Zoo Admin Archive

Zoo Admin Welcome Center => Frequently Asked Questions => Zoo Tycoon 2 => Topic started by: Atomachona on January 21, 2007, 01:44:55 PM

Title: help with custom animals
Post by: Atomachona on January 21, 2007, 01:44:55 PM
hi.. I tried to create an animal with ape 2 but whenever I run the game there's a white box were the animal's supposed to be and whenever i try to adopt one the game crashes. I looked at the zoopedia entry and it uses the polar bear (the animal i used) entry instead of the entry I made.
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: badisbadis101 on January 21, 2007, 01:46:15 PM
Look here (http://zoo.ogresnet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6579) for answers to common problems
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: Atomachona on January 21, 2007, 02:12:11 PM
I tried to do the stuff mentioned by the link, but it wont let me save any of the stuff i do!!
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: badisbadis101 on January 21, 2007, 02:14:26 PM
trry and use XIV32 to edit the nifs. ill post a link in a minute

Here (http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi32/xvi32.htm)
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: mikaboshi on January 21, 2007, 02:16:37 PM
You need to make sure that your files are not marked READ ONLY in order to make chnages to them
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: badisbadis101 on January 21, 2007, 02:19:43 PM
that too, what files are you having problems with?
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: Atomachona on January 21, 2007, 02:44:35 PM
the bfms and nifs, how do you un mark them as "read only?"
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: badisbadis101 on January 21, 2007, 02:46:09 PM
right click, properties, then uncheck teh read only box. If you still cant save the nif, youlll have to try XVI32, link below
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: Atomachona on January 21, 2007, 02:53:06 PM
umm.. what "properties" box are you talking about? in winzip or notepad?
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: badisbadis101 on January 21, 2007, 03:00:42 PM
after you right click, click on properties, like this:
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: csleesburg on January 21, 2007, 03:02:19 PM
After you've copied all your files you need, RIGHT click on the folder (say FlamingoGreater) and at the bottom of the list you'll see a thing called "Properties". Click on that and a dialogue box will open, with 3 tabs. The first will be "General" and will show a small shaded out check-box marked Read-Only. Make sure and UNCHECK that box so that you will be permitted to make changes to your copied files. :original:
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: badisbadis101 on January 21, 2007, 03:02:37 PM
then UNcheck the read only box
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: csleesburg on January 21, 2007, 03:07:54 PM
Quote from: badisbadis101;176662
then check the read only box

That is incorrect. Sorry. You don't want to re-check the Read Only box or you'll have to uncheck it every time you edit your animal. :whistling
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: badisbadis101 on January 21, 2007, 03:09:49 PM
soorry, i meant uncheck it, mine was already uncheck, so i wanted to check it

:original: :original: :original:
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: Atomachona on January 21, 2007, 03:37:31 PM
Arrgh!:throw: What am I doing wrong!?!?!?!?!?!?:crying:  I followed everything the "common problems" thread told me, and i was able to edit the files and yet i still get what i call the "white box of doom".

Could someone please tell me exactually what graphics files are required? APE wasn't very clear. My zoo tycoon game stores all the animal files in 5 seperate directories, some with two folders of stuff per animal.:sign_help
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: mikaboshi on January 21, 2007, 03:39:07 PM
You need DXTBmp and ANY graphics editing software. Plus you need Notepad. For a complete list of everything, check the So You Want to Be a Designer... thread. You can find a link in my Sig
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: Atomachona on January 21, 2007, 04:16:50 PM
uh... wat i meant was want specific zoo tycoon files do you need? for exapmle- Adult_F.bfm and Adult_f.nif
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: mikaboshi on January 21, 2007, 04:20:36 PM
You should reread the tutorial, since that is so far the best resource we have. I am currently making a tutorial for making animals, but of course its complex and takes some time.

You need: xml, beh, tsk, bfm, nif, dds files. NIF and DDS are the only ones that are graphics files.
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: Atomachona on January 21, 2007, 06:17:21 PM
ok.. tell me when your finished, and I hope you make it more accurate and less vauge than APE...
I don't know.. right know i just plan to completely delete all the graphics files and start over with them.. it's the graphics that's causing all the issues, right?
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: mikaboshi on January 21, 2007, 06:24:17 PM
A gaming crash? no. That's an error in the NIF and XMLs. Make sure that in the NIF you do not add extra characters...if your file name is too short, add underscores. If your name is too long, then just leave some letters off. Then go to the main XML file and make sure that the name matches the one in NIF that you specified.
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: Atomachona on January 22, 2007, 01:08:00 PM
That's it, I give up. I have spent two days trying to fix this bug in vain, and now I have offically run out of ideas. I guess I'll just make more skins for my wolves now.

Thanks for your help, everyone. :wavecry:
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: mikaboshi on January 22, 2007, 01:16:13 PM
IT takes countless tries to get something right; two days is not enough time to give up after. We are trying to help you to the best of our ability, but its not always as simple as saying "oh, its this" because we are not there next to you helping you along. I suggest trying out something smaller first; If you click the "So You Want To Be A Designer.... link in my siggy, it will help you figure out where to start. An animal is one of THE hardest things to attempt
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: Atomachona on January 22, 2007, 03:45:08 PM
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! It works!!!!!! When I renamed the files in the folder on my desktop, it didn't change the files in the archive, so i went in and changed those files, and now t works!!!!! Yay to the 20th power
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: badisbadis101 on January 22, 2007, 03:50:07 PM
good Job! It took me almost a year to finally get it to work properly:original:

:welcomean to the coding world!
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: Atomachona on January 22, 2007, 05:22:03 PM
Well, I ran the game and took some pics of my animal.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r22/atomachona/Twobears.jpg
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r22/atomachona/Onebigbear.jpg
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r22/atomachona/Standingbear.jpg
note-i have not done the skins for it yet, but please enjoy anyways.

Although it seems to work good, it does still have a few bugs.

for instance, the zoopedia entry is not displaying properly.
Instead, it just displays the entry for bear,polar

Any idea how to fix this???
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: badisbadis101 on January 22, 2007, 05:42:04 PM
Well, it looks like the godzilla of zoo tycoon 2, in a polar bear outfit:original:

good job, cant wait to see the skin:original:
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: mikaboshi on January 22, 2007, 05:43:24 PM
Please check the common problems thread again/ You can click the guides link in my siggy to get tehre
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: Atomachona on January 23, 2007, 11:43:43 AM
Cool, the zoo pedia works just fine now!
Thanks for all the help, guys!
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: Atomachona on January 24, 2007, 01:37:13 PM
Ok, I finished skining! (it tok a lot longer than i thought!)
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n195/uberactionfishy/beargroup.jpg
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n195/uberactionfishy/sitting.jpg
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n195/uberactionfishy/twobears.jpg
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: badisbadis101 on January 24, 2007, 01:38:31 PM
:specool: skin!
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: Atomachona on January 24, 2007, 01:48:08 PM
Thanks very much!
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: badisbadis101 on January 24, 2007, 01:50:51 PM
just wondering, though, what is it?
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: Atomachona on January 24, 2007, 01:58:32 PM
Umm it's a fantasy animal i kinda made up as i went along- a Giant Tiger-Bear!
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: badisbadis101 on January 24, 2007, 01:59:50 PM
ahh, i see.

:specool:
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: Atomachona on January 24, 2007, 02:01:59 PM
I tried to do something kinda simple y'know..
by the way, is it possible to resize enrichment objects, shelters, and the like to fit my bear??
Title: help with custom animals
Post by: badisbadis101 on January 24, 2007, 02:04:21 PM
yeah, but if you give him regular sized things, i think he'll use them, but it would look really, well, weird

PS i dont know how to code enrichment items and shelter, so you would have to ask someone else if you do secide to try it