Cat Mansion Boys for DS2

the downloads and has a look.

It is a good start Iryan, the most of the animations appear to be cat mansion but I would guess they are just renamed copies of the DS2 Cat Mansion Girl. I have as yet not untanked the file but I will have to compare DDlilulu's files to yours. The problems I see I have seen before I just need to remember what fixes them.

Geordie you think you had issues meet Geordie 2 and have a look at some screen shots.

must have a look at what happens with a two handed weapon and a sword and shield!

Okay I checked crossbows, sword and shield, two handed sword, and all are okay just standing about and when attacking.

The :dance1: and hopes beyond hope that this project will drive her

I decided to look at the body armor first because it was showing just the black and yellow stripes so I looked in the suits folder and discovered that only one armor was included and it did not include the six possible skin colors I moved the standard type 1 through type 5 male armors to the correct location in the mod and did a batch rename of all the files so where there was ma for male there is now a cb for cat mansion boy (human and elf) at some point we need to add the cat mansion boy elf and dwarf, but that will come later. after doing this I looked at the armor again and it displayed as black and yellow stripes. Strange since the file names were correct. Then I remembered that the boots and gloves would not fit in the glove and boot slots in the inventory. Think all three problems are related to the .asp files for suits, gloves and boots. Not sure how to handle asp files because I do not like snakes. How does one open an asp or edit it anyway. I will edit it so that it contains no poison.

I hate snakes!

Asp files have to be edited/opened with a 3ds tool such as Gmax or Siege Max. I forget what program Ddllulu used but it was something else altogether.

You can view but not edit with asp viewer as well.

Instructions for DS1 meshes are at: http://garage.gaspowered.com/?q=su_214

Thank You PhoeniX I will look at the asp files, but do not feel very well about doing any editing even after reading the link about ds1 meshes. I would most likely just mesh things up worse or kill one of the snakes dead

Hey Ddilulu I need your help come back and I will email you some cookies

I didn't have time yesterday to elaborate about what's there so I'll try today.

1. The character portrait is just copied from catgirl. It needs fixing. Quite easy to do but may be tedious.
2. The head textures need redoing from scratch. I just included the base mesh, which sometimes has a texture already included sometimes not. Interesting to see what would happen if all the old DS1 textures were just copied and renamed. This will take a lot of work to fix.
3. The mesh on his chest is just one copied to make the model work in the selection menu. Without a texture, even one that doesn't fit properly, the game would crash. It took me three tries before I figured this out. This will take a lot of work to fix.
4. Boots and gloves aren't defined yet with proper names. Only the old ones from DS1 are there. May take a bit of work or not to fix.
5. Same for helmets. Only the first few are done so that he has a head in the selection menu.
6. The armor displays as yellow and black because the game can't find the textures. It can't find the textures because there's none there in the subfolders. I just concentrated on getting the folder structure correct. This will take a lot of time to fix. All the meshes should be there though.
7. There's no animations existing for dual wield. I think I used the catgirl animations for that and I think the folder is fs9. Obviously it doesn't work, I don't know what I was thinking 18 months ago! I suggest trying the sword and shield animation, fs2. Note that DS2 has 11 attack animation folders while DS1 had only 9. The other one is throwing weapons in fs10? Note that all the other animations are from Cat Mansion Boys and are dated 2003. The Cat Mansion Girls' animations are dated 2007.

Porting Cat Mansion Boy or Geordie 2 to DS2 as a npc or monster would be very easy, just like the old farmboy and farmgirl meshes from DS1 that now exist in the DS1 Map Pack. Making him playable is a lot harder as he has to have meshes and textures for all the armor in the game. Just remember that it's even harder creating a playable character from scratch which is why there's none been made for DS2 (at least as far as I know). Yes there's Elys Succubus Mod but those are just modified normal characters as far as I know.

I had written a blog many years ago at the Forge complaining about how ugly the type 2 fit on farmgirl. Ddllulu was kind enough to fix it, as well as adding ghastley's robe model (from red riding hood).

He mentioned the fix was easily done in Blender. I remember because I downloaded Blender after that. Maybe that could be something you could use, Lili. Of course, he may have moved on to another program, but maybe this is a small start. (?)

http://www.blender.org/

"Your brain hurts, You think you have problems," says Geordie2 "look what happens to me when I dual weird!" As I said before I figured I would work on the various armor elements first. So I put in all of the helmets, gloves, boots and suits. I used the human male and just renamed all the files. I followed how Ddilulu did it with the cat mansion girls for DS2. Still none of the gloves or boots fit they just fall off (yes I remembered to include and rename the required meshes). Did the same with the armor, Just as I did with the Cat Mansion Girls (type1 through type5) and the special cat mansion only type 6. Changed the file names such that they had cb instead of Ma or CF. No still the silly yellow and black for everything. Wake up Geordie2 the armor is now correctly located named. So since that did not work I decided to see what happened when I moved the DS1 head, hair, skin textures from ds1 to ds2 and renaming them. Well you guessed it that worked about a well as the armor. Think I will go take a dozen aspirin and chase them with a case of beer and a bottle or two of wine.

Okay to help bare_elf I did a bit more tinkering. I don't want her head to explode, who would look after us all?

The hero menu works better now. His skin appears properly and 3 of the 4 hair styles work.

Helmets now work but it depends on the texture applied to them. This is the dryad helmet and ingame there's some holes where the alpha is showing through. Other helmets are a lot worse!

This is the apprentice hood and it works quite nicely except it doesn't look at all like a hood. I just renamed the first 30 meshes from DS1 to DS2 equivalents. So if somebody spends enough time they should be able to mix and match until a satisfactory balance is achieved. The model still can't find the armor textures and as bare_elf noted boots and gloves don't work, even though I renamed them in this release.

Cat Mansion Boy can throw javelins and axes, etc but the animation doesn't look the best. I copied one of the other animation folders to make these. The dual wielding still doesn't work but is no longer messed up (I used the sword and shield animations). So animations have to be made from scratch for these. Also the ingame portrait nows looks better.

Here's the next alpha for those who may be interested in helping getting Geordie the 2nd working
http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/DS2_CatMansion_Boys_Alpha_1b.ds2res (5.82 Mb)

Geordie can now almost dual wield, at least he can carry two swords without going all wonky. He still uses the left hand as if he was carrying a shield (shield grip) as sword is held backwards. The armor does not appear as black and yellow stripes however it is not displaying correctly. All types 1-5 look like type 1 armor with the various sections of armor displayed in the wrong place. It seems this was a problem with the early cat mansion girls for DS2 before there was a type 6 armor. I am off to create a small armor mod using type6 to see what occurs.

So I discovered that he puts on his armor backwards no matter if it is DS2 armor or the armor I converted from DS1 type1 into DS2 type6. The DS2 type6 should work correctly if the mesh for the Cat Mansion Boy is done like the DS2 Cat Mansion Girl which Ddilulu did. So more looking about but things are much better now.

Glad you're progressing. The armor is working the same way as the helmets. Because he's using DS1 meshes the textures don't match. I don't know what Dlulu did but I suspect it involved converting all the textures into a format that matches the DS1 meshes. Think it as the same basic way as we did for the playable Utraean race, except all that had to be done there was some touching up of the bare skin texture so it matches the armor. What we have to do is compare the two textures for each mesh and armor, both the original DS1 one and the DS2 texture we want to use. The DS2 texture then has to be matched up with how the DS1 worked on the mesh.

As I said I used the sword and shield animations so that's why the sword is held backwards. It needs to be modified so that the offhand weapon is held correctly. I haven't a clue how that can be done but obviously it can be as it was done for Catgirl. The throwing animations also could use some touching up.

Meanwhile I'll tinker some more and see if I can get the boots and gloves working.

With some tinkering I got the boots and gloves working. Still the same issue as with the armor.

Since bare_elf has a more advanced version of the mod than I have I just uploaded the renamed meshes in the proper folders.
http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/boots_gloves.zip

Here you can see why the armor mesh is all messed up.

This is the Black Widow type1 armor texture converted by Phoenix from DS1 to DS2.

What we want to do is to go the other way since Cat Mansion Boy uses the old DS1 mesh and I'm pretty certain this is what DDllulu did with the Cat Mansion Girls since if you look in the art resources you see all new textures for the armor meshes.

So the basic process would be to extract all the armor textures from DS2 and an armor textures from each of the armor meshes for type1, type2, type3, type4 and type5 farmboy mesh that will be used to duplicate the DS2 textures. So for type 1 there'll be 1 DS1 texture used as a template and 39 textures for the DS2 armor that we want to see in-game.

There's actually only 13 armor textures for type1 in DS2 but there has to be a variation for each skin tone. So we may want to think about limiting how many skins can be selected in the hero selection menu otherwise there'll be an awful lot of tedious retouching of skin tones to make them match.

Maybe it's just as well there's not the variation in armor textures in DS2 as there was in DS1, as there was 77 type1 armor textures alone. Try making multiple variations of that many for each skin tone!

Finally we also need the alpha channels from the DS1 armor mesh texture so we can apply it to the converted DS2 armor texture so that there won't be any more holes in the head syndrome.

I hope all of this makes sense?

the DS2 CM girl can wear all DS2 armor type1 through type5 without any alterations. She can also wear any DS1 type1 armor exactly how it is drawn in DS1 so long as these images are stored in the type6 folder and renamed using the DS2 naming conventions. As an example the ds1 type 1 armor called
b_c_pos_a1_crystalshirt if it was renamed b_c_gah_amr_suit_cf_a6_crystalshirt_01 then saved again as for each of the remaining skin types 02 03 11 12 13 31 32 33 everything works great. Therefore the mesh must be more complex even than the one hamcat did for the DS1 Cat Mansion Girl because the ds2 cat mansion girl can display without any alteration any DS2 or Brokenworld armor and all DS1 type 1 armor as long as it is renamed.

DS2 type 1 armor

DS2 type 2 armor

DS2 type 3 armor

DS2 type 4 armor

DS2 type 5 armor

DS2 type 6 or DS1 type 1
If she can wear all of these armor types without any alteration except renameing the ds1 type 1 to ds2 type 6. Also the DS2 cat mansion girl does not display the ds2 type 2 through type 5 like the DS1 cat mansion girl so I have to believe that Ddilulu built a totally different mesh for her so I think it is unlikely that the cat mansion boy will work in ds2 without the same mesh alterations.

I know that what I have written is a bit circular and may not be to clear but I had a difficult day herding cats.

I think I know what is going on but it will have to wait for morning when I can run a test. The layout of the armor in DS1 is the same for both the farm girl and farm boy. In DS2 that is not true. If the layout of the arms and legs and torso is as I expect I know why Geordie is wearing the armor upside down. Now back to sleep.

That would be good, I hope you're successful.

You're correct that the model can display the DS2 textures. However I think the basic model mesh is the same but the way the texture is applied is different. Why? Because the model mesh size is exactly the same for the corresponding mesh in DS2 to that from DS1 (remembering that DS1 had 7 armor meshes while DS2 only has 5).

So that means it would probably be possible to alter the mesh so it displays the DS2 armor textures correctly. So even if your test is unsuccessful, it should be possible to achieve. Be interesting to see if the technique works for the helmets, gloves and boots as well.

My dream was somewhat correct. I discovered the reason for the upside down armor, but have not as yet fixed it.

Remember all DS1 races and sexes used the same basic armor layout

However in DS2 things changed

The female armor layout looks like this

The male armor layout looks like this

As you can see the ds2 layouts are totally different. This means that if the DS2 Cat Mansion Boy's Mesh uses the same armor layout (or at least close to the cat mansion girl) his armor would mislocate things from the male image onto what is the female layout.

I checked and sure enough you find the hand in the middle of the chest foot in middle of back and so on. From this I thought to myself hmmm use the female armor images and just rename them for the Cat Mansion Boy. Well that almost works at least the armor is no longer upside down but it still has out of place things.

As I see it there's three possible ways of getting the armor working for Cat Boy

These three pics show the armor mesh displaying DS1 armor textures on DS1 armor mesh in DS2. Very simple to do but doesn't show the authentic DS2 armor textures. Maybe a positive for some as it's a way of getting some of those good old DS1 textures into the game. Only requires simple renaming of files.

The second method is to reverse copy the DS2 armor textures onto the DS1 armor mesh. Quite feasible but very time consuming.

The last method is what I think DDlulu used in the Cat Mansion girls and what bare_elf is looking at. Changing the armor mesh so it uses DS2 textures properly. Requires knowledge of how to do this. Doesn't need extensive knowledge of how to edit meshes in SiegeMax but does need knowledge of how textures are applied to the mesh.

Who knows it may be easy enough to port some of the other DS1 character models to DS2 such as the skeleton, naja and gargoyle. Even the old farmboy and farmgirl models, as well as the dwarf and even Witness's dark elves, though that may be overkill as all of those races are already present in DS2. But maybe if they utilized DS1 textures to add variety?

The second method would require about 100 hours of work redoing the drawings and the templates so that only a cat mansion boy could wear them.

The third method would be the best but again very time consuming. I will look into method two and three a bit longer.

Noticed a weird thing. If I create type six armor for the cat mansion boy I can change his hair color and hair style which I could not do before that. Second the type of armor affects how boots and gloves are used and displayed. If I have on say Twilight Armor the boots work fine. If I have on watcher armor the boots and gloves display as red and black stripes, wearing winstone armor they just fall off.

Using Method 1 is quite quick. For instance I made the DS1 skeleton as a playable character.

It took about 3 hours to convert and was simply a tedious matter of renaming a couple of hundred files!

So Geordie 2 now has someone else who can wear the armor. It's still the DS2 armor but uses DS1 textures on the model mesh. I compare all the DS2 armor textures and picked the DS1 ones that matched the best. So all body armors should now work.

You can download the third alpha here; http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/DS2_CatMansion_Boys_Alpha_1c.ds2res (45 Mb)

It's a lot bigger because it's not optimized yet (using raw files instead of dds) and there's some unused files there in case we want to swap textures.

Yes so it would be quite feasible to make an uber playable character pack for DS2 of DS1 models.

Compliments to you both on your quick progress with Geordie 2. I for one, would love to see a character pack of DS1 models. They're older but look better. Just my own opinion.

One of the points of the whole Geordie 1 situation was to match a bunch of skin tones with just one armor piece. I wonder why the DS2 team didn't go the route of making their models use alpha channels...I mean, how many skin tones does one have to match when making an armor mod for DS2? Quite a few I believe, although I am completely clueless when it comes to DS2 modding.

Looks good Iryan. Did note a few minor issues, but that might be do to the other mods I am running.
1. I can not change the cat mansion boy skin color
2. I can not change hair style or color.
3. Some body armor like Explorer Armor cause the boots and gloves (which work on other armors) to display as red and black stripes.
All of these problems at least for me existed in the previous version of the cat mansion boy mod. I checked and it is not dependent on which game I am running DS2 or BW.

For the armors like dryad armor and a few others that do not have look a likes in DS1 I will redraw and send them to you.

Here are two images of what is occurring

I will let you know what happens.

The situation with the skin tones is very annoying. You have to have a texture version of the armor for each skin tone. For the DS2 models that means there has to be 3 sets of armor textures for each armor.

It's a lot worse for Geordie 2. There's about 12 skins tones available for him but I limited it to 4 as we still don't know what path we're setting upon for the armor conversion. Though the leaning is now towards simply using the old DS1 textures and just redoing the textures that looks very odd, like the Dryad Armor. I actually haven't noticed how that effects the skin tones.

The skeleton was very easy in that regard as there's just the one skin, no hair or head variations. I did try to make him use a skeleton body but DS2 didn't like that.

I think there's some sort of mod conflict there. Try tanking the fixes I sent you with the alpha1c at a very high priority (as I think I forgot to do that with the version I posted). The hero selection menu works properly for me and I noticed that the character portrait in the in-game shot is messed up in your game, that also works properly for me. A conflict with other character mods will cause this. I'm trying to make this one backwards compatible with other character mods.

I also don't get the red/black texture display with the Explorer armor. I'm currently testing with very few mods loaded, basically just the DS1 Map Pack. So I'm not sure what's the problem here is. Does the skeleton have the same problem?

I think there may have been a conflict with one of my ds2 armor mods or the Ddilulu's cat mansion mods.
I retanked at a priority of 100 just to make sure and I can change skin tones hair style and color.
did not have time to check the boot issue but that is most likely fixed to. Now off to make an exceptable version of dryad armor and a few others. I will also s9e what I can do about matching the six DS2 male skin tones a little closer. I will also have to figure out how to make the ds2 cat mansion boy wear cat mansion girl type1 armor like the DS1 cat mansion boys do. That way we would only require 1 armor image and whatever skin tone the character has would show through where the armor did not cover the skin. That might take some time as I really have no idea how I did it in DS1. Wish me luck

The conflicts I noted except one have been resolved, One of my armor mods was messing up some of the cat mansion boy's armor. Not sure which mod messed up the ability to change the hair style, hair color, and skin color but at a guess I would say it was the DS2 Cat Mansion Girls. A tank priority of 100 resolves all the issues except one. Type 3 armor causing the boots and gloves to turn red/black. This again may be a mod I am using. I will have to start turning off mods and see what happens if it does not occur on your end Iryan.

The Dryad Armor still needs work but it is getting there.

It would be so much easier if the silly cat mansion boys understood alpha channels like the cat mansion girls however they are still having trouble with radio and television channels!

I turned off every single mod except Cat Mansion Boys Alpha C and then added each one back in one at a time and the boots worked until I installed the 4 mods that make up the DS2 Cat Mansion Girls and the boots and gloves look as above.
1. This only happens with type 3 armor, and any pair of boots in inventory including some I created for myself like "Boots of the Ice Elf" and Gloves of the Ice Elf" This problem does not occur with type1, type2, type4, type5 or type6 armor.

2. I next raised the tank priority of Cat Mansion Boys the Maximum, retanked it and no change. This could only mean that the Cat Mansion Girls 4 ds2res files are already there (highest priority possible).

3. I do not see it as a major problem for me as I hardly ever use type 3 armor when playing DS2 or BW as all of my custom work is type1 or type6. type six is really type1 for catmansion girls.

Not sure why the problem only happens with type 3 but will attempt to find it

The dryad armor is looking very good indeed. Great work!

The poor cat mansion folk definitely have a problem with their heads. I'm having to painstakingly check every single head mesh to see if it works or shows ugly holes and gaps. Funny enough the skeleton as tested so far doesn't exhibit this problem, the textures may be messed up but there's no holes or transparent gaps.

I suspect DDlulu also had this problem as the Cat Mansion Girls only seem to use 7 or 8 head meshes for all 30 armor types (going on the file sizes and also comparing them to the DS1 originals). So this will take quite a while for figure out.

As tested so far I'm having no problems with the type3 armor.

Quest for Cat Mansion Boys Dryad Armor

Kathy any ideas about dryad armor for DS2 Cat Mansion Boys. Since he uses the standard DS1 armor layout but will only use an all white alpha channel so far maybe you could come up with a leaf like armor?