Dnas, a gifted AOM modder, turned me onto the process which he theorized, but never did try himself. So, I followed his instructions, and, lo and behold, the process worked. Now, the solution is a little intense, but, as I said, it works. So, without further ado....
I'm going to move fast, so you'll especially have to have the first one in order to keep up. To begin, you need to have all the components involved in the process, such as the textures, anim files, GRN models, and so forth. As an example, we'll use the Arkantos unit. Keep in mind, though, that the process can be adapted to any unit with cinematic models. First, as I said, you'll need to have edited cinematic textures prepared. If you don't know how to do that, then you'll have to look elsewhere first; I'm not going into it here. For the purpose of the example, I have three edited and converted cinematic textures which have the original names: Second, you'll need to have the unit's anim file. For the example, we'll need the Arkantos unit's anim file, Third, you'll need to have at least two GRN files from the That's more or less all you need for now. Now things get slightly more complicated. Before we get into it, a little background information. The cinematic models in AOM are different from the standard models. Cinematic models are in a format called GRN, short for Granny, while standard models are in a format called BRG, short for who the hell knows. Now, BRG models define everything right in them; the vertices and vertex positions, the textures, the movement frames, everything. The GRN models, however, according to Dnas, are different. For GRN animations, a base model defines the structure, bone positions, and textures, whereas separate animation models define how the model moves, referring back to the base model. In summary, a lot of complicated gibberish for novice modellers, I'm sure, but you don't really need to understand it in order to edit it. To begin, open up your hex editing program. Now, open up the Now, scroll down the document until you come to a series of words and symbols along the right-hand side. The thing you'll need to edit here will consist of any text that matches the name of the DDT texture files you edited, namely Note that you won't find the DDT extension in the text. Rather, you'll find a TGA extension at times; leave it as such. Regarding the actual editing, you want to simply replace any instances of the original texture names with your own texture names. Once that's done, go to your edited textures and rename them to whatever name you chose to put in the GRN file. So, for example, Once all the texture names have been altered, simply save and close the GRN file. Now that the textures have been set in the base model, it's a comparatively simple but arduous task of referencing the base model. The process here is deceptively easy; you simply have to rename the GRN files. But there's a trick to it. First, the base GRN file must be renamed, otherwise it'll simply be loaded in place of the original. Easy, right? Not so much. Keep in mind that we're only modifying one animation in this example; the Arkantos unit, however, has well over 50 cinematic animations. That's a lot of GRN files to rename if you want to use them all for your new unit. Once the GRN file editing and renaming is complete, there's still the matter of actually implementing it into the game. First, a shadow and selection shape must be defined. This is a simple task; open up the Second, the anim file must be edited. Open up After that, simply save and close the file. What you're basically doing in the anim file is changing the names of the cinematic animations to match the filenames you've given the edited GRN files, whether they be standard animations like walking or attacking, or the actual cinematic actions, such as talking or sleeping. Finally, you basically just have to put the files into the Age of Mythology folder. The modified GRN and DCL files go into the Both the original and the modified texture simultaneously. Is that not a glorious sight? Post any questions or commentary you might have. And remember, though this isn't a "discovery", all praise for figuring out this particular process is to be directed at Dnas; I was but the worker bee. If you want to praise me for the guide, however, I'm cool with that. Now speak! [This message has been edited by King Jared (edited 05-14-2005 @ 06:28 PM).]
And that, for all intents and purposes, is how to change the cinematic textures without replacing the originals during gameplay. Now, behold! The fruits of your labour!
KING JARED
Aw, hell, I dunno, she had some tig-ole-bitties, d'int she?
big.vitt@gmail.com