how to change shield and weapons?

**Pope Innocent III** · February 12, 2015, 07:57 PM

I'm very new to modding and trying to figure out how to change shield and weapons on a unit. I'm gonna guess it's in the BMDB but I don't see a line for shields unless it's an attachmentset. I'm pretty sure I know the line for weapons but I don't know what they look like or how to open the files to view them. It's there a link somewhere that shows them all?

Thanks in advance,
Pope Innocent III

**k/t** · February 13, 2015, 01:19 AM

You have guessed wrong.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=412456

**Pope Innocent III** · February 13, 2015, 02:16 AM

Originally Posted by k/t

You have guessed wrong.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=412456

oh perfect, thank you. I have seen a lot of comments talking about milkshape but after downloading it, it looked like a very daunting challenge. this should help nicely.

**Pope Innocent III** · February 13, 2015, 03:26 AM

I'll post in that thread, though I'm not sure if its dead or not. But his suggested program, DXTBMP, when I try to open my mesh to convert it to a TGA nothing happens; it just loads a blank screen. Am I doing something wrong?

**paleologos** · February 13, 2015, 08:00 AM

Originally Posted by Pope Innocent III

I'll post in that thread, though I'm not sure if its dead or not. But his suggested program, DXTBMP, when I try to open my mesh to convert it to a TGA nothing happens; it just loads a blank screen. Am I doing something wrong?

DXTBMP is a utility that converts 2D images from one format to another and it is one of very few programs that can convert the CA texture files to DDS format (or other formats) so that they can be processed with an image manipulation suit like GIMP or photoshop.
MESH files are not image files, DXTBMP cannot handle them.
What exactly did you have in mind?

**Pope Innocent III** · February 13, 2015, 10:48 AM

Originally Posted by paleologos

DXTBMP is a utility that converts 2D images from one format to another and it is one of very few programs that can convert the CA texture files to DDS format (or other formats) so that they can be processed with an image manipulation suit like GIMP or photoshop.
MESH files are not image files, DXTBMP cannot handle them.
What exactly did you have in mind?

I'm trying to follow that guide. I merged two separate unit's weapons to a third unit. I believe the guide is saying to use DXTBMP:

"If you use DXTbmp and convert these two textures into .tga type:-

en_highlander_scotland.texture to en_highlander_scotland.tga
Final Heater_scotland_diff.texture to Final Heater_scotland_diff.tga"

It looks like it says after that I can view them on my unit in Milkshape before adding the new files to my BMDB. Am I correct in this?

**BM309K58SMERCH** · February 13, 2015, 10:47 AM

Originally Posted by Pope Innocent III

I'll post in that thread, though I'm not sure if its dead or not. But his suggested program, DXTBMP, when I try to open my mesh to convert it to a TGA nothing happens; it just loads a blank screen. Am I doing something wrong?

You must be reading the instructions wrong, they are as clear as can be.

**Pope Innocent III** · February 13, 2015, 01:19 PM

Another question, since he didn't fully go into it, is he using the first mesh file he created for lod0-3 as well as for atachmentsets or did I miss a step somewhere?

**paleologos** · February 13, 2015, 07:45 PM

You did not miss one step somewhere, you are counfused about almost everything.
Mesh files are the 3D part of the model.
For every lod there can be a distinct mesh.
Apart from the mesh and in order for the model to appear correctly in-game it also needs a skin.
The skins are 2D files.
Have you seen the movie "The invisible man"?
When he is naked he is invisible.
But when he is dressed his clothes can be seen and his position becomes apparent.
If you try to introduce a new model to the game without having designated which 2D files it will be using as skins it will appear as a chrome silver figure (instead of being invisible).
When you are processing a model in a 3D processing program the 2D files that are intended to be used as skins are referred to as "materials".
A 3d model may have many materials but M2TW models only have two and some of them (officers) may only have one.
M2TW calls those "materials" figure and attachments.
If you convert a mesh file into an ms3d file that you can process with milkshape, you will notice that it is made up of "groups" of dots (called vertices) and lines (called wires).
Every group can only be assigned one material and you will see the name of the material at the right of the name of the group in the groups tab in milkshape.

Alletun has made a very extensive document that explains all of that and gives many insights on how things in M2TW really work.
You can find it in this thread.

**Pope Innocent III** · February 28, 2015, 07:47 PM

Think I've got things a lot more figured out now, but I have had once annoying issue. When editing with milkshape I can see the shield I want equipped on my unit, but when I test in a custom battle, he is using a different one. Any ideas how to get around this? I am selecting the "final special heater antioch diff" but the game is using "final heater antioch diff"

**Gigantus** · March 01, 2015, 08:49 AM

That would be the entry in the modeldb file that needs adjusting.

**Pope Innocent III** · March 01, 2015, 05:12 PM

Originally Posted by Gigantus

That would be the entry in the modeldb file that needs adjusting.

oh perfect. after spending so much time on it in milkshape i completely forgot i needed to edit the modeldb. thank you, that was really driving me nuts