A simple modding guide (continued)

[Bony]

Want to play as The Atom, Captain America or Batman in the campaign or in the danger room?
Go to alexff.com

Downloading skins and meshes:

About skins and meshes:
Normally, meshes are the wireframe for new characters and contain the movements and animations. Skins are the layer, the painting, the look.

There are sometimes downloads with meshes only and some with skins only. Fortunally, most downloadable characters nowadays have mesh and skin in one zip for a more simple installation.

An example:

Go at alexff.com to "skin & meshes", go to "Beyonder" (the artist) and download "Atom" by clicking on it.
You need to copy the extracted folder to:
SteamApps\common\Freedom Force\Data\Art\custom_characters
Your file structure should look like this:
SteamApps\common\Freedom Force\Data\Art\custom_characters\Atom\skins\standard

That's it.
Atom's mesh and skin(s) are available to be customized in the heroes editor in game (characters-->new-->custom heroes).

So at first, just download characters with skin-folder AND mesh (skin-folder and character.nif and keyframe.t k).

If some mesh is crashing your game, simply delete the folder and try if it isn't for Freedom Force vs the Third Reich (slightly different files, but there is a converter out there. Maybe next time...)

Have fun.


And don't forget the link-section at alexff.com , many great mods and characters are waiting on the other siTes

[Bony]

Installing additional effects or powers (like Captain America throwing a shield or Thor's hammer, having a green shield for that guy with the lamp. Or do you want superman to throw some concrete?

Go to (...again...)

http://alexff.com/goodies.php

scroll down and select EZ FX 5.1 for FF


Install it. Finished. You now have 900 more effects to choose from and customize your heroes.

(i told you, SIMPLE modding guide :p )

[-L7- themaniacboy]

Thanks for the heads up. I didn't know there were this many mods for this game.

[[CoH] Joker]

I remember the game allowing multiple looks for different meshes, putting other named folders in there next to the 'standard' one.
Does the game require the skins folders to have a standard?

[Bony]

I don't think so. You can delete the standard folder, then you have only a wired mesh as preview as far as I remember. But also you can rename every different skin to "standard" so it's not an issue. And yes, you can have multiple skins for one mesh.

[[CoH] Joker]

Been having issues with downloaded skins showing in all white.

[Bony]

Can you name an example and link this download?

[[CoH] Joker]

A lot of the Legion of Super Heroes characters from the different modders given at http://alexff.com/skinmesh.php

[[CoH] Joker]

specifics;
Dawnstar, Atmos, Ultra Boy..
pretty much everyone except Wildfire from Tommyboy

[Bony]

I see. Dawnstar by Geycount has no character.nif and no keyframes.kf.
And has no skins/standard-folder.

Your mesh is white, because the skin is not named "standard" and has the wrong folder-structure.

structure must be: Dawnstar/skins/dawnstar
In the download it is wrong, "dawnstar/dawnstar" WRONG! SAD! ;)

Must be:

custom_characters/HERONAME/skins/standard

custom_characters/HERONAME/skins/HERONAME

custom_characters/HERONAME/skins/HERONAME2

Everything works when there is a "skins"-folder in between.

Then you can change the look of the hero with the arrows below the preview, if the structure is the right one.You don't need to rename it to standard, but if you don't, your first preview will be white. Just select and then change the look.


First: try to rename Dawnstar/Dawnstar to Dawnstar/skins/standard

-------

If this works there is still the problem with the missing keyframes and character.nif (these files provide movements and general "form")


Missing character.nif and keyframes.kf (sometimes also head.nif and others)


There are TWO good news.

You can take a character.nif / keyframes.kf by another character and copy it into the first "Dawnstar"-folder.Sometimes there is a readme included which says what mesh you need. Search this mesh in the web.
Or there is another Dawnstar by Tommyboy with character.nif and keyframes.kf

At the time Freedom Force Modding was a big thing, it was also the times of 56kb modem. So some modders saved space by not including character.nif / keyframesfiles, because you can usually take some character.nif / keyframes of any standard character. With females, it should be a female character, with males a male character and heoes with capes need a hero with cape-nif.
But if you try a non fitting character.nif and keyframe the game will crash when changing the skin (with the arrows below the preview ingame) or just crash when you select the custom character ingame if the standard skin is not working.


Just try some character.nif's / keyframes.kf from other characters which look quite similar.

The path is:
custom_characters/Dawnstar/

you can see the structure when you look at other character-folders.

Or you search for alternatives.
http://alexff.com/skinmesh_search.php

[Bony]

Sorry, edit:

I see Dawnstar is a special character with wings and such things. That's complicated. Because you need a special keyframe and character-nif. There must be somewhere in the interweb ;) a mesh for this character. female_wings or such thing.

I think the simple solution would be to take another Dawnstar with everything included. It's sometimes a real mess to search the fitting keyframes and character.nifs for special heroes.

[Bony]

Dawnstar by tommyboy is working in my game.
http://alexff.com/skinmesh_search.php?name=dawnstar&Button1=Go%21

[Bony]

I created your Atmos:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/w557i1o65b0eu0j/Atmos.7z?dl=0
Works in my game.

What I did:

Downloaded Atmos at alex.ff

There was no mesh included, I took the character.nif and keyframes from "male_basic_effects" (was in my folder, don't know if it's still on the web. (edit: now it's on the web, see posting below)

created a "skins" folder in "Atmos"

and then I placed the skins folder "Marek russian" into that skins-folder and renamed it "standard"

[Bony]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dnehbe42nz7f0v5/basic_characters.7z?dl=0

All basic characters

If your downloaded hero doesn't move, you should copy the fitting character.nifs / keyframes.kf / head.nif and so on from one of these characters to your new heroe's folder into "custom_characters/HERONAME"

Which is fitting depends on the looks of your hero. Heroes with capes mostly need the character.nif / keyframes.kf and more from the "male_cape" a.s.o.

If you look into your skins-folder, there are "tga" files which will give you a hint which basic character you need (example: Atmos has "male_basic_effects.tga" so you probably need the character.nif / keyframes.kf and more from "male_basic_effects" basic mesh.

Note: There are still heroes/skins on the web which need some VERY SPECIAL mesh, which may not be included here. Sorry. Then you only can play this character if the download includes this VERY SPECIAL mesh or if you search your ass of.

[Bony]

With FFvtTR-characters it's more simple, because these usually have all you need in the download.

Another good site to download custom heroes:

http://heroforce.freedomforceforever.com/podmark.html

If I remember right these are mostly for FFvtTR if they work with FF1 is hard to say. Some work, others don't. Give it a try and delete it if it doesn't work.

Other way around is more simple:

You can convert every FF1-hero to FFvtTR with EZ Nif Converter 2.0:

http://www.alexff.com/goodies.php