So I was trying to edit an existing mesh, in my case I was modifying Ulzuin’s Headguard. I want to make the red fire glow into a blue fire glow, but somehow what’s happening is the entire model becomes invisible (character head is exposed) when I load the game.
So here’s what I did…
Modified glow_roundfirey_med01.pfx using PSEditor and made it blue, then Save As glow_roundfirey_blue_med01.pfx. I placed this file in my build directory, see below…
I copied the TEX file being used by head_030_01a.msh into the same directory where I place the .msh file. Additionally, I edited head_030_01a.msh again to point to the TEX file that I placed under Item_Mesh\gearhead using Notepad++
I created a new .dbr as I’ve mentioned in the entity field on Step 2. I made sure that it was pointing to the new .pfx I created under Item_Particle_FX
I edited d013_head.dbr and made sure all Mesh fields will point to my new .msh which is …/Item_Mesh/gearhead/head_030_01a.msh
After that I created the necessary .arc files by using Archive > Build (I find this buggy since it doesn’t stop building and I have to terminate it using Task Manager, tho the arc files are being created).
I also built the .arz file by using Build > Build
Ran the game, but now the model is invisible…
Im pretty much out of brain juices, I don’t know what’s wrong with the setup. Anyone knows?
Its not clear why you moved the texture reference unless you were editing that also to be inherent to the mesh.
Perhaps you have an incorrect link relating to the texture because everything else seems spot on from what you have posted.
I had to move the textures since I placed my mesh files on a custom folder (Item_Mesh instead of Fx). Inside the .msh file they were referenced as …\item… (so I changed it to …\Item_Mesh…). If I don’t do this the game will crash whenever I wear the headgear.
I won’t be able to check on this again until the weekend (since I left my laptop on the province and wont be back until weekend).
So were the textures actually edited also? ie. photoshop/gimp
No matter which arc file your mesh is in, the textures can be referenced within the mesh to any existing directory built into an arc file. This should not be the cause of a crash especially if the textures were unedited.
If you were to load the mesh in the Viewer what happens? A good way to see if an invisible mesh loads is to turn on: View/Attachments
You should at least see the attach point appear. In your case it would be: FXHead
If neither the mesh or attach point displays, something might have got messed up with the mesh file while editing in notepad++
If you get it to load fine in the Viewer, try creating a new character in your mod and see if it loads in game properly. I mention this because there were some new items that I’ve created that started to crash the game when Crate released the last update. Creating a new character solved that problem.
I see, that’s a nice piece of information I learned there. Thanks.
Ok so I tried opening my custom mesh in viewer and the viewer just crashes lol. I guess something’s really not right…
I’m currently working on this as I write this reply, will post for update.
EDIT 1 : It seems the problem is with the editing process I did using Notepad++ on the .msh files. I tried to use the default .msh files (unedited but placed in Item_Mesh) and got it to open in Viewer.exe. Then I edited the entity part of the .msh file using Notepad++, now it’s invisible on the Viewer.exe. I’ll try to check what’s causing this (maybe settings in Notepad++)?
EDIT 2 : Nope, it isn’t the Notepad++. It’s the .dbr that I’ve been putting in the entity field in the .msh files. I tried putting an already existing .dbr on that field and I can now view the mesh in Viewer.exe. Reverting it to the .dbr that i’ve created (Glow_RoundFirey_blue_med01_FX.dbr) causes it to crash in Viewer.exe. But man, it’s weird that the mesh file is reading the dbr outside the resource folder? How are they related?
Sounds like the effect file was still built into one of your arc files. It will remain there until you either remove it, successfully overwrite it, or rebuild a fresh arc.
I’ve come to realize that the problem might have to do with the Textdata (Length).
This has to reference an exact number otherwise the msh file will cause crashes.
For the msh you’ve edited; changing the directory and dbr name of CreateEntity has most likely increased or decreased this number.
Maybe someone knows how to change this number within the file using notepad++
Until I or someone does a tutorial on how to use Tamshi’s Meshview with Grim Dawn, there’s a workaround.
You would have to match the text length of the original msh file.
For CreateEntity:
In your case lets say the original was
entity = “Records\FX\ItemFX\MagicalFX\Glow_RoundFirey_red_med01_FX.dbr”
The edited mesh would have to be (for example)
entity = “Records\FX\ItemFX\MagicalFX\Glow_RoundFirey_blu_med01_FX.dbr”
-note- The Textdata amount is mainly affected by changes to Physics Data, Attach Points, and Create Entity (which is the contents of the MIF Data)