The following was not written by me, it is a copy of a GameFAQs forum post. It details how to change the player character model to one of the NPCs in the game. Further elaboration can be found on Lucasforums:
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someone | Posted 3/23/2007 4:27:49 PM | message detail
It's pretty easy:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=foSGF33aNn4
Basically I just learned what the users at the official forum were doing:
http://jade.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=551760&forum=108
and tried it out for myself. We're getting pretty far along.
Also, in case u don't want to read the description on youtube, I actually did NOT replace the other characters to choose at the start. All of them are there, and now these extra characters are available for use.
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How do you get sigged? Seriously, How? -THUGTHAWSK8R
pookgai123 | Posted 3/24/2007 10:32:45 PM | message detail
can you give us a step by step process to do that?
I really want to play as death's hand.
And what happens when the cut scenes run? Which character does it show?
Skurai123 | Posted 3/25/2007 9:26:15 AM | message detail
Yea, I don't really understand what the forums are saying.
someone | Posted 3/26/2007 9:53:17 AM | message detail
For cutscenes, it will show your character.
However for 'full rendered movies', it will show whatever character you have the ID for in players.2da.
For most males, I usually just put the ID number for Tiger Shen or the guy with the tattoos. For most females, I put the ID for woman in blue, or the woman in purple with the bandaged arms.
Ok...if the forums are unintelligible, I'll write up a guide when I get back from class today.
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How do you get sigged? Seriously, How? -THUGTHAWSK8R
someone | Posted 3/27/2007 2:15:30 PM | message detail
someone's Model Switching Guide
What you'll need...
ERFEdit
This is a program that can access all of the archive files found in the data and override folders in your main Jade Empire Install path. This is more or less the most important thing you need in order to switch models.
You can download it here:
http://www.starwarsknights.com/tools.php
(It's version 0.3)
Also, it would be wise to download all supplemental files that aren't included in the override folder.
Download every .2da from this bioware developers site. I recommend saving them in their own folder...I called mine 'Mod' and placed it in the main Jade Empire directory.
You can download the .2da files here:
http://gulbsoft.de/doku.php/games/jade/jade
Ok, now you have everything you need.
How to add an NPC as a playable character in the character select for New Game
I'll demonstrate how to add Death's Hand as a playable character in Jade Empire.
First, we start with ERFEdit. Start it and select File, and Open...
In the main Jade Empire folder, open the data folder. You should see many folders that appear to resemble certain locations from the game. This is important.
For every NPC you want to access, you have to remember where they're model is shown in the game. If you'll notice, all the folders and locations are separated by chapters. Certain models only appear for the first time in certain chapters, and the game goes back to that chapter to load the model again if they appear anywhere else. This way, some models will only be in a certain folder while other models (namely important character models) appear in numerous folders.
Death's Hand appears a number of times in the game. We know he makes an appearance in chapter 7. Open the j07_templecourt folder. You'll notice the folder is empty. At the bottom of the window, change the Files of type... to .rim. All of these files we'll be accessing are .rim files. The program tends to go back to the default file type, so every time you choose to open a new file, remember to change the file type to .rim at the bottom.
In this folder there are two .rim files. a401.rim and a401-a.rim.
The first .rim file has all the main .MDL files. The second .rim file has some model and some texture files. You'll need both.
The main model name for death's hand is _Hand. Preceding the _Hand is an N for body or H for head. Some models have separate body and head models. So you'll need to extract both the N_Hand and H_hand for Death's Hand if he had two separate head and body models.
He only has a body model though. So just find N_Hand.MDL and extract it to the Mod folder I told you about (for easy access in the next step). To extract the files, highlight them and select the button at the top of the column of buttons on the right of the window. Choose your destination and select extract.
And don't worry, when you extract you are making copies of the files, so once you extract them you can do what you want with them. You'll still find them intact inside the .rim archives.
Ok, now open the second .rim file in the folder. Now this gets a little tricky. Look for N_Hand and you'll find two important file types here. File type .3016 and file type .3017.
For Death's Hand we need to extract the following files:
n_hand01.3017
n_hand01b.3017
n_hand_.3016
Extract them all to the Mod folder. Now we have all the files we need. However, before we move the files, we must change the extensions. In order for Jade Empire to read these files outside of a rim, the .3016 and .3017 must be changed. The extensions must be changed as follows:
.3016 becomes .mdx
.3017 becomes .txb
Now that all the files are correct, all we have to do is move them into the Override folder in the main Jade Empire Directory.
Editing the .2da files with Notepad
WHEN DOING THIS MAKE SURE WORD WRAP IS OFF, THE ORDER OF THE INFORMATION IS VERY IMPORTANT
But you'll notice that as soon as you open the file.
Ok, first we open the Apperances.2da file in the override folder.
Find the Death's Hand model row. Just hit ctrl+F and search for Hand. You'll find it soon enough. Highlight his ENTIRE row. Copy it. Then move all the way to the bottom of the file. Paste the row at there at the bottom. Change the appearance ID number to whatever number is after the number above.
I believe it ends at 236, so change the ID number to 237.
Also, and this is important, remove or add any spaces after changing the ID number so that all the numbers and starts LINE UP with the one's above them. The numbers and stars don't have to have the same information, but they have to be on certain lines. Just make sure the beginning of each data entry is lined up with the one above it. This really only requires deleting a space before N_Hand or something though, so if you're doing a lot of work to get them to line up, you're doing too much.
Save once everything is done.
Now open the players.2da file in the override folder (this and appearances should be there, but if they are not, you know where to find them in my first step).
Copy a row of a male character, any one of them will do. Now paste this row at the bottom of the list and make sure they line up.
Here's the important part. Where it says appearanceindex, change the number to you're new entry: 237.
Save.
And you're done! Start up a new game and scroll through the player list and you'll see Death's Hand as a new 7th character. His name and bio will be the same as the character you copied the row from, but I'm trying to find out how to edit the names and biographies...just give me some time.
If you have any questions, feel free to post them here and I'll get to them as soon as possible.
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How do you get sigged? Seriously, How? -THUGTHAWSK8R
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