NWN compDcomp is a front end for Torlack's model decompiler and compiler for Neverwinter Nights. This is to help in converting mdl's from binary to ASCII and ASCII to binary. It can be ran both ways. With the simplicity of two simple buttons. Since the mdl binary format isn't supported by most modeling programs, you will need to convert them from binary to ASCII which is supported by almost all modeling programs. And since it would only make sense to change a ASCII file to binary for ease of game play, it can do the recompiling as well. We decided that Torlack had done a fine job with his compiler/decompiler, that with a little help we could make it much more user friendly. That we have done. .
Now with updated program Version 1.03. Added right-mouse click menu to the file list box for copy, rename and delete.
How I Use The NWN Model Compiler / Decompiler (maybe this will help you out) First off, props to Torlack for bothering to build this app, or we wouldn?t be having this convo! Thank you for the effort and posting it for all! There is a GUI front end for this app out there, but the links seem broken, so here is the old school way to process files: This will assume your data is on the C drive, and that you can manage files pretty well in Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer). If you can?t get a friend to help, better yet, if you can work in DOS or they can, this is cake. You might find it helpful to print this page before starting. Let?s get ready to use the program first by making three folders. On your C drive root make a folder called ?MdlComp?, which we use as it is under 8 characters for the win98 folks. Now put NWNMdlComp.exe in this folder. Next make two folders in the MdlComp folder; one called ?Ascii? and another called ?Binary?. Place the files you want to process in the correct folder. If you can open and read a Mdl file with notepad, it is an Ascii file, if it looks like a stream of cartoon curses, it is in Binary! Place your files in the respective directories. Now we will use the Start menu to find the Command Prompt or MS-DOS shortcut. It will probably dump you off with a black screen and something like this: ?C:\Documents and Settings\(your username here) John Doe>? with an ominous flashing cursor. You will need to type in some commands and most of the time it is not cap sensitive. I have capitalized for clarity mostly. Type in ?CD\? and hit enter. Now you have just ?C:>?. Now type in ?CD MdlComp? hit enter. Now you have ?C:\MdlComp>? Now you are finally ready to process your files. If you are Compiling, and want to do them all, type this: ?NWNMdlComp ?ce Ascii\*.mdl Binary\? and don?t miss a character or nothing happens. This command will compile everything if finds in the Ascii directory and dump it in the Binary directory. If you are Decompiling, and want to do them all, type this: ?NWNMdlComp ?de Binary\*.mdl Ascii\? and don?t miss a character or nothing happens. This command will compile everything if finds in the Ascii directory and dump it in the Binary directory. Once you are finished using the program type ?Exit? and hit enter and you are back to your desktop if you ran a full screen window. Your models will be left in the original directory, and watch real close for errors during processing. You can watch the errors by Clicking and Holding the DOS window scrolling bar, manually moving it up and down during processing, which seems to pause it momentarily. I tap the ?Print Screen? key and then real quick hit ?Alt, E, P? to paste the images into my favorite photo program. It seems to be the only way to get all the errors documented before the text buffer wipes them out. I mean that when you process 1000 files, you can only scroll back like 300, so who knows what the others did right? I have found that models with some booboos in them don?t compile well, and once compiled can crash the toolset. God only knows what they would do in game. The bottom line is, if you build your model correctly and get clean exports, this compiler will do a fabulous job. If you leave unwelded faces and extra vertices, it is going to flip out and whack the model to shreds trying to fix it. That being said, remember this is Not a model repair program, it will only compile and decompile clean models. I would personally recommend using NWN Explorer to decompile them, unless you are doing a pile of them. Click the ?Ascii Model? button, then on the Resource menu choose ?Export Text?. I will probably not be browsing back here again, but saw the comments and wanted to try and help those who posted. You can contact me by mail if you have a question. XE-Ryder KoJ
Posted by Blackblade at 2004-09-1109:27:00
Like this guy said, the link is not working.(i went to Endlessquests and signed up to join, and they never responded with a confrimation e-mail, so I cant download it from there Ether)
Posted by Sykskar at 2004-07-1807:19:00
Link doesn't work for me
Posted by Old_Scores_Transfered at on02/20/04
This is a compilation of the old system into a single score. There were 6 that made this score of 8.17 then rounded to 8.
Posted by Ancient at 2003-05-3018:57:00
to Kitsuneko: I am sorry you were unable to get the program to work correctly. Did you actually look at the files in the output directory? The file names will indeed be the same, but the contents and file sizes are different. If they are the same as the input directory, please e-mail me one or two of your files so that I can test them with the program. That way I can find out what went wrong and correct the problem. Thanks.
Posted by Kitsuneko at 2003-05-1915:11:00
I just don't get it. Did I do something wrong? Here's the thing. I put a mdl file to input folder, then decompile it to ascii file. So far so good? Nah. Output folder contains the same mdl file. Nothing happened. nwnmdlcomp didn't work much better. It just said 'unable to open input file'. I have tried with various files but always same thing. Tch.. WHY ME? Am I only one who cannot get simple stupid program to work properly? ...sorry for bad english... tch..
Posted by Bent_Spear at 2003-03-2504:34:00
Sorry, I can't get this program to work properly. I use Milkshape and I can convert the files from binary to ascii properly (I assume, they do go from the input to the output folders). However, when I try to open the now-ascii files in Milkshape, it hangs for a long time, then closes down on an error. Any idea what I can do about it?
Posted by lllsnakeeyeslll at 2003-03-2323:47:00
Heh, Need to learn to slow down and read what is in front of me, I mean good going Ancient Dragon, and nice ideas Sparhok :) hehehe
Posted by lllsnakeeyeslll at 2003-03-2323:45:00
Sparhok, I like what your doing, go for it. When I wrote the ObsidianSS program, it was just to play around with C#. :) And yes, it took longer to run becuase it was doing more to the files than simple search and replace. The scaling required some regular expression pattern matching and then running multiplication on each line that needed to be scaled. I really didnt build it for speed either, so if you can make something faster and has a few more features like file conversion, more power too you, looks good too :)
Posted by Sparhok at 2003-03-2323:09:00
Cool...works great! :) Another idea :)......it would be nice to quickly change the skins. I know this is what ObsidianSS does but...what if I'm testing a texture... I'd have to open ObsidianSS and then go over the stuff. I jsut think this would be a cool thing to add to 1.04 :) I'll let ya know if I think of somethin else :)
Site
