like newlizardm.dat, but that's up to you.

Once you've got it in the new folder, look for the "List" file for your Model Viewer. Mine is in the FINAL FANTASY XI folder already, so I just go there.

We changed the Mithran body piece, so we open Mithra_Bd.lst. It should open up just fine in Notepad or Wordpad. If you accidentally put it in a different list, it'll either display over another model (this means it's in the wrong armor slot) or it'll look like it exploded (this means it's being loaded on another race.) Though, honestly, you probably will have figured this out before then.

Decide where on the list you want it to show up and type in:

"Folder Name"-".dat name",".dat title"

So my new .dat will be:

Fan-newlizardm,Redone Lizard Jerkin

Resave the list, restart the Model Viewer and there you go!

#1067 2006-04-13 02:54 GMT      

Warnings: 0

thanks for posting this. Can finnaly start on my own mods.

#1069 2006-04-13 03:40 GMT      

Warnings: 0

Now we need a Tutorial on 3D max and VRS I got VRS but cant seen to get anything to work, plus i dont even understand the controll and how to move it. And next i havent seen no Tutorial on 3D max i hopen some one will come up with a Tutorial for it

#1071 2006-04-13 05:23 GMT      

Warnings: 0

If you make a Tutorial on VRS you know it going to get a sticky lol

#1100 2006-04-13 18:23 GMT      

Warnings: 0

I've already made a tutorial for 3dsm pretty much... Its about sorting out alpha, but it pretty much covers it all.

#2621 2006-05-04 23:15 GMT      

Warnings: 0

Amadaun

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Phabin's Site: (And thank you, Phabin for being the one to start me off on all this.^^)

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Thanks, I hear that alot. My problem is I just start people off, I don't have much to help people once they've started up. I've been meaning to get a basic model editing guide on my site, but I've been really busy with school. Maybe I'll get one up once school gets out (May 22nd is last day). If I don't I may just have to ask you (Amadaun) if I can borrow one of your guides for my site.

#6549 2006-07-08 19:08 GMT      

Warnings: 0

Hey there, thank you for the nice detailed guide. I tried changing some dats (played around with Cloud body) and it worked.
Now i wanted to change the Ancient blood Picture, and place the logo from my HP in it. I followed exactly the guide posted here, but when i try to "Convert MQO to DAT." and open the .mcd file it tells me that the file "has the wrong format" and it wont convert to dat >< what do i do know? I looked around the forum a bit but i didnt found an answer, pls help me ....

#17493 2006-10-16 18:35 GMT      

Warnings: 0

Hey all, hoping someone can help me out. I read over this tutorial numerous times, but am running into some problems after I have converted in GC3 and I try to open my mqo file in the model viewer. When I go to file > convert mqo to dat, it won't let me open it. I see it on the desktop but the computer doesn't recognize it in the file open directory. Do I need to swap the dat files manually in the rom folder first? When I open the model viewer it still shows the original shinobi gi. I hope someone knows what I'm doing wrong. Thank you for any assistance. ^^

#18657 2006-10-30 22:49 GMT      

Warnings: 0

Ok. Lets see if I can explain this cause I'm out of ideas. I'm trying to fill a request for a recolor but for some reason the model viewer isn't recognizing that the file is alpha mapped. Now what I did was to get the original alpha map I opened the original .dds file in GC3 and saved it as an alpha map. Then I opened the recolored image, opened the alpha map as an alpha channel (and the image looked right a.k.a. the alpha mapped parts showed the gray and white block background), set it to the DXT3.... format and went File > Save and saved it over the old .dds file. But once I went back to model viewer to make sure it works, it says the conversion is complete but it looks like the image was never alpha mapped. Any ideas as to what might have happened?