particle emitter/MDX->MDL in 2023

[Bleeq]

I've managed to figure out plenty of other things so far without making myself an annoyance, and when I was last going to post a thread the "is this already discussed" actually gave me my answer*, But how are you supposed to edit particle emitters in current day (classic) models?
Just to clarify, I am entirely talking about classic style models but from the live game (mdx format), ie not Reforged.

I can't find anything in Retera's Model Studio (RMS) to edit them directly, I don't even know if you're supposed to be able to right-click elements in the 'edit' or 'model' tabs on the view window, because I can't do that. (tbh I'm surprised you can't just right-click geosets and edit them or something (though I only half understand what they are to begin with lol) or see the names or labels of individual vertices).
I've tried opening exported .mdx in Magos Model Editor, but it doesn't like the newer ones because of "material.layer' or "layer.material" or something. I used it for some older stuff and it had no issues though, I edited a buff model I got off the HIVE and tailored it to my liking, which was a minor victory.

So after some searching I discover you can open .mdl in notepad and edit it directly, but .mdx wont open in notepad or notepad++.
Then I try MdlxConv, but it's ancient and doesn't like new .mdx's
I saw a post from Retera himself in 2020 saying save the model from RMS as .mdl then edit it, but if there's some special option to do that, I can't find it. I can only save as .mdx.
I think I also tried another ancient oinkerwinkle tools converting thing but it did nothing but throw errors.
So I now I'm trying MOP but it flatly doesn't work on some models and most of them it says successful but the output is 2kb big and has almost no contents when viewed with notepad.

So how are people editing particle emitters in this day and age? I can only assume there is some easy way to do this in RMS that I'm missing.



*I was up till 2am one night trying to figure out why RMS wouldn't show my custom skin in 99% of cases, and then it just turns out they have to be in the same folder -_-

 

[Jaccouille]

I've tried opening exported .mdx in Magos Model Editor, but it doesn't like the newer ones because of "material.layer' or "layer.material" or something. I used it for some older stuff and it had no issues though, I edited a buff model I got off the HIVE and tailored it to my liking, which was a minor victory.

mdx format was updated for reforged release, but you should be able to open them with magos 1.08 according to the description of this thread -> War3 Model Editor
I suggest you try this if you haven't already.

So after some searching I discover you can open .mdl in notepad and edit it directly, but .mdx wont open in notepad or notepad++.

mdx is a compressed format, it isn't "human readable", it's meant to save space (make file lighter). As you have understood, you need to convert mdx to mdl if you want to open them in a text editor.

I saw a post from Retera himself in 2020 saying save the model from RMS as .mdl then edit it, but if there's some special option to do that, I can't find it. I can only save as .mdx.

In RMS if you want to save as .mdl, you have to manually write ".mdl" as the extension of your file when you are saving IIRC (not really intuitive).
There is also an option in one of the menu to "export version 800" or something like that.

I think I also tried another ancient oinkerwinkle tools converting thing but it did nothing but throw errors.

You can safely assume that tools made before 2019 cannot interact with reforged mdx format.

So I now I'm trying MOP but it flatly doesn't work on some models and most of them it says successful but the output is 2kb big and has almost no contents when viewed with notepad.

I believe there's an issue with some of the checkbox option from Sanitization and Optimization tabs, I recommend disabling everything except : "Convert, Process MDX File" and "Version 800" from the output tab.

So how are people editing particle emitters in this day and age? I can only assume there is some easy way to do this in RMS that I'm missing.

I have an old WC3 installed on a separated hard drive which I linked to a 1.07 magos editor, I edit stuff this way, save as mdx, old mdx format still work with reforged.

 

[Bleeq]

Thank you dude, I was using v1.07 model editor, now that I've installed v1.08 and messed around with the registry thing it appears to be working nicely. It even loads the textures correctly now! Finally my kobold will be able to light its candle .

In RMS I tried changing the extension when saving, but it just saved it as .mdx regardless.

I saw the 'version 800/900/1000' stuff but had no idea what it meant so didn't mess with it.

Anyway, it appears my issue is solved.

Kobold candle is go. Thanks again