modding-guide
Skinning an island
Introduction
In the current vanilla game, we have different sessions. Every session is bound to a region. We have the Moderate region which is Old World and Cape Trelawney, we have Colony01 which is the New World, we have Arctic which is the Arctic, we have Africa which is Enbesa. And then we also offcourse have the new Asian region (Mod2) from New horizons which has Horai and other sessions from other mods that use the existing regions. Every region has it’s own look and feel, its own vegetation and props, island ground, mountain an river textures. It also has defined which mines are available there and much more.
Which islands are available in a session is bound to the amount of available islands that the game offers. A New World island can offcourse not fit into the Arctic with its jungle look and feel and Colony01 mineslots. The Moderate and Colony01 regions have a lot of islands. There was invested a lot of time into those 2 regions by the developers to make a large pool of different sizes of islands for those regions. Taludas an Taube even stretched that further and converted all Old World to New World islands and vice versa to even expand the pools even more.
Sadly, the Arctic and the Africa region have a more limited islandpool. Both have their unique environment and mechanics which results in more work to make the islands. The Arctic islands for example are smaller islands with more challenges. The plateau islands are even more unique compared to what we have in other regions and there are no similar island avaialble (apart from one scenario island)! The Africa islands have their own challenges with the canal system which results in that all those islands being pancake flat. It would otherwise make no sense to make canals there because water would potenially flow uphill because islands from other regions all have sloped terrain.
Another reason why no new islands are added yet to the Arctic of the Enbesan session is the way the session and a lot of the islands are tangled to the questline. Even the slightest change to islands or the session could potentially break questlines. It is possible to manipulate those, but it is more tricky.
This is the reason why it is more challenging to make new Arctic and Enbesa islands and there are currently not many mods yet that expand those islandpools, which is a shame and we should change that!
Preparations
Set up the FileDBReader, xmltest, rdaconsole environment variables so you can use them in every folder.
Make sure you have a basic mod setup with assets.xml, modinfo.json and all the corresponding folders and file structure.
Test custom islands in Arctic session
If we take a look at the structure of a session there are different levels. We have a region, which is in our case 160001, the Arctic Region.
If we go one level deeper, we get to the session, which is in our oase 180045, the Arctic Session.
If we go another level deeper, the session contains a map template, in our case 112793, MapTemplate Arctic.
This maptemplate contains the .a7t TemplateFilename which contains all the information about which islands can be found in this session and much more together with some other files that can be found in that same location.
To quickly check our custom island, we will not change the maptemplate, but just change the link to the islands itself in the RandomIsland asset.
If we go to a1800.net and search for RandomIsland, there are not that many islands for the arctic:
- 116676 - colony03_a01_01
- 116886 - colony03_a01_02_multiplayer
- 116885 - colony03_a01_02_singleplayer
- 116677 - colony03_a01_03
- 116678 - colony03_a01_04
- 116679 - colony03_a01_05
- 116680 - colony03_a01_06
- 116681 - colony03_a01_07
- 116682 - colony03_a01_08
Just for testing and the first step in the process, we change the <FilePath> for the small ones to another small island from the New World to make sure we can swap out an island succesfully.
<ModOp Type="merge" GUID="116682,116681,116680,116679" Path="/Values/RandomIsland/">
<FilePath>data\dlc12\sessions\islands\pool\colony01\colony01_s_05\colony01_s_05.a7m</FilePath>
</ModOp>
Important to know is that this will only work for new games, because existing games will already have the session and map templete loaded. But this is just for testing, so this is fine for now.
Start the game with all updated files and create a new creative mode game to see the New World island in the Arctic.
Offcourse this island does not really fit in this region. As far as I know, there are no palm trees in the Arctic.
We do already see some more general settings being applied to the island. We see some snow on the mountains already. If we would settle the island we will be able to build the Arctic buildings on that island. But in contrast of a couple of things that are already changed, there are way more things that need adaptations to be fitting for this region. Hold on, we will get there one step at the time.
Create a custom island
You can find the original island folders on the following locations for every region in the extracted rda files:
- For Old World and New World islands:
data\sessions\islands\pool - For New World DLC12 islands:
data\dlc12\sessions\islands\pool\colony01 - For Arctic islands:
data\dlc03\sessions\islands\pool - For Enbesan islands:
data\dlc06\sessions\islands\pool
To skin an existing island, we copy the island we want to skin to our own mod directory.
Setup your mod structure and create the structure for custom islands under the sessions/islands/pool subdirectory. data\tutorial\sessions\islands\pool\skinned_islands
Copy the original island folder to the mod folder on location data\tutorial\sessions\islands\pool\skinned_islands\
We choose colony01_s_05 as the example to start with a simple small island. This is one of the small New World islands from the DLC12. Rename the folder to colony01_s_05_skinned to make it unique.
Make sure inside this folder we have the following files and folder:
_gamedatafolder with all the meshes of the islanda7mislandfile that contains all the island information (location of all elements liks props, materials used, mineslot locations and locations of other elements,…)a7meislandfile we are not going to changea7minfoislandfile which provides additional island information we will be adapting
Change the names of those files to the same name as your island folder. colony01_s_05_skinned.a7m, colony01_s_05_skinned.a7me, colony01_s_05_skinned.a7minfo.
Open the _gamedata folder and change the name of the island folder in this folder to the same name as the changed island name folder colony01_s_05_skinned.
Check changes
It is a good practice to check regularly with almost every step ingame if everything stll works. Often we do many steps and only then start the game to find out it is not working. Tracing back many steps trying to figure out where we went wrong in which of the steps we took compared to the last time we started the game.
Change the path of the island we changed before to our new custom island.
<ModOp Type="merge" GUID="116682,116681,116680,116679" Path="/Values/RandomIsland/">
<FilePath>data\tutorial\sessions\islands\pool\skinned_islands\colony01_s_05_skinned\colony01_s_05_skinned.a7m</FilePath>
</ModOp>
You should again see the same island ingame but now it loads our own custom island that we copied. We can not start making changes to that island now that we now it is correctly loaded.
Preparations of files
To be able to convert/skin islands, like with the modelling process and opening map template files we need some files to convert island specific files. I did not create those files myself and got huge help from Taube, Taludas and VALiiiUM in this process. They did all the groundwork for this and I just make use of their hard work. A big thank you to them! Without them, this would not have been possible and I would not have been able to write down this process and share it with all of you.
Which files?
Apart from the FileDBReader, xmltest, rdaconsole that we already have set up, we need some additional files.
Download the following (.zip) and extract them into the parent folder of your island:
data\tutorial\sessions\islands\pool\skinned_islands
The following files from the zip should be placed in this directory:
- Island_Gamedata_v3.xml
- a7minfo.xml
- Island_RD3D.xml
Go back to the root of your island folder data\tutorial\sessions\islands\pool\skinned_islands\colony01_s_05_skinned, copy the file unpack_island.bat in there and execute the file to unpack the island files.
1 folder with the name of your island and one file with the .xml extension will be created.
Unpacking does not work?
In case this does not work, make sure you have set up the FileDBReader, xmltest and rdaconsole environment variables correctly. Open the unpack_island.bat with a code editor to see which actions are executed. Examples: RdaConsole ^extract -f %island_name%.a7m -o %island_name% -y. If you can not setup the environement files correctly, you can always add the FileDBReader, xmltest and rdaconsole references in every folder where you need them. Make sure to check the commands to see what directory you need.
If this is executed correctly, you should have a new folder and a new file inside the root with the same name as the parent folder, with the name of the island. data\tutorial\sessions\islands\pool\skinned_islands\colony01_s_05_skinned. The file should be a patch file for the .a7minfo file.
If you open the folder, you should have 4 files:
gamedata.datagamedata_patch.xmlrd3d.datard3d_patch.xml
Gamedata.data
The gamedata.data contains all the island logic in terms of meshes, big elements, mineslots and much more on the island. We can not open this file with a code editor to manipulate or change things. Because we want to manipulate the file in a structured non destructive way, we will be patching the file instead if directly editing the file. With patching the file, we will have a good overview of our changes and have an easier time to go back if something is not correct. The original file is also really big and long which would make manipulating it a big challenge to keep the overview.
To open the file, we need a command and one of the tools we used before. This is a .data file. To open those files we need the FileDBReader with the fileformat file for islands.
Open the commandline in this directory by going to the explorer window of this folder, press CTRL+L and then execute cmd by typing and confirming with enter. A commandline will open in this directory.
The command we use for this is FileDBReader.exe decompress -f gamedata.data -i ..\..\Island_Gamedata_v3.xml. The Island_Gamedata_v3.xml should be 2 levels up like we copied the files earlier. The FileDBReader should be targeted as environment variable.
For some reason, if the command does not work for the environment variables, add the FileDBReader folder with all the files and fileformats to this folder and use the command FileDBReader\FileDBReader.exe decompress -f gamedata.data -i ..\..\Island_Gamedata_v3.xml
With the first command we have 'FileDBReader.exe' is not recognized as an internal or..... Here we see what happens when the environment variable is not recognised and we need to add the FileDBReader files in the directory so we can target it within this directory. The second command is where we can execute it that way and which extracts the gamedata.data file into the gamedata.xml file.
Change the name of this file to gamedata_original.xml to keep it different and clear this is the original file.
You can open this .xml file with the code editor to have a peek inside. You will see a lot of walls of numbers which maybe make not much sens at first sight, lists of other elements, ect. Take a bit of time to go through it and read the different nodes. You will encounter GlobalAmbientName, PlayableArea, WorldSize, VegetationPropSetName, HeightMap, SessionCameraManager, StreetMap, Water, RiverGrid, EnvironmentGrid, PathManager, RegrowManager, TreeMap, AmbientMoodSoundHandler, AmbientMoodGrid, IncidentManager, AIUnitManager, AIConstructionManager, AnimalManager, HerdGrid, HerdAreas, ItemSessionManager, MilitaryManager, BlueprintManager, IrrigationManager, SeasonManager, AreaIDs, SpawnAreaPoints, AreaManagerData, ObjectGroupCollection, GameObject,… and much more.
As you can see, this file is packed with information about the island and a lot of logic. Reading the names of the nodes gives an idea what is defined here and how much information is stored on this level, what can be manipulated, but also, what could potentially break if we do something wrong. 99.99% of this information is tricky to change and I do not even know how I would change it without breaking things or without actually knowing what I’m doing. We as modders do not have the accessable tools to change all those parameters so we do what we can with the tools we have.
rd3d.data
This rd3d.data file contains a couple of different things about island compared to the gamedata.data file. Two important parts in this file are all the props on the islands and the materialset that we will use to give the island its visual look and feel.
Let’s open this file to also have a peek inside. Again with the FileDBReader and this time with the fileformat file for rd3d conversion.
You should still have your commandline open from the previous command, otherwise open it again in the correct direcotory.
Use the command to decompress the rd3d.data file to an xml file: FileDBReader.exe decompress -f rd3d.data -i ..\..\Island_RD3D.xml.
Again, if your environment variables are not correctly set up you can also use the command to target the files differently: FileDBReader\FileDBReader.exe decompress -f rd3d.data -i ..\..\Island_RD3D.xml
You will now have an rd3d.xml file. Change the name to rd3d_original.xml.
If we open this file with a code editor we can again already have a peek what is inside. If we again go through the different nodes and try to understand what we see there are some names that make things a bit more clear. GridWidth, GridHeight, MaterialSetFileName, TintsMap, ActiveMap, WaterInfos, WaterFlow, PropGrid, Instances,…
This files contains less different nodes and also is more straight forward then the gamedata file.
Time to roll up our sleeves and manipulate the files.
Manipulating Gamedata.data
Open the gamedata_original.xml and the gamedata_patch.xml in a code editor and place them side by side. That way we see what we want to patch and what we do for the patching.
The first step of manipulation of the gamedata.data file will be changing 2 properties. GlobalAmbientName and VegetationPropSetName. In this exampe we will be changing a New World Island to an Arctic island. If we look at the top of the gamedata_original.xml we see <GlobalAmbientName>south_america_caribic_01</GlobalAmbientName>. This defines the “feeling” the island will have with certain elements like snow, sun, weather, basic ground materials,… Offcourse because we want an Arctic island we do not want the south_america_caribic_01 which would give a jungle feeling. To know what the Arctic value for this is we can do the previous steps of extracting an island and looking at the gamedata.data from an Arctic island. There we will find the value <GlobalAmbientName>DLC03_01</GlobalAmbientName>.
The other value we want to change now is <VegetationPropSetName>Colony</VegetationPropSetName>. In this case we do not want the vegetation of the New World in the Arctic offcourse. Again, look at an example of an Arctic island to see what the value is. In this case <VegetationPropSetName>Arctic</VegetationPropSetName>.
Now that we know what we want to change and what the values have to become, we can take actions to actually make it happen. We said before we will be patching instead of directly changing the files. In theory, we could just change the gamedata_original.xml, repack it and be done with it. For those small changes this would be fine. But we will be doing more manipulations in much deeper structure of the file where patching is much more advised instead of directly changing the file.
When we patch the file we use the same technique as we do for other operations in our mods, with ModOp operations. In this case we will be replacing 2 values in a certain path. With our previous knowledge of how mod operations work, this should not be a problem. The tricky part here is to actually be able to target the node you want to change because we do not have a GUID to target. We will be targetting our node via a more general path that starts with //.
We will be writing our patch in the gamedata_patch.xml file.
<ModOps>
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//GlobalAmbientName">
<GlobalAmbientName>DLC03_01</GlobalAmbientName>
</ModOp>
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//VegetationPropSetName">
<VegetationPropSetName>Arctic</VegetationPropSetName>
</ModOp>
</ModOps>
Those operations will look at the complete file and search for corresponding node with that name. In theory, we could also use //GameSessionManager/SessionSettings/GlobalAmbientName and do the replace. That would give the same result. But because both values are unique in this file, just declaring only that value in the path is ok.
We can save the file and close both files for now. We now have done the first step of our patch for our gamedata.data file.
Manipulating rd3d.data
Time now for the next more tricky one, the rd3d file. Open both rd3d_original.xml and the rd3d_patch.xml side by side. The first change we will be making is a big one already and which costed me some time to wrap my head around and got it working.
MaterialSetFileName
In the original file, search for <MaterialSetFileName>. You will find <MaterialSetFileName>data/config/engine/material_sets/south_america_01.xml</MaterialSetFileName>.
The MaterialSetFileName is an really important file which defines a lot of the look and feel of your island. In this case, this island file offcourse links to a material file for the New World. We can follow the path we see there and open this file from the exported rda files.
If we open the south_america_01.xml file with a code editor, it is actually not that hard to understand what we see there. Before we dive deeper into this file, let’s actually find a similar file, but the one for the Arctic. Every region has it’s own materialset file. If we look at an extracted Arctic island, and we open the rd3d.data file and search for the <MaterialSetFileName> we find <MaterialSetFileName>data/dlc03/config/engine/material_sets/arctic_01.xml</MaterialSetFileName>. We can again follow that path to open this file and compare it with our New World one. Put those again side by side.
This materialset defines the materials on the mesh of the island. If we look at the different <Material> nodes in those files we see beach, mountain, grass, mud, snow, rock,… The island is build as a mesh, a big piece of cloth wrapped in a certain shape. This big sheet is divided in all smaller different parts. This materialset defines which part has which material. For example the piece of the wrapped mesh on the coast needs to have a beach material. But there are a couple of different beach materials to give it an even better look instead of having the same material everywhere. The same goes for the mountains and all other parts. We have a lot of materials that define what part of the mesh is looking a certain way.
The first part of this file has some more general materials defined. If we compare <GritDiffuseTexture>. <CliffDiffuseTexture>, CliffNormalTexture and SubSurfaceTexture we could easily swap the ones from the New World for the ones for the Arctic. It is more tricky for the other materials. If we check the order of the list and the <ID> of the different elements, we can not just swap the one for the New World with the one from the Arctic. First the New World one contains more Material nodes compared to the Arctic materialset. Secondly, the order is not the same and the ID’s are not the same. Because in the process of creating the island, a mesh is linked to a certain material with a certain ID we have to be careful what ID to give to what material. If an ID is for a beach and we give it a mountain texture that could look really weird.
We have to go manually through every <Material> node from the New World materialset and find a corresponding Arctic material. We will have the same material multiple times and that is totally fine. More important is that we find a fitting corresponding material for the original material. Also, do not feel bad because the first conversion will probably not be what you expected and you will manipulate the file a couple of times before you have a result you will feel good about. The most time consuming part here is repacking the files and restarting the game every time to see the result of the change.
Now that we know what the goal is, we can actually start creating our materialset file. Because the structure of the file is bound to the island, we need a new materialset file with the structure of a New World island but the content of an Arctic island. We do this in our mod structure on the same location as the normal materialsets would be. data\config\engine\material_sets. This structure is not there in your mod, so create it and place a duplicate of the south_america_01.xml file in this folder. Rename this file to a unique name so it does not conflict with one of the other materialsets. In this case we call it south_america_arctic.xml.
A tricky part here is that the materialset is not always correctly picked up. We have to do some trick (Thank you Taube for the big help here!) to be able to use our custom materialset. We will change our south_america_arctic.xmlto south_america_arctic.materialset (yes, change extension).
Then we create an empty south_america_arctic.xml.lnk file that is actually a shortcut. The .lnk is not going to show but make sure it is a shortcut file.
Open both files. The south_america_arctic.materialset contains our materialset with all the materials we still need to swap out. In the south_america_arctic.xml.lnk file we add the path to the materialset file. Just add data/config/engine/material_sets/south_america_arctic.materialset without anything else and save the file. We will reference to this shortcut and this then will pick up our materialset file.
Now, time to swap out all the material values in our new materialset file. First we swap out the <GritDiffuseTexture>. <CliffDiffuseTexture>, CliffNormalTexture and SubSurfaceTexture. See the value in the original Arctic materialset and swap the value in our materialset with this value.
So, <GritDiffuseTexture>data\graphics\landscape\terrain\texture_pool\d_grass_07_diff.psd</> becomes <GritDiffuseTexture>data\dlc03\graphics\landscape\terrain\arctic\p_grit_01_diff.psd</>.
Do the same for <CliffDiffuseTexture>, CliffNormalTexture and SubSurfaceTexture.
Double check all the values above the <Material> node, but as far as I know apart from the ones we changed, the others ones are all the same. There can probably also be done some tweaking in regards of those values maybe, but that is out of my knowledge and scope of this guide.
Now the trickiest part can start about this file, finding a corresponding material for the original material. I can only advice to just follow your guts and see in the original arctic file which corresponding files you have for beach, mountain, mud or other materials. Grass in this case could be swapped out for snow or something else depending on what you want to achieve.
If you want to see the full list of available materials you can follow the path of the materials and open that location in the extracted rda folders. data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/ and data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\. You can also get some inspiration there for matching materials.
Change the Materials
On the left we see the materialset where we want to copy everything to, on the right our example arctic materialset we take as a source to copy the arctic materials from.
It is important to keep the same <ID>’s and the order of the different materials in the destination materialset. The way those materialsets work is that the island is created based on this. It looks up the mapped materials so if we would change the order for one material it will be mapped with the wrong part of the island.
Let’s do a couple of materials together and after that you can do the rest yourself.
Beach
The first material we encounter is for a part that is mapped for the beach:
<Material>
<ID>31</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/graphics/landscape/terrain/texture_pool/s_beach_06.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
We have to look into the arctic materialset and see if we find a similar beach material. If we scroll through the complete arctic materialset file, we encounter 2 beach materials.
<Material>
<ID>15</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_02.xml</>
<Repetition>3.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>7</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_03.xml</>
<Repetition>3.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
The same if we would look into the directory mentioned earlier:
We now choose one of those arctic beach materials so swap out the new world beach material.
So, for example, swap <FileName>data/graphics/landscape/terrain/texture_pool/s_beach_06.xml</> with <FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_02.xml</>.
If we scroll down more, we find more beach materials. s_beach_05.xml, s_beach_12.xml, s_beach_07.xml, s_beach_02.xml.
As you can see, the New World has more variation in the beach materials compared to the Arctic. For the Arctic we only have 2 of them.
We replace all of them with the ones we have available for the Arctic. Do not worry, we can always come back to this process to experiment if we want to change this.
So, replace 05 with 03, 12 with 02, 07 with 03, ect… Offcourse with the correct path to the arctic files.
Mountain
Next after the beach is the Mountain. If we scroll down we see we have different mountain materials. Again, look to the Arctic materialset or folder and see from which mountain materials we can choose from.
Replace <FileName>data/graphics/landscape/terrain/terra/tropical_mountain_04.xml</> and the other mountain materials from the original new world materialset with <FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_mountain_02.xml</> or <FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_mountain_01.xml</>.
Mud
Next in the list is Mud. We only find one mud material for the Arctic. So we can swap out all of them with this one. Good to know, we can come back to this materialset to change certain materials and experiment more by maybe swapping one of the mud ones for a snowy one. But that is all depending on the amount of time you want to invest into perfecting this.
So, swap out <FileName>data/graphics/landscape/terrain/texture_pool/b_mud_09.xml</> and the other ones with <FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_mud_03.xml</>
Grass
Grass in the New World is common and we want grass on multiple places on the ground. Grass in the Arctic is a different story. We do not have much grass on the ground in the arctic, mostly some bushes.
If we look at other options for the Arctic to swap out the grass with something else, we have some grass materials but I think swapping those out would be not correct. This would result in the Arctic being covered with grass all over the island. And most of the ground is actually snow. We will reserve the grass materials for replacing bushes.
If we then look at other suitable materials for the general grass materials we have the snow, cracks, ice, snowdune.
- a_snow_01
- a_snow_02
- a_snow_03
- a_snow_04
- a_snow_05
- a_snow_06
- a_snow_07
- a_snow_08
- a_snow_09
- p_cracks_03
- p_ice_01
- p_snow_01
- p_snowdune_01
- p_snowdune_02
- p_snowdune_04
We could use all of those to create some variation for all the grass and flower materials we find. Swap them out and remember, we can always come back to tweak this (and we probably will).
This process took me a long time to get right when I was making White and Cold islands. A lot of trial and error and even then sometimes it is still not perfect because the way the mapping is done and the available materials we have are just limited.
Bushes and flowers
Next are the bushes and flowers. To make sure there is at least some vegetation, we swap out the colorful new world flowers with snowy low arctic bushes and grass.
You should know the drill by now. Search for them in the destination materialset file and swap them out with corresponding similar grass_arctic materials.
BUT! Something that catches your eye? … Indeed. We do not replace <FileName> with an .xml file, but we replace <ObjectFileName> with a .prp file. Those are actual prop files and not material textures. So actual 3 dimentional things like actual bushes.
As mentioned above, those are in a different location data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\.
There is only 1 grass prop available. You could also include some bushes if you want some higher vegetation. But, there will be another layer of adaptations where we will be adding some props to the island including bushes so do not worry at this point if you do not add them (yet).
Underwater plant
We find two underwater prop materials for the Arctic in the original new world materialset file. But, if we look at Arctic alternatives, we actually do not have any. The only underwater material we find is a texture material but not a prop material.
We can choose here to keep the original underwater material an have some colorful corals in the Arctic or swap them out for generic bush or grass prop materials which will also look okish underwater.
Materialset New World to Arctic result
<MaterialSet>
<ShaderType>0</>
<GritDiffuseTexture>data\dlc03\graphics\landscape\terrain\arctic\p_grit_01_diff.psd</>
<GritTiling>8.000000</>
<GritAlphaSharpness>10.000000</>
<GritSlope>0.100000</>
<CliffDiffuseTexture>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_mountain_01_diff.png</>
<CliffNormalTexture>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_mountain_01_norm.psd</>
<CliffTiling>4.000000</>
<CliffAlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<CliffSlope>0.200000</>
<SlushDiffuseTexture></>
<SlushNormalTexture></>
<SlushHeightTexture></>
<SlushTiling>4.000000</>
<SlushAlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<SlushSlope>0.200000</>
<SubSurfaceTexture>data\dlc03\graphics\landscape\terrain\arctic\p_refraction_01.psd</>
<SubSurfaceTiling>16.000000</>
<SubSurfaceDistortion>1.000000</>
<SubSurfaceDepth>0.300000</>
<Material>
<ID>31</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_02.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>1</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>13</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_02.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>26</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>4.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>24</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_02.xml</>
<Repetition>10.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>28</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>17</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_mountain_02.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>8.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>8</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_mountain_01.xml</>
<Repetition>5.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>10.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>30</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_mountain_01.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>4.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>16</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_mud_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>9</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_mud_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>3.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>2</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_mud_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>7</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_mud_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>4.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>20</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_mud_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>3</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_mud_03.xml</>
<Repetition>2.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>11</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_snowdune_01.xml</>
<Repetition>8.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>8.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>29</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_snowdune_01.xml</>
<Repetition>8.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>3.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>23</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_02.xml</>
<Repetition>8.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>14</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_mud_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>5</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_02.xml</>
<Repetition>3.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>19</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_snowdune_01.xml</>
<Repetition>12.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>2.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>4</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/graphics/landscape/terrain/texture_pool/p_snowdune_02.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>2.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>0</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/graphics/landscape/terrain/texture_pool/p_snowdune_02.xml</>
<Repetition>2.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>18</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/graphics/landscape/terrain/texture_pool/p_snowdune_02.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>6</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_mountain_01.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>2.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>1</>
<GritDirection>0.400000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>21</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_02.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>10</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_snowdune_01.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>1.200000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>12</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_02.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>1</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>25</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>4.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>1</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>22</>
<Type>1</>
<FileName></>
<Repetition>1.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName>data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\grass\grass_arctic_01.prp</>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>27</>
<Type>1</>
<FileName></>
<Repetition>1.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName>data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\grass\grass_arctic_01.prp</>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>15</>
<Type>1</>
<FileName></>
<Repetition>1.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName>data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\grass\grass_arctic_01.prp</>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>32</>
<Type>1</>
<FileName></>
<Repetition>1.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName>data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\grass\grass_arctic_01.prp</>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>33</>
<Type>1</>
<FileName></>
<Repetition>1.300000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName>data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\grass\grass_arctic_01.prp</>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>34</>
<Type>1</>
<FileName></>
<Repetition>2.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName>data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\grass\grass_arctic_01.prp</>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>35</>
<Type>1</>
<FileName></>
<Repetition>1.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName>data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\grass\grass_arctic_01.prp</>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>36</>
<Type>1</>
<FileName></>
<Repetition>1.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName>data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\grass\grass_arctic_01.prp</>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
</>
Materialset conclusion
This is it! Our materialset to convert an New World island to an Arctic island is now ready to use! With every conversion from one type of an island to another one, we need such a materialset file.
Yes, I could have given you a ready to use materialset file, but it is good to understand the process of swapping the materials and how it works. Now you could even tweak it or even create other ones for other regions!
Linking materialset file
Now that we have our materialset set up and in the correct location, it is time to link this new materialset in our rd3d file. If we look in the rd3d_original.xml and search for MaterialSetFileName again, we find <MaterialSetFileName>data/config/engine/material_sets/south_america_01.xml</MaterialSetFileName>. MaterialSetFileName is unique in this file, like we did with the gamedata_patch.xml we can do a <ModOp> where we replace this value but now in the rd3d_patch.xml.
<ModOps>
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//MaterialSetFileName">
<MaterialSetFileName>data/config/engine/material_sets/south_america_arctic.xml</MaterialSetFileName>
</ModOp>
</ModOps>
Checking the progression ingame, packing gamedata and rd3d files again
Compressing island files
Now that we have done the basic manipulations and have our patches ready it is time to compress our files again so we end up again with our updated colony01_s_05_skinned.a7m file.
We unpacked our .a7m file which gave us the gamedata.data and the rd3d.data. We then decpompressed those files from the .data format to the .xml format so we could actually open them and manipulate them. We now have to do the same actions but the other way around. So, packing the .xml files to .data files and then package the .data files back into the .a7m file.
To do this we will need our tools again which will be executed with the commandline. Like we have the unpack_island.bat, which was provided by Taludas and Taube, there is also a pack_island.bat. But for some reason, I can not seem to get that one working. So, I manually do those actions what the .bat file otherwise does automaticly.
Go to data\tutorial\sessions\islands\pool\skinned_islands\colony01_s_05_skinned\colony01_s_05_skinned and open a commandline in this directory.
The first step we will be taking is executing the patch files we prepared. We will merge the original xml file with the patch xml file. That way we end up with an xml file which has our mod operations included. So, in our case, a patched file which includes the new GlobalAmbientName, materialset, the new props, ect. Executing / merging 2 xml files is done with xmltest.
We execute the following command to first do it for the gamedata file:
xmltest gamedata_original.xml gamedata_patch.xml
We will get a patched.xml file in the directory now. Rename this file to gamedata_patched.xml. You can open this file and you should see the changed GlobalAmbientName and VegetationPropSetName at the top.
Now that we have our patched gamedata file, we can compress this .xml file back to a .data file. To do this we need the Filedbreader. This one handles compressing and decompressing from .xml to .data or the other way around. For this we do the following command:
Filedbreader.exe compress -f gamedata_patched.xml -o .data -c 2 -i ..\..\Island_Gamedata_v3.xml
In case your environment variables are not correctly set up and you placed the FileDBReader folder in there, you can also use
FileDBReader\Filedbreader.exe compress -f gamedata_patched.xml -o .data -c 2 -i ..\..\Island_Gamedata_v3.xml
The result will be a gamedata_patched.data file which we will be compressing into the .a7m file after we also did the same for the rd3d file.
To compress the rd3d file back to its data format with the patches included, we first merge our patch with the orginial file like we did for the gamedata file. We do this also with the xmltest tool and the following command:
xmltest rd3d_original.xml rd3d_patch.xml
We again get a patched.xml file which we rename to rd3d_patched.xml. If we open this file, we should also see our changes we did in the patch in this file.
The next step is again like we did with the gamedata file, compressing the patched xml to the data format. We do this with the following command:
Filedbreader.exe compress -f rd3d_patched.xml -o .data -c 2 -i ..\..\Island_RD3D.xml
In case your environment variables are not correctly set up and you placed the FileDBReader folder in there, you can also use
FileDBReader\Filedbreader.exe compress -f rd3d_patched.xml -o .data -c 2 -i ..\..\Island_RD3D.xml
You will get a rd3d_patched.data file.
To be able to do the next step, first rename the original gamedata.data and rd3d.data to gamedata_original.data and rd3d_original.data to keep them as backup.
Then, rename both the gamedata_patched.data and the rd3d_patched.data to gamedata.data and rd3d.data. For some weird reason the next step only works when using the original name.
You should have the following files:
Amazing work! Now go up one folder to the root of the island file.
We will now compress our data files back into the a7m file with the following command (open a new commandline console or go up one folder with using cd .. in the commandline you have still open):
RdaConsole pack -f colony01_s_05_skinned/gamedata.data colony01_s_05_skinned/rd3d.data -o colony01_s_05_skinned.a7m -y -v 2
For some weird reason this only works with the original .data file names. I tried it also with _patched.data versions but this did not work for some reason and the game kept loading in the loading screen having an infinte loading screen.
Your colony01_s_05_skinned.a7m file should be updated. It could be that the filesize did not change compared to the previous version, but you should see the Date modified being different.
Congratulations! You have now converted the basics of an island from a New World island to an Arctic islands. We are not ready yet offcourse, but we should update the files in the mods folder and start to game to see if everything still works and our changes are visible. We now have some not needed files into our folders, but we will clean those up later.
If we look ingame, all looks good! The ground is now snowy compared to the grass before.
We do still see the New World trees and some other wrong vegetation, but that will be the next step we will take! The important thing is that we now confirmed our materialset is loading correctle and other patches we did in the gamedata and rd3d file are working correctly.
Props and vegetation
The next thing we will be changing are the trees, bushes and other props we can find on the island. Now we see palm trees and green bushes but those are offcourse not the ones we want to see in the Arctic.
PropGrid
If we go back to our original rd3d file, the next part we will be adapting is the <PropGrid.. This is the largest part of this file and contains all the different props on the island. Trees, bushes, rocks and other props are defined here.
FileNames and Instances
The first part of this <PropGrid> is the <FileNames> node. This contains all the different props that are used on this island. You can see different trees, brushes, rocks,… This is a list that has a fixed (!) order and amount of props. We can expand this list but it is important to know that the next part, the <Instances> uses this list in their specific order as reference.
If we have a look at the <Instances> list, we see all <None> nodes which contain and <Index>, <Position>, <Rotation>, <Scale>, <AdaptTerrainHeight>. This <Index> references to the prop in the above list in <FileNames>. If we would insert another props on the 10th place of the list, all the following props would all of a sudden have a different index and all the props referenced in the <Instances> would reference to the wrong prop. This could result in a rock all of a sudden being a tree for example. In some cases that would probably be fine, but it is more safe to stick with the same order and do a first conversion with the existing similar props. Swapping a tree for a tree, a rock for a rock, ect. The other nodes are straight forward and tell us more about the specific prop. The size, the position,… Depending on the island there are thousands and thousands of props. Manually checking and changing those would be almost impossible. So, we stick to swapping based on similar props and will actually get a really good result already with minimal effort.
Now that we went over it, we know that we should stick to the amount of props in that list (for now). We should not add new props (for now) and just swap the <FileNames> - <None> paths with corresponding paths of props from the region we want the island to swap to, in our case Arctic props. You could again open an rd3d file from an existing Arctic island to see the props used on those original Arctic islands, or you could also go to the extracted rda files folder and check the props there. data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/.
Just like the materials in the materialset file, it is now important to swap out the props for similar props. In case you want a more visual approach, you could create a blender file and import all the props and place them in an overview next to eachother to more easily compare the different props and find a matching prop from the other region. It would take some time to set up an overview but can help a lot in terms of finding similar trees or rocks in size.
Something that is good to know is that the developers actually made it also more easy for themselves. There are around 23 rocks which all have their own New World and Arctic variation compared to the base Old World version. Those are easily swappable. data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_jungle/rock_jungle_01.prp would then become data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_01.prp and so on.
Let’s start with swapping the first props. Again, we do not change the original file, but will be patching the file. In the rd3d_patch.xml file we create a new <ModOp> which we will use to swap out the PropGrid/FileNames.
<ModOps>
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//MaterialSetFileName">
<MaterialSetFileName>data/config/engine/material_sets/south_america_arctic.xml</MaterialSetFileName>
</ModOp>
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//PropGrid/FileNames">
<FileNames>
</FileNames>
</ModOp>
</ModOps>
We should add the original New World prop list in there and swap them all. That way we are sure we have the same amount of props and our list is still the same.
<ModOps>
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//MaterialSetFileName">
<MaterialSetFileName>data/config/engine/material_sets/south_america_arctic.xml</MaterialSetFileName>
</ModOp>
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//PropGrid/FileNames">
<FileNames>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_jungle/rock_jungle_01.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_jungle/rock_jungle_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_jungle/rock_jungle_04.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_jungle/rock_jungle_05.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_jungle/rock_jungle_11.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_jungle/rock_jungle_12.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_jungle/rock_jungle_14.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_jungle/rock_jungle_15.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_jungle/rock_jungle_16.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_jungle/rock_jungle_17.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_jungle/rock_jungle_19.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_jungle/rock_jungle_20.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_jungle/rock_jungle_23.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_pebbles_jungle/pebbles_jungle_01.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_pebbles_jungle/pebbles_jungle_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_pebbles_jungle/pebbles_jungle_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_pebbles_jungle/pebbles_jungle_04.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_jungle_01_large.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_jungle_01_medium.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_jungle_01_small.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_jungle_02_large.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_jungle_02_medium.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_jungle_02_small.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_jungle_03_large.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_jungle_03_large_mountain.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_jungle_03_medium.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_jungle_03_medium_mountain.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_jungle_high_01.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_jungle_high_01_var2.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/dead/tree_dead_jungle_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/dead/tree_dead_jungle_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/dead/tree_dead_jungle_04.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/dead/tree_dead_jungle_06.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/dead/tree_dead_jungle_palm_01.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/dead/tree_dead_jungle_palm_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/dead/tree_dead_jungle_palm_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/dead/tree_dead_jungle_stump_01.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/dead/tree_dead_jungle_stump_b_01.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/dead/tree_dead_jungle_stump_b_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/dead/tree_dead_jungle_stump_b_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/dead/tree_dead_palm_stump_01.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/dead/tree_dead_palm_stump_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_large_01.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_large_01_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_large_01_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_large_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_large_02_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_large_02_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_large_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_large_03_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_large_03_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_large_04.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_large_04_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_large_04_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_large_05.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_large_05_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_large_05_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_palm_01.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_palm_01_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_palm_01_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_palm_04_01.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_palm_04_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_palm_04_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_palm_05.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_palm_05_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_palm_05_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_palm_06.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_palm_06_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_palm_06_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_palm_special_01.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_palm_special_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_very_large_01.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_very_large_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_very_large_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle/tree_jungle_very_large_03_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle_mountain/mountain_jungle_tree_01.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle_mountain/mountain_jungle_tree_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle_mountain/mountain_jungle_tree_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/jungle_mountain/mountain_jungle_tree_04.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/water/underwater_plant_01.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/water/underwater_plant_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/water/underwater_plant_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/water/underwater_plant_04.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/water/underwater_plant_05.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/water/underwater_plant_08.prp</None>
</FileNames>
</ModOp>
</ModOps>
For full transparancy, Taludas has created some nice automated files to swap out the lists, but I think it is important to understand the logic here and do it by hand at least one time.
Now go over the full list and swap out the New World props for corresponding Arctic props. This list is unique for every island because every island is different. Most of the props are similar, but if you open multiple island you will see that there are at least some small differences. If we have done one island, we will have an easier time doing it for the next one, but still, you will have to do this process for every island you want to convert.
For certain props that have a similar version you can do a find and replace. For example, for the rocks I can do:
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/rocks/rocks_jungle/rock_jungle_ and swap it with <None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_.
Same for the pebbles and some other props. Go over them carefully. You will get the hang out of it quickly. I group them by type. First the rocks, then the pebbles, then the bushes, then trees, then dead trees, ect. In some cases you will not have enough corresponding props because there are just not that much corresponding different props for the Arctic. Then you can just use the same prop for a second or even more times. Be sure to swap the different lines, so the amount of lines keeps the same in the same order.
What you end up with can be different from what I have now. Maybe you swapped our trees or brushes differently, that is totally fine. I have the following result of my rd3d_patch.xml file:
<ModOps>
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//MaterialSetFileName">
<MaterialSetFileName>data/config/engine/material_sets/south_america_arctic.xml</MaterialSetFileName>
</ModOp>
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//PropGrid/FileNames">
<FileNames>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_04.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_05.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_11.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_12.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_14.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_15.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_16.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_17.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_19.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_20.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_23.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/pebbles_snow/pebbles_snow_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/pebbles_snow/pebbles_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/pebbles_snow/pebbles_snow_03.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/pebbles_snow/pebbles_snow_04.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_01_large.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_01_medium.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_01_small.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_02_large.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_02_medium.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_02_small.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_03_large.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_03_large.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_03_medium.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_03_medium.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_02_small.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_01_small.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_ground_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_stump_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_stump_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_stump_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_ground_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_stump_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_stump_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_stump_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_ground_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_stump_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_stump_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_stump_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_stump_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_03.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_04.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_05.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_06.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_03.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_04.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_05.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_06.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_03.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_04.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_05.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_06.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_03.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_04.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_05.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_06.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_03.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_04.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_05.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_06.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/water/underwater_plant_01.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/water/underwater_plant_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/water/underwater_plant_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/water/underwater_plant_04.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/water/underwater_plant_05.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/water/underwater_plant_08.prp</None>
</FileNames>
</ModOp>
</ModOps>
We could now patch our files again and compress them again to a .a7m file and have a look ingame.
Do take into account the renaming and overwriting of the files in the patching and compressing process.
After patching, compressing again and overwriting the files. we should see all the props being replaced.
And just like that, we have taken a HUGE step in the process of converting islands. As you can see, th atmosphere of the islands is completely different now and it is all coming together step by step.
Tweaks
If we take a closer look at the island, we do see some things that can use some optimazations. For example, if we compare our island with a normal Arctic island, there are way to many trees on the island. You can choose to keep it that way or we can remove trees in the rd3d file to keep it more in lign with vanilla arctic islands.
Another thing that stands out in a bad way (depending on what you prefer) is that big parts of the ground are muddy and not snowy. If you remember from our materialset, we had a lot of mud materials. We could optimize our materialset and maybe swap out some of those mud materials for snow materials to remove those muddy patches and make it more snowy.
Another thing is that there are still some green brushes. Even though we replaced all the props. This is because there is another location where some props can also be defined, within the meshfiles. We will have a look at those also.
Those are only 3 of many tweaks that we could to to take the island skinning to the next level. The more time you want to invest into this process, the better the result will be.
Less trees
If we take a look at our rd3d_original.xml, and go to the list of props and take the a random tree, we count INDEX 45 for this tree.
If we then go down or search for <Index>45</Index> in the file, we find 159 instances for this. Which means, there are 159 trees for this tree variation alone. Adding all those other tree variations on top of that and it is clear we can clean this up and there are to many trees for an arctic island.
Now, how can we easily clean up certain props from this really long list without doing this all manually. I had asked myself this question in the past also when I was skinning islands for White and Cold. I’m not a huge fan of using AI in creative processes because I want to keep the feeling of creating, but in this case for such manual repetitive work, I think we can sprinkle in some AI assistance here.
I went to an AI assitance and asked to write me a powershell script I could execute to remove props from a certain index when provided with a list. After some back and forth and some changes, I got a script that does exactly that and helps a lot!
I decided to remove 50% of the props with a certain index. So, every time I ran the script, 50% of the props would be removed. I could even run the script multiple times to reduce even more trees.
Powershell Script
Create a new file with the name modify_xml.ps1 on your desktop. In this file, add the following content:
# Define an array of target indices to be removed
$targetIndexes = @(17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87) # Add any indices you want to remove
# Initialize a counter
$indexCounter = 0
# Load the XML file
try {
[xml]$xml = Get-Content -Path "prop-list.xml"
Write-Host "XML loaded successfully."
}
catch {
Write-Host "Error loading XML: $_"
exit
}
# Loop through each target index and remove every second occurrence
foreach ($targetIndex in $targetIndexes) {
Write-Host "Processing target index: $targetIndex"
# Find all <None> nodes
$instances = $xml.SelectNodes("//Instances/None")
# Loop through the instances and remove every second occurrence with the target index
$indexCounter = 0 # Reset the counter for each target index
foreach ($node in $instances) {
if ($node.Index -eq $targetIndex) {
$indexCounter++
if ($indexCounter % 2 -eq 0) {
# Remove every second occurrence of the target index
$node.ParentNode.RemoveChild($node)
}
}
}
}
# Define output file name with target index
$outputFile = "PATH TO YOUR DESKTOP\prop-list-removed.xml"
Write-Host "Saving result to: $outputFile"
# Save the modified XML
try {
$xml.Save($outputFile)
# Check if the file was saved successfully
if (Test-Path $outputFile) {
Write-Host "File saved successfully at $outputFile"
}
else {
Write-Host "Failed to save the file."
}
}
catch {
Write-Host "Error saving the XML: $_"
}
At the second line we added $targetIndexes. This is a list of all indexes we want to reduce. I started from index 17 (bushes) up to 87 (trees including also the underwater props). Good to know, the Index starts at 0.
At the line where we have $outputFile add the path to your desktop and where you added the script.
Now create a prop-list.xml file in the same location next to the powershell script modify_xml.ps1. In this file, add the complete <Instances> content. Save the file and close it.
Last, create an empty prop-list-removed.xml file on the same location.
We will now execute the script by right clicking on the script and choose “Run with PowerShell”.
A commandline will open, you will see fastly moving by text in the commandline and shortly after it will automaticly close. If everything went well, the prop-list.xml should now not be empty anymore and be roughly half the size of the original prop-list.xml.
If we open prop-list-removed.xml and search again for <Index>45</Index> we will now not find 159 instances but only 80. We went from 159 to 80.
Replace instances in rd3d file
Now that we have our trimmed list, we should patch our original rd3d instances list with the new one. For this we can write a Mod operation just like we do with all our changes.
Although, this can be tricky. If in the future we want to add additional props manually we will have to make sure to add them after this general replacemenet of all instances to make sure they are now overwritten.
<ModOps>
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//MaterialSetFileName">
<MaterialSetFileName>data/config/engine/material_sets/south_america_arctic.xml</MaterialSetFileName>
</ModOp>
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//PropGrid/FileNames">
<FileNames>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_03.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_06.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_09.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_12.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_13.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_14.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_15.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_16.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_17.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_18.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_19.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_20.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/rocks_snow/rock_snow_23.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/pebbles_snow/pebbles_snow_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/pebbles_snow/pebbles_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/pebbles_snow/pebbles_snow_03.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/rocks/pebbles_snow/pebbles_snow_04.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_01_large.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_01_medium.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_01_small.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_02_medium.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_02_medium.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_02_small.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_03_large.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_03_small.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_03_medium.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_01_small.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_03_small.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_03_small.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_02_small.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/bushes/bush_arctic_01_small.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_ground_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_stump_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_stump_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_dead_snow_stump_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_03.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_04.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_05.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_06.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_03.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_04.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_05.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_06.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_01.prp</None>
<None>data/dlc03/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/trees/tree_fir_snow_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/water/underwater_plant_01.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/water/underwater_plant_02.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/water/underwater_plant_03.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/water/underwater_plant_04.prp</None>
<None>data/graphics/props/terrain_props/vegetation/water/underwater_plant_08.prp</None>
</FileNames>
</ModOp>
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//PropGrid/Instances">
<Instances>
<None>
<Index>80</Index>
<Position>49.21689 -4.3230915 71.91329</Position>
<Rotation>0 -0.99030554 -0 0.13890606</Rotation>
<Scale>0.76596254 0.76596254 0.76596254</Scale>
<Color>1 1 1 1</Color>
<AdaptTerrainHeight>True</AdaptTerrainHeight>
</None>
<None>
<Index>82</Index>
<Position>49.750694 -4.45026 71.89124</Position>
<Rotation>0 -0.9924732 -0 -0.12246206</Rotation>
<Scale>0.8822843 0.8822843 0.8822843</Scale>
<Color>1 1 1 1</Color>
</None>
<None>
<Index>79</Index>
<Position>61.35524 -4.908747 71.87924</Position>
<Rotation>0 -0.9988944 -0 -0.0470103</Rotation>
<Scale>0.81014436 0.81014436 0.81014436</Scale>
<Color>1 1 1 1</Color>
</None>
<None>
<Index>79</Index>
<Position>60.23398 -5.0006495 71.763</Position>
<Rotation>0 -0.92834145 -0 -0.37172863</Rotation>
<Scale>1.260382 1.260382 1.260382</Scale>
<Color>1 1 1 1</Color>
</None>
... and more
</Instances>
</ModOp>
</ModOps>
If we would now again compress our gamedata and rd3d patch files into our .a7m file, we should see the islands with less vegetation props.
So first xmltest rd3d_original.xml rd3d_patch.xml and then FileDBReader\Filedbreader.exe compress -f rd3d_patched.xml -o .data -c 2 -i ..\..\Island_RD3D.xml. Go back one up in the directory and execute RdaConsole pack -f colony01_s_05_skinned/gamedata.data colony01_s_05_skinned/rd3d.data -o colony01_s_05_skinned.a7m -y -v 2 to get our compressed, updated .a7m file. Update the files of the mod and start the game again with a new creative mode game.
This is already looking a lot more in lign with vanilla islands. Although vanilla islands have more grouped trees, this would be more advanced to do with more advanced logic to automaticly place trees. Manually doing that would be madness. For now, I think the amount of trees is totally ok!
Optimazations in the materialset
Now with the less trees, the muddy patches are more visible and we should do something about it. Not only that but if we compare our materialset with the standard materialset, there are some more arctic specific things that we could improve. Let’s go back to our materialset file and do some additional improvements.
First, we replace the mud materials with some snow, ice or snowdune materials to cover the muddy parts. It is a bit trial and error and we should not replace all of them because some are needed for the shores and cliffs. Replace some, start the game, see which ones should stay muddy and which ones can be replaced on the ground of the island.
Next, we have some values at the top we can change. Go to the original Arctic materialset file located data\dlc03\config\engine\material_sets\arctic_01.xml.
Change <ShaderType>1</>, <GritTiling>4.000000</>, <GritAlphaSharpness>5.000000</>, <GritSlope>0.200000</>, <SubSurfaceTiling>6.000000</>, <SubSurfaceDistortion>0.800000</> and <SubSurfaceDepth>0.200000</>.
Then every materialset in our conversion file has <GroundType></>. The ones in the original Arctic materialset file have <GroundType>None</>. This is maybe the same but we could change all of those just to be sure.
Our new final materialset file is now looking like this:
<MaterialSet>
<ShaderType>1</>
<GritDiffuseTexture>data\dlc03\graphics\landscape\terrain\arctic\p_grit_01_diff.psd</>
<GritTiling>4.000000</>
<GritAlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GritSlope>0.200000</>
<CliffDiffuseTexture>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_mountain_01_diff.png</>
<CliffNormalTexture>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_mountain_01_norm.psd</>
<CliffTiling>4.000000</>
<CliffAlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<CliffSlope>0.200000</>
<SlushDiffuseTexture></>
<SlushNormalTexture></>
<SlushHeightTexture></>
<SlushTiling>4.000000</>
<SlushAlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<SlushSlope>0.200000</>
<SubSurfaceTexture>data\dlc03\graphics\landscape\terrain\arctic\p_refraction_01.psd</>
<SubSurfaceTiling>6.000000</>
<SubSurfaceDistortion>0.800000</>
<SubSurfaceDepth>0.200000</>
<Material>
<ID>31</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>1</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>13</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>26</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_02.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>4.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>24</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_02.xml</>
<Repetition>10.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>28</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_03.xml</>
<Repetition>3.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>17</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_mountain_02.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>8</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_mountain_02.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>30</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_mountain_01.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>2.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>1</>
<GritDirection>0.400000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>16</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_mud_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>9</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_snowdune_01.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>2.500000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>2</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_cracks_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>7</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_mud_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>4.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>20</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_mud_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>3</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_mud_03.xml</>
<Repetition>2.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>11</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_snowdune_01.xml</>
<Repetition>8.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>8.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>29</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_snowdune_01.xml</>
<Repetition>8.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>3.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>23</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_02.xml</>
<Repetition>8.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>14</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_mud_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>5</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_02.xml</>
<Repetition>3.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>19</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_snowdune_01.xml</>
<Repetition>12.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>2.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>4</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/graphics/landscape/terrain/texture_pool/p_snowdune_02.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>2.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>0</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/graphics/landscape/terrain/texture_pool/p_snowdune_02.xml</>
<Repetition>2.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>18</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/graphics/landscape/terrain/texture_pool/p_snowdune_02.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>6</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_mountain_01.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>2.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>1</>
<GritDirection>0.400000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>21</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_02.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>10</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/p_snowdune_01.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>1.200000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>12</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_02.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>1</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>25</>
<Type>0</>
<FileName>data/dlc03/graphics/landscape/terrain/arctic/a_beach_03.xml</>
<Repetition>4.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>4.000000</>
<GroundType>None</>
<ObjectFileName></>
<GritEnabled>1</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>22</>
<Type>1</>
<FileName></>
<Repetition>1.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName>data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\grass\grass_arctic_01.prp</>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>27</>
<Type>1</>
<FileName></>
<Repetition>1.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName>data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\grass\grass_arctic_01.prp</>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>15</>
<Type>1</>
<FileName></>
<Repetition>1.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName>data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\grass\grass_arctic_01.prp</>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>32</>
<Type>1</>
<FileName></>
<Repetition>1.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName>data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\grass\grass_arctic_01.prp</>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>33</>
<Type>1</>
<FileName></>
<Repetition>1.300000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName>data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\grass\grass_arctic_01.prp</>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>34</>
<Type>1</>
<FileName></>
<Repetition>2.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName>data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\grass\grass_arctic_01.prp</>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>35</>
<Type>1</>
<FileName></>
<Repetition>1.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName>data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\grass\grass_arctic_01.prp</>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
<Material>
<ID>36</>
<Type>1</>
<FileName></>
<Repetition>1.000000</>
<AlphaSharpness>5.000000</>
<GroundType></>
<ObjectFileName>data\dlc03\graphics\props\terrain_props\vegetation\grass\grass_arctic_01.prp</>
<GritEnabled>0</>
<GritDirection>1.000000</>
<GritSlopeThreshold>0.200000</>
</>
</>
Overwrite the modfiles again and restart the game to see the result.
This already looks a lot better. It is still not perfect, and some of the cliffs still have some snowy ground instead of muddy, but we leave it for now. The idea behind it is clear now.
Mesh Files
It could be that you still see some props or plants that are not supposed to be there. In the case of our island, we still see some green grass. This is mostly the case when converting to Arctic islands because that is the easiest to spot green grass on white snow.
There are still some grass or floral props or textures that are defined in the mesh files and not in the rd3d file. To remove or change those, we need to adapt the mesh files.
Go into the _gamedata\colony01_s_05_skinned folder. In this folder you will see a couple of files and folders including a meshes folder.
In the root of the _gamedata\colony01_s_05_skinned folder, add the tmc.xml file you can find in the previously downloaded .zip file.
Open the meshes folder. In the root of this folder, add the tmc_converter.bat file and the FileDBReader and other tools if needed.
Open the tmc_converter.bat file and look at the replace commands that are visible there. Depending on the destination region you will need to adapt those replacement props. In our case we replace the New World jungle flowers with Arctic bushes.
Before executing the .bat file, we first need to prepare all the mesh folders. Open every numbered folder and add the tmc_compressor.bat file into this folder together with the FileDBReader files and other tools if needed.
Once this is done, execute the tmc_converter.batin the parent folder, this will create all xml patch files for the tmc files in every numbered mesh folder.
After this, execute the tmc_compressor.bat in every numbered folder. No worries if there are warnings, it goes over every possibility and not every option is available for every mesh. Make sure to wait untill all processes are done for every folder before going to the next step. This will finilise the process of swapping out the leftover props in the mesh if they can be found. Maybe for this specific island they are not there or maybe there are other ones that we did not include.
Make sure your modfolder has the last version of every file and restart the game. If there were still flowers they should be swapped out.
Cleanup
Offcourse our meshes folder and other folders now contains a lot of not needed files. You can clean up all the xml files, FileDBReader files.
Load the game again with the cleaned up folders to make sure you did not break anything. So we are then ready for the next step, a more advanced island with mountains and mines!
More complex island
Now that we have created a basic island and we know the basics, we can advance to the next step, a more complex island with mines and other deposits.
We can choose another island with some mountains and mines to convert by copying one of the other DLC12 small island folders to our custom island directory. Go to data\dlc12\sessions\islands\pool\colony01, take for example colony01_s_07 and copy it into data\tutorial\sessions\islands\pool\skinned_islands and rename it.
Follow all the previous steps again as a test to see if you understand the process. Once we have going through all the same previous steps, we can dive into adding the mines and other deposits into the mix.
The second island should go a lot quicker because we already know the process and we can reuse some of the logic and files already. We also for example do not have to redo the materialset because we can just reuse it.
We could change 2/4 island references we had before into our assets.xml that change the original small islands and see if our new island is also visible in the game. Just to be sure.
<ModOps>
<ModOp Type="merge" GUID="116682,116681" Path="/Values/RandomIsland/">
<FilePath>data\tutorial\sessions\islands\pool\skinned_islands\colony01_s_05_skinned\colony01_s_05_skinned.a7m</FilePath>
</ModOp>
<ModOp Type="merge" GUID="116680,116679" Path="/Values/RandomIsland/">
<FilePath>data\tutorial\sessions\islands\pool\skinned_islands\colony01_s_07_skinned\colony01_s_07_skinned.a7m</FilePath>
</ModOp>
</ModOps>
Remember, test regularly after every step to see if everything works with every step. It will benefit you and mistakes will be quickly spotted!
We have our second island ingame, and can go through everything again to skin it with the arctic flavour.
- We copied the folder of the island and renamed the folder, the files and the subfolder to
colony01_s_07_skinned. - We added all the needed files into the directories (
a7minfo.xml,Island_Gamedata_v3.xml,Island_RD3D.xml,unpack_island.bat) - We unpacked the island file into the gamedata and rd3d files into the separate folder.
- We decompressed the gamedata and rd3d data file into the original xml files.
- We copy over the content of the gamedata patch file from our previous island into the patch file of our new island. Those can be exactly the same. We will add more later.
- We copy the first ModOp with the materialset from our previous rd3d patch file in our new rd3d patch file.
- We replace the corresponding PropGrid FileNames in with a new patch ModOp for our new island in the rd3d patch file.
- We remove 50% of the trees and bushes props in the PropGrid Instances with the powershell script and add the trimmed list as a ModOp to the rd3d patch file.
- We recompress our files again into the updated island file.
- We add the files into the meshes folders
- We patch our meshes files to make sure the New World leftover props are replaced.
- We start the game and just like that see our new skinned island!
Mines
If we look back to the original island, it has mines but we do not see those on our Arctic file.
Go back to the gamedata_original.xml and search for AreaManagerData. If we scroll down a bit in this node, we find ObjectGroupCollection and GameObject.
ObjectGroupCollection
<ObjectGroupCollection>
<ObjectGroups>
<None>New Group 4</None>
<None>
<GameObjects>
<None>-9218868432932438015</None>
<None>-9218868432932438014</None>
<None>-9218868432932438013</None>
</GameObjects>
</None>
<None>New Group 5</None>
<None>
<GameObjects>
<None>-9218868432932438012</None>
<None>-9218868432932438011</None>
<None>-9218868432932438010</None>
</GameObjects>
</None>
</ObjectGroups>
</ObjectGroupCollection>
Inside this node, we see 2 groups of GameObjects. Those contain different nodes with a long ID.
If we would search for one of those ID’s, we would find another reference.
For example, if we would search for 9218868432932438015 we find another node which also contains <guid>1000029</guid>, <Position>86.5 1.8203125 114.5</Position>,…
If we would look for this GUID 1000029 on a1800.net, we will discover this is an asset from the template Slot, and this is the random slot mining.
This is a mineslot, why does it not appear on our island?
If we look at all the slot assets, we see the Arctic has a different slot asset with GUID 116037, random slot mining arctic.
GameObject
If we go back to our ObjectGroupCollection, and right after this node we have the GameObject node. This contains objects and this contains all different None nodes. They have a similar structure as the one we found for our random slot mining.
The first one we have there has a GUID 100849. If we go back to a1800.net and search for this GUID we find out this is a random slot oil pump.
Because we took a New World island, we offcourse have different types of mines and deposits. Because the Arctic does not support those types of mines, they are not shown and removed.
We can go through the complete list and make an overview of all the different deposits, mines and other objects we can find for this island.
- random slot oil pump [GUID: 100849]
- slot mining workarea cave [GUID: 100419]
- slot mining workarea mountain [GUID: 1000253]
- random slot mining [GUID: 1000029]
- random slot clay [GUID: 100417]
After the GameObject we can also have NaturePreset and EditorObject.
Swapping mines and deposits
Because we make an Arctic island, we are limited in what we have available in terms of deposits. In vanilla we only have Deep Gold Mines and Gas deposits. We do not have clay or oil deposits or production buildings available so we will ignore those for this guide. Do know that it is possible to make new deposit types just like I did in White and Cold by making Oil deposits in the harbour area, diamond deposits on land, hot spring deposits on land, ect. That is more advanced and we will start with just swapping out the existing ones for existing ones for the Arctic region.
We will replace the oil ones with gas deposits, remove the clay ones and swapt the random mountain mines with the corresponding arctic ones.
How do we do this? Well, the same way as we swapped other things with the patch file, with the right mod operations. We will keep the positions of the deposits and mines but will swap out the GUID of which slot it is.
Swapping oil to gas
To swap out the oil fields we replace the GUID 100849 that we found earlier with the GUID of the gas slot. We found the overview of all the slots before. The one for the gas deposits is 113750, random slot gas arctic.
To write our ModOp we need to know the path to the node we want to replace/merge with the new GUID. If we look at a unique parent node, we find GameObject. From that point we can go down the tree to define the exact node(s) we want to swap out.
<ModOp Type="merge" Path="//GameObject/objects/None[guid='100849']">
<guid>113750</guid>
</ModOp>
This ModOp will look into the file and search for GameObject then go down to objects and look for None node that has a child node with the guid 100849. It will merge the guid node with the value 113750.
This will replace all the oil fields with gas deposits.
Let’s add this into our gamedata_patch.xml.
<ModOps>
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//GlobalAmbientName">
<GlobalAmbientName>DLC03_01</GlobalAmbientName>
</ModOp>
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//VegetationPropSetName">
<VegetationPropSetName>Arctic</VegetationPropSetName>
</ModOp>
<!-- Oil to gas -->
<ModOp Type="merge" Path="//GameObject/objects/None[guid='100849']">
<guid>113750</guid>
</ModOp>
</ModOps>
Swapping mine slots
Next are the mine slots we have in the New World. If we look at a1800.net and look for the corresponding 1000029 GUID, in this asset we find the list of all mines that are possible withing this random mine slot.
Those are offcourse all the New World mine slots. We should replace this New World random mine slot with the corresponding Arctic one. If we look again at the list of all slots be had a look at before, we see the corresponding Arctic one, 116037, random slot mining arctic`.
If we take a closer look at this slot asset, the possible mines for this random Arctic slot only have the arctic gold mine. This is logical, there are not any other vanilla arctic mines available. With mods we expanded this with silver and other mines. But vanilla only has the gold mine.
This is also the reason why we would use 116037, random slot mining arctic` instead of the gold slot directly, this way we can randomize which slot gets what more easily.
To swap the New World GUID with the Arctic GUID, we can do a similar thing as with the oil and gas deposits.
<!-- All Random slot mining -->
<ModOp Type="merge" Path="//GameObject/objects/None[guid='1000029']">
<guid>116037</guid>
</ModOp>
We add this also into our gamedata_patch.xml.
We can now patch our gamedata and rd3d file again into a new version of our a7m island file to include our changes to the island. You should at this point know how to do this.
The list of all the commands:
xmltest gamedata_original.xml gamedata_patch.xml
xmltest rd3d_original.xml rd3d_patch.xml
FileDBReader\Filedbreader.exe compress -f gamedata_patched.xml -o .data -c 2 -i FileDBReader\FileFormats\Island_Gamedata_V2.xml
If we execute this command for this island, we see some problems in the console. And also the created file has a size of 0kb.
Some of the values in this island file are not supported by the conversion process.
First we have a default node with a value of 0 that expexts a boolean but does not get parsed.
If we search for default we find 16 references in the original gamedata file. The 3the result is the one we are looking for into the IrrigationManager.
I’m not 100% sure what we should do about this and for me it is also a bit trial and error, but I think we can just replace the 0 with a false. As I think false here stand for the same as 0 and it expects a false as a boolean value.
<!-- Fix invalid conversions -->
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//IrrigationManager/m_StaticTileGrid/block/default">
<default>false</default>
</ModOp>
The next invalid conversion is about HasAirGrid. It expects an Int32 for a True value.
if we look for HasAirGrid we can find it at the top of the file.
<!-- Fix invalid conversions -->
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//GameSessionManager/SessionSettings/HasAirGrid">
<HasAirGrid>1</HasAirGrid>
</ModOp>
The last invalid conversion values are for AddedTime nodes with values 9223372036854775807 and 9223372036854775807.
I’m not completely sure what to do here… but replacing those with 0 seens to be ok.
<!-- Fix invalid conversions -->
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//SeasonManager/CurrentSeason/AddedTime">
<AddedTime>0</AddedTime>
</ModOp>
<ModOp Type="replace" Path="//SeasonManager/NextSeason/AddedTime">
<AddedTime>0</AddedTime>
</ModOp>
Now, delete the 0kb gamedata_patched.data file and the gamedata_patched.xml and execute the previous 2 commands again. The one to create the xml and the one to create the data file.
FileDBReader\Filedbreader.exe compress -f rd3d_patched.xml -o .data -c 2 -i FileDBReader\FileFormats\Island_RD3D.xml
RdaConsole pack -f colony01_s_07_skinned/gamedata.data colony01_s_07_skinned/rd3d.data -o colony01_s_07_skinned.a7m -y -v 2
a7minfo file
In the same folder as the a7m island file, we also have the a7minfo file. This is also a file that contains information about the mine slots and deposits. If we change the slots in our gamedata file, we also need to make similar changes into our a7minfo file.
As you can see, we can not open this file like we can open an xml file. Just like the .data file or a7m file we need to decompress the a7minfo file to an xml to open this file and make manipulations into it.
To decompress the colony01_s_07_skinned.a7minfo we use the following command (make sure your console is open in the correct path):
FileDBReader decompress -f colony01_s_07_skinned.a7minfo -y -i ../a7minfo.xml
In case your environment variables are not correctly installed, you can also use the following command after placing the FileDBReader folder with all the files into this folder also.
FileDBReader\Filedbreader.exe decompress -f colony01_s_07_skinned.a7minfo -y -i ../a7minfo.xml
You should now see a colony01_s_07_skinned.xml in this folder.
Open this file to see the structure.
You will recognise similar ObjectGuid as we had for the Oil fields and mine slots.
Just like in the gamedata file where we patched the slots with other slots, we will do the same here.
<ModOps>
<!-- Oil to gas -->
<ModOp Type="merge" Path="//SlotObjects/None/None[ObjectGuid='100849']">
<ObjectGuid>113750</ObjectGuid>
</ModOp>
<!-- All Random slot mining -->
<ModOp Type="merge" Path="//SlotObjects/None/None[ObjectGuid='1000029']">
<ObjectGuid>116037</ObjectGuid>
</ModOp>
</ModOps>
We add those mod operations into the colony01_s_07_skinned_patch.xml that we can also find in the same folder.
We will use a command to patch the original file with our patch file to get a patched file that we then can compress again into an updated a7minfo file.
Rename the colony01_s_07_skinned.xml to colony01_s_07_skinned_original.xml.
First we use the xmltest command to patch the xml files:
xmltest colony01_s_07_skinned_original.xml colony01_s_07_skinned_patch.xml
We get a patch.xml file which we rename into colony01_s_07_skinned_patched.xml.
We can open this file and see if our patches are actually applied. We will see the ObjectGuid 113750 for the gas deposits in the first nodes for example instead of the ones from the oil deposits.
Now we compress this patched xml file back into our patched a7minfo file that we will use ingame.
You can always rename colony01_s_07_skinned.a7minfo to colony01_s_07_skinned_original.a7minfo to have a backup of your file so it will not be overwritten.
FileDBReader compress -f colony01_s_07_skinned_patched.xml -o a7minfo -i ../a7minfo.xml -c 1 -y
Or in case the environment variables are not correctly set up:
FileDBReader\Filedbreader.exe compress -f colony01_s_07_skinned_patched.xml -o a7minfo -i ../a7minfo.xml -c 1 -y
Rename the file to colony01_s_07_skinned.a7minfo and update all the modfiles.
Now restart the game and check out the mines and deposits on the island!
As you can see, there are only gold mine slots and no gas deposits.
Gas deposits
Why do we not get our gas deposits? We clearly swapped the oil ones for the gas ones.
The reason why is another layer of complexity that is added on islands and mines/deposits.
If we have a look at a RandomIsland from the Arctic, for example 116676, we see the different properties like IslandType. Based on this property, a MineSlotSet is linked to the island. Just like fertilities and fertilitysets that are linked to the island, the mineslots and deposits that are available on that island are also linked.
The Arctic is a special case… You would think that gas deposits are also linked to the island, no? Well, not exactly.
If we go to a1800.net and search for MineSlotSet, we find 36 sets. Only 2 sets are for the Arctic.
We have a set for gas and a set for gold.
Set for Gas:
<Asset>
<Template>MineSlotSet</Template>
<Values>
<Standard>
<GUID>114286</GUID>
<Name>Arctic Set 01 (Gas)</Name>
<IconFilename>data/ui/2kimages/main/3dicons/icon_mineral_desposits.png</IconFilename>
</Standard>
<ResourceSetCondition>
<Priority>10</Priority>
<AllowedRegion>Arctic</AllowedRegion>
<AllowedIslandType>CliffIsland</AllowedIslandType>
<AllowedIslandDifficulty>Normal;Hard</AllowedIslandDifficulty>
<AllowedResourceAmounts>Low;Medium;High</AllowedResourceAmounts>
</ResourceSetCondition>
<MineSlotResourceSet>
<MineSlots>
<Item>
<MineSlot>112691</MineSlot>
<!--mining_arctic_01_slot (Gas Mine Slot)-->
</Item>
</MineSlots>
</MineSlotResourceSet>
</Values>
</Asset>
If we check the AllowedIslandType we see this set is only allowed/used on cliff islands. So, this is never used on normal islands.
In MineSlotResourceSet we find all the possible mineslots. In this case only the gas mine slot.
Set for Gold:
<Asset>
<Template>MineSlotSet</Template>
<Values>
<Standard>
<GUID>116032</GUID>
<Name>Arctic Set 02 (Gold)</Name>
<IconFilename>data/ui/2kimages/main/3dicons/icon_mineral_desposits.png</IconFilename>
</Standard>
<ResourceSetCondition>
<Priority>10</Priority>
<AllowedRegion>Arctic</AllowedRegion>
<AllowedIslandType>Normal;Starter</AllowedIslandType>
<AllowedIslandDifficulty>Normal;Hard</AllowedIslandDifficulty>
<AllowedResourceAmounts>Low;Medium;High</AllowedResourceAmounts>
</ResourceSetCondition>
<MineSlotResourceSet>
<MineSlots>
<Item>
<MineSlot>116038</MineSlot>
<!--mining_arctic_02_slot (Gold Slot)-->
</Item>
<Item>
<MineSlot>116038</MineSlot>
<!--mining_arctic_02_slot (Gold Slot)-->
</Item>
</MineSlots>
</MineSlotResourceSet>
</Values>
</Asset>
If we check the AllowedIslandType we see this set is possible for normal and starter islands. so not on cliffs.
In MineSlotResourceSet we find all the possible mineslots. In this case only the gold mine slot. No idea why it is added 2x.
So, if we want to make gas also possible on our normal islands, we have to add our gas deposit also on this MineSlotSet.
<!-- NEW SLOTTYPES TO SET -->
<ModOp Type="add" GUID="116032" Path="/Values/MineSlotResourceSet/MineSlots">
<Item>
<MineSlot>112691</MineSlot> <!-- Arctic Gas Deposit Slot -->
</Item>
</ModOp>
If we now update our assets.xml and add the ModOp there, update our modfiles and restart the game, we will see our island including the gas deposits!
What’s next? What can we do with this?
You probably wonder what we now can create with all of this… Well, your imagination can be enless! Go be creative and experiment with the different regions, island types, mine slots, ect.
You maybe wonder why Manola or Crown Falls is not yet skinned into an Arctic or Enbesa island? Well, there are a lot of reasons why not to do it. Apart from 2 big reasons why you could do it which are because it is fun to do! And you learn a lot by doing it… There are more important reasons why not to do it. The biggest reason is performance. People already complain about heavy modded games, frames dropping drasticly because the game becomes to heavy, flickering of the ground at some point,… All those things are because the game can not handle all the load it needs to process anymore. Continental islands are a big reason why performance drops or why the flickering happens at some point. If you want to do it, go ahead! But do know you will get a lot of complaints from people because of the above mentioned reasons.