Download Cromon's Wow Injector
needed to load custom models in game.
(2010.05.30)
Download M2Mod v4 for Cataclysm
Download M2Mod v3 for WotLK
The main package that will let you make model edits.
(2009.04.22)
Download the guide
An in-depth user guide with info on how to make model edits with this tool. Please check this out and give it a read if you're having trouble getting started.
Note: let me know if you run into any bugs.
Note: Source code is available on request.
special thanks to Trollpaxton who shared the source code for his M2 mod tool which served as a great reference point for this tool, especially with fixing animation offsets.
special thanks to the wowdev and source peek wikis and whoever edits those pages with the reverse engineered file format information needed to make something like this possible.
thanks to everybody on
nude mod who makes mods.
thanks to everybody on nude mod who uses mods.
Version History
v0.1 beta
initial release
v0.1.1 beta
fixed one bug. added more detailed error messages. changed configuration file format, added categories. updated Blender import/export scripts. updated documentation.
v0.2 beta
improved duplicate vertex detection and normals smoothing to be less dumb.
added command line support.
added MirrorCamera option, to mirror the camera accross the model's y axis.
added IgnoreExtras option, to merge only geometry from the M2I and ignore everything else, which is useful for updating old edits to the current game version.
v0.2a beta
improved import/export scripts, it is now safe to remove doubles from the mesh and use quads (although using quads is still not advisable because they will be triangulated on export and they might not triangulate favorably). vertices are now exported in the order that they are used.
v0.2b beta
changed import script, removed remove doubles on import because it messes with 2 sided geometry like
skirts.
v1.0
fixed the MWV issue, added missing list length assignments for vertex and bone lists which was causing models to explode when opened in WoW Model Viewer because of indices indexing vertices that were outside the range of the loaded vertex list.
v1.1
updated the import script to make imported meshes smooth so it's easier to see seams in the mesh. improved seam fixing logic during merge. added the capability to specify the tolerances used during the 3 seam fixing phases.
v1.2
fixed a bug with bounding data calculation being calculated out of order and using the old vertex data from the original M2 vs the imported M2I.
added support for static M2s, these are M2s used for doodads and world objects and other things that don't move.
v1.21
fixed bug with seam fixing being applied on old vertices from original M2 rather than new vertices from after M2I import.
v4.0
updated for Cataclysm.
skipped a bunch of version numbers just to get version number in sync with the current WoW version number, 4.0.
modified the M2I format a little bit, M2I is now also at v4.0.
updated and fixed errors in M2I file format documentation.
Blender 2.49 M2I import/export scripts updated. imports from v4.0 and v3.0 M2I. exports as v4.0 M2I only.
took out bounding box copy option.
changed IgnoreExtras option to be on by default to help with migrating mods from v3.0 to v4.0.
added new IgnoreMaterials option which is on by default and should to help when migrating mods from v3.0 to v4.0.
v4.01
turned off IgnoreMaterials by default, so materials are taken from the imported M2I rather than from the input M2. IgnoreMaterials is still bugged on some models however.
turned off IgnoreExtras by default.
removed internal function PrintInfo() from being called and generating a TXT file along side the input M2 containing info about the M2 (if you have these TXT files left over from the last version you may delete them).
v4.02
removed IgnoreExtras, split it into 3 options:
added IgnoreBones, IgnoreAttachments, IgnoreCameras.
v4.03
fixed the seam fixing algorithm to actually work now. it will close all the gaps between body and non-body meshes and copy vertex weights from the body mesh to the non-body mesh. it wasn't working at all before beacuse of some stupid mistake on my part. in order for it to work, close all the gaps between clothing and body meshes as much as possible within Blender so M2Mod can detect it and copy the bone weights from the body to the clothing.
About
This tool will allow you to make model edits.
It works around M2I files. M2I stands for M2 Intermediate, and is a file format that was developed for this tool, and contains only the data relevant to that which we want to edit, which is meshes, bones, attachments, and cameras.
The core steps to making a mod are:
[*]Convert the M2 to an M2I.
[*]Import the M2I into Blender.
[*]Make edits.
[*]Export the M2I from Blender.
[*]Merge the original M2 with the modified M2I to produce the final modded M2.
If you don't use Blender, you'll have to write your own import/export scripts for the M2I files. Included with the main package is documentation on the M2I file format so you can do this.
You may edit meshes however you want. You can edit vertex weights, vertices, UVs, subdivide, split, extrude, sculpt, etc. Just about anything that Blender will let you do to the mesh you can do safely without worrying about breaking the model. As long as you export a triangulated mesh, the tool can take care of the rest. You can even edit bone positions, attachment positions, and cameras.
You are able to edit the mesh arbitrarily because the tool rebuilds the skin files from scratch on merge. Again, this means you can edit the mesh however you want with very few limitations.
Demos
Mods that were made with this tool, so you can get an idea of what's possible:
on Sun Jan 16, 2011 11:52 pm, edited 29 times in total.