Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Mods Problems Getting a Basic Mod Working

I wouldn't be here if I hadn't already wasted literally HOURS trying to get this to work, so if anyone has the time to hold my nub hand I'd REALLY appreciate it.

Here's what I did, starting from a completely un-modded unchanged Divinity...

1) get Demonata's files here

2) open up TDE and make a new module with dependency Main, module Main selected

3) open Modding->Module Settings and fill in info; set startup level to Character Creation and menu level to Menuscreen_Cyseal; save; save all

4) now I have a %Game%\Data\Mods folder with my mod's folder inside it; in my mod's folder is a meta.lsx file

5) I add Demonata's files to my mod's folder such that the following contains the GR2 files:

%Game%\Data\Mods\My_Mod_blah_blah\Assets\Effects\Effects_Models\

6) I open up the game, activate the mod, then start a new game and spawn on the beach

When I sneak I still get the bush/rock/barrel.

Why?

If I do the following it works:

1) get Demonata's files here

2) I add Demonata's files to the Main folder such that the following contains the GR2 files:

%Game%\Data\Public\Main\Assets\Effects\Effects_Models\

What am I doing wrong? Again, I've been at this for literally 4-5 hours now trying different combinations, looking at other mods, fiddling with the .lsx file, etc.

Nothing I do short of directly adding the files to the game's data path works.

Is there something that is making Main override ANY attempt at modding the GR2 files under Assets\Effects through normal methods? The game sees the mod, lets me activate it, but has absolutely no effect whatsoever unless I stick the GR2 inside the Public\Main\Assets folder.

Bleh!

Again, any help anyone can provide would be immensely appreciated. It shouldn't be this hard to mod a damned simple graphics change should it?! Heh.

Take care.

Disclaimer: I know next to nothing about modding main, hopefully someone else will chime in later.

My guess is that just merely having your effects_models folder with the file is not enough for your mod to see it. You never added it as an asset so it's still using the one in main.

This is a tutorial for adding a custom terrain, but try following the same process for the animation/model. You create a package and then import the resources to that package.
http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=549788

When you are replacing the file in Main\Assets\Effects\Effects_Models\ it works because the game already knows to look there for the model.

Also I would think the folder you should be using is the following to match MAIN.
%Game%\Data\Public\My_Mod_blah_blah\Assets\Effects\Effects_Models\

Although that might be optional so long as you import the asset.

Keep in mind your mod is stored in 3 places.
/Data/Editor/YourMod
/Data/Mods/YourMod
/Data/Public/YourMod

You could run into a *requires developer mode* type roadblock here. This is the current problem when importing audio files as well.

I'd try this for you but I don't have access to my editor at the moment.

EDIT: just to add, even if you are able to import the asset I'm not sure that's going to help by itself anyway. The game being dependent on main is still always going to look at %Game%\Data\Public\Main\Assets\Effects\Effects_Models\ without some sort of change to the code somewhere.

I assume your goal with this is to make it distributable as part of a bigger mod?

Well, another couple hours down the tubes trying to get this to work. Ahh, the life of a nub modder!

Sniper, thank you SO much for your help. I really appreciate it. I've tried adding my replacement models as assets fifteen different ways (yes, I'm exaggerating) with no luck. The mod still shows up but when I get in the game I still turn into a damned bush. And again, for reference, if I manually stick the replacement models into Data\Public\Main\Assets\Effects\Effects_Models it works fine!

So here is what I did...starting from scratch. No other mods in existence, clean Data\Public folder and NO Data\Mods folder. Continuing from 5) above...

5) I add Demonata's files to my mod's folder such that the following contains the GR2 files:

%Game%\Data\Mods\My_Mod_blah_blah\Assets\Effects\Effects_Models\

6) I reopen the editor, load my module and open the Resource Manager

7) I duplicate the folders such that they match those under Main (I've tried both ways: Main\Assets\Effects\Source\Effects_Models AND Main\Assets\Effects\Effects_Models)

8) I add a package in the last folder (Effects_Models)

9) I add a resource and select the 4 replacement GR2 models

10) Everything looks good to go!

Start up the game, activate, I'm still a rock.

I'm thinking, I'm kind've hoping, that it's something super simple that I'm missing. Which of course makes all of this wasted time that much worse. Heh. But I just want this to WORK. I've got two other mods that are Drag'n'Drop (4CharacterCreation and Simply4Player) so I know the functionality is there.

What am I missing?

EDIT: Oh, and regarding my goal. Well, I just want drag'n'drop mods you know? I want a mod to disable sneaking graphics. I want a mod to fix the crafting errors. I want another mod to add some new weapons. And finally another mod to enable some additional crafting options. All of this stuff should be super easy to get into the game and activate. If you go to Mods in the game you can check/uncheck all the mods, assumedly so you can activate only the ones you want to use. Again unless I'm just missing something. :P

Thanks again for the help, Sniper!

I've made some progress on this but I'm curious about something regarding Demonata's mod.

When you use it by adding it to main, do you still see part of the material for the rock and bush? Like little remnants?

I've never noticed any graphical remnants, no. And yeah I just decided to add it back in to main. Too much wasted time trying to get it in a working PAK file when I could be working on modding something else.

If you have any useful progress please share!

Well I was able to use the functionality in the resource manager to move location where the game looks for the GR2 files. You find where they are in MAIN in the resource manager and right click them. On the right click menu there's an option "rename/move". I did that and moved it to a PAK file in my mod. Note: This causes my editor to crash the first time. So after moving them I restarted the editor and they were still in my PAK. So it seemed to work.

Then on the sidebar of the GR2 files in the resource manager I changed the "source file". Pointed each resource to the GR2 files from Demonata's mod located in the folder discussed earlier. To my astonishment it actually worked. Sort of. There was some weird remnants of the rock and bush but it was no longer covering the whole character.

This struck me as odd since the GR2 files get rid of it entirely when simply placed in main. So what I think it is doing is pulling the "material" of the rock/bush and still putting it on your character. Because it's expecting the GR2 effect as well so it's calling the material for the effect. And I don't know how to get it to stop doing that. My suspicion is it's in an LSB file somewhere but that's above my modding paygrade

SniperHF, you are awesome!

After reading through your comments this is what I ended up being able to do:

1) get Demonata's files here

2) open up The Divinity Editor and make a new module (SneakingAnimationMod) with dependency Main, module Main selected

3) open Modding->Module Settings and fill in info; set startup level to Character Creation and menu level to Menuscreen_Cyseal; save (note: if you do not set a startup level your game will probably hang on creation)

4) open Resource Manager (create and view resources icon)

5) using the leftmost pane, click on mod's folder (SneakingAnimationMod_960a8da4-3d61-4400-912c-1b853e193b0d in my case) and then click on the little package icon with a green + on it; name the package (I called mine Models, but I think it's irrelevant) and hit OK

6) using the leftmost pane, click on the Main folder

7) type in "model sneak" in the Filters text box

8) for each of the four sneak models listed (the ones with the teapot icons), right click on the model and select Copy to my module..., make sure the mod's resource package is selected (again, mine is Models) and then hit OK

9) now minimize the editor and go copy Demonata's four .GR2 files to the mod's Assets\Effects\Effects_Models folder; you will need to create the necessary folders; I ended up copying the .GR2 files here:

...\Data\Public\SneakingAnimationMod_d5c39eb7-ab48-40ab-90bd-e3e10e8e3616\Assets\Effects\Effects_Models

10) using Norbyte's LS Tools open up the mod's ...\Data\Public\SneakingAnimationMod_02c0493b-852a-4811-9194-1222d1c92097\Content\[PAK]_Models\Models.lsb file

11) Under ResourceBank->VisualBank there are four Resources listed; click on each one and for the SourceFile, change ...\Main\... to point to your mod's folder instead; for example:

Public/SneakingAnimationMod_02c0493b-852a-4811-9194-1222d1c92097/Assets/Effects/Effects_Models/FX_Model_SneakRock_Char_A.GR2

12) File->Save ... back to your mod's Content\[PAK]_Models\Models.lsb file and overwrite/replace

13) back in The Divinity Editor click on the Save all icon

14) select Modding->Publish module and then click on Publish

Now activate the mod in-game and then blam! thank you Demonata08 and SniperHF!!! I KNEW it was something trivial. This is how easy it's supposed to be, you know? Please correct me if I'm just missing something here, but I'm amazed that documentation on the really trivial things like this is lacking. Bleh.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

I did do this one time completely in the editor by opening up the SideBar and changing the source files for each of my mod's models to point to the models in my mod's Assets\Effects\Effects_Models folder (as per SniperHF above). This resulted in the same visual artifacts he experienced. I believe it's somehow related to the skull that is in Demonata08's files? If you notice in game, it's just texturing a giant skull beneath the character's feet with a bush, rock, etc.

When I use LS Tools to change the source file this doesn't happen. /shrug

I'll post an edit if I figure out a way to avoid this happening using just the editor.

Thanks again SO much SniperHF for help in figuring this stuff out. I appreciate you taking the time to share.

Take care!

Good call with LSTools. You should try putting it up on steam as a workshop item.

@ Morcrist
I won't provide you with any help, but if you are really nub to modding, and plan to mod some more, don't be disheartened by DOS modding set up. Just to let you know that it is particularly unfriendly, not all modding tools are like that.
However, thanks for the time you already invested into this, and I wish you some very happy modding, be it on DOS or other tools

Cheers.