Thursday, August 29, 2013

MOD: Braided hairstyle for ME3

Note that this mod is PC only! You can't replace Meshes on the consoles. 
 


This .MOD will include the permanent replacement of the Mohawk Mesh only. You will have to run texmod to apply the textures. TPF is also included in the download. 

http://www.nexusmods.com/masseffect3/mods/55/?


To use this hairstyle on Shepard, do not forget to edit the following values with Gibbed:

Mesh: BIOG_HMF_HIR_PRO.Hair_Mohawk.HMF_HIR_Mhk_MDL
Hair_diff: BIOG_HMF_HIR_PRO.Hair_Short02.HMF_HIR_PROShort_Diff
Hair_mask: BIOG_HMF_HIR_PRO.Hair_Short02.HMF_HIR_PROShort_Diff

If you have never used Gibbed or ME3Explorer before and/or are running into issues here are several useful guides you should definitely check out:

Gibbed - download
Modifying faces in Gibbed
Basics: Modding hair via Gibbed
Scalar / Vector / Texture 
ME3Explorer - download
Tutorial on how to install .MOD files

For those of you that absolutely can't run with texmod but really do want to use this hairstyle no matter what, I'll include a texture replacement .MOD below.
Two things to note though:

  1. This can currently only be replaced as a DXT1 with 1bit alpha, this means I have no gradual alpha and things are either transparent or they're not. This differs from the texmod that includes a DXT5 which features much softer edges. I'll be asking around to see if this is something the guys over at ME3Explorer can do anything about but 0 promises. As it stands that means it will look different from the texmod version. 
  2. Seeing as the BIOG_HMF_HIR_PRO.Hair_Short02.HMF_HIR_PROShort_Diff texture is the one all hair mesh modders use, if you want to switch hairmods, you'll have to either revert BIOG_HMF_HIR_PRO.pcc or run a permament texture replacement .MOD over this one to overwrite it. You can't use texmod on a permanently replaced texture.

Troubleshooting:
I have tried the .MOD but it causes my game to crash to desktop.
a: My advice would be to revert your BIOG_HMF_HIR_PRO.pcc to vanilla and try again.
If you keep experiencing issues make sure you're using rev 472 or above.

I can load un-modded saves but modded saves crash to desktop.
a: This is likely a Gibbed save error.  Make sure there are no extra spaces before or after the codes you have changed.

Disclaimer:

My support begins and ends with the functionality of my mods. I do not cover the inner workings of the tools you'll need to get acquainted with to use mods beyond giving some general troubleshooting tips. Further problems with them are best discussed on their respective websites or support forums.

Do NOT repack or redistribute these files without permission.

Credit:
Much thanks to Apachii from the Skyrim Nexus (ApachiiSkyHair) for providing permission to use and share this hairstyle =)

30 comments:

  1. Hello, first of all i love your work and i´ve made several changes on my shepard following your instructions.
    I must say I don´t speak english really well but i have a question, i hope i can make myself clear:
    I´ve seen this new hairstyle today (the one of the picture) and i love it.
    But for the first time i dont understand the instructions, when i download the file i find instructions for two hairstyles but i think none of them is this one (they are braided ponytail and braided pigtails)
    So, can you explain what am i missing please?

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    Replies
    1. This is a single hair mod, if you are referring to the braided pack, that's over at ELE's tumblr: http://farkas4ever.tumblr.com/post/58544780733/braids-hair-pack-if-this-looks-familiar-just

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  2. ^Sorry, rephrashed the question better.
    Hi there! Thanks so much for this hairstyle, it's absolutely gorgeous and I'm over the moon that people are working so hard to create these gorgeous mods.
    Secondly, I was wondering if you could share the colour values for the brown hair that's shown in the middle picture? I've been trying to create that exact brown through Gibbed but to no avail. :(
    If you could share the values, I'd really appreciate it.
    Other than that, thanks again and keep up the great work!

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    Replies
    1. Hey =) Glad you like it!

      The Gibbed vector values for the brown are:
      HED_Hair_Colour_Vector: 0.1165758, 0.0563741, 0.03025652, 1
      Highlight1Color: 0.1310091, 0.03887994, 0.004787742, 1
      Highlight2Color: 0.1011452, 0.05818718, 0.05818718, 1

      The Scalar settings:
      Highlight1SpecExp_Scalar: 12.5
      Highlight2SpecExp_Scalar: 25
      HAIR_SPwr_Scalar: 100
      Hightlight1Intensity: 25
      Hightlight2Intensity: 10

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    2. Thank you very much, it's perfect. :)

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    3. Sigh, I am back again! Haha.
      The hair colour values you gave me at the time worked perfectly. However I downloaded a new hair mod for my Shepard and after I loaded, my Shepard's hair turned a dark brown (almost black). I figured it was the modded hair or a corrupted save (tried the values on a different Shepard) but it wasn't. I was just wondering if you could tell me the hair colour values via the colour wheel in Gibbed (Highlight 1&2 and HED_Hair_Colour_Vector) as this might solve the problem as altering the number values the traditional way doesn't seem to be working. Sorry to be a pain!

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    4. I can look them up but I don't have time to until tomorrow and it's unlikely inputting the values a different method will make a difference.
      This is likely not a problem with the values at all. Every hairmod has it's own custom textures. It's very likely that your new hairmod has a generally darker texture, or one with less contrast which will make it appear a lot darker in-game. You would have to manually adjust the values to be lighter.

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    5. Ah, I see. Thank you for offering to try at least :)
      I'll put in your previous values with the original hair mod and see what happens.

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    6. You were indeed correct. I input your values again with the original hair mod and the colour brown is perfect. In a way, that's good to know but disappointing as I did love the new hair mod. I've attempted to manually adjust the values to be lighter in Gibbed with the new hair mod but I end up making a somewhat orange colour (not too good with this sort of stuff haha).

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    7. You could also try to extract the hair texture for the mod you are using and adjust the brightness/contrast to fit more with the one that came with mine. Don't know if you have any experience with it, it's relatively straightforward if you know how to unpack and repack TPF's. The adjustments will just take time because you'd have to test / adjust a lot.

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    8. Could also copy parts of my texture over to fit with the wrap of the other, that way you're sure that the colour is preserved ingame. Note the alpha-channel is the transparency mask.

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    9. I'll be honest - I don't have any experience with that haha. But I'll look up some tutorials and see how I go! Thanks for all the help :)

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  3. Hey Ottemis,
    I love the mod, it looks gorgeous!
    However, whenever I start my savegame, all settings go back to default Shep.
    That's odd, because I tried out other hair mods before and never got problems
    with them.
    I'd appreciate anything that could help.

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    Replies
    1. That sounds like savegame corruption to me, i would try to redo the Gibbed changes on a fresh save.

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  4. When I want to update the PCconsoleTDC.bin the ME3 explorer won't find any changed .pcc files never ! I don't get why when I change them... so I can't use new hairs because it just won't find them.

    So I downloaded these hairs
    I did everything according to the guide: "ME3_FemBraided_Ottemis_477.mod" file ME3 explorer said all mods installed succesfully...
    In Texmod "ME3_Braided_Otte.tpf" file is added.

    In gibbed I changed the
    Mesh: BIOG_HMF_HIR_PRO.Hair_Mohawk.HMF_HIR_Mhk_MDL
    Hair_diff: BIOG_HMF_HIR_PRO.Hair_Short02.HMF_HIR_PROShort_Diff
    Hair_mask: BIOG_HMF_HIR_PRO.Hair_Short02.HMF_HIR_PROShort_Diff
    In my save.

    And the fuc*ing result is that when I load the save my shep got the default fuc*ing Hair_Mohawk and not the one it should have. So I made sure and did the whole process again. Then I load the save and I'm under the map I don't see anyhing and can't move. I was fu*king with this my whole day and nothing works. So dont be surprised about my language. And help me somehow if that's in your power. thanks

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    Replies
    1. Older versions of ME3Explorer would sometimes require you to run mesh .mods multiple times before it would take. If you're still seeing the Mohawk after running the .mod this is likely the case. This should not happen with the newest versions though as far as I know.

      As to the default hair and displacement, that sounds like save corruption and is most likely due to an extra space having been copied in when you edited values in gibbed. Best is to retry the edits on a fresh save and to pay extra attention to the entries when you copy them in.

      The TOC only updates the PCC if the size of it changed enough for it to warrant an update. It's possible if you run a .mod that it won't find any updates, especially if you are for instace applying the .mod over an already modded PCC file.
      In the case of hair mods my advice is to always start with a fresh .HIR PCC, it SHOULD find an update on a vanilla application.

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  5. Any custom hair I use end havung blocky ends, square like and it, something like this

    http://i.imgur.com/Xw5zAtN.png

    Is this what you mean by this?

    "This can currently only be replaced as a DXT1 with 1bit alpha, this means I have no gradual alpha and things are either transparent or they're not."

    the most stable modding I did so far was by modding manually using dds and upk files. It's probably related the to having the Collector's Edition.

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    Replies
    1. I found a topic once where you had a reply to someone

      http://me3explorer.freeforums.org/a-bizarre-issue-with-imported-meshes-t1157.html

      I think this is my issue?

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    2. Yes. Exactly so.
      This is why hair textures are best run through texmod. I do plan to fix this issue on my own hairmods, but i'm not yet at a point where my solution is release-ready.

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    3. You may have a better explanation for what I have. This first picture is the result after installing the pcc and using Texmod:

      http://i.imgur.com/sFUsSzU.jpg

      Now the second picture is after I used TFPTools and used "Autofix and install" because install valid didn't work, "no valid textures":

      http://i.imgur.com/Ui0HJJL.jpg

      I think the Texmod is not working for me. I used your method for Texmod as exactly instructed, but I know that there's supposed to be a delay after running the game, my game starts after 5 seconds even though I picked 20 tpf's or so. This problem has been encountered by many people and they probably think their Texmod works. Maybe you can tell me if it's working or not.

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    4. It still looks blocky and missing many things, the hair is not perfect yet.

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    5. Here's a guide that explains the texmod boot process.
      You'll also want to make sure that texmod isn't being blocked by your virusscanner.
      http://ottemods.blogspot.nl/2013/08/guide-creating-texmod-package-files-tpf.html

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    6. Followed the guide exactly as it is using the texmod.bat method, while disabling my antivirus and firewall, I still got the same results. Maybe there's just no solution to it.

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    7. Texmod worked for me on ME1 and ME2.

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    8. Did you disable Origin ingame for ME3?

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    9. Yes, I even tried Offline mode to no avail. Does Texmod works with you? you probably install your mods through Me3explorer but I just want to make sure. The only modding I was able to do so far is through .Mod files and through upk and dds files.

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    10. Yes, Texmod works fine for me. I develop for Texmod foremost, toolset compatibility is an afterthought.

      There's no inherent issue with Texmod and ME3 as long as your virus-scanner is set up right, no other overlay programs are interfering with it (like Raptr) and Origin overlay is turned off for ME3.

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    11. Oh no. I wasted three days of my life testing, modding and fixing stuff, guess what was the problem? RadeonPro! I adjusted the game through RadeonPro but I closed it now and Texmod is now working perfectly. Thank you, the overlay programs note helped alot.

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  6. Braided hair styles are not only for little girls, no matter you have long hair or short hair you can have creative braided styles. You can make different patterns with braided hairstyles. One more advantage of having a braided hair style is you can get a curly and wavy hair when take out the braids out. Visit a best hair salon near you to get different patters

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    ReplyDelete