Mod Dawnspire

[Teezec]

Hey i am interested in moddeing Dawnspire... come on a few new maps would be nice right? ...
now ... im just wondering were the source files are, which programs did they use? and how do we get it all into the game? should it be patched or uploaded? (work with 3D models btw)

[PimpFather]

There are som minor mods, i e check this thread:

http://dawnspire.tinyrocket.se/forum/index.php/topic,416.0.html

I can set up a server running it during the day.

But the maps are hard to do, but if you have the skill you are more than welcome!

Hopefully you'll get som replies from those who have dug deeper into this problem.

Big smile / Pimp

[Teezec]

Thanks m8!

Would be fun to mod ^^ (as i said know some skilled ppl )

[PimpFather]

Saw you play some "Football". Can be really hectic 5 vs 5. How did you like it?

[Teezec]

actually i havent tried the map yet, but sounds nice, i just gotta try it...when i have time that is ... time, time, time...

[Persus]

If you fancy trying to mod anything then turning the Shrine Domination maps into Relic conquest maps would be the best thing you could try. There is also a few redundant character models in one of the game folders you could mess about with.

[Nightmare]

Well here's some tips for you (this goes for the football map question too). Start from prelude.pkg, it contains everything you need and the folder and file names should be pretty self explanatory. Make some changes, load up your own server and see what happens.

The next bit is more advanced stuff and if you're actually good at this you'd probably figure it out by yourself eventually, but I've always said there's no point in inventing the wheel twice so enjoy:

If you want to edit ground texture, edit map.dds in the level directory. It is normal DXT1 compressed DirectX texture, there should be tools in the net to convert images to DXT1 format.

If you want to edit ground heights, you must alter heightMap.hm which is easier said than done, since it doesn't seem to be any normal image format. I'd guess it is simply a raw datafile consisting of height values in an array, perhaps with a header of some kind. If you have any programming experience it shouldn't be too difficult to construct a reader for it. If you don't, then you probably have to forget about editing the heightmaps (unless you fancy playing around with a hex editor, of course).

Additionally, if you want to change the walkable area of the terrain, edit walkable.dds. It is A8R8G8B8 format DirectX texture, so again with proper tools it shouldn't be a problem to edit it.

[Teezec]

ok thanks found some codes to work with ... but is there anyway to export the models and textures from dawnspire? cuz if i look in my DS folder i cant find folders containing models or textures (or maps btw)...i assume they are stored in some kind of masterfile?

[Nightmare]

Read the first chapter from my previous post again.

[Teezec]

OH! thx....sorry missed the file in the folder earlier xD

[Teezec]

hmm... a tiny problem ... cant seam to open prelude.pkg... any ideas?

[Nightmare]

Soo... what kind of modding/computer experience do you actually have? Because if you can't figure out how to open .pkg files then I'm afraid modding DS is a bit too much for you. You see, there are no editors of any kind, all of you got is a bunch of .xml and other random files which you need to edit manually, compile them together, start the game and see what happens. So probably not the best game to start your modding career.

[Teezec]

Hi my name is Erik i´m 17 years old currently studying on a school for game developing.

Truth be told, when i got this idea i was very skeptical about doing it myself since (as you might have noticed) i lack experience in modding... However! If someone was willing to help (a couple of friends have done some great steam mods) i could do a lot off the textures and modeling

(since i have a couple of years experience working with textures and 3D models)

Right now i´m simply looking around, trying stuff, gathering info. And since someone had created a map for DS i simply wanted to ask how it was done.

And yes i don't know a lot about the different file formates since i´m generally spending my time in CS4 or Maya, And who knows i might not even have time to start creating a mod for DS, But the game is very addictive and could use more variation, thats all i´m saying.
 

[Teezec]

Oh btw isnt Windows supposed to be able to open .PKG files?

Becouse my Windows is seriuslt fuckt upp right now...trying to find a solution for hours

[Nightmare]

Well like I said earlier there are no editors or stuff for DS, which means that making totally new maps is going to be very hard if not impossible. Those "new" ones you might have seen are done by recycling old maps, for example taking the tutorial map and putting a gamemode on it. As for what comes to graphics, I already gave some help on my first post. To be honest I don't understand all of that and if you don't either then there's pretty nothing to be done.

WinRAR is the program of the day .