A step-by-step guide
By Pepsidude of Lucky-Zion Studios and the ArchDesigner Syndicate
Download the full guide. Welcome to my guide. This guide will open up a world of possibilities for anyone interested in learning modding. You have probably already seen some great mods in the AOM or AOE3 download section, these are all examples of what you can do with modding. If you haven’t downloaded any mods, I would suggest downloading some good detailed mods for inspiration. Some of the good modders to keep an eye out for are Argalius, Moosefood, Tommyboy, and King Jared. If you have AOM, I would highly suggest downloading the best mod I know of, eXtinction’s I-39. This mod-pack will show you the wonderful textures and models you can make with determination and creativity. The modding possibilities are a little narrower in AOE3. Age of Empires 3 lacks the option of making a new model for your mod and it doesn’t have any 2 dimensional objects to mod. But you can still make great texture mods. AOM & AOE3 are both lacking modders. If you take a look at Heavengames, you will see many more scenario designers than modders. But, with a little practice, your mods will receive many downloads and some of the scenario designers will probably request a mod from you. Modding gives you a moment to shine.
Cheat Modding – My term for copying something off of another picture or photo and pasting it onto your mod. I have made uploaded some common cheat textures for you to use in your mods. Extracting – Pulling out uneditable files into files that are editable for modding Model – The shape and outline of an object. Semi-Transparent – The state of being semi see-through. Skin – See texture Texture Map – The layout of the object in an editable form. Texture Maps can be confusing to work with because the layout differs between in-game units, cinematic units, buildings, and animals. After that, you are ready to begin modding. Texture modding should be done in an advanced editing program like Gimp or Photoshop. But, to start you off, I am just going to explain how to texture mod in MS Paint. First, open up the AOMed which you should have downloaded. If you do not have it yet, check the modding resources section. When you get it open, click on the yellow box with the text Set Input Data File. This will take you to a familiar box with a list of everything on your computer that you can open. The file you want to open is textures.bar or textures2.bar. To find these files, click on My Computer, then go into Local Master (C: ), then open up program files, and click Microsoft games, from here click on Age of Mythology. This should display all of your AOM files. Go into the file labeled textures, and from there you can find the textures.bar or the textures2.bar file that you are looking for. After you open the main textures file, you can now open the texture file matching the unit, building, or object that you want to mod. Now pick a file, and open it. AOMed will then ask you where to save it to. You should choose to save it to your new mods folder if you created one. Then, you will get a message popping up saying something like ‘DDT image format: “15-bit, 1-bit alpha You should write down the DDT image format. This is very important for when you want to add your new texture mod into the game. Once you go back to your mods folder and open up the newly extracted texture file, it should look something like this if it’s a unit: (Sorry, some of the colors got messed up) This is the texture file. It is a little confusing at first. But, if you look at the image above, I have labeled the main body parts. Most unit textures are laid out like this, so use my labels if you are confused on what is what. Below the body, is the Unit Mask. The unit mask is usually made up of black and white, though sometimes it will have gray in it. The black color shows matches up with the top for the legs and arms. But, the white color matches up with the clothes to show what team your unit is on. For example, if your unit is for player 1, the clothing would normally be blue or the default color to symbolize the team. If there is gray in the Unit Mask, it will give the unit semi-transparency (See section IX) If you want to change the look of the unit, you can color in the top half. Try just making the clothes green for your first mod. After it is colored to your satisfaction, it is time for you to add it to the game. To do this, open up AOMed again. Click the button that says ‘Direct File Conversion’. And now specify which file you want to save it to. You should choose My Computer > Program Files > Microsoft Games > Age of Mythology. Remember the DDT image format code? You will now have to select the code from a list, and after this, your unit is in Age of Mythology! Now restart Age of Mythology, and your new modified texture should replace another object’s old texture. However, animal textures, boat textures, and building textures are laid out a little differently. If you are confused about their texture files, do some experimenting. Add a little yellow box or something. Now, save the texture into the game. Look for the yellow box on the object in the editor, and that will tell you what area you were confused about. The texture map is quite a bit different from a normal texture map. Since the texture wraps around the object, the body parts are each layed out separately to edit. A good thing about this is that the texture map for a cinematic model is very easy to read. Here is an example of a cinematic map taken from the unit Arkantos: So, get to know what a cinematic unit map looks like, and then you can continuing editing just like you would edit a regular texture file. Cheat modding can be nice, but it’s always better to take your time and draw out your texture. So, to start 2D modding run AOMed. By now, you should know how to extract a texture. So, extract ‘world g oak cinematic map’. Remember to write down the extracting code. The texture map should look like a picture of two trees. In AoM, the trees always look like this and they can not be rotated to reveal different sides. So, experiment by drawing ornaments on the trees or whatever. And, then use AoM to add your new texture into the game. Here is a simple file I made by taking out the small tree and adding a picture of a North Pole sign. It is important to go onto the black mask and black out everything that you don’t want to be seen in game. So, I copied the top half, and added the outline to the black mask. In game, all you can see is the North Pole sign. (Scroll down to bottom picture for a preview) First, open up a texture file for editing. Take a look at the black mask. You will see a white outline over a black border. The white shows what will be visible in the game. However, if you make the white color darker, it will appear semi-transparent. So, go over the white outline with a gray color, and save the texture file under 16 bit 1-bit alpha This effect can be used to make ghosts or anything you want to make. As for me, I will continue my modding into Rise of Legends and some more for Age of Mythology. Later, I plan on writing guides on modding in Photoshop and some guides on scenario designing in AOM & ROL. If you have a guide request for me just email me your request and I’ll see what I can do about it. You can find my email in the contact information section. a) How to review a mod * Remember to follow the review guideline of having your review being at least 5 lines long in each category you write about. Be sure to comment on what you liked or didn’t like and leave suggestions. If your review is too short or unfair, it may be deleted by a downloads administrator. [This message has been edited by Pepsidude_123 (edited 07-08-2006 @ 02:25 PM).]
I. What is modding
II. What programs are used for modding
III. Words to Know
IV. Getting Started
V. Texture Modding
VI. Cinematic Modding
VII. ‘Cheat’ Modding
VIII. 2D Modding
IX. Semi-Transparent Modding
X. What’s Next
XI. Other
XII. Credits
XIII. Contact Information
XIV. Other Useful Guides
Modding is another form of scenario designing. Modding allows you to let your imagination flow and permits you to do whatever you want to customize any object in a moddable game.
There are many utilities to help out modders, but you don't have to download all of them. If you are new to modding, then I would suggest at least download AOM Edit. You should already have MS Paint on your computer, and you can mod with those to programs alone.
Animation – Animations allow objects to move. In the campaign, characters use animations while talking.
The first thing I would recommend to start modding, is to create a folder inside of your Age of Mythology directory (My Computer > Program Files > Microsoft Games > Age of Mythology). Label this folder mods. And, then make two more folders inside of the folder. The first one should be named mods. In this folder, you can keep track of all of the textures, models, animations, etc. that you will be making. The second folder should be called originals. In this folder, you can store all of the original unit files that you replace while modding. This way, you can always restore your mods back to the original form if you wanted to.
Texture modding; the most basic form of modding. Anyone who wants to become good at modding, should first practice a lot with texture modding. If a unit has some really cool custom animations or voicing but has a bad texture it won’t get many good comments. The texture is the first thing someone sees when they look at a mod.
Cinematic texture modding should be easy to do now that you’re familiar with regular texture modding. Cinematic textures have tons of detail so they are hard to perfect. Also, the texture wraps around the object instead of just being placed on the object like in normal textures.
Cheat modding is just a simpler way of modding. Cheat modding involves cutting up a picture of a real person and adding it to your texture. For instance, you can paste a James Bond head to replace the hear of Arkantos. Or you can paste a brick wall over the Trojan Wall. Another way to ‘cheat’ mod is to open your texture file with paint and just invert the colors.
2D modding is extremely simple to do. However, they do not look nearly as good in-game as 3D models. There aren’t many 2D objects in AOM, but the one I like to edit is the cinematic tree. The file for the cinematic tree is world g oak cinematic map.
Semi-transparent modding; another form of texture modding. To create a semi-transparent mod, follow these steps.
Once you have mastered all of the types of modding explained in my guide, you can move on to bigger and harder projects. The next step of modding is 3D modeling, which is very hard and requires a lot of patience.
The review scale at AOMH is based on a 1-5 system, with 5 being the highest. If you want to write a decent review includes the following in your final rating:
- Quality
This is how a mod is in general. This includes how it looks and fits into Age of Mythology. If it looks as good as an original AOM unit, then this field deserves a 5 rating.
- Texture
This is the mod’s appearance. If the mod looks choppy or is just a few colors, it deserves a low rating. But, if a mod has a great appearance and looks realistic it would deserve a high rating.
- Model
Don’t include this in your rating unless the mod has a new model. If it does have a new model, rate it based on how the model looks. Models should be creative and smooth.
- Creativity
If a modder put a lot of time and creativity into a mod, give it a high rating. Creativity should be things that haven’t been done before. Even, if you don’t think the results look good, you should still give the modder points for original creativity.
- Animations
Don’t include this in your rating unless the mod has new animations. Animations are probably the most advanced things in modding, so don’t expect them all to be perfect. Few mods have animations, but if they do, that is a sign of a good mod. Judge animation based on look, creativity, and on whether or not it would be realistic.
- Extra
This includes history, sound, portraits, names, etc. Look at every aspect of a mod for these extras. Extras can make any mod look nice. The history is a very interesting aspect and is always worth looking at if they included it. Don’t include this in your rating if the objects doesn’t include any of these extra features. Also, don’t dock off points just for minor spelling mistakes, you can make a comment about their spelling but don’t give them a bad rating just because of a few minor spelling mistakes..
~ Reyk for his wonderful AOM List mentioned in the modding programs.
~ Ykkrosh for the single best download utility for modding. (AOMed)
~ Vachu for his Bar Explorer utility.
~ The King of Cheese for his great animation editing utility.
If you have further questions or if you have spotted an error in my guide or if you have any thing to add to my guide then you can:
-Email me at seventhstrike@gmail.com or add me to MSN messenger
-Post your comment/question on the download page at AOMH
-Visit
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Good luck with future modding! Hope to see some great mods from you!