Rainwizard6

This was my first real scratch modeling attempt. This took a really long time to get just right, alot of fiddling. I was unhappy with the lack of detail given to Gandalf the White's staff in perticularly BFME1, haven't checked the second game yet. So I decided to try and make it as realistic as possible. It's fully functional in the game. Let me know what you all think.

I created a custom weapon for a character, which I swapped out for the old one. I have correctly binded it to the correct bone and have placed it as closely as I could to where the old weapon was. When I view an animation which uses this new skin. The weapon behaves correctly for about 95% of the animations. But certain ones it seems to like fly out of his hand. When compared to the original skin using the same animation, it appears as if the back end of it is being almost lifted totally incorrectly. I've been playing around for hours with rotation and the angle at which I place it in his hand, but it either gets worse or its just off where I'd like it to be. Is this normal? Im not sure if this could be an issue, but Ive noticed with the EA models, that in this case the weapon and the character are all one figure. Is there a way to connect the weapon to the actual figure to make it one object instead of 2?

I made a correction to the size of a weapon using renx and .w3d importer. I imported the _skn file, converted it to an editable mesh, made my correction, then bound it to the proper skeleton bone by bone. When I export the file as a .w3d and view it in the w3d viewer, it looks perfect, all the animations work and everything. I'm just not sure how to get this to work in the game now. I tried simply going into w3d.big, deleting the old _skn file, and replacing it with the one I edited having given it the same name. When the character spawns in the game, he's basically invisible. Theres that circle, and I can "walk" around. But its just invisible and the model doesn't show up. I believe I have done the editing part correctly as it works fine in the w3d viewer. Am I supposed to use an asset builder or something? Thanks.

_!_Fixed My Own Problem_!_ ...again

The problem:

I've been using General's .csf editor to modify and add strings in lotr.csf located in english.big. Just to change descriptions and add new ones for a new power I had added. I open up english.big, extract the lotr.csf, and open it in the editor. I then add my modifications, save it, remove the old one from english.big and add in the new file I just edited using finalbig. Everything works fine, the new things I added work and everything, but If I go to the settings menu (the gold key) and click on options. All the entries for sound that have checkboxes all have text over them that says: 'Missing: ' APT:Null'. That only happens when I use an edited .csf file. Its just very strange because I have not done anything other than add a few strings. I beleive this is an error with the .csf file because this has happened before when there is a reference missing or something. If theres no way to fix this, I'll live as everything seems to work fine, I just dont know what the problem could be. Is Generals CSF Editor saving the file incorrectly and cutting things out? I have seen mods where .str files are used seemingly in place of the .csf ones. Would it be possible to convert my .csf file to a .str file and see if that works? Im not sure how to do that. I was also looking for different csf editors but this one seems to be the only one I can find. Thank you.

The solution:

*Posted in my reply* Hope this helps someone

_!_ I Fixed My Own Mistake _!_
Might still be a good reference for others though

The file I have created is a .WAV file of saruman uttering a phrase I'd like him to say before he casts a spell. I tried very hard to try and figure this out on my own, but can't seem to. The main problem is, I can't find the script that references the sound file. If I could find where those references are located I would be able to probabally just swap it. From what I understand the sound effects are located within the EnglishAudio.big file. I couldn't find any *.ini's within that where those references would be listed. Here's basically what I've discovered. Just to make it clearer, I want to edit the sound of saruman's telekinetic push before he starts it. He says things like "Embrace my power", "None can contend with the will of saruman" etc. Thats the sound I want to swap with the one I've created. Inside saruman's .ini file within the evilfactionunits.ini file, I found this code relating to it.

;;; WIZARD BLAST SPECIAL POWER;;;
	Behavior = SpecialPowerModule ModuleTag_WizardBlastStarter							
		SpecialPowerTemplate		= SpecialPowerTelekeneticPush
		UpdateModuleStartsAttack		= Yes
		InitiateSound			= SarumanVoiceAttackWizardBlast;;;What I believe is a reference to the .wav file
	End	

	Behavior = WeaponFireSpecialAbilityUpdate ModuleTag_WizardBlastUpdate
		SpecialPowerTemplate					= SpecialPowerTelekeneticPush
		WhichSpecialWeapon			= 2;
		SkipContinue						= Yes
		UnpackTime			= 700
		PreparationTime			= 1   
		PersistentPrepTime			= 1000
		PackTime				= 100
		
		AwardXPForTriggering			= 0
		StartAbilityRange			= 80.0
		MustFinishAbility			= Yes
		SpecialWeapon			= SarumanWizardBlast
	End

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So, I've noticed the part that says "InitiateSound = SarumanVoiceAttackWizardBlast". I thought SarumanVoiceAttackWizardBlast must be some sort of variable that held the value of the .wav file. (not exactly sure what the name of it is). I then looked in other locations and came to "Voice.ini" where I found this.
------------------------------------

AudioEvent SarumanVoiceAttackWizardBlast 
	Sounds = EUSarum_voiattc;;;Not sure what this means
	Sounds = EUSarum_voiatcc;;;Not sure what this means
	Sounds = EUSarum_voisebh EUSarum_voisebi EUSarum_voisebm EUSarum_voisebn;;;More references yet again, still no link to the .wav
	Volume = SARUMAN_VOLUME
	MinVolume = SARUMAN_MINVOLUME
	Type = world player voice
	SubmixSlider = voice
End

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Now I found this, which, seemed promising but still had not given a link to the .wav file that I could swap out for my custom one. From what I see here it looks as if those are all the possible sounds that can occur when you cast that spell. As he doesn't say the same thing every time. Even if I could just add the one I made to that list as a possibility, that would be sufficient. EUSarum_voisebi I guess for example would be the "You can not contend with the will of Saruman" sound. EUSarum_voisebm could be "Embrace my power" or something. I've looked in the other .ini's within INI.big and can't find anything more regarding the references to those files. I had worked with the "lotr.csf or .str file", I think they can be both, before. So I checked in there to see if there was a reference for it. No luck. There's not much information that I could find regarding adding custom sounds. Another thing I heard was you have to edit "Asset.dat". Which would make sense as I would imagine the sound would be considered an asset of the game. Although I have no idea as to how I would easily edit a .DAT file, I couldn't seem to find a straight forward explanation on how to. So if anyone could give any insight or a location as to where I would find that, I would really appreciate it. Also, please correct me if im going about this totally the wrong way. I hope this wasn't too confusing, if you need more information I will provide it. Thank you very much.