Editing PS2 Yobj files

(Click on any of the pics to enlarge)

What you will need:

-        X-Rey

-        Blender 2.49b

-        Python 2.6.2a

-        Blender 2.73

-        Import script for blender ( https://mega.co.nz/#!1llHUb5a!14iCHUtlmFL_aPvICWaeoYXcRNffzfFuFzagDCTwriE )

1.      After downloading and setting the above software up, open Blender 2.49b. Click File – open and select the import-rumble-roses-ps2-2011-11-06.blend script file. When the script file is open, click Alt+p to run the script.

The script will then look for a model file in a directory. Select the directory where your model is stored. Blender will then open the model for you.

2.      In order for you make edits which can be imported into a yobj file, you will need to export the individual parts separately. Unfortunately, blender 2.49b does not support this but blender 2.73 does. To overcome this, we are going to save the opened model in blender and then open in the newer version.         

Click file – save as and give your file a name. I’m going to call this model_edit.blend.

3.      Close blender 2.49 and open Blender 2.73. Open the blend file you just saved, in this instance is the edit_model.blend file. Now your model is opened in the newer version of blender.

4.      Edit the parts of the model you want in Blender. I’m not going to go through how to use blender to shape models as it is beyond the scope of this tutorial.

I’m just going to make a few minor edits to the left boot to illustrate the process.

5.      With your object selected, take a note of the name of the object, you will need the name when exporting. In this example, the name of the boot object is model-7.002. When we are exporting this will be named object7.obj. The “7” is derived from the name of the object i.e. model-7.002.

6.      While the object is still selected, click on file – export – wavefront (obj). When the export dialog appears, make sure you check the “Selection Only ” checkbox. Name the file the name we determined in step 5. In this instance it is object 7.

7.      Now we are ready to import the changes into your yobj file. Start X-Rey and select Open – Yobj (ps2). Select your yobj file and X-Rey will list all the objects in the model. In this case we are going to import the boot which is object7.

On the row with object7 listed, click on import and select the file we exported in step 6, in this case it is object7.obj.  If everything is in order with the file you exported from blender, you will get a message stating the “File has been injected successfully”.

8.      Your yobj file is now ready to be used in game. You can test the yobj file in blender again before you use it in game, but it is not required. 

WWE 2k15 Community DLC 1

Community DLC 1 for WWE 2k15 had just been released by the Smacktalks community.

This dlc will be exclusive to people who have X-Packer 10.

The roster is as follows:
1. Scott Hall
2. Scott Steiner
3. Road Dogg
4. Billy Gunn
5. Farooq
6. Bradshaw (having issues with his slot, may remove him from the dlc)
7. Shamrock
8. Sabu
9. Sandman
10. Kurt Angle
11. Goldberg
12. TNA Sting

My TNA Sting is exclusive to this dlc.


Thanks to the following members of the community for assisting with the creation of this dlc:

- Movesets (Zhigge)
- Trons (MdTornado)
- Names for the dlc wrestlers in the string file (IamCrazyPT)

YOBJ Model Format

The model format contains a header which details the number of bones, meshes, materials etc. The actual model itself is broken down into multiple smaller objects.

Each of these objects has it's own data which is 184 bytes long (mesh data). This is detailed in the diagram below under the header data and the individual mesh data. The mesh data also calls a shader based on the type of object it is e.g. skin, gear, transparency. These are referenced with a "ch_' e.g ch_skin, ch_gear, etc.

There is some some data which I haven't deciphered as yet. If you guys figure anything else out, please post the info here.

3d Modelling Tutorial by Nsienski

Here's some more info from Nsiensky which helps with the modding:

I just did a test.
I re-shaped Hollywood hogan (less shoulders and less pecs) and it worked just perfect.

Just a quick note, you don't have to use any modifiers at the begining. Just select editable mesh in the modifier stack and use whatever you want for editing the mesh (vertex, faces...)



When you edit a model in 3DS max, it is made of many different objects. It can be a problem when you want to retopologize a mesh without editing vertex per vertex (overkill) and you want to use MAX soft selection.
It is the case for the head/face of the models for exemple.

Now, there's a way around that.
Here is an example with Hogan chest :

1- select the left pec using elements in the menu :




2- down the menu, select Attach :



3- click on the right pec :



4- now the pecs are attached, you can deform the whole easily and fast without making holes in the models :



5 - when you're done editing the mesh,  select the right pec (still using element in the menu) :



6- then select Detach in the right menu and give it a name (I prefer to give it back the right name) :



7 - Now the right pec you edited is detached but he has lost is skin modifier which means it won't follow the bones animation. That's not what we want.
Select any part of the model, (they should all have the Skin modifier)



- right click on the Skin modifier to copy it :



8 - select the right pec you have modified :



Go in the stack, right click on Editable mesh to paste the Skin modifier :




The part you modified has his Skin modifier back at the right place in the modifier stack. You can export the mesh, it will works in game:



CAUTION : When you select the element to detach, be sur to have all the Triangles. Sometimes there are a few of them isolated on the model. It's easy to check with the number of vertices or faces.

That's what I did to tweak Hollywood Hogan, I attached the shoulders, the pecs, the neck, the back and the belly together for editing.
Then I detached every part and exported them. Hogan looks way better now, less buff

X-Rey - How to edit models

With upcoming release of Xrey, I thought I'd post a tutorial on the process for those who want to start practicing using 3ds max to edit.

Basic controls for the program:

- Double click an object in the grid to display a preview
- Click the viewport to control the object. Zoom in and out using the mouse scroll button.
- Hold down the right mouse button and move the mouse to rotate the object.
- Some objects render off the screen for some reason so zoom out to view these.
- Some faces don't render correct in the preview viewport, not sure why as yet. You can still edit these objects as the program does not interfere with the faces.

Basic tutorial on how to do model edits

I am assuming that you already know how to extract your yobj file from the pac, have 3dsm installed and have brienj's import plugin.

The program also loads a texture as long as it is named color in the same directory of the yobj. The color texture can be in png, jpg or bmp formats in that order of preference. If there is no color texture the mesh will load without one.

1. Import your yobj into 3dsm. Click on any object and select Conversion - Turn to Mesh. In this example I am working with Hogans belt.



this will convert your object into an editable mesh. On your right menu, select editable mesh and select vertex under this option. Your object will now display all the vertices.




2. Select a few vertices and move them. Do something simple for your first try, just to understand the process. Make sure you do not delete or add any new veritices. The number of vertices must remain the same.




3. Select all the vertices for that object by pressing ctrl+a. Take a note of the number of vertices under the selection menu on the right you will need to know this number later on. In this example the number of vertices is 570.



4. With the object still selected, select Export - Export selected from the main menu. Make sure you have selected "Export selected" as the import wont work otherwise.

Give your object any name you want, I'm calling mine belt_570.obj (so that I'll remember that it has 570 vertices later on). In the save as type dialog select "gw: Obj-Exporter (*.Obj)"

For the export options, make sure you set all the options as follows:



Please double check these options as the object will import incorrectly or wont import at all if these are incorrect. Click the export button when you are sure and the object will be exported to obj format. Double check the number of vertices is correct on the status box which appears after the import. In this case the number of vertices on the export status box is still 570 so it's correct.

5. Option your yobj in X-rey using the "Yobj new format" option. Look in the grid for an object which has the same number of vertices. In this case 570 vertices.



Double click the object to preview it. In this case Hogan's belt is off the screen so I needed to zoom out with the mouse wheel to see it.

6. Click the import button and select the object you want to import. In this example, belt_570.obj. If you have done everything correctly, the object will be imported and the viewport will display the new edited object.



7. Inject your edited yobj back into your pach file using the compress and inject function in x-packer. Then inject pach into pac as normal

That's it, the edited yobj should load in game displaying your changes.

Things i haven't tested:

- I coded functionality to change texture coordinates but don't know how to do unwrapping so I couldn't test this.

Tekken57/Miztah Raza's Hair Hack tutorial

Well, with the new way of adding hair found by Tekken57 and since he so kindly released the info to all, I'm writing up a tutorial because Tekken himself doesn't have the time(totally understandable, he's pretty busy with his job, life, etc.). So, lets get started!


......OH! And don't ask me to do a video tutorial, because I won't. NOW, let's get started :p



Hair Replacement:



First off, you're going to need to find out who you want to mod with long hair(or in some cases, with short hair, or just replace a hair model if you don't like it), I'll choose Stephanie McMahon:







Alright, so if you take a look at the texture inside the red border, this is the hair texture that Stpehanie's hair yobj (1027.yobj) uses. Now, our main goal is to find a guy or girl with different hair, since I don't like her in game hair, I have to find another hair model that roughly has the same hair texture placement as Steph's. Even if it does overlap a little bit, we can fix that later, it just has to fit in rougly. I've used Brie Bellas's hair.

Now, Brie's hair fit's in just fine with Stephanie's so this is going to be easy. Simply extract the 1027.yobj from Brie's PACH file and inject it in Stephanie's 1027 PACH slot.



Posted Image



This is Brie's hair model, so we have to extract this, this is done simply by right clicking and selecting export.



Now, we save it as BrieHair.yobj(just an example of a suitable filename) and open up Stpehanie's PACH file in X-Packer:





Just click inject and choose BrieHair.yobj you extracted earlier. Now inject the Stephanie's edited PACH file into her PAC file and update your arc files(since the filesize has become bigger.





Alpha Trick:



Now let's suppose the hair texture placement of the hair model you want to add overlaps the texture a bit. Easy fix, open up the normal.dds in PS, go into the aplha, then wherever the hair texture is over-lapping go over that with black.

......Okay, didn't explain that well enough, so I'll do it with examples, lol:

Brie's Hair placement is smaller than Stephanie's so if I wanted to add Stephanie's hair to Brie, Stephanie's hair model file would look for a bigger texture than the hair texture present in Brie's color.dds. To fix this, we open up Brie's normal.dds and paste Stephanie's texture over the normal.dds, now select the area in which Stephanie's hair texture is overlapping another texture on brie's normal, and then with the selection go into the alpha channel and fill the selection with black. This way, the (Stephanie's) hair model will only use how much we 'told' it to. Hope I explained that better now, lol.

How to add alt attires using X-Packer 9

Thank you to KidSampson for writing this tutorial

Necessary components to complete the steps outlined in this tutorial:

• X-packer 9  (Download and donate to Tekken) - Make sure you are using the latest version so that the arcs update correctly.
• misc01_Start.pac  (2K14 Game Folder)
• plist360.arc  (2K14 Game Folder)
• xbdecompress  (Link in tutorial)
• modified ch pac with additional attires or edited textures  (Download from forum)

 

NOTE: Prior to making changes to any game files, I suggest creating a backup from which you can restore in case something goes wrong.

 

PART I: Updating the arc files
 

So you’ve downloaded a great mod from the forum and want to add it to your game, but you’re wondering where to start. Thankfully, X-Packer 9 simplifies the process and does much of the heavy lifting for us. Adding a wrestler mod to your game requires two steps: updating the arc file entries for the new attires and activating the attires within the misc pac. This tutorial will walk you through each step below, using a mod from the forums to demonstrate the basic procedure for completing these tasks. After you add a few mods, these procedures will become routine.

 

The first step is to download a mod you wish to add to your game. You may also create your own mod and add additional textures or attires to a ch pac, but that is a more complex process for another tutorial. 

 

For this tutorial, I am using Red Rooster’s mod of the Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase, as an example. If you want to follow along, you can download this mod at http://smacktalks.or...tire-released/.

 

Each wrestler is assigned a model number. Pac files contain this model reference number. For example, Ted DiBiase’s is 136. By default, DiBiase has two attires in game. Red has edited these attires and added a third texture from Legends of Wrestlemania, a previous WWE game. In order to work in game, this third attire needs to be referenced within the game’s arc files.

 

1. Within X-Packer, press Ctrl + X. Then select the pac file you downloaded: ch136.pac. All pac files you add to your game should follow this naming convention. (chXXX.pac – where XXX represents the character model number)
2. The window that appears shows the contents of the pac file, which is made up of individual attires. These containers are called pach files and there are two types: in-ring attires and entrance attires. Each follows a naming convention.
3. In-Ring Attires are designated with a 2 at the end of their file name. Entrance attires end with a 4.
4. To determine the total number of attires contained within a pac file, count the number of attires that end in 2. For example, this mod has three: 00013602, 00013612, 00013622. (You can see that the naming convention follows a pattern: 000 + Model Number + Attire. The first attire always begins with 02. Each additional attire adds +1 to the second to last number: 12, 22, 32, 42, 52, etc.)
5. Although we are not concerned with the entrance attires at this point, for the sake of thoroughness, notice that this pac has two: 00013604 and 00013624. These attires are for the first and third attires, respectively. 
6. To update our arc entries, simply click on the button that reads: Add additional attire data to arc file. In the window that opens, browse to your plist360.arc and click OK. (If you play on a standard definition TV without widescreen support, you will need to repeat this process and select the second 4x3 arc file. For most users, this step is not necessary.)
7. X-Packer will show which entries were updated successfully. This box should account for all of the attires within the pac, otherwise something went wrong.

 

After updating the arc files, the next step is to add references for new attires to the misc pac file.

 

 

PART II: How to add alternate attires using the misc pac editor

 

Step 1: Decompress the misc pac

 

By default, the misc01_Start.pac is a compressed file. You must first decompress the file before you can open it with X-Packer to make edits.

 

There may be other tools to accomplish this task, but I use XBCompression by XDK. (HotavioH posted a pack of tools here on the forum in January 2013 that contains the file: https://anonfiles.co...1165ff53b68b5b5.)

 

After you download and extract the file above, follow these steps:

 

Go to Windows / Start menu, select Run, and type cmd

Click OK to open a window with a black background (command prompt window)

Drag the xbdecompress.exe that is inside the xbcompression folder into the black window.

Then, press spacebar and drag your “misc01_Start.pac” into the same box.

Press the spacebar again and drag the "misc01_Start.pac" into the window one more time.

Without adding any spaces, type .uncompress and press Enter.

 

This will create a decompressed version of your misc.pac file.

 

Step 2: Edit the misc pac with X-Packer 9

 

1. To load your misc pac file select File > Open > WWE 2K14 > Misc.pac (alternate attires) within X-Packer 9.
2. Browse to and select the uncompressed misc pac you created earlier.
3. Once the misc pac loads, you will see a table that displays the package contents.
4. The first column is the wrestler ID. Column 2 shows the number of active attires. Columns A1 : A10 represent attire slots. 2K14 allows for up to 10 attires for each wrestler.
5. Notice that two menus appear along the top of the misc pac editor window: WWE 13 Attire Values and WWE 2K14 Attire Values. These serve as reference lists for available attire strings. (2K14 attire values may also be referenced at: http://smacktalks.or...ease-sticky-me/)
6. Recall that Ted Dibiase’s model number is 136. If we scroll to 136 in the misc pac editor window we see that this wrestler has 2 attires by default. Remember that the mod that Red Rooster provided has 3 attires: the two in-game attires with edits and a third attire taken from Legends of Wrestlemania.
7. To make this mod work in game, we must adjust the number of attires using the misc pac editor.
8. Begin by clicking on the row of wrestler 136. In column 2, use the pull-down menu to set the number of active attires to 3.  (NOTE: The misc pac editor also allows you to set values for all attires simultaneously. For individual edits, make changes within the row. Be aware that the larger box at the bottom changes the values of ALL wrestlers.)
9. The next step is to select a name for each attire. Column A1 corresponds to attire 1; A2 corresponds to attire 2; and A3 corresponds to attire 3.
10. The attires Red Rooster provided in his pack are for Wrestlemania 4, Wrestlemania 11, and Legends of Wrestlemania. So we may select the following strings as attire names from the pull-down lists: WM 4 = 000E,  WM 11 = 0136,  Legends = 0016.
11. For each attire, choose the corresponding hex values from the pull-down list. Once all three attire names have been set, click the purple button labeled SAVE CHANGES at the bottom of the window.
    
    At this point you have edited the misc pac to load an additional attire for ch136.pac (aka The Million Dollar Man).

 

Step 3: Rename and Copy Files to Game Folder

 

The last step is essentially cleanup. Rename your edited uncompressed misc pac to the original file name: misc01_start.pac. This file does not need to be recompressed; the uncompressed file will load just fine.

 

Then copy both your edited wrestler pac (ch136.pac) and your new misc01_Start.pac over to their default locations within your game folder.

 

The misc pac should be placed in the root of the pac folder. When prompted, confirm that you wish to replace the file.

 

Within the pac folder is a ch subfolder. Wrestler ch pacs are stored here. Copy ch136.pac and confirm that you wish to replace the file.

 

If everything was done successfully, your game should load properly. Within the game you will notice that DiBiase now has three selectable attires, the third of which will be named Legends. Repeat this process for adding additional mods.