NPC Editing - A Comprehensive Guide

-SeaboundSaint-

-SeaboundSaint-

Current Version: 1.0.0
With this series of .txt files, you will learn all about Saints Row 2's NPC related files.

You will learn how to change the colours of the items an NPC wears, change their gameplay voice, filter in-game appearance by gender/race/character type, force specific outfit variants, change a character's model, change a character's animation set, set which gang the character belongs to, change spawning conditions, change a character's height and height variability, fix a prop to a character's left hand, and much more!

CONTENTS:
1. PC-NPC-SNPC-CNPC-CS Differences
2. Files Overview
3. Preset Files
4. Character Files
5. Design Files
6. Variant Table Files
7. How To Use Volition's NPC Table Cruncher

I am open to suggestions on how this guide can be improved. There are things here and there I'm not entirely certain on (like <MetaGame>). If you feel you can contribute, then feel free to let me know below in this thread.
"NPC Cruncher Stuff" contains the "tables" folder and "Run SR2 NPC Table Crunch.bat" required to use Volition's NPC Table Cruncher. Place both in the same location as "sr2_npc_table_crunch.exe".
Resources:
"Shaundi's Secret Stash - NPC Table Cruncher" by Volition
"SR2PegTool" by Masamaru - For extracting/repacking textures from .peg_pc files.
"Editing .sim_pc files." by Moff - I've no experience with Blender, but this might be useful for those who do. Bear in mind, this was made for SR4, and might not work for SR2's .sim_pc files.
 

Attachments

  • NPC Editing Guide v1.0.0.zip
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  • NPC Cruncher Stuff.zip
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Kind of related to this, so I'm going to use these 4 characters as examples: Shaundi, Pierce, Carlos and Gat, are there faces more or less made with the character creator? or are they like Wong, Wong's translator and Troy were there faces look custom made for the characters themselves?
 
I can't say for sure how their facial morphs were made, but their textures and normal maps are certainly unique to them.
In player_creation.xtbl, there are morph keys for their morph presets ("morph keys" being the morphs at either end of a slider. eg: Skinny to Fat). (I meant to see if I could get those to work for the Playa, but forgot all about it.) So I would imagine they were made with the same system as everyone else. But who knows? 🤔
Edit: I've since tested the Story Character Morph Keys, but couldn't get them to work.
 
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-SeaboundSaint- said:
I can't say for sure how their facial morphs were made, but their textures and normal maps are certainly unique to them.
In player_creation.xtbl, there are morph keys for their morph presets ("morph keys" being the morphs at either end of a slider. eg: Skinny to Fat). (I meant to see if I could get those to work for the Playa, but forgot all about it.) So I would imagine they were made with the same system as everyone else. But who knows? 🤔
Click to expand...
Was hoping that they weren't super unique like the regular npcs because it would be cool to create an almost identical copy in the creator, throughout the years people have come close with these characters but there's usually something little that's off compared to the original characters.
 
I keep getting cannot launch error with the NPC Cruncher bat file, like I wrote everything required for it to make a cvtf file but it keeps giving me errors
What am I even doing wrong here? Could you help me out?
 
ABlueCar said:
I keep getting cannot launch error with the NPC Cruncher bat file, like I wrote everything required for it to make a cvtf file but it keeps giving me errors
What am I even doing wrong here? Could you help me out?
Click to expand...
I understand you're frustrated, but spamming the forum five times isn't going to get you answers any quicker, and it only pushes posts from others further from the public eye. Some of those are mod releases which people spend a lot of time building.
It sounds like maybe there's a typo somewhere. Possibly in the .xtbl file you're trying to convert, or the .bat file itself.
I am unable to replicate the issue.

Just to be sure, you don't need to touch the .exe. The .bat will run it for you.
Both the .exe and the .bat need to be in the same folder, as does the "tables" folder.

Have you renamed the .exe at all?
Have you made sure everything is typed correctly in the .xtbl and .bat files?
Are the modified .xtbl files correctly located in the "tables" folder?

Try running a different NPC's unmodified .xtbl file through the system and see if it builds the .cvtf.

Through the .exe's Properties:
You could try giving the .exe Admin priveleges.
You could try setting up the .exe with compatability mode.
You could try the compatibility troubleshooter.
If none of the above solves your issue, I'm not sure if I can help. I don't know enough about the make-up of .exe files to troubleshoot them. I just know how it's supposed to be used.
 
-SeaboundSaint- said:
I understand you're frustrated, but spamming the forum five times isn't going to get you answers any quicker, and it only pushes posts from others further from the public eye. Some of those are mod releases which people spend a lot of time building.
It sounds like maybe there's a typo somewhere. Possibly in the .xtbl file you're trying to convert, or the .bat file itself.
I am unable to replicate the issue.

Just to be sure, you don't need to touch the .exe. The .bat will run it for you.
Both the .exe and the .bat need to be in the same folder, as does the "tables" folder.

Have you renamed the .exe at all?
Have you made sure everything is typed correctly in the .xtbl and .bat files?
Are the modified .xtbl files correctly located in the "tables" folder?

Try running a different NPC's unmodified .xtbl file through the system and see if it builds the .cvtf.

Through the .exe's Properties:
You could try giving the .exe Admin priveleges.
You could try setting up the .exe with compatability mode.
You could try the compatibility troubleshooter.
If none of the above solves your issue, I'm not sure if I can help. I don't know enough about the make-up of .exe files to troubleshoot them. I just know how it's supposed to be used.
Click to expand...
First of all I would like to apologise for spamming five times, if needed I will delete those posts myself and I understand now that it was a shitty thing to do that I did out of frustration, so I'm very sorry about that

Second the issue was fixed by moving the bat file next to the exe, I made the mistake of putting the bat file in tables folder when it shouldn't be there

Third my current issue is with the tool not recognizing some NPC xtbl files, rn I'm testing to see if I could edit the main Saints member's clothing items, but the tool doesn't seem to recognize Shaundi's file, I checked the file contents in Notepad++ but everything checks out, her name is correct, no typos or anything out of the ordinary, although the bat file did showed the same error when the bat file was located in the wrong folder, but at the same time, Shaundi's file is in tables folder and the bat file is still right next to the exe
 
ABlueCar said:
First of all I would like to apologise for spamming five times, if needed I will delete those posts myself and I understand now that it was a shitty thing to do that I did out of frustration, so I'm very sorry about that
Click to expand...
It's okay. You're not the first to do it. I've had it happen to me though, and it's quite irritating.
ABlueCar said:
Third my current issue is with the tool not recognizing some NPC xtbl files, rn I'm testing to see if I could edit the main Saints member's clothing items, but the tool doesn't seem to recognize Shaundi's file, I checked the file contents in Notepad++ but everything checks out, her name is correct, no typos or anything out of the ordinary, although the bat file did showed the same error when the bat file was located in the wrong folder, but at the same time, Shaundi's file is in tables folder and the bat file is still right next to the exe
Click to expand...
All I can suggest then is manually combing through the .xtbl (again) for any typos you may have made anywhere. It's a pain, but it's easy to accidently delete a ">" or "<" somewhere.
If color names don't match up exactly as they are written in the color pool file, the .cvtf won't be built.
Have you removed any VID numbers? I wouldn't have thought that would cause issues, but it's possible.
If you're still having trouble, you can PM me the .xtbl and .bat files you're working with and I'll take a look.
 
-SeaboundSaint- said:
It's okay. You're not the first to do it. I've had it happen to me though, and it's quite irritating.

All I can suggest then is manually combing through the .xtbl (again) for any typos you may have made anywhere. It's a pain, but it's easy to accidently delete a ">" or "<" somewhere.
If color names don't match up exactly as they are written in the color pool file, the .cvtf won't be built.
Have you removed any VID numbers? I wouldn't have thought that would cause issues, but it's possible.
If you're still having trouble, you can PM me the .xtbl and .bat files you're working with and I'll take a look.
Click to expand...
I'll try and check out the color names and see if there are any missing < >

Also I think I might of have removed some VID numbers when I was trying to get rid of the wrist accessories, so that may have caused issues like you mentioned

Right now I just assume that the clothing items are extremely hard coded to the character model itself that any changes will just result in everything failing
 
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