Iam pretty new to the modding universe and am having trouble using kotor tool.
I have actually useed a couple of the totorials that different people have posted, but dont totally understand where everything is located.
for example:

what is in the BIF's section, the RIm's section, or the ERF's section also what does BIF, RIM, and ERF stand for. Maybe if someone could explain what these thing mean and what is stored in them I might understand a little more......Is there a Modding For Dummies Book?? Ther are some preety talented people out there, I know some of you Guys(and Gals) could help a newbee out. Also is there a way to print out a .2da file?

Modding to me is getting to be as much fun as the actual games but i just dont understand how and where everything is. Any help would be greatly appriciated.

nobody has any insight into this problem???

Sorry Darth Webb, but the answers you are looking for are so HUGE and dynamic.. most people would hesitate to try and answer this as it would take forever..

This site will have the answers you're looking for (about file formats)..

http://nwn.bioware.com/developers/)

but don't say we didn't warn ya' ;) There is alot to read and there's no real way to 'dumb down' the entire file structures because it will lead to confusion and headaches later on when you are trying to pull off more advanced mods :)

However, I'm not here to discourage you :) If you do have any questions about specifics, don't hesitate to ask.. it's just that this particular one covers a very broad scope

Welcome to the Forums! :waive1:

Thanks ChAiNz will look at the related link, I dont want to get real technical, just looking to find out where exactly the character utc's and tpc's are so many dropdowns open up it would take days to search each one and then iI dont even know what the names stand for.

Thanks ChAiNz will look at the related link, I dont want to get real technical, just looking to find out where exactly the character utc's and tpc's are so many dropdowns open up it would take days to search each one and then iI dont even know what the names stand for.
I hear ya' ;)

But yeah, for questions such as the location of files and such... while it would take forever to list them all, if you know what you have in mind (general or specific) and the search feature doesn't turn up anything for you.. then by all means, yes, please make a thread asking for a path to the file. We do it all the time around here in Holowan so just let us know... :)

Very basically, BIFs contain such things as templates for characters, items, armor, weapons, .2das, models, and universal scripts. You'll find most universal character .utcs in here under BIFs --> Templates.bif --> Blueprint, Characters. BIFs is where the basic building blocks for the game are kept. There's other stuff there, but these above will be mostly what you'll be after for modding.

RIMs contains module information and module specific character, waypoint, item, etc. and dialogue information. If you're looking for a very specific character, like, Yuka Laka in K1 or Luxa in K2, you'd look for them in RIMs, in the module you'd find them. The names have three numbers then three letters, so Yuka Laka would be somewhere in ###tat (Tatooine) while Luxa would be in ###TEL (Telos) somewhere.

ERFs contain textures, the .tcps you're looking for. K2's module specific dialogues are contained in ERFs --> Modules.

Saves contain...game saves.

For specific character .utcs and .tcps, those usually have the character name in them, so shouldn't be hard to figure out once you get used to it. For armors and weapons, those are a little trickier to locate textures, but there are turtorials that explain the naming conventions.

(Don't mean to step on your toes or anything, ChAiNz! :) Just trying to help put a little sense to the mind-boggling number of things to find in Kotor Tool so hopefully Darth Webb can start getting used to it and finding stuff.)

So what are the differences in "file name" structure ex
I ran a search on "utc" it came back with too many to list here but besides that as you scroll down the list some of the files start with a c (c_bantha.utc) some with a g( g_darkjedi.utc) some with n(n_swoopgang.utc) and so on and so forth is there any logic to the first letter, like the g means a certen type of creature or the n is a actual character??Llot to ask I know but there has to be some kind of logic to their (game developer) logic. just wanted to see if there are any ideas

EDIT:

Thanks Princess Artems thats what Im looking for, where are the tutorials located

Please use the "edit this" function to your lower right of your post to add any details rather than double/triple post :) ~ ChAiNz.2da

c usually is a creature, like a gizka or a Krayt dragon. n usually stands for NPCs like Yuthura or Jordo. p stands for party members. Not sure what g stands for...might have something to do with how they're built.

Anyway, http://www.lucasforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=521) has four sections with gobs of tutorials, General Tutorials + Tool (start here!), Skinning and Modelling, .2da Editing, and Scripting. There are life-saving tutorials in all of them :) Also, use the search function if there's something specific you're looking to do, since someone probably has discussed it somewhere in Holowan.

Thanks Princess Artems thats what Im looking for, where are the totorials located

First of all, instead of triple posting, use the edit post button. *

Second of all, the tutorials are located in respective sub-forums at the top of Holowan Labs.

_EW_


* Taken care of ~ ChAiNz.2da ;)

(Don't mean to step on your toes or anything, ChAiNz! :) Just trying to help put a little sense to the mind-boggling number of things to find in Kotor Tool so hopefully Darth Webb can start getting used to it and finding stuff.)
By all means step on'em as much as you like.. hehehe :D

We're all here to help one another in the long run.. I just didn't want someone to feel obligated to go into each tree and try to define every single file in the tree list.. :eek:

Summaries such as yours is perfect and while it would be tempting, albeit grossly huge, for someone to go through and define every single file.. I've found a little legwork goes a long way in learning modding ;)

A very rough outline about the file structure, in addition to what has already been said above.

RIM files are archive files used to store all the files that make up a separate module, found in the Modules folder. A module corresponds to an area (i.e. piece of the game world with a loadscreen when entering and leaving it), and contains all types of resources (items, creatures, placeables, scripts etc) that are local to this module, i.e. only loaded/accessable when the player is in this module in-game.

For some unknown reason modules tend to be split into two separate RIM files, one of which has a "_s" suffix at the end of the name. The first RIM file contains (usually) 3 data files defining the area itself (The module.ifo that contains module properties, the *.are file that contains area properties, and the *.git file that contains references to all dynamic objects (creatures, items, placeables, sound, triggers etc) that are placed within the area.

The "_s" RIM file then contains all other resources used by the module, such as the (creature/item/placeable etc) templates referred to in the GIT file mentioned above, any module-specific scripts and pathfinding information. This is usually the file you look in when you want to extract something that exists in a module for editing.


ERF files are an archive format capable of containing a multitude of file types. Two main types of files with an .erf extension are worth noting in TSL. The first is those found in the modules folder, named the same as the RIM files for a module. These contain the DLG conversation files used in that particular module.

The other type of ERF file are texture packs, found in the TexturePacks folder. These contain all the textures for 3d models in the game, as well as textures for the user interface, icons and such. Textures in the original game are stored in a *.tpc format, which some form of DXT-compressed image with additional texture information directives appended at the end. KotorTool can convert them to plain TGA format and separate the texture information into a TXI file.


BIF files, located in the Data folder, are used in pair with the chitin.key file located in the main folder. These contain all the global game resources, i.e. models, creatures, scripts, dialogs, sounds etc that are not associated with a single module, but can be accessed from anywhere in the game. Due to their dependence on a *.key to index their content, BIF files are rather unsuitable to use for modding. Putting things in the override folder essentially has the same effect as adding them to a BIF file.


MOD files are ERF format files which usually serve the same purpose as a RIM file. A modder can use a MOD format file to pack all the files contained in a module, though the standard TSL game does not use them in this capacity. Rather, they are found in the lips folder and are used to store *.lip files, which contains lip-synch for all the conversations in the game.


To sum it up, BIF, ERF and RIM are archive formats used to hold game data. ERF and RIM format files are very similar in function, while BIF depends on a separate KEY file to index its content. BIF holds game-wide data similar to the override folder, RIM/MOD holds module/area-specific data. ERF holds textures and module-specific dialogs.

I don't know what the idea is behind splitting the files making up a single module into four archive files, like...
mymodule.rim (area definition)
mymodule_s.rim (module resources)
mymodule.erf (dialog files)
mymodule.mod (dialog lip-synch)
...since you can pack anything contained into all those files into a single MOD file and the game will still work the same, but that's how the game developers chose to do it. :)

By all means step on'em as much as you like.. hehehe :D

We're all here to help one another in the long run.. I just didn't want someone to feel obligated to go into each tree and try to define every single file in the tree list.. :eek:

Summaries such as yours is perfect and while it would be tempting, albeit grossly huge, for someone to go through and define every single file.. I've found a little legwork goes a long way in learning modding ;)

Thanks was just looking for a push in the right direction.

EDIT:

@stoffe,

Big time info thanks should help quite a bit

OK, ChAiNz, but I'll try to only step on 'em in the name of modding ;) And good lawd no, the very idea of going through every file listed in Kotor Tool and defining them gives me the creeps!

Anyway, Darth Webb, you're welcome for the push, hope it helps. For what it's worth, the g_ .utcs, I just realized it means generic or global--they're usually characters that you'd find in multiple modules like your plain old garden-variety Dark Jedi and common-folk.

For what it's worth, the g_ .utcs, I just realized it means generic or global--they're usually characters that you'd find in multiple modules like your plain old garden-variety Dark Jedi and common-folk.

That seems to be correct. My guess for global* UTC (in templates.bif) resref prefixes, though it's hardly 100% accurate:
g_ = Generic, non-named NPCs (e.g. "Dark Jedi")
n_ = Named NPCs (e.g. "Darth Malak")
c_ = Creatures/monsters
p_ = Party members

...and for UTI (item templates) in TSL:
a_ = armor/clothing item
d_ = droid-specific item
e_ = implants
w_ = weapons
u_ = upgrade item (lenses, crystals, power cells etc)
i_ = other non-equippable items

Not that it really matters from a modding perspective, those are just some naming convention Obsidian and Bioware used. You can name your own templates anything you like as long as it's a valid ResRef (16 characters in length at most, alphanumerical characters and underscore only).

* Prefixes are only reasonably meaningful for the global templates. For module specific ones all bets are off since those can be named pretty much anything depending on the amount of copy&paste the designers used.

Just a note the above naming conventions covered by Stoffe are not 100% for there usage. Frequently you will find un-named masses of NPC's in the games that have the N_ prefix. You will also find the C_ prefix on occasions with named NPC's.

As to the above prefix's for Items they use almost the same naming conventions in K1 except they have a "G" in front or if they are part of the live content for Xbox(which was included with the PC release) you will see a "G1" followed by the rest of the above prefix. That and K1 used "GC_" I believe for crystals and I can't recall the prefix for implants.