How to Get Started

Ok…so you want to know how to Mod. Here’s where you start!

Now, clearly you are going to need to have some basic equipment to get going with this, and the first thing we need to do is look at where RTW hides all it’s files. It stacks all it’s textures away in a compressed ‘PACK’ where you can’t edit them for starters. If you want to repaint a unit, you are going to need to get at this.

Download this tool:

http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/?mod=43

Extract it to your [RTW Root]/packs folder, and simply run the batch file. It will sit for a while working away, and create UNDER the packs folder, a new set of directories. These will contain all the extracted content of the archive files. The game won’t actually look for them where the PACK extractor has put them, but this is fine. The important thing is that we can edit them!
Next, create a new folder under your [RTW Root]/models_unit folder, and call it ‘textures’
This is where the game ACTUALLY looks for textures. Put your modded textures here for the game to find them.

Finally, for painting, you are going to need a good paint program ( MUST support alpha channels ) and a suitable plugin that allows the program to read and write .DDS files. This is the format that RTW uses.

Now…you are equipped to paint!

If you want to go further, and change the actual geometry of the units, you are going to need some modelling tools and skills! First off, you are going to need to have access to a copy of 3D Studio Max. Version 5 or later, I believe. This is the ONLY tool currently able to create the correct format of files for the game to read. Gmax can read them in…but it will not write out the end product.

As well as 3DS Max, you need the script file that will do the importing and exporting

Download this tool:

http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/?mod=141

Once downloaded, unzip it to your 3DS Max ‘scripts’ folder.

Fire up 3DS Max, and run the script. You can either do this from the ‘scripts’ menu in the top toolbar, or, like me, you could add the ‘scripts’ button to your custom toolbox.

Click on ‘Run Script’ in the ‘Scripts’ toolbar at the top
Select the CAS script and run it
Click on the hammer on the right of the screen to go to the ‘toolbox’

http://hoggy.metw.net/other/gud1.jpg

Click on the MaxScript button in the menu that appears when you click on the ‘Hammer’ tab
Select CAS importer/exporter in the drop down box. The options should now appear in the toolbox on the right. You can scroll down if necessary.
You will now have options to import CAS files and animations, and also export the same.

The model cas files are not hidden away in an archive, but are found in the folder: ‘[RTW Root]/data/models_unit

You are now able to modify the model and make any of the changes you want to make.

Some brief Notes:

Each model uses a single texture tile to give it it’s external ‘paintwork’. If you change the model around, you may well need to re-apply the UV map that tells the game which bit of the texture goes where. If you copy a part off ANOTHER CAS file, and paste it onto your model, THE TEXTURE DOES NOT COME WITH IT. All that comes with it is the instructions as to where on the texture tile to look. If you take a shield off another unit to attach it to your new unit, you MUST change the texture as well, and may need to re-map the new bits as well.

Weapons – Need to have the object named ‘primary weapon’ and ‘secondary weapon’ in Max. This tells the game which weapon to display

Weapons are attached to the BONES not to the MESH.

The rest of the important data on building a new unit in Max is well covered in another thread.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=39733

This was designed to get you up and running. You will still need to learn the basics of using 3DS Max before you will be able to produce anything by way of a new unit, and that’s a task beyond this tutorial!

How to Get Started - part 1