Modding is a term used when modifying components, files and what not, in this particular case modifying game installation files in order to achieve unique results not seen in the vanilla game. GTA:SA is 3D era, where modding the game requires special 3D packages. Older games such as GTA:II uses a 2D engine, which means that modding the game was commonly done with image editing applications. We will cover some aspects of modding game textures and models.
This guide intends on introducing those inexperienced with modding and 3D as a whole, on how to obtain 3D software and their recommended tools. It also introduces ways to import and export models, basic workflows for 3ds Max, texturing and creating models.
Gta Sa 3d Max
There are various applications being used for modding. Although some has more tools available, there really isn't one that tops the others. In this section there'll be lists of a few 3D packages and tools used for modding.
3ds Max, arguably the most used program with the greatest amount of third-party plugins and scripts for various games. For GTA:SA, this program is favored by many modders due to it having 3rd party scripts for dealing with animations, collisions, lighting, modeling etcetera. There isn't much that 3ds Max can't, that other programs can, when it comes to GTA:SA modding. Although this can be expensive to run on a longer term, there are education licenses available which last for 3 years. These do not allow commercial use, and is marked purely as "educational use only".View more.Kam's (vanilla) max scripts, the first official script package for modding GTA:SA with 3ds Max. After the release of his scripts, a lot of others has developed scripts of their own, some of which are more optimized and less prone to issues. Even despite Kam's scripts having overseen issues, it is still to this day widely used for tasks such as, but not limited to; IPL map generation and import, collisions, animations, characters, vehicles, environment modeling.View more.Kam's (2018) max scripts, a modified version of Kam's vanilla scripts for 3ds Max. Notable features that were added are; DK22pac's Normal map plugin support, reflection map support for environment models, 2dfx panel for lights such as aircraft lights or street lamps.View more.The Hero's RW importer/exporter, a modern plugin that works extremely well with vehicles and environment models. Due to its simplified layout it is very easy to get used to. It's far recommended to use for vehicle model import/export due to its quality handling and materials, which are based on RW formats (renderware, the engine GTA:SA runs off). With the plugin using different model material formats from Kam's, it comes with a maxscript to convert scene materials from GTA_MTL to RW_MTL and vice versa, if needed by the modeler.View more.Deniska's max scripts, a pack for various types of GTA:SA modding, some features are obsolete for MTA users due to IPL and IDE modification required. Although, the pack does come with a few tools that may be useful to MTA modders, such as prelight tools to set the vertex colors and illumination to fixed values.View more.DexX's 2dfx export script, a standalone 3ds Max script that exports Omni and Dummy informations to .sae file formats, to then be added to the .dff using RW analyzer. With this script it's possible to integrate lights and particles into custom models, e.g flashing aircraft lights, street lights, fire and smoke, etcetera. With the release of Kam's 2018 scripts, this script is used less as using Kam's may be less work for some cases.View more.Blender 3D, a freeware (yes, completely free, no paid watermarks or any limitations), not as favored by modders throughout the years until recently, where a developer has released his script 'DragonFF' on GTAforums. Although it is WIP, modders has already binned 3ds Max and moved permanently to Blender. Although Blender is free, it actually combines several programs into one, allowing a Blender user to sculpt, paint, do lighting, professional rendering and modeling in one. A recent update in 2019 changes the RMB selection to LMB and UI among other things, making for a potential alternative to 3ds Max.View more (Blender).View more (Blender GTA script)Zmodeler, not as commonly used as the aforementioned programs, although it is being used very frequently by modders in various games, most notably for GTA:games. It does not have support for skinned characters, although it is being commonly used for vehicles, and sometimes environment modeling as well. This is a fairly inexpensive solution, but lacks tools for more broad modding.View more.Sketchup, a 3D application that focuses on architecture. For modding, it is a rather uncommon, though has a free and paid version and can be used for seemingly OK modeling. It does not have access to any 3rd party scripts for GTA:SA, hence its only use is modeling and then exporting model files to then import into 3ds Max or Blender.View more.Photoshop, mainly used for graphic design, but can also produce 3D models, video, GIF and textures for assets. Photoshop is the most favored by modders in regards to working with textures e.g paintjobs and retexturing. Although there are alternative image editors in the market, Photoshop definitely hits the top in terms of usable scripts (user-customized scripts as well) and ease of workflow.View more.DFF Viewer, a 3D graphics engine that is used for visualising GTA:SA models and supports .DFF and .TGA formats. Only single dff's can be loaded at a time. Though this is rarely used by those who has access to 3ds Max and Blender, it is commonly used for troubleshooting/testing work that involves retexturing a model e.g changing the clothing textures of a character. This program is entirely free and available from various GTA modding sites.View more.TXD Workshop, a texture dictionary editor that has been around for years, only since recent years to be succeeded by Magic TXD. Though TXD Workshop may not be the best for setting up TXD files, it has a built-in IMG archive editor, allowing one to browse all of the contents of gta3.img.View more.MagicTXD, a new texture dictionary editor with features for mass exporting .TXD contents from folders into image subfolders, texture compression, mipmaps, resizing textures etcetera. This is broadly used for .txd files and almost took over TXD workshop when it comes to working with texture dictionaries.View more.RW Analyze, a multi-use program with notable features being; ability to lock/unlock game files, add data to game models e.g 2dfx and vertex colors information extracted from other DFF files.View more.
Now the folder GTA SA ASSETS contains nearly every .dff, .col, .txd and so on used by the game. Assuming one would like having all of the textures in PNG, DDS, TGA or any other common image format, they may follow the below steps using Magic TXD.
Game root = root folder containing TXD'sOutput root = folder where images goesImage format = self explanatoryWith texture names only = exports images directly to folder and duplicate named ones gets replaced by one anotherPre-pended with TXD name = exports images with TXD prefixIn separate folders = makes new folder(s) for every TXD's contents
Hit export. This process may take some time.Note that this process is the same for other .IMG archives such as player.img. There are also .txd and .dff files elsewhere, such as \models\generic\generic.txd, which is the vehicle shared texture dictionary file.
Vehicle model components utilises hierarchies, where each component is linked to a dummy (helper) and each dummy is linked to parent dummies e.g chassis_dummy, for them to be registered in the hierarchy. In order for vehicles to not look flat or cartoon, a few steps are made in the model;
Diffuse material is given a grunge texture or AO map, this helps telling the depth of the vehicle as well as giving it a feel of realism, so it isn't just clean.A specular lighting image is applied to the vehicle surface material, giving it a fake shine when looking from certain angles. If the vehicle has hard edges (smoothing), this image can increase the visibility of the normals, retaining its original look rather than being flat without visible difference in geometry.An environment (ENV) map is applied to the vehicle surface material, producing a fake reflection that is animated horizontally as the vehicle travels.
Vehicles also has a lot of hardcoded features such as headlights, brake lights, emissive lights, taxi/aircraft lights, rotatable components and dynamic collisions for special vehicles like Forklift. Vehicles are also the only dff models that uses baked collisions, which means they are stored in the .dff itself. Below is a detailed hierarchy used for cars, and special components used by a number of vehicles (click the spoiler).
Ped skin characters uses bones (dummy objects) that are connected to each other and linked to the character model. These bones are not visible in-game. In order for the bones to know what part of the 3D model they're responsible for, the skin needs to be rigged. Character rigging for GTA:SA is done by applying weigh on vertices. Using heatmap display, colors go through blue-red, low-high respectively. Values go from 0 to 100. If the value is 0, it means that the vertex is not used for any bone. This can cause issues. If the value is Bones are as shown: 2ff7e9595c
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