Adding resources to a module/ cracking it open

MrDamage

Hi everyone!,
I open a module in the toolset, I can see all the resources sound files/ movies (these are what I'm interested in). I can see the import button. I cannot work out how to add resources directly to the module(without making a hak). I'm guessing there is a special program that will open the module up and show the resources in their true forms and stuff and also allow me to add and save custom wave files into the proper folders. Opening it with notepad kind of shows stuff but doesn't work. I want to make a movie and then add it to the module. I want to add some monologue wave files as area sounds which I can later script into the module to trigger at plot points.
The PW Arelith has so much content but uses no haks. This is what has got me excited about this sort of thing in that it MUST be possible. Arelith example, they have a 'kill the necromancer quest' in the crypts. When you enter the lower levels, a voice over of said necromancer loops through the area, something like...'who dares come before me..' or something similar. I know nwn and I am 99% sure that is a purely custom sound file, no haks used??. I know it is advised against it and making a hak is the preferred way, but id really like to get a mod working without a hak, like Arelith. Am I way off or does anyone have any insights into how I go about this? Would be very much appreciated.

Sylvus_Moonbow

Depends on the resource. Your custom sounds could just as easily be placed in /ambient directory to avoid bundling them in a hak file. A player could still play in your world they just would never heard your custom sounds if they did not get them to put in their own /ambient directory. Movies are the same and placed in /movies. If you want all players to see or hear custom content it has to go into a hak file.

No idea what an Arelith is but if this world you play on has never asked you to download files to play on their world then the voice you hear is already in nwn and they are just using playsound to fire it.

MrDamage

Sylvus_Moonbow said:

Depends on the resource. Your custom sounds could just as easily be placed in /ambient directory to avoid bundling them in a hak file. A player could still play in your world they just would never heard your custom sounds if they did not get them to put in their own /ambient directory. Movies are the same and placed in /movies. If you want all players to see or hear custom content it has to go into a hak file.

No idea what an Arelith is but if this world you play on has never asked you to download files to play on their world then the voice you hear is already in nwn and they are just using playsound to fire it.

Thanks for the info. Sadly I think you may be right but. Arelith is a RP PW that’s been running now for like 13 years. There is a DM symphony on their forums and I noticed there is also a @Symphony here. If you saw the amazing things they’ve done in that world you’d understand where I’m coming from. If you read this symphony firstly hi!, and would you be the same DM symphony on Arelith? If so, is there any chance you could shed some light on my question please please! Have the Arelith builders managed to add content without a hak. I refer mainly to the necromancer quest (crypts) area monologue. I could so use that technique if it does indeed exist!
If per chance you are not that Symphony thanks for reading anyhow and sorry to disturb you lol

Symphony

Yes, I'm the same Symphony.

Regarding Arelith, no, Arelith builders have not added content without a hak, exactly. The server has used an extensive range of tools and techniques over the years to implement content not ordinarily included with default toolsetting.

They've used NWNX extensively to modify character attributes and item properties, and even much of the decoration is accomplished by taking advantages of small weaknesses in the toolset, for example, to put things like placeables outside of the area limits, a practice that has become common in the community.

I have not made anything Arelith uses presently, my role on the staff there is officially the DM of the Fixed Level side server. I've also been able to help out with extremely miscellaneous topics, at times, and help with testing of new features.

Meanwhile, you should become aware of the different file types used in NWN, and how they are used. I'm going to be a little brief and less than 100% correct here so that what I'm telling you is clear, and easier to read then the Bioware File Format Specifications by using silly analogies.

Many of the games resources, the areas, the creatures in the palettes, and some of the scripts, depending on how you look at it, are "recipes" that have ingredients drawn from the base game installation. This means that the instructions for making those items can be sent to other computers (during play), and their computers can put together those items with the ingredients that are installed with the game.

The second type of resource would be the "ingredients", these original come off of the install disc or your installation download, and are stored on your computer in the .bif files of the /data directory. These are file types like models, images, and sounds.

When a player introduces new "ingredient replacements" into their override folder, the game will use them when putting together recipes instead of the originals in the /data directory. The server just sends the instructions, so it won't necessarily know that you have new textures or models for the instructions it sent, and neither will anyone else, those are all local (on your computer) materials.

"Recipe" files, like creatures, and areas, are put together in the toolset. The toolset is like a program for creating individual multiple recipes, which ingredients are included in them, and controls which page they end up on and what recipes are used. Recipes can be exported into a package called an ERF file, which is kind of like stapling a bunch of (paper) recipes together.

If you save a module, it's like an ERF, but it has a starting location, module level scripts, faction settings, and other "publishing" level materials that make it like a Cook Book. The recipes are inside, but there's a table of contents, and a cover, and make an acknowledgements and some photographs of delicious food.

But a .mod is essentially still an ERF, and a .sav (saved game file) is essentially a .mod, but with a new starting location, and a character .bic, and some other saved information.

On the other hand, .hak is like an ERF package, but stores ingredients too. Hak packages are kind of like the .bif game files in your /data directory, and are typically filled with new models, new textures, new sounds, and usually the necessary configuration files and index files (.ini and .2da) necessary for them all to be numbered and used together, in case they aren't merely replacements for the ingredients that come with the base game (that already are configured and numbered by the game creators at Bioware and Beamdog).

The game has been created with a feature that allows named .haks currently stored in the /hak directory to be added to a toolset project, and this accomplishes two things.

1. The ingredients contained within the hak package are added to, or merged with, the /data bif files' game resources, allowing the toolset to behave as if those materials were part of the game installation.
   
2. Exported materials from that toolset project are marked as requiring .haks of those names to be present in the hak directory for use, and cannot be used without hak files of those names.
   

You don't get to change the textures in the hak, or the modules, in the toolset, the hak is already a solid package. You can only change recipes to now use the ingredients either in the base game or ingredients available in the hak, as if those were now also part of the game.

Changing haks has been traditionally done by getting the right files together and using the nwhak.exe in Bioware's NWN /utils folder to package them as a .hak archive. Changing hak contents after their inclusion in toolset projects and published materials can cause problems, since some of the recipes might now require ingredients that no longer exist (by that name, or otherwise), but putting in a new hak every time you update an ingredient over and over again is a waste of time for your computer, and yourself.

If you're interested in properly creating and arranging new materials for the game through custom content, The Custom Content Guide v3.0 is somewhat plainly written and covers nearly all of the customizable assets in the game with helpful guides and tutorials per-project per-subject.

Let me know if you have any other questions, I hope that clears some of your confusion.

MrDamage

Symphony said:

Yes, I'm the same Symphony.

Regarding Arelith, no, Arelith builders have not added content without a hak, exactly. The server has used an extensive range of tools and techniques over the years to implement content not ordinarily included with default toolsetting.

They've used NWNX extensively to modify character attributes and item properties, and even much of the decoration is accomplished by taking advantages of small weaknesses in the toolset, for example, to put things like placeables outside of the area limits, a practice that has become common in the community.

I have not made anything Arelith uses presently, my role on the staff there is officially the DM of the Fixed Level side server. I've also been able to help out with extremely miscellaneous topics, at times, and help with testing of new features.

Meanwhile, you should become aware of the different file types used in NWN, and how they are used. I'm going to be a little brief and less than 100% correct here so that what I'm telling you is clear, and easier to read then the Bioware File Format Specifications by using silly analogies.

Many of the games resources, the areas, the creatures in the palettes, and some of the scripts, depending on how you look at it, are "recipes" that have ingredients drawn from the base game installation. This means that the instructions for making those items can be sent to other computers (during play), and their computers can put together those items with the ingredients that are installed with the game.

The second type of resource would be the "ingredients", these original come off of the install disc or your installation download, and are stored on your computer in the .bif files of the /data directory. These are file types like models, images, and sounds.

When a player introduces new "ingredient replacements" into their override folder, the game will use them when putting together recipes instead of the originals in the /data directory. The server just sends the instructions, so it won't necessarily know that you have new textures or models for the instructions it sent, and neither will anyone else, those are all local (on your computer) materials.

"Recipe" files, like creatures, and areas, are put together in the toolset. The toolset is like a program for creating individual multiple recipes, which ingredients are included in them, and controls which page they end up on and what recipes are used. Recipes can be exported into a package called an ERF file, which is kind of like stapling a bunch of (paper) recipes together.

If you save a module, it's like an ERF, but it has a starting location, module level scripts, faction settings, and other "publishing" level materials that make it like a Cook Book. The recipes are inside, but there's a table of contents, and a cover, and make an acknowledgements and some photographs of delicious food.

But a .mod is essentially still an ERF, and a .sav (saved game file) is essentially a .mod, but with a new starting location, and a character .bic, and some other saved information.

On the other hand, .hak is like an ERF package, but stores ingredients too. Hak packages are kind of like the .bif game files in your /data directory, and are typically filled with new models, new textures, new sounds, and usually the necessary configuration files and index files (.ini and .2da) necessary for them all to be numbered and used together, in case they aren't merely replacements for the ingredients that come with the base game (that already are configured and numbered by the game creators at Bioware and Beamdog).

The game has been created with a feature that allows named .haks currently stored in the /hak directory to be added to a toolset project, and this accomplishes two things.

1. The ingredients contained within the hak package are added to, or merged with, the /data bif files' game resources, allowing the toolset to behave as if those materials were part of the game installation.
   
2. Exported materials from that toolset project are marked as requiring .haks of those names to be present in the hak directory for use, and cannot be used without hak files of those names.
   

You don't get to change the textures in the hak, or the modules, in the toolset, the hak is already a solid package. You can only change recipes to now use the ingredients either in the base game or ingredients available in the hak, as if those were now also part of the game.

Changing haks has been traditionally done by getting the right files together and using the nwhak.exe in Bioware's NWN /utils folder to package them as a .hak archive. Changing hak contents after their inclusion in toolset projects and published materials can cause problems, since some of the recipes might now require ingredients that no longer exist (by that name, or otherwise), but putting in a new hak every time you update an ingredient over and over again is a waste of time for your computer, and yourself.

If you're interested in properly creating and arranging new materials for the game through custom content, The Custom Content Guide v3.0 is somewhat plainly written and covers nearly all of the customizable assets in the game with helpful guides and tutorials per-project per-subject.

Let me know if you have any other questions, I hope that clears some of your confusion.

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain it all. I could not of asked for more! I’m definitely going to check out that custom content guide. Once again many thanks for your awesome explanation.

Artos

MrDamage said:

...Arelith example, they have a 'kill the necromancer quest' in the crypts. When you enter the lower levels, a voice over of said necromancer loops through the area, something like...'who dares come before me..' or something similar. I know nwn and I am 99% sure that is a purely custom sound file, no haks used??.

Howdy, Mr. Damage!

I made that area eons ago, and it's not as custom as you might think. It just uses a sound object that plays throughout the area on a loop, going through a cycle of sounds that are ripped from the base game. You can find these sounds on the NWN Lexicon here.

I used the "Lich, Mage" for this, and he has may different conversation nodes that were used in Shadows of Undrentide that are generic enough to use in the Arelith module.

You can find all kinds of goodies in those sound files, though it can be tedious to sort through the thousands of files to find what you want.

Good luck, and happy building!

MrDamage

Artos said:

MrDamage said:

...Arelith example, they have a 'kill the necromancer quest' in the crypts. When you enter the lower levels, a voice over of said necromancer loops through the area, something like...'who dares come before me..' or something similar. I know nwn and I am 99% sure that is a purely custom sound file, no haks used??.

Howdy, Mr. Damage!

I made that area eons ago, and it's not as custom as you might think. It just uses a sound object that plays throughout the area on a loop, going through a cycle of sounds that are ripped from the base game. You can find these sounds on the NWN Lexicon here.

I used the "Lich, Mage" for this, and he has may different conversation nodes that were used in Shadows of Undrentide that are generic enough to use in the Arelith module.

You can find all kinds of goodies in those sound files, though it can be tedious to sort through the thousands of files to find what you want.

Good luck, and happy building!

Gday Artos!

So thats how it was done! Thankyou so much for taking time out to explain that. That area deserves an award IMO, I haven’t seen the whole server yet, but that’s my favourite area so far! Kudos to you! You are a magician. Awesome, I feel like the itch that you can’t scratch just got scratched lol. I’ve literally spent hours trying to work out how that was done I was so convinced that sound wasn’t in the game. There you go. Thanks for the Lexicon tip, gonna have a browse!