#model swaps

=== I got you some Marlontine, anon.

Horizontober Day 5: Break

So it's literally older majima and young majima fighting. He is literally fighting himself. And I'm here like...

👀🔥🥵😍😩 ‼️⁉️

Now I should...

🚿🧼🧽 ...In cold water

Some people who have had success with swapping may have noticed the trend where you have all the files with your swap character’s name on it – but there are clearly some files not there. Maybe they don’t have any ptables, or maybe you’ve done your swap and parts of your character are just missing. You can’t find any files you missed and you’re wondering where they must be if you don’t have them already.

And the reason this happens is because your swap character normally uses reused assets. They don’t have their own ptables because they are using someone else’s, or they don’t have unique textures for their eyes because they share a file with other characters.

You can trial and error your way into finding which assets they are using, or you could try using the Telltale Inspector Tool created by Lucas in the Telltale Modding Group. (massive brain on this bloke – if you want to donate to him for his major efforts, it would definitely be appreciated) The readme and information on the tools can be found >>here<< and the most current release can be found >>here<<.

At the time of making this mini-tutorial, the most current version is ALPHA 1.0.2 – the information I’m presenting here and the screenshots used relate to this release, things may look or work differently in future.

The tool itself is capable of a lot more than I’m making note of here, and can be used to edit the information within the files if you know what you’re doing… I’m only giving a very layman’s explanation of one use of it to look at file information. Below you will find a very simple set of directions on using the Inspector tool to open props to find a character’s ptables, and then opening a character mesh to find the associated textures.

I have actually puzzled through that particular swap before - and don't worry, it wasn't just you who had trouble with it.

The basics are the same as outlined in the tutorial where you want to get your season 2 files for Kenny, rename the mesh(es) and related skl to overwrite the files in season 1, and then also get the relevant textures so the mesh doesn't end up invisible. But if you just look at Kenny's files, it can be a little overwhelming since he also has files in season 2 for all his damaged states as well as for when he appears in flashbacks from season 1.

The only mesh you want to deal with is called "sk54_kenny202.d3dmesh" - this is the way Kenny appears when you first see him in the ski lodge. And the skl file associated with that mesh is called "sk54_kenny202.skl". These should be the only two files you need to rename in order to replace Kenny in season 1.

As for what textures Kenny needs... you need all the d3dtx files that have the prefix "sk54_kenny202". All of those are needed to make sure his clothes, body, head, and hair all load correctly.

What's weird about Kenny is he also has updated eye textures in season 2, and if you don't bring these files back as well, he will just have empty eye sockets... his new eye textures come from the files beginning with "sk_wdSharedParts_eye_brown200" - there are 4 files you need to copy over, don't just take the texture without taking the detail, normal map, and specular files.

While you're in the textures for shared parts, there are also 4 parts for eye covers starting with "sk_wdSharedParts_eyesCover" - you will want to save these too.

And lastly, even if you do all of the above correctly and load up your game - you will quickly notice that for some reason season 2 Kenny doesn't have any hands. This is a weird one, but just trust me... the texture for the hands is combined into the textures for the character's head; so what you need to do is save the texture files for Luke's head, that gives Kenny hands.

... I don't know why he apparently uses Luke's hand textures when Kenny has his own, but whatever.

So if you want to bring season 2 Kenny into season 1 episode 1, here's what your files will end up being:

I hope the visual gives you a better idea of how the swap works - because I really get it... it can be confusing when you're looking at all the files, but seeing the end state and working backwards can sometimes help to make sense of things.

And basically, if you wanted this swap to be present in the other episodes of season 1, you'd have to to use the same mesh and skl, but duplicated to rename the meshes and skls that Kenny gets in the other episodes. But at that point, at least it's just the two files and all your texture dilemmas are already sorted.