Imperial Officer customization

[Oldenburg]

I want to take the Haps Imperial Officer and make it fully customizable in the Single Player character chooser, i.e. allow the player to choose rank badge, number of code cylinders, belt boxes, holster, etc. Unfortunately, with the exception of the 2x3 rank badge and two of the four code cylinders, all those aforementioned features are all "surfed" off by default (is "surf" in this context a verb?), and as far as I can figure out I cannot surf them on without editing the model or adding them in a .npc file (the latter of which doesn't help me in the character selection screen). As soon as I can surf them on by default, I know how to do the skins and everything else necessary for customization.

 

I assume there is a way to do this. If it involves editing the model, what exactly do I have to do? This is my first experience with modeling, so feel free to treat me like an idiot. I have already imported the model into Blender, I just don't know where to go from there. Anyone?

 

And yes, I am the same person who made this request three years ago, only now I am finally trying to figure out how to do it myself.

 

EDIT: Okay, after some aimless messing around I've found a checkbox under Ghoul 2 Properties for each object labeled "Off," which I assume is what I'm looking for. I unchecked everything I wanted, so now (I think) the extra rank badges and other stuff are turned on by default. But when I export the model and try to test it in game, the game crashes. It may be because it's a Jedi Outcast model that I'm trying to put in Jedi Academy without really having any idea what I'm doing, which as I gather is another issue entirely. Or am I doing something else wrong and/or is there more I have to do?

 

EDIT 2: Everything's good now. Don't know what I was doing wrong before, but it's all working now. Looking forward to posting this mod.

Edited May 22, 2016 by Oldenburg

[Oldenburg]

Next, I want to start playing around with frankensteining different heads onto the officer body. But because the Haps Imperial Officer model is for JK2, it don't seem to be "compatible" (different skeletons, I believe) with JKA models from which I would get new heads.

 

How can I fully convert a JK2 model to a JKA model? Based on my preliminary searches, I think it has something to do with weighting, which I don't really understand. How difficult is this? I admit I haven't done much research yet and I am sure there are countless tutorials out there, but none I've been able to find so far deal specifically with Jedi Academy and Blender.

[Psyk0Sith]

-JO models will work in JA without any modifications, the only difference is that some of the JA actions will not behave correctly, this is due to changes to the JA skeleton vs. JO skeleton (Raven removed some useless bones and added some, also renamed some). Those actions are mostly saber taunts if i remember correctly, the additional bones are extensions of the upper leg bone and not mandatory.

 

-To compile an old JO model to JA you will need to make the old skeleton match the new .GLA. What happens is the compiler or exporter needs to find the referenced bones in the .gla from your exported or compiled model, if there's a mismatch you will be notified and the process will stop, telling you what you need to fix...at least when using the compiler. To make a JA only model, you would simply do the frankenstein as usual but you would need to rename and remove some bones from the skin list. Once complete you compile / export using the JA .gla...and keep your fingers crossed.