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+--- Thread: Porting Custom Characters into MKW (/showthread.php?tid=1650)
Porting Custom Characters into MKW - moth - 10-14-2020
Unlike with custom tracks, custom characters don't have a lot of documentation that I can find, so I'm going to archive as much information as I can into this thread. If you have anything you would like to contribute, do kindly post it as a comment, and I'll add it to this post if it seems necessary. If you have any questions or troubles, the best place to go is Atlas' MK Hacking and Modding Community discord server, linked here: https://discord.com/invite/fPRqbvV
For tutorials on how to port models into the game, the best one I'm aware of was written by Atlas, and is linked here: https://pastebin.com/Pcd9tHJw .
Notes:
- Atlas specifically uses 3ds Max 2015, however the tutorial works perfectly fine with 2021, and presumably should work with any version after 2010.
- If you're looking for models to use, a good place to look is Models Resource, linked here: https://www.models-resource.com/ . They have a vast array of models from various games on various platforms.
- In the case that a model doesn't open correctly in 3ds Max, which can happen with non .dae files, try opening it in the newest version of Blender, and exporting it as a .dae, taking care to remove the camera, model and light that Blender creates on startup.
- Exporting materials and shaders with Brawl Box or Brawl Crate doesn't always work correctly, and will generally produce errors. You're better off taking a copy of the original .szs file, and copying the materials and shaders over to your model manually.
- Textures widths and heights MUST be perfect squares (eg. 128x256), or else the texture might not load correctly in game.
- Brawl Box doesn't always display models correctly as they would display in game. (See this image as an example: https://i.imgur.com/lNoKg4b.png , while it looks bright and unshaded in Brawl Box, it actually looks perfectly okay in game.)
- Models taken from MKW directly don't need to have their normals modified, and don't need to have VertexPaint applied. (see https://i.imgur.com/PDLqBcb.png as an example. Neither Koopa's nor Rosalina's models needed to have the aforementioned normals or VertexPaint edits, as they were ripped from their original game files.)
- Obtaining the original game files can be done in one of two ways. You can either rip them directly from an ISO (Use Wiimm's ISO Tools to extract it, see https://mkwii.com/showthread.php?tid=13 for assistance if needed, then navigate to \files\Race\Kart. See the top of this thread to find the file you need based on its name: https://mkwii.com/showthread.php?tid=275), or, if you're in Atlas' modding discord, you can use Mee6 to obtain them (in the #bot-sandbox channel, type !get MKW/<file>.szs, where <file> is the original file name. See the top of this thread to find the file based on it's name: https://mkwii.com/showthread.php?tid=275 . eg. If you wanted Mario on Mach Bike you would type in !get MKW/ma_bike-mr.szs)
This thread will be updated with any new information and resources I come across that are worth adding. As previously mentioned, if you have anything you'd like to see added to this post, please leave it as a comment. Cheers.