Saturday, June 14, 2014

ME3Explorer: Using TPF/DDS Tools 2.0

In order to apply your Texmod TPF permanently to the game, the developers of ME3Explorer have created a nifty little thing called the "TPF/DDS Tools". It will allow you to load in any TPF, check it's file formats for validity and if valid, apply it directly to the game as you would a .mod. You can also create your own fresh .mod for the textures with this tool. This means that downloading a fixed format TPF will ensure you never have to pay attention to the Revision a texture-mod was built with in relation to the version you are using.

 Here's how you apply TPF's straight into the game:
Launch ME3Explorer, go to "Tools" and pick "TPF/DDS Tools" in the dropdown menu.
















In the window that pops up, click "Load TPF" and browse to the TPF you want to install.



















Once you've opened it you'll see that the textures are listed now as is the texmod definition file (def). The definition file will help tell the game where these textures belong.



Every texture has it's own unique hex id or hash number (0xDB481023 for example), the game uses these to match them to the right textures in the game files. Texmod definition files provide the link between the filenames and the corresponding hex id's automatically when the tool can't find these id's in the filename itself.
Now down at the bottom it'll tell you the Hashes were generated, click the "Analyse with Texplorer" button to let it scan if the formats are fitting for permanent replacement.











Once it's done it'll say "Finished Matching!". You can now hit "Install valid" to permanently install all valid textures to your game.

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 Now sometimes you might run into TPF's that are not in the right format and/or cannot be matched to their ingame counterparts. For these and other such issues I suggest you check out the more expansive tutorial on the TPF Tools by KFreon and the guide on fixing format issues with TPF's by KFreon.

9 comments:

  1. So I realize I'm way late on this, but am still hoping for help. I installed about 20 mods, doing batches of 5 or so, using the above steps. The only thing I did after your last step was hit "Close All Files," which I figured was the true last step. Yet when I attempted to load my save, the game would freeze indefinitely, requiring I end task on the process.

    When I loaded these textures via Texmod, I was able to load my save without issues. Was there some other step I should be doing that is assumed but not explained here? For what it's worth, I tried to follow your first-time setup guide closely and thought I was successful.

    If it matters, I believe all the textures I attempted to use were yours from Nexusmods. I may have had one or two from Smarteck, but pretty sure I hadn't tried those yet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's possible there was a problem updating the toc.bin.
      A there is no inherent issue with my mods (and certainly shouldn't cause infinite load issues) I'd suggest taking this up on the official support boards for the toolset.

      Delete
  2. Can't seem to do anything past loading the file. It keeps saying "Texplorer tree not found".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As the error states, you are missing a tree. First time setup of the toolset requires you to launch Texplorer (with a vanilla game) to generate said tree. Without it the game's textures arent mapped and TPF Tools will not know what to do with anything you load in.

      Delete
  3. Hi - not sure if I'm doing something wrong but I'm unable to get past "Installing mod: WPN_PSTb_Diff | 1/3 mods complete. It doesn't matter which mod I run, it hangs at 1/X mods complete. Any help will be greatly appreciated. If it's helpful, here is the Save Log:

    6:58:57 PM: Build Version: 1.0.653.286
    BIOGame Path = D:\Origin\Mass Effect 3\BIOGame found using: Texplorer Settings.
    6:58:57 PM: Reading tree...
    6:59:02 PM: Loading TPF...
    6:59:06 PM: Generating hashes...
    6:59:06 PM: Zippy loaded: D:\Mods\4 Textures\ME3 HR M6 Carnifex for Texmod-85-1-0\ME3_M6Carnifex_Ottemis.tpf
    6:59:06 PM: TPF starts at 0 in list
    6:59:13 PM: TreeTexes: 24466
    6:59:13 PM: Matching hashes...
    6:59:13 PM: Found 3 valid textures out of 4 loaded files
    6:59:16 PM: Install button clicked.
    6:59:16 PM: Installing...
    6:59:16 PM: New execution of texplorer...
    6:59:16 PM: Texplorer DLC loaded. Continuing...
    6:59:16 PM: Textures loaded = 4
    6:59:16 PM: Num valid textures: 3
    6:59:16 PM: Installing mod: WPN_PSTb_Diff | 1/3 mods completed
    6:59:16 PM: Replacing texture: WPN_PSTb_Diff
    6:59:16 PM: Now replacing textures in texture: WPN_PSTb_Diff
    6:59:17 PM: Replacement complete. Now saving pcc: D:\Origin\Mass Effect 3\BIOGame\CookedPCConsole\BioD_Cat003_780FinalConvos_LOC_INT.pcc
    6:59:17 PM: Now saving pcc: D:\Origin\Mass Effect 3\BIOGame\CookedPCConsole\BioD_CerJcb_095IntroCine.pcc...
    6:59:17 PM: Now saving pcc: D:\Origin\Mass Effect 3\BIOGame\DLC\DLC_EXP_Pack002\CookedPCConsole\BioD_Omg001_840Final_Conv_LOC_ITA.pcc...

    ReplyDelete
  4. After I select my files, it just sits there saying "Generating Hashes..." and does nothing. Am I doing something wrong? It literally sat like that for 5 hours while I was at work doing nothing. Any help would be appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  5. For me, it starts installing, gets to 29/30 of any of the archive for textures, all were valid and it hangs at "reading names" I cant find a workaround at all.

    ReplyDelete
  6. For me, it starts installing, gets to 29/30 of any of the archive for textures, all were valid and it hangs at "reading names" I cant find a workaround at all.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I don't know where I'm doing wrong but it always gives a mistake iphone dan bilgisayara fotoğraf atma

    ReplyDelete