Installing stuff with FFX3 installed?

[kingb33]

I'm having a lot of trouble installing new FX and Voicepacks into FFX3  and im following the instructions that come with whatever im downloading exactly...

I'm wondering for FFEDIT under "options" all the default paths are already setup for you automatically do they need to be changed for FFX3?

Examples of the default paths in FFEDIT:
NIF LIBRARY PATH
C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich\Data\Art
SOUND PATH
C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich\Sounds

1) Do any of those default paths need to be changed specifically for FFX3? Because FFX3 has its own "Art" folder.  Or is leaving them all default just fine? Like the data paths too?

Thanks

[spydermann93]

Hello,

I changed mine to these and the work fine:

Primary Data Path: C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich\ffx3
Secondary Data Path: C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich\ffx3
NIF Library Path: C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich\ffx3\Art
Sound Path: C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich\ffx3\Sounds

I left these untouched:

Game EXE
Level Editor EXE
Python Editor

[Previsionary]

Only the primary path needs to be changed (and perhaps sounds, depending on where you put the files). Ideally, you should have searched for the installation order which is easily findable in my comprehensive list of tutorials thread in the FF discussion forum. FFX 3.3 should come with an ezfx ready dat that you can just rename or use for merging purposes (check its readme or changelog. It should be named something recognizable like "ezfx60.dat" or some such).

Also, I'd suggest keeping the majority of your questions in a single thread not only for tidy reasons, but also because you'll be able to find all these answers in one place. I've noticed that a few of the questions you've posed over the past few days have been answered numerous times in your other threads. You may be overlooking them.

[kingb33]

Hi, I went thru that entire list
http://freedomreborn.net/forums/index.php?topic=50675.0

I did find some helpful stuff but nowhere did i find a tutorial on how to add voice packs and custom FX "with" the FFX3 mod installed specifically. Unless i didn't see it?  I went thru it 3 times. And the FFX website itself doesn't have any tutorials and the manual doesn't really say anything either and they don't have a forum (at least at their website they don't)

I'll keep all my questions here regarding FFX3 installs...i know i was posting in too many places.  I thought it would be better to post per the type based on a specific question per that type.  It does get messy.

So...

1)
I saw the install order thread:
http://freedomreborn.net/archive/index.php?topic=46080.0  
And it seems that i installed  everything in the correct order:
1: Game
2: EZFX 6.0
3: FFX 3.3 (Full Installer)

But it also mentions that i may need to install "VPMAX?"  Is that required?  Is that why the voice packs i was trying to install didnt work before?
And I assume when it say "VPMAX" that everyone is talking about this?
http://crimsonquill.wordpress.com/mpmax-mod/
Based on what i read in the feedback for installing VPMAX in a thread here somewhere that a lot of people had a lot of problems installing it correctly.


2)
I don't understand the "shared" directory names between   and FFX3

What ive noticed is that   has it own FX:
C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich\Data\art\library\fx
And FFX has it's own FX:
C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich\ffx3\Art\library\fx

An what about Speech?:

C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich\Data\Sounds\Speech\English  (**I had to create the \Speech\English myself...it was not created in the base installation.

FFX3 does not have a "Data\Sounds\Speech\English" (in fact it doesn't have a data folder at all)
Do i need to create this folder structure myself within the "ffx3" folder?


3)
I also noticed that   and FFX3 each have their own sounds.dat and fx.dat
I know i need to merge them using FFEDIT when i make changes.  Does that need to happen everytime i add something new?  Do i do it to the FFX3 .dats?  Or the   .dats?

So ultimately when installing custom FX and voice packs how does that all work? Is there a specific tutorial of it for FFX3?   and FFX3 have their own folders so i assume for voice packs i want to install i substitute some instructions included in the readme's to the "FFX3" side and not touch the   side of things?  I downloaded a couple files to install but each ones read me file directions differed slightly.  So it confused me.

I have to admit ive messed around with a "lot" of mod scenes over the years...but man, installing stuff in FF has i think proven to be the most challenging for sure.    
I'm thinking if i didn't have FFX3 installed it might be much easier?  But i "definitely" want FFX3 for sure so that's a mute point. I really want to install custom voice packs from here:
http://ffvc.web.officelive.com/default.aspx  --but obviously that has proven to be very painful so far.

Thanks for all the help.

[GogglesPizanno]

I think a lot of your confusion and issues will be helped once you grasp the concept of how mods work in 

FFX is a mod, so as a result all the elements for that mod should be self contained within that mod's install folder. Each mod has its own set of dats, and custom content. The game assumes two data paths (as defined in FFEdit), the usual setup is that the primary path will be the Mod folder, and the secondary path points to the vanilla game data files.

What this means is that when a mod is run, it looks for all the content it needs in the primary path (mod folder). In the event it cant find anything, in then looks in the secondary path (default game data). What content it is looking for is determined by the dat files. This is where some of the confusion comes in. You can choose to put custom content in either place. In the default game data path so the content is available for any mod, or in the mod folder itself, so that it is limited just to that mod. There are plusses and minuses to each method, but it mostly falls onto keeping things organized and self contained as much as possible.

Now you've got some custom content installed somewhere, the game has to know how to access and use it. This is where the dats come in. The dats basically store all the settings and definitions for everything in the game, as well as paths and pointers to the custom content it uses. Each mod has its own set of dats. So if you are playing FFX, the game is going to use the dat files in the FFX folder as the basis for what content is loaded and available. If you were playing one Bentons Mods (like DCU) it would use the dat files located in the DCU folder to determine what content is loaded and available. In the event the mod is not set up correctly or you are not using a mod, it uses the dats in the default data directory of the game. Ideally, you dont want mess with the default dats in case you screw something up. there are some things like EZFX that go against this based on the the content they are adding, but the general wisdom , is to leave the base dats clean and do all your modification in a mod directory.

I have found the best way to dink around and test things out, is to just copy the FFX folder, name it something else and create a new shortcut. The I mess around in this newly created folder. If you mess something up (and you will), you can always revert back from the original FFX folder.

But really it boils down to a couple basic concepts.
- Custom Content gets stored somewhere (usually in the mod folder of the mod using it, unless its meant to be universally used regardless of the mod)
- The Dat files define how that content is used. Each mod has its own set of dats, and the dats that are loaded and used are determined by the mod you are playing.

[kingb33]

Hey i appreciate the time you took to respond...yeah i did that last night a copied my FFX folder and messed with it so i could experiment.

Right now im trying to install a custom voice pack....

FFX3 does not have a "Data\Sounds\Speech\English" in its directory structure (--in fact it doesn't have a data folder at all)

1)
Do i need to create this folder structure myself within the "ffx3" folder?  to place the mp3 files?

Like so?
C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich\ffx3\Data\Sounds\Speech\English

Or can the "Sounds" folder sit outside the "data" at the root level?  

Hence:
C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich\ffx3\Sounds
and
C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich\Sounds


2)
From the voicepack i downloaded i know i have to paste the stuff into the bottom of my speech.txt
Example of one of lines:
SPEECH_UA_SELECT_08, speech\english\sh_batman\UASE08.mp3

since the directory structure in that begins with speech\  does it know to look in my sounds\speech\english folder?  


3)
When i "Generate Language Files" in FFEDIT for FFX3 do i need to do anything "merge dats" stuff?  the instructions in the readme dont say you have to but they are written for installing in just regular    not FFX3

Thanks

[GogglesPizanno]

The Mod folder is the equivalent of a custom Data Folder.
Or another way of looking at it, is the games "Data" folder is like the default Mod for the game.
When you play a mod, you are telling the game to use <modname> folder instead of Data folder for finding game data.

As long as you keep the folders organized in your mod folder in the same way as in the default data folder, everything should work fine.

When you generate language files you dont need to merge dats you just need to make sure the path to the language files is pointing to the correct files (the mod directory not the data directory). I would actually recommend using M25's utility vs FFedit as it is infinitely faster. http://ezscript.wikispaces.com/Mod+Tools

[kingb33]

YAY!  I finally got this to work.  Now i understand completely how it works.  I installed 2 voice packs so far  

Thanks everyone for all the help....now i just need to figure out how to install custom FX into FFX3 now.  I'm going to give that a shot right now. If i can get that working then i think ill be all good.. I think FX is a little more complicated though from what ive seen so far.  

I'm going to use this tutorial as my basis..hope it's a good one:

http://frworld.wikispaces.com/Installing+FX

And going to try to install FX from here:

http://frp.unlimited2.net/fx/


I just hope the FFX thing doesnt mess me up somehow...

And thanks for the links to utilities those will really help out....and how you explained it all in your post made a lot of sense to me...especially how the MOD is its DATA folder....that really is what helped me out.

[kingb33]

Ok i already got a question  

I downloaded a pack from here:
http://frp.unlimited2.net/fx/

The read me files says this:

"Instructions:

The following pack is for those who want all the files in one download along with a dat file that can replace theirs with or "merge" into their current fx.dat file.

The fx.dat file included with this pack assumes that you will install the tgas and fx folders into the Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich\Data\Art\library\fx\generic directory or the library\fx\generic of your mod folder. Anywhere else will require you to edit each file entry to point to the correct location."

But don't the TGA files that came with the download go in this folder?:
C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich\ffx3\Art\library\fx\_textures

The read me that came with it makes it sound like i'm supposed to put it in this folder:
C:\Program Files\Irrational Games\Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich\ffx3\Art\library\fx\generic

That's the stuff that gets confusing because the other tutorial i was using says all TGA's go in the _textures folder too...not in the "generic" folder

[Previsionary]

yes, Kingbe. The tga/dds files go in the _texture folder, which is in the same location as the /generic folder. The reason it says what it says is because all the files are packed into a folder appropriately named _textures.

Instead of installing the individual packs, just go get PFX.