NOTE: Kotor Tool current version: v1.0.2210.16738 (2006-1-19 12:38)
You can download it at:
Kotor Tool site (
http://kotortool.starwarsknights.com/)
You can check out the new features that will be in the next release here (
http://kotortool.home.comcast.net/upcoming.htm)
For those who take the time for README files... :)
kotor_tool readme.txt (
http://kotortool.starwarsknights.com/docs/readme.txt)
Some features of Kotor Tool:
*ERF Builder - create your own .mod/.erf/.hak/.sav files
*2DA Editor
*New image viewer built in (with extract)
*Text editor now more like a "real" editor
*GFF internal format viewer
*Editors/viewers for most all GFF files (.utc,.utd,.uti,.utm,.utp,.utt, etc.)
*Dialog editor
*Search for text in game files
*Project Manager
*3D Model extractor (with helper app)
*Module editor
*and much more!
My compliments - your program seems to be working flawlessly on my machine. Where I was having a great deal of trouble getting into various chitin files - your program makes the opening and editing of files a breeze.
With this newest tool out - I am quite sure the real expert "Modders" out there are going to have a lot of fun - and soon too :-)
Indeed. I've also played around with it a bit and it seems to work quite well so far.
I can't wait to see how this shapes up as you expand the functionality. With all the collective knowledge that's been starting to peek through here and there, it'd be sooooo nice to have one tool that can do just about all the various things we need to really get in and mess with KotOR.
Heck.. even if some of the functions are just "shell out" buttons that pass correct parameters to the various command line utilities others have released already it'd be a big help.
Meh.. getting ahead of myself. Whole point to this was supposed to be to say thanks for the tool, and good job. :)
-Kitty
*edit*
Forgot to mention... I LOVE the 2da editor. With the spreadsheet style colored cells and division lines, it makes those things a LOT easier to edit (without winding up with the wrong value in half the fields) than using notepad or the like. VERY well done. :)
Very nice program, and it really has some potential too like others have said before me - it could become the swiss knife of kotor modding :)
keep up the good work!
From what I see from the other posters, looks like a great tool.
But it uses the .NET Framework... *sniff* (which I refuse to install... I'm a whiner, I know ;) )
Is it written in C++? Would you perchance make the sources available so I can hack it into vanilla VC++?
Andargor
Actually, it's written in VB.NET. Not my first choice, as I have been programming since before there was a C++ language, but I had a fair amount of reusable code from other recent projects that made it a quick-to-write task.
I haven't yet decided if I want to release the source or not at this point. Maybe at some point.
Also, though you may oppose the behemoth .NET Framework install one either size, general MS fear or just general principle, it does mind its own business quite well, as it lives in its own folder.
I run several servers with it *and& my gaming rig, all with no trouble....
First I would like to say is that when it comes to modding I am a major noob. I don't have any programing experience so most of what is discussed in this forum is over my head. I found a link for Lil' Jawa 's Darth Revan Reincarnate 1.1 mod on the Bioware forum and was hooked into wanting to mod SW-KotOR myself,but as I said I don't have much of clue about this stuff. The only thing I have ever done is made a few mods for Civ3 and Morrowind and that was just for personal use.
I borrowed NWN off a friend to use the KOTOR BUILDER , but I couldn't figure out how to use it.
This is a sweeet app.very intuative. Even I find this program easy to use.IThink now I might actually be able to mod something for KotOR .
Thanx for this i was begginning to think it would be hopeless for me :) now i just have to figure out what all thoughs file types are I understand the purpouse of the 2dA and I know I can do something fun with them :D
So thank you for posting this it's a really cool program :D :D :D :D
great program.. I had to update my .net framework but it ran smooth after that :)
Thank you all for the kind comments!
I've had the 1.1 version of the framework installed for so long I forgot that I had updated it. I'll add a note mentioning that it requires the framework and which version number to the readme file.
Thanks for the feedback!
i could be wrong, but i believe the spell.2da that comes with this mod is already decompiled. just open with notepad :)
whoops. how did i know it would be something stupid i was doing. :) i'll delete that really ugly post and get it out of the way.
Kotor Tool v1.0.1480.42651 (2004-1-21) Released today.
Main changes:
*Faster BIF tree building (~4.4x!)
*More types handled by GFF Editor
*Stopped assuming certain resource types were only found in
certain BIF/RIM files (Doh! What was I thinking... then again, look
at the posting times...)
* Added text view support for txi and vis resources
* Added Hex/Ansi/Unicode viewer
Is that enough new things for one evenings coding? :)
Download at link in 1st post (well, only if you want to...)
Cheers,
Fred :)
P.S. If any of you art-enabled folks think you have a great design for a 32 x 32 pixel icon for Kotor tool, send them my way; I'll pick one to use and give you credit for it.
Originally posted by Fred Tetra
NOTE: Just updated to Kotor Tool v1.0.1480.42651 (2004-1-21)
I wrote this tool so I could experiment with 2DA (v2.b) files and scripts.
I don't know what i did different this time ,but with Kotor Tool v1.0.1480.42651 I can't edit 2DA files.I always get error :"An unhandled exception has occurred in your application."and said it Could not find the C:\Program Files\LucasArts\SWKotORdata\2da.bif
It looks a type O in the path.
It did that to me too. I think it's a simple clerical error.. probably when it reads its .ini file.
Anyway, there's an easy fix. Just open the tool, then click File > Manage Paths.
If you look close, you'll see the problem is, it's parsing SWKotOR and Data together as one folder name without the \ in between...
Sooo.. all I did was add a \ character to the top line (root path), and then I did a cut and paste on the third one (data path) making sure it DOES have the \ in the spot in question (which it did, but eh)..
Then I closed the path manager, closed the kotor_tool, and when I re-opened it, it worked like a dream.
Thanks again Fred. And I'm betting this "fix" workaround will be short lived.. cuz he'll prolly have it fixed in a day or two the way he's been going. ;)
-Kitty
I did change the way I stored some of the path info and also forgot to mention that it's best (for most folks) to just toss your settings.xml file away and start fresh.
My favorite way to do the path configuration is to browse for the KotOR root path ("E:\SW_KOTOR"), then click the "V" button which fills in the rest of the important paths itself.
I was also thinking of adding a "detect installation"-type button, so if you really don't feel like browsing for the path (are we lazy, or what!) the tool will guess where your KotOR installation is from the registry info.
Fred
Once again, you have my appreciation for your hard work and efforts, Fred Tetra...
I've had some little fun with your original program - I don't know how much work I may attempt in Rim files, however - knowing my luck, I'll crash my whole computer (and that WOULD be a disaster - as I just built this thing last month as a Christmas gift to myself) *chuckles*
At any rate - got the newest - thanks again!!
no matter how i modify the paths. I still get this error " Could not find file "D:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotOR\2da.bif" "
Why is it looking in the root KOTOR dir for the "2da.bif"??
Anach... look at the text it gives you for the error...
System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not find file "D:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotOR\2da.bif".
File name: "D:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotOR\2da.bif"
It's looking for 2da.bif in the root KotOR folder.. which isn't gonna work. This means that somehow it's not getting your data path correct.
All I did was, added a backslash to the END of the root path and re-edited it and the data path.
So for you, manually make your root path read:
D:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotOR\ (note the final backslash)
and your data path then needs to read:
D:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotOR\data (no final backslash seems to be required here)
Also note that if you DO add a backslash to the root path, if you then use the V button, you'll get two backslashes between KotOR and whichever item comes next for most of the fields, which you don't want. (in other words it'll look like this in most other boxes: D:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotOR\\data) You can edit that manually also though, so it's not a huge deal.
-Kitty
no matter how i modify the paths. I still get this error " Could not find file "D:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotOR\2da.bif" "
Because I code until around 1:30 am ;)
There's a new version v1.0.1481.27506 now available for download.
Fixed a few bugs, add ERF support, including tpc viewing (though you'll need to have tpc2tga and an image viewer installed.)
Fred
MMmmmmm.... image viewing and direct conversion... sweet =)
I know this is getting pretty redundant.. but can't help saying nice job Fred. ;)
-Kitty
OK, so I've put in most of the things I wanted in this app.
So what do you folks think would be the most handy to have?
Some ideas:
* ERF/BIF/RIM builders
* Integrated image viewing
* Script compiling/decompiling (integrated or external app-based)
* 2DA v2.b<->2DA v2.0 conversion
Let's hear your ideas! (Oh, and I still need a better icon. Anyone?)
All those sound good.. BUT..
As my vote, I'd say priority one would be a script decompiler/compiler since we can't do that yet.
Yes, we have compilers, but that lets us change only what we have source provided for.. meaning any scripts inside the modules are about as good as being hardcoded for the time being.
If someone could come up with a proper decompiler for those, we could gain a lot of access we don't currently have.
Just my 2 cents. ;)
-Kitty
well i finally got it to work now I'm just trying to understand the feats and featgaining system.
firstly just want to say thanks to Fred for the Effort, well done!
I have a question regarding attributes, i have succesfully modded the feats and powers but cannot find how to do mod the attribute level gains. Anyone got any ideas?
Great update, but I'm wondering if any of the file format wizards know why the PO_* files in the gui texture pack don't seem to be converting right, I'm positive that's where the character portrait images are.
Originally posted by Lofte
firstly just want to say thanks to Fred for the Effort, well done!
I have a question regarding attributes, i have succesfully modded the feats and powers but cannot find how to do mod the attribute level gains. Anyone got any ideas?
I'm not sure about adjusting the number of attribute points given on level up since I never looked. I do know that you can adjust the starting points in the classes.2da file. In there you will find the preset numbers that the game use when you click the recommend button. These can be adjusted so that a new character starts with all 18's for example. Hope that helps some.
Stator
Originally posted by darthface
Great update, but I'm wondering if any of the file format wizards know why the PO_* files in the gui texture pack don't seem to be converting right, I'm positive that's where the character portrait images are.
The person named Eiz wrote the tpc2tga converter and I know from reading the thread that it was quite difficult to decode the sub-formats that are supported right now. Hopefully the work will continue and we'll be able to convert all of them.
Originally posted by Kitty Kitty
All those sound good.. BUT..
As my vote, I'd say priority one would be a script decompiler/compiler since we can't do that yet.
Yes, we have compilers, but that lets us change only what we have source provided for.. meaning any scripts inside the modules are about as good as being hardcoded for the time being.
If someone could come up with a proper decompiler for those, we could gain a lot of access we don't currently have.
Just my 2 cents. ;)
-Kitty
I don't see how one would decompile binary machine code back to asci nss, Bioware themselves had to include sources for their scripts in NWN they didn't(or couldn't) make a decompiler?
But if it is possible I definately think Fred Tetra can do it :)
Otherwise perhaps we could nag Bioware to release the sources for module scripts, maybe make a petition or something if you really must have them.
Originally posted by Lil' Jawa
I don't see how one would decompile binary machine code back to asci nss, Bioware themselves had to include sources for their scripts in NWN they didn't(or couldn't) make a decompiler?
But if it is possible I definately think Fred Tetra can do it :)
Otherwise perhaps we could nag Bioware to release the sources for module scripts, maybe make a petition or something if you really must have them.
I doubt it will ever happen, based on the nazi brutality bioware uses to deal with any mention of mods on their boards.
I take it they don't like mods, eh? But how bad can they be about it?
Bioware loves mods. NWN Toolset anyone?
The problem is LucasArts.
Andargor
Hi, when I run the program, I get the follow error when I try to extract a file:
Could not find a part of the path"E:\SWkotORdata\2da.bif".
For some reason, it seems to be missing a '\' between the 'SWkotOR' and the 'data'.
Am I doing something wrong?
get the new version released 22nd Firehawk
Only trouble with this release, where has the Editor button gone?
I now have to extract, then go to the menu to view 2da.
Originally posted by andargor
Bioware loves mods. NWN Toolset anyone?
The problem is LucasArts.
Andargor
Then why are we sitting here posting on Lucasforums while every thread that as much as touches the aspect of modification is locked instantaneously on bioware boards? ;)
A) LucasForums isn't a Lucas owned site.
B) BioWare cannot show support for any mods for this game because of licensing issues with Lucas. That is also why this isn't a straight up Aurora engine setup as far as files go. The 2da's were compiled, etc. to make it more difficult to modify.
C) Bioware actually does support mods to games that they are allowed to support them on.
Originally posted by Anach
Only trouble with this release, where has the Editor button gone?
I now have to extract, then go to the menu to view 2da.
Double-click on any tree leaf (anything without something below it) and if and editor or viewer is available for it, it will open.
of course, thanks, how easy, i guess this was in the readme that i didnt read??
I should slap myself, or let you do it.
cheers again.
you people can blame LA all you want for the modding difficulty. but modding has not been discouraged or shut down on any other LA game until KotOR. i remember downloading mods for LA games as far back as Dark Forces. and ravebn HAS released toolsets for the last two releases in the Jedi Knight series.
so what if bioware released one game with a toolset. that does not make them the mod-friendly community of the decade. they released the toolset with this game because it was one of the games marketed selling points. it was a marketing strategy plain and simple. maybe the reason KotOR didn't get a toolset is because they didn't make enough money with that particular ploy.
as far as i'm concerned, any primarily PC RPG company that throws themself into a contract with microsoft and starts releasing their games primarily for xbox before porting them to PC has lost alot of my respect. the toolset issue and banned modding topics only added to it.
oh, and fred, thanks for the great program. this is one brilliant program. completely intuitive in all aspects.
Originally posted by kyrellic
The 2da's were compiled, etc. to make it more difficult to modify.
Going off-topic here --
Actually, I doubt that was the reason the 2DAs were compiled. The V2.b files are much smaller than their V2.0 counterparts by taking into account repeating values. Appearance.2da for example is <1/5 the size. Smaller files usually translate into faster gameplay.
Firehawk,
Trust me on this. I've fixed mine, and about a half dozen other people's with this..
I know it doesn't sound like it should do anything, but it works.
1. Open Kotor_Tool
2. Click File > Manage Paths from the topline menu.
3. Add a \ (backslash) to the END of the FIRST path box (KotOR root path).
4. Left click & drag in the THIRD field (Data path) to select the entire line.
5. Type SHIFT-DELETE to cut this to clipboard, then SHIFT-INSERT to paste it back in. (Trust me)
5a. Do NOT click the "V" button to fill the other boxes, or if you DO, remove ALL double backslashes (\\) you see in any boxes.
6. Close the path manager.
7. Close the kotor_tool completely.
8. Load the kotor_tool up again, and it'll work fine.
;)
-Kitty
Ok one thing that I that this program could really use is a search function.often I find myself wasteing time looking for refferance to a file in an other. It would be great if I could just type in a keyword and all files that fall into that field would pop up in a window along with where they reside :) if that would be possible.
Damn! I know there was something else I thought would be helpfull,but i can't think right now. Oh, I remember now it would be nice to be able to add new entries at the 2DA's.
Anyway thanks for the work you have put into this program, It has been a great help to me in learning this stuff, and i really like the new features.
:D
hey fred here's a thought. i have recently run across a rather SERIOUS limitation in the .gff editor. it can NOT copy a value from one .gff to another. i know your program is designed to work with the bioware .gff editor, but what are the chances you would consider adding .gff support just so all of us wanting to create new items won't have to type forever when we start getting into lightsabers? :) i'm talking 20 something entries in the properties list.
if you have the chance to let me know the likelihood of this being feasible, please do so. and if anyone else out there feels this would be useful to them as well feel free to speak up in support.
I've been pretty busy fixing a few things and adding some new ones.
Just to whet your appetite, here are the new features:
Double-click to view most .tpc files right in app. (tpc2tga and an image viewer app are not required) Also shows # of mipmaps in file and other file-specific info.
(Double-click+Shift key will still perform tpc2tga conversion and run your selected image viewer app)
File path problem fixed
Text viewer not anchored to window fixed
I'm hoping to add 2DA row deletion, addition and insertion, too.
Fred
*Anyone come up with an icon yet?
Let's say i want to gain more than 1 feat per level. i just edit gainfeat.2da and save it. But what next? How do i import the 2da file back to bif file?
Originally posted by SpaceAlex
Let's say i want to gain more than 1 feat per level. i just edit gainfeat.2da and save it. But what next? How do i import the 2da file back to bif file?
You don't need to. Just leave the modified 2da file in your kotor\override folder (either compiled form or text form - both work fine for 2DAs). When you next load KotOR, it uses this data in place of the stuff in the bifs. ;)
-Kitty
I believe the two errors have been fixed.
One was caused by me "exporting" 1 less row of data from the grid than actually existed, but only in the 2da native format; the XML exporter was OK, thus easy to find.
The other was caused by a quirk in the M$ grid that I have worked around. That grid is such a pain that M$ is releasing a new version!
The download site now contains the updated code, though the release version remains the same because of the way the version-generating code from M$ works (go figure!)
To paraphrase Mr. Gates on the subject of why viruses make Windows more secure....
"My code is better because you're finding bugs in it."
Not to be a pain in the butt as a new poster, but, um, is there anything special I should consider when I'm editing featgain.2DA and feat.2DA?
I was trying to see, for a reference, if I could give a char all the non-Jedi feats at level 1, tell it 'no featgain', then tell it to give all Jedi feats at level 2/whatever level you became a jedi at. But when it hit feats in the long form chargen, it crashed every time. Are there a bunch of things that aren't used in game, that are supposed to be left unmarked? If so, a list of tnose might be nice.
jennaida: maybe you can try to do the following
to give free feats, you can edit the column "sol_granted", "sct_granted", "jcn_granted" (in the feat.2da file) to whatever lvl that you want the feat to be given at. also note that if you do change certain feats to be granted at certain level, make sure that you fill the corresponding field next to the left of the "sol_granted" column to "3" (it is the "xxx_list" column, xxx being the class). otherwise, the feat will not be shown on your feat screen.
So if you are planning to be a soldier/guardian, you would change the "sol_granted" column to "1" and "sol_list" to "3" for all the non jedi feats. then for the jedi feats, you will go to "jgd_granted" and fill "1" also and "jgd_list" to "3". (remember, you will start as a lvl 1 guardian regardles of your soldier class level). that should do the trick.
To create "no feat gain" is even easier. open the featgain.2da and simply change all those number to 0.
Trying that now... hope this works...
*comes back*
Hmm, nope. I'd swear I got the 2DA files right, as well. And I put feat 2DA into the Override folder (that's right, isn't it?) but whenever it gets to Feats in custom chargen, it seaches the disk, then says its performed an error and crashes out during chargen. And since Feats is the first thing I've touched, I'm wondering about it. When I hit 'automatic chargen' its giving me level 1 of some of the stuff, but not giving all of it. Is there a separate listing for some restrictions on 'only' certain classes being allowed something, or is that part of what you mentioned in previous post?