Saints Row The Third Modding Basics
- Thread starter [V] IdolNinja
- Start date
I've been able to limp my way through most of this, now I've gotten to the point of being able to unpack the files, edit a texture in photoshop, and save back as a dds file. That's where I'm stumped. A couple of things I don't understand. After I edit the texture, I'm guessing I need to repack it? Does this also need to be done via a batch file? Then even though I was missing some steps anyway and didn't know it at the time I did create the batch that repacks the files str2 and asm, but I didn't do that right either. The question is, where do the gibbed files need to be and where do I need to run the batch file from? The SRTT folder or does this matter? I am completely new to this so please forgive my noobish questions 
It doesn't matter where you place those tools, you only have to drag the wished .str2_pc file to "unpack str2" and it unpacks itself, or if you want to pack it drag the folder containing all the stuff to "pack str2" and it packs it to an .str2_pc file, you only have to make sure you drag it to the right .bat file. And if you pack any folder to .vpp_pc/.str2_pc file you should erase the "_PACKED" thing that comes after the name.
Most of the time when you make changes in an .str2_pc file, you have to update the .asm_pc file that goes together with the edited textures too...
But updating .asm_pc files... no fucking clue. I use the same method as to unpack/pack those .str2_pc/.vpp_pc files, but it doesn't update at all...
Most of the time when you make changes in an .str2_pc file, you have to update the .asm_pc file that goes together with the edited textures too...
But updating .asm_pc files... no fucking clue. I use the same method as to unpack/pack those .str2_pc/.vpp_pc files, but it doesn't update at all...
Ok so figuring out the asm part is still a problem. When repacking the textures, do you drag the dds file to the SR3 repack texture file?
Yeah I figured out the part about dragging the cvbm_pc file. Still yet to get the asm_pc file to update.
Assuming the problem still exists, here's an example of my latest project to illustrate how I have been dealing with .asm_pc files:
I edited my female character's skin so she had long white gloves - I'm a sucker for long gloves. The files I was working with were 'Default female diffuse.str2_pc' and 'customize_player.asm_pc'. I unpacked and edited and so on, but that's not important here; once I finished editing I repacked the texture .dds into the relevant .cvgm_pc and .gvbm_pc files in a subdirectory called 'Default female diffuse', then repacked them into an .str2_pc by dragging the whole directory onto Gibbed.SaintsRow3.PackSTR2.exe (this is described elsewhere and only really applies to textures; the point is, this is how you make the .str2_pc so that it works, NOT by dragging it onto a .bat file as described by Miku above - put that leek down and try again =P ) and renamed the 'Default female diffuse_PACKED.str2_pc' file that was created so it was called ' Default female diffuse.str2_pc ', the same as the original file. Then I copied the old 'customize_player.asm_pc' into the tools directory and updated my .bat file so that it read:
saved that and ran it (note that the second line is commented out because I already did that bit seperately - I like to do one thing at once so that if a problem arises I know what's going wrong). Then I cut the newly updated customize_player.asm_pc and Default female diffuse.str2_pc, pasted them into a storage directory, copied them to the game's root directory and ran the game. Voila, long white gloves in-game.
- there has to be an existing .asm_pc file to update, it can't create one
- the .bat file can be called anything you want
- be tidy with your files - only put .str2_pc or .asm_pc files in the same directory as the tools when you're working directly on them. This will prevent things getting confused
- watch your spelling! The difference between UK and US english caused me about three hours of headscratching...
Hope this helps.
I edited my female character's skin so she had long white gloves - I'm a sucker for long gloves. The files I was working with were 'Default female diffuse.str2_pc' and 'customize_player.asm_pc'. I unpacked and edited and so on, but that's not important here; once I finished editing I repacked the texture .dds into the relevant .cvgm_pc and .gvbm_pc files in a subdirectory called 'Default female diffuse', then repacked them into an .str2_pc by dragging the whole directory onto Gibbed.SaintsRow3.PackSTR2.exe (this is described elsewhere and only really applies to textures; the point is, this is how you make the .str2_pc so that it works, NOT by dragging it onto a .bat file as described by Miku above - put that leek down and try again =P ) and renamed the 'Default female diffuse_PACKED.str2_pc' file that was created so it was called ' Default female diffuse.str2_pc ', the same as the original file. Then I copied the old 'customize_player.asm_pc' into the tools directory and updated my .bat file so that it read:
Code:
REM param 1 is the file name to save - param 2 is the folder containing the str2 pc files
REM Gibbed.SaintsRow3.PackSTR2.exe 'Default female diffuse.str2_pc' 'Default female diffuse'
REM param 1 is the asm - param 2 is the folder with the str2 files. . means current folder
Gibbed.SaintsRow3.UpdateASM.exe customize_player.asm_pc .
pausesaved that and ran it (note that the second line is commented out because I already did that bit seperately - I like to do one thing at once so that if a problem arises I know what's going wrong). Then I cut the newly updated customize_player.asm_pc and Default female diffuse.str2_pc, pasted them into a storage directory, copied them to the game's root directory and ran the game. Voila, long white gloves in-game.
- there has to be an existing .asm_pc file to update, it can't create one
- the .bat file can be called anything you want
- be tidy with your files - only put .str2_pc or .asm_pc files in the same directory as the tools when you're working directly on them. This will prevent things getting confused
- watch your spelling! The difference between UK and US english caused me about three hours of headscratching...
Hope this helps.
Um, no, it's an .exe - a program, not a .bat, which is a script - just a text file with a .bat extension. Don't drag anything onto the .bat file, just run it.
Perhaps you're using something like the. bat file I quoted above without the REM on the second line? For the record, I can't make the .bat file work that way, because I run Windows XP and for some reason, even though it's running from a different directory on a different drive, it wants to work out of 'C:\documents and settings\[my account] ', where there's nothing related to SR3 at all; I would fix it but sadly, because it's not 1996 any more, I don't remember much about .bat files. But maybe that's what's causing you problems. I get " 'Gibbed.SaintsRow3.PackSTR2.exe' is not recognised as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file." when I drag the directory onto the .bat file; do you? That's why I commented it out and do it by dragging the directory onto the .exe instead.
Ukhm... "EXE" ending isn't indicate what format have file?