SIEGE UNIVERSITY 2 |
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Siege University II Tutorials Modding FAQ 095: Upgrading DSII 100: The Basics of Siege Editor 201: Compass Map Radar 202: Conversations 203: Journal 204: Quest Indicator Icons 205: Start Positions 206: Teleporters 207: Town Portal Restrictions 208: Weapon Effects 209: Flick 210: Tuning Grids 211: Setting Up Good Map Lighting 212: Setting Up Simple Node Fading 215: Building Data Tables Siege University I Tutorials 200: Concepts and Terminology 201: Templates 203: Triggers 204: Moods 205: Fades 206: Elevators 211: Naming Key 213: Dungeon Siege Resource System 301: Introduction to Dungeon Siege Architecture Third Party Tutorials A Simple Mod Part One - Armor Textures A Simple Mod Part Two - A New Armor Beginners Guide to Stitching Regions How to Open and Create Tanks Making Chants Work in a New Map Ornaments Understanding the NKK Useful Links Siegetheday.org Dungeon Siege Outpost Dungeon Raider Kdawg.org - List of useful Links MCarp DS Nodes Dungeon Siege 2 at Gamefront Broken World at Gamefront |
So,
you want to use the Dungeon Siege II editor? Using the editor itself
doesn't
require any special programming knowledge, but to use it effectively
you'll
still need to learn some things (and to do a lot with the DS2 system
you will
need to learn about Skrit programming...but that's something for
another
document). NOTE:
From now on, I'm calling the editor SE2. SE2
is not the same as SE, the editor used for the original Dungeon Siege.
At the
time of this writing, we're at SE2 v1.1. SE2
is part of the DS2 Toolkit (DS2TK). You can find a link to the current
version here. You'll
Need DS2 v2.2 First
thing: You need to have Dungeon Siege II installed on your machine. You
can't
even install the editor until you do. If you don't have it – or if you
install
it then move the folder, you'll get this message when you try to
install DS2TK: Why
do you get this, and why does the game have to be installed first? When
you
install DS2TK, you tell it where to install itself but you don't tell
it where
DS2 is installed. Instead, it reads a Windows registry entry that is
created
when DS2 is installed, that indicates where DS2 is. Game patches also
use this
registry info, btw. So, the editor needs that info during installation
to set
up certain configuration pathways. If you install DS2, then move the
folder,
the game will still run but the toolkit tools and any GPG game patches
for DS2
won't be able to find DS2. See 095: Upgrading DS2
for more info on the registry
entry. The
installed game, right off the disks, is v2.0. You can install the
toolkit now,
but I suggest you first patch the game. The game must be patched to run
(but
not to install), and the patch takes up to 5 Gbytes of hard drive space
while
it's patching (after patching is done, it only uses less than 100Megs
of
additional space. See 095: Upgrading DS2
for more info on patching DS2. Installing
Siege Editor 2 (DS2TK) Downloaded
from the link above, you'll have DS2TK_Installer_v1.1.exe, about 13.1MB
(13,744,317 bytes). Double-click on the EXE, then
click RUN to install the files. If the installer detects an earlier
installed
version, the v1.1 installer will automatically select the current DS2TK
directory as the install target (NOTE: if you have made specific
changes to the
tools (for example, modifications to the maxscripts used by Siege Max)
and are
concerned about losing your customizations, you can elect to install
this DS2TK
release to a different folder and then migrate your personalized files
by hand
from the old folder to the new one). After
going through the screens, and picking the install directory, you'll
have a new
Dungeon Siege II Toolkit folder on the All
Programs menu in the Start
button on your toolbar. In
that folder you'll find shortcuts for: ·
DS2
Anim Viewer ·
DS2Mod
·
DS2Mod
(windowed) ·
Siege
Editor 2 (aka SE2) ·
TankViewer
2 ·
Uninstall
DS2TK The
DS2TK files take up 45Mbytes of hard drive space. In
addition to the toolkit files installed to whatever directory you
specified,
the DS2TK installer also creates: \My
Documents\My Games\Dungeon Siege 2 Mod
This
folder starts out with just a single folder – the Dev folder. By
default this
is where SE2 will be putting most of its files, so there will be
additional
folders placed here. Once
the installer finishes, all the toolkit files are installed –you can
now delete
DS2TK_Installer_v1.1.exe. You
must have DS2 v2.2 (or higher) to run Siege Editor 2 If
you don't patch up to at least v2.2, you can't use the editor. If you
try
anyways, it will start up normally but then you get this: It
can't find these functions because they don't exist in the same place
in DS2
v2.0 or v2.1. You must patch the game. See 095: Upgrading DS2
for more info on patching DS2.
If this error comes up, hit the ABORT PROGRAM button then the OK button
to get
rid of the messages. Starting
Up The Editor Let's
get into the editor. With the toolkit now installed, go click on the
Start
button on the Windows taskbar, then select All Programs, then the
Dungeon Siege
II Toolkit folder and finally on the Siege Editor 2 link. A
"Siege Editor" banner will pop up in a few seconds (don't worry, it
really is SE2 and not SE1) and then ... ...after
about 60 seconds or so!....the editor window border will come up with
"No
Region Loaded – SiegeEditor" on the title bar. Another 20 seconds
later,
the window border will fill in with the actual editor buttons and
icons, like
so: NOTE:
Although there's a Help menu item on the top of the editor, if you
select the
Help Topics in that menu, it'll just tell you there's no Help file. The
toolkit
didn't ship with one. Well, that's ok: "That which does not break us
only
makes us stronger!". At
this point, you're basically ready to go! Let's
Rip Things Apart! I'm
going to assume you want to start by examining the DS2 game files –
right? Ok,
let's get to that. What
we're going to to is extract files. The files in the DS2 game's
RESOURCES
folder (and MAPS) are highly compressed files – kind of like .zip files
– that
are stuffed full of large numbers of other files. Sound files, map
files,
models, textures, Skrit code, etc. Just like with .zip or .rar files,
the
extracted files take up more hard drive space. In the case of DS2, a
lot more
space. The
simplest thing to start with is the game's map file. This is stored
in...the
game's MAP folder. Let's uncompress it, so we can examine the files in
it. Go
to FILE, then select Convert .ds2map to Files. A text box will pop-up: Notice
that it already knows where the World.ds2map file is located – it reads
that
from the Registry entry mentioned earlier. It will also list a default
destination folder: \My
Documents\My Games\Dungeon Siege 2 Mod\Bits. Again,
just like on the main Help menu item, if you click on the HELP button
there
you'll just get an error message about not being able to find a help
file. The
DS2TK didn't ship with one, so this is normal. When
you click OK to start the extraction, a Processing Resource File window
pops up
to give you a file-by-file progress report: It
should find 8025 files, when done. Yep, 8,025 files are stuffed inside
the
World.ds2map. You'll also note that extracting the World.dsmap file
fills up
1,155,083,252 bytes of free hard drive space (in the USA version) for
all those
files – that's in addition to the existing space the game and toolkit
already
take up. Click
Close. Congratulations! You've just "untanked" your first DS2 file. Defining
"Tank" and
"Bits" Files Those
8,025 files you just created are called the "bits" aka the editable
files. Put all the "bits" together and you get a tank. The World.ds2map
file is the "tanked" version; which is made up of all the various
"bits" files that you extracted. But
the DS2 game won't directly read bits, only tanked files. But only the
bits
files are easily edited. So, as we'll later find out, after editing
"bits"
files you need to re-tank them if you want to run them in the game. All
those bits files are now at My Documents\My Games\Dungeon Siege 2
Mod\Bits (or
wherever you told the editor to put them, in three different folders:
Art,
Config, and World. Re-Cap Rhe
files inside the game's RESOURCES or MAPS folder are made up of many
files, but
compressed together. These are called "tank" files. The game can read
tank files, but they are not directly editable. To edit or add files,
you need
to un-tank them into the bits (individual files). These can be edited.
But to
get the changes back into the retail game-ready form, you have to
re-tank them
(if you use DS2Mod.exe, part of the DS2TK, you don't need to
re-tank as it's
for testing your work). To
un-tank a file, you: Start
up Siege
Editor 2 Select
Convert
.ds2map to Files from the Files menu in the editor Select
the
Source directory and filename, if not the default World.ds2map) Select
the
location to store the bits files Cross
your
fingers and wait for the Operation Completed message. Opening
the DS2 Bits Files Right,
then, you've installed the editor and untanked the World.ds2map file to
make
the bits files. So, what do you do now? Let's
take a look at some files. Go
to File and select Open... Inside
the folder are all the individual maps that make up the DS2 game, from
the
initial tutorial starting location of a0_01_01_tutbeach to the very end
of the
game. Don't
worry about the checkboxes at the bottom for now. Click on
a1_01_01_tutbeach
(5th map down) and press OK. Now,
go get some coffee or something while this map loads up. You'll get a
progress
screen during the wait, but – depending on your machine – it could take
10, 15
minutes. Once
it finally finishes, you'll get this screen: What
you're seeing is the beach, from the game's tutorial. Except this time
all the
level-designer dabs and pieces are made visible by SE2. Confusing,
isn't it? SE2
Camera Controls SE2,
like SE1, is designed around a 3-button mouse with a scroll wheel. ·
Hold
down the right mouse button and move the mouse to move around the map. ·
To
change camera height, hold the Shift key down as well as the right
mouse
button. Or hold down left and right mouse buttons. ·
You
zoom in/out with the mouse wheel ·
To
rotate the map around the camera, hold down the middle mouse button
(sometimes,
this is also the wheel) and move the mouse. Now,
just mess around with the editor for awhile and, as long as you don't
SAVE
anything, nothing you do should be permanent. |