Quillbeast Color

[Melth]

So I wanted to make two varieties of quilbeast creep on a map, one the tan/brown color and one the black color. I was sure I had seen quilbeast model files matching both of those descriptions. To my surprise, all quilbeast varieties share the same model though and were black on my map. To make sure I wasn't just crazy, I checked the orc bonus campaign and sure enough there are indeed brown/tran quilbeasts in that. It's the same spell, what seems to be different is the tileset. My map uses Ashenvale and in Ashenvale quilbeasts are black whereas in barrens and some other tilesets they're tan.

Is there a way to force a custom quilbeast to look tan or brown in Ashenvale anyway?

Edit: I found this thread http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/modeling-animation-276/different-textures-beastmaster-summons-133717/index2.html

Out of several threads with people asking similar questions, they seem to be the only people who found the answer.

In the war3x.mpq, you'll find some extra mpq's which have alphabetical names like A.mpq, B.mpq and so on.

BUT I can't actually find these MPQs in the MPQ editor!

And further, I don't know enough about modeling to understand what Blinkboy meant by

1º import your main skin to a selected path.

2º extract the mpq according to tilesets (A,B,C,D, etc) from war3path or war3x

3º add to this mpq your new versions with the same paths.

4º Import these MPQs to your mod/map.

Can someone explain where to find these hidden MPQs? And can someone explain what I need to do with those MPQs to make it so one quilbeast creep in my map uses the black model and one uses the tan one?

 

[WaterKnight]

Yes, it is tileset specific because your map runs on one of the predefined tilesets as base and each of these tilesets possesses a designated mpq, it can use to add personal data/replace global data.

Those mpqs can be found in the root paths of the main mpqs. They are named according to their tileset's one char identifier. Ashenvale is "A", Barrens "B". Look up the War3Patch.mpq first, then the War3x.mpq, then War3.mpq until you find it because it is loaded in that order.

You will still have to copy the model, replace its used texture path and reimport it on another path. And reimport the texture on another path, too. You can grab a mdx<->mdl converter like http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/tools-560/mdlx-converter-62991/, convert to mdl, browse through the resulting ascii file with a text editor and near the top there will be something like

Textures 1 {
	Bitmap {
		Image "<pathToQuillbeastSkin>",
	}
}

Replace <pathToQuillbeastSkin> by the new texture path. Save, reconvert and import the mdx into the map.

 

[Binsu]

Are you finding these A, B, C and so on MPQs? You can find them at war3x MPQ and then find it on the Folder named as Units. Try opening the MPQ on Magos and you'll find it.

The units folder is a long list by the way.

 

[Melth]

Are you finding these A, B, C and so on MPQs? You can find them at war3x MPQ and then find it on the Folder named as Units. Try opening the MPQ on Magos and you'll find it.

The units folder is a long list by the way.

Haven't found them yet. I looked in the War3x MPQ with the MPQ editor and just can't find them there so far. I did of course look through the Units folder but I don't see any files or folders simply entitled A or B or C or anything like that. There are categories for the different races (Human, Naga, Creeps, etc.) and a number of Excel and text files, but that's it.

Creeps is of course the folder Quilbeasts are in and sure enough the basic Quilbeast mode, portrait, etc. are there but the skin file present is the 'blue' (Actually mostly black hence that's what I call it) one and there are no alphabetically named folders there.

So I tried Magos's editor (which I'm completely new to) but when I tried to open the MPQ in that program I get the message that I'm unable to open it because of the 'unknown extention.'

 

[Binsu]

Well, open war3x MPQ with any MPQ opener you have that works and find this folder:

Then, browse into the Units folder and you would find this on the list:

There is A, B, C and go down and you'll see the others.

Preferable you get a working Magos Editor if you can't still and find it there if you can't find it with your MPQ openers.

 

[Melth]

Weirdly, that's not at all what I see in the MPQ editor. I've attached a picture of the files I do see.

 

[Binsu]

Are you really sure for I can see it with Ladik's as well.

Make sure to browse ALL of the mpq's contents and the contents of Units Folder as well.

 

[Melth]

Ah ha, there it is! Wasn't in units though.

You will still have to copy the model, replace its used texture path and reimport it on another path. And reimport the texture on another path, too. You can grab a mdx<->mdl converter like http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/t...nverter-62991/, convert to mdl, browse through the resulting ascii file with a text editor and near the top there will be something like

Code:
Textures 1 {
Bitmap {
Image "<pathToQuillbeastSkin>",
}
}
Replace <pathToQuillbeastSkin> by the new texture path. Save, reconvert and import the mdx into the map.

Could you explain this in a bit more detail with what programs I should do each step with? Since I've done a smidgen of modeling before I think I have all the right programs, but I don't know much about using them (and have never replaced a skin texture yet).

 

[WaterKnight]

I usually work with Magos Model editor but since it cannot handle everything, like easily editing the texture paths, let's do it in the clean text format mdl instead. So export the Quillbeast mdx from the mpq and convert it with above tool. The thereby created mdl can be opened with a simple text editor. There you search for the declaration block of used textures "Textures <amount> {<textureDeclarations>}" and at least one of the paths should be something like "Textures\QuillBeast.blp", which is the personal skin of the unit model. Other paths would be most likely shared resources that you should not touch. So you adjust "Textures\QuillBeast.blp" to maybe "Textures\QuillBeastBrown.blp", whatever, just make sure it's a unique path. Save the file, reconvert it to mdx and import it into the map. Then we still need to get the brown skin file itself, export/open the B.mpq, search for the Quillbeast texture, export it. Import it into your map too but under the path you picked above like "Textures\QuillBeastBrown.blp". That's all. You have made sure to have both skin textures on different paths to be able to access them individually and a model for each one to use it.