Nopi
Potential Patron
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2012
Hello, here I'll try to explain what I've learned about Xenoverse modding.
First, if you don't already have it, download and install vcredist from here:
Download Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013 from Official Microsoft Download Center
You will need this for the file converters from the link below to work. The download offers 3 files. If you have a 32 bit system, install only the x86 version. If you have a 64 bit system install both. Not sure what the arm file is but install it anyway in case it's needed.
Download the Xenoverse mod tools repository here:
https://github.com/DarioSamo/LibXenoverse
Click on the "Download zip" button around the right side of the page to get all the stuff. This is a repository that allows continuous updating so check
back on a regular basis if you want to see new functions added or fixes to other things.
Download the latest blender here:
blender.org - Home of the Blender project - Free and Open 3D Creation Software
You will need at least blender 2.73 because the fbx plugin on older versions will not work.
Have photoshop or gimp with their respective dds plugins to deal with the textures. Even though texture editing is wonky because of the nature of textures, you will still need to flip these textures vertically after modding a model.
Extract the zip file you got from the github in a place of your preference. Then go to your Dragon Ball Xenoverse steam folder. If you have no idea where it is, open steam, right click and select "properties" on the game's name on your steam library, and go to the Local Files tab. That will tell you where your game data is.
Once at the game's folder, copy the files named data.cpk and data2.cpk. Then go to where you extracted the mod tools into, and paste these files in the folder named LibXenoverse-master.
Once the data and data2 cpks are in the main mod tools folder, click on extract-data-uncompressed.bat. This will take a while, as it is extracting the contents of a 3 GB + file. When it ends, you will see a new folder named data where most of the game files will be. Now, click on extract-data2.bat. This function will extract the contents on the data2.cpk in a still compressed format. You do not need to uncompress these unless you want files from there.
To access the model viewer, go to the bin folder and open xenoviewer.exe. The first time it runs you will see a message about something called adam_shader and when clicking ok on that, you will be presented with a folder select window. Go to the previously created data folder, where all the models are, and look for the adam_shader folder. Enter it and press "select folder" to finish set up. To use xenoviewer, either drag and drop emd files into the left panel or use the program's add file menu. While xenoviewer is able to load skeletons and even run animations, those are beyond the scope of this tutorial.
The character folders you will want to access are in LibXenoverse-master>data>data>chara. The created character folders are HUF for earthling and saiyan females, HUM for males, MAF and MAM for majins, FRI for frieza race and NMC for nameks. Characters come in parts, usually named Bust(torso), Face, Forehead, Rist(Hand model, I suppose this should be called wrist), Pants and Boots. While most characters don't have many parts, the created characters have a lot of them, for every piece of outfit the game offers.
Now, to start editing models, locate first the skeleton file, the part(s) and the texture(s) for the character you want to edit. The skeleton file has a esk format and is usually named for example, HUF_000.esk. The model is in emd and the textures are emb. For ease of work, make a new folder and copy/paste the files you want to edit there. Lets deal first with the model.
Have open both the folder with your to be edited files and the bin folder (where the xenoviewer program is). Now, select both the emd and esk file and drag-drop them into the emdfbx.exe. You need to drag both at the same time into it for the resulting fbx file to have both the model and skeleton data on it. For the emb texture file, drag-drop it into the embpack.exe program. This will create a folder with the name of the emb. Inside you will find the textures in dds format.
Since I only have blender, this next step will specify on that, but the steps should be similar on other programs. Go to file>import>fbx and navigate to the folder where you have your newly created fbx. If everything went right, you will see a model with a skeleton facing down. You will need to rotate this model 90 degrees in the positive X axis, then apply the rotation so it becomes the new default. If you don't do this rotation and apply procedure, the model will have a wrong rotation in game. Apparently porting to fbx messes up some of the default values.
Anyway, after this, you can save the model as a blender file so you can have a starting point. At this point, you may edit and add your mods. Be creative. :)
Done with the model, now we talk about textures. The textures you will get from this game at the moment will be quite different from what you get from other games. Here, you will most likely see a black image with what appears to be the bruise damage characters get when low on health in game, and the alpha of the texture will have mostly the black lines that most outfits and skins have as details. Seems everything else uses plain colors and it's solely affected by the lighting engine for it's anime shading. BUT, there's one thing you need to do with the texture, even if you don't want to put edits on it. Because the work on the model and it's transition from emd to fbx and back to emd, now the textures need to all be flipped vertically for them to look correct when on the modded models. So open the dds files you got earlier on whatever program you have, make sure everything is selected, including the alpha layer, and flip vertically, then save the dds as DTX5, 8bpp+ alpha, and with the option of no mipmaps. Overwrite the dds files and keep them in the folder they were in.
Now to put everything back together, first drag-drop the fbx you made into the fbxemd.exe program in the bin folder. This will create the file as an emd. If you had the previous emd in the same folder, it will simply overwrite it without notice. For the textures file drag-drop the folder with the dds files you just flipped into the embpack.exe program. This will recreate/overwrite the previous emb file, but now with your mods. Now, open the data2 folder you extracted previously. You will notice that it's structure is similar to the data folder, with a chara folder and some(not all) character folders. Move both modified emb and emd files into the character folder you were working with but instead of going to the data folder from before, go to data2>data>chara. With all files in place, go back into the main LibXenoverse-master folder and click on the pack-data-2.bat This will overwrite the data2.cpk with your mods in it.
Lastly, go to the game's steam folder, backup the data2.cpk there by mving it somewhere else or changing it's extension to .bak and replace it with your modded data2.cpk. If you understood this guide well and if everything went well, you will see your mods in game. Remember though, only you will be able to see these mods.
Hope this helps someone out there. I've checked this guide for errors but sometimes someone else has to spot them. Let me know if there's any errors, missing steps, or post any thoughts/problems with it. I'll be around for a few days and will check on it. Have fun :)
EDIT: Just noticed, and wanted to add, that upon arrival of the next update and dlc pack, my data2.cpk was updated by the server. At the moment I wasn't running any mods but it's size increased from 30 MB to 36. Keep this in mind when backing up both your modded data2 and the vanilla game's data2. Also, you will need to use the new data2.cpk to put your mods into.
In depth look at texture modding, in a video. Used with permission.
First, if you don't already have it, download and install vcredist from here:
Download Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013 from Official Microsoft Download Center
You will need this for the file converters from the link below to work. The download offers 3 files. If you have a 32 bit system, install only the x86 version. If you have a 64 bit system install both. Not sure what the arm file is but install it anyway in case it's needed.
Download the Xenoverse mod tools repository here:
https://github.com/DarioSamo/LibXenoverse
Click on the "Download zip" button around the right side of the page to get all the stuff. This is a repository that allows continuous updating so check
back on a regular basis if you want to see new functions added or fixes to other things.
Download the latest blender here:
blender.org - Home of the Blender project - Free and Open 3D Creation Software
You will need at least blender 2.73 because the fbx plugin on older versions will not work.
Have photoshop or gimp with their respective dds plugins to deal with the textures. Even though texture editing is wonky because of the nature of textures, you will still need to flip these textures vertically after modding a model.
Extract the zip file you got from the github in a place of your preference. Then go to your Dragon Ball Xenoverse steam folder. If you have no idea where it is, open steam, right click and select "properties" on the game's name on your steam library, and go to the Local Files tab. That will tell you where your game data is.
Once at the game's folder, copy the files named data.cpk and data2.cpk. Then go to where you extracted the mod tools into, and paste these files in the folder named LibXenoverse-master.
Once the data and data2 cpks are in the main mod tools folder, click on extract-data-uncompressed.bat. This will take a while, as it is extracting the contents of a 3 GB + file. When it ends, you will see a new folder named data where most of the game files will be. Now, click on extract-data2.bat. This function will extract the contents on the data2.cpk in a still compressed format. You do not need to uncompress these unless you want files from there.
To access the model viewer, go to the bin folder and open xenoviewer.exe. The first time it runs you will see a message about something called adam_shader and when clicking ok on that, you will be presented with a folder select window. Go to the previously created data folder, where all the models are, and look for the adam_shader folder. Enter it and press "select folder" to finish set up. To use xenoviewer, either drag and drop emd files into the left panel or use the program's add file menu. While xenoviewer is able to load skeletons and even run animations, those are beyond the scope of this tutorial.
The character folders you will want to access are in LibXenoverse-master>data>data>chara. The created character folders are HUF for earthling and saiyan females, HUM for males, MAF and MAM for majins, FRI for frieza race and NMC for nameks. Characters come in parts, usually named Bust(torso), Face, Forehead, Rist(Hand model, I suppose this should be called wrist), Pants and Boots. While most characters don't have many parts, the created characters have a lot of them, for every piece of outfit the game offers.
Now, to start editing models, locate first the skeleton file, the part(s) and the texture(s) for the character you want to edit. The skeleton file has a esk format and is usually named for example, HUF_000.esk. The model is in emd and the textures are emb. For ease of work, make a new folder and copy/paste the files you want to edit there. Lets deal first with the model.
Have open both the folder with your to be edited files and the bin folder (where the xenoviewer program is). Now, select both the emd and esk file and drag-drop them into the emdfbx.exe. You need to drag both at the same time into it for the resulting fbx file to have both the model and skeleton data on it. For the emb texture file, drag-drop it into the embpack.exe program. This will create a folder with the name of the emb. Inside you will find the textures in dds format.
Since I only have blender, this next step will specify on that, but the steps should be similar on other programs. Go to file>import>fbx and navigate to the folder where you have your newly created fbx. If everything went right, you will see a model with a skeleton facing down. You will need to rotate this model 90 degrees in the positive X axis, then apply the rotation so it becomes the new default. If you don't do this rotation and apply procedure, the model will have a wrong rotation in game. Apparently porting to fbx messes up some of the default values.
Anyway, after this, you can save the model as a blender file so you can have a starting point. At this point, you may edit and add your mods. Be creative. :)
Done with the model, now we talk about textures. The textures you will get from this game at the moment will be quite different from what you get from other games. Here, you will most likely see a black image with what appears to be the bruise damage characters get when low on health in game, and the alpha of the texture will have mostly the black lines that most outfits and skins have as details. Seems everything else uses plain colors and it's solely affected by the lighting engine for it's anime shading. BUT, there's one thing you need to do with the texture, even if you don't want to put edits on it. Because the work on the model and it's transition from emd to fbx and back to emd, now the textures need to all be flipped vertically for them to look correct when on the modded models. So open the dds files you got earlier on whatever program you have, make sure everything is selected, including the alpha layer, and flip vertically, then save the dds as DTX5, 8bpp+ alpha, and with the option of no mipmaps. Overwrite the dds files and keep them in the folder they were in.
Now to put everything back together, first drag-drop the fbx you made into the fbxemd.exe program in the bin folder. This will create the file as an emd. If you had the previous emd in the same folder, it will simply overwrite it without notice. For the textures file drag-drop the folder with the dds files you just flipped into the embpack.exe program. This will recreate/overwrite the previous emb file, but now with your mods. Now, open the data2 folder you extracted previously. You will notice that it's structure is similar to the data folder, with a chara folder and some(not all) character folders. Move both modified emb and emd files into the character folder you were working with but instead of going to the data folder from before, go to data2>data>chara. With all files in place, go back into the main LibXenoverse-master folder and click on the pack-data-2.bat This will overwrite the data2.cpk with your mods in it.
Lastly, go to the game's steam folder, backup the data2.cpk there by mving it somewhere else or changing it's extension to .bak and replace it with your modded data2.cpk. If you understood this guide well and if everything went well, you will see your mods in game. Remember though, only you will be able to see these mods.
Hope this helps someone out there. I've checked this guide for errors but sometimes someone else has to spot them. Let me know if there's any errors, missing steps, or post any thoughts/problems with it. I'll be around for a few days and will check on it. Have fun :)
EDIT: Just noticed, and wanted to add, that upon arrival of the next update and dlc pack, my data2.cpk was updated by the server. At the moment I wasn't running any mods but it's size increased from 30 MB to 36. Keep this in mind when backing up both your modded data2 and the vanilla game's data2. Also, you will need to use the new data2.cpk to put your mods into.
In depth look at texture modding, in a video. Used with permission.
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