#model swaps

[pi-creates]

Can you do Marlontine gifs, specifically with the dance scene, the pretzel date scene, the piano scene, the stargazing scene and the party scene?

=== I got you some Marlontine, anon.

[plus a bit of dancing AJ, because he's going to be a shadow to every Clem relationship]

[meg-noel-art]

Horizontober Day 5: Break

"A Hawk never abandons their Thrush." AU WHERE -- thanks to @talanahkhanepadish for snagging the model swap footage for me

[tjerra14]

When you're just messing about with model swaps for laughs but unexpectedly get a dose of feelings with it--

Ikrie in "For the Werak", upon acquiring a werak.

[hannyablair]

Somebody swapped Nishtani's model for mad dog Majima.. and honestly.. I'm not mad.

So it's literally older majima and young majima fighting. He is literally fighting himself. And I'm here like...

👀🔥🥵😍😩 ‼️⁉️

Now I should...

🚿🧼🧽 ...In cold water

[skajador]

Do you ever think about... Him

[pi-creates]

Finding Files using Telltale Inspector

Some people who have had success with swapping may have noticed the trend where you have all the files with your swap character’s name on it – but there are clearly some files not there. Maybe they don’t have any ptables, or maybe you’ve done your swap and parts of your character are just missing. You can’t find any files you missed and you’re wondering where they must be if you don’t have them already.

And the reason this happens is because your swap character normally uses reused assets. They don’t have their own ptables because they are using someone else’s, or they don’t have unique textures for their eyes because they share a file with other characters.

You can trial and error your way into finding which assets they are using, or you could try using the Telltale Inspector Tool created by Lucas in the Telltale Modding Group. (massive brain on this bloke – if you want to donate to him for his major efforts, it would definitely be appreciated) The readme and information on the tools can be found >>here<< and the most current release can be found >>here<<.

At the time of making this mini-tutorial, the most current version is ALPHA 1.0.2 – the information I’m presenting here and the screenshots used relate to this release, things may look or work differently in future.

The tool itself is capable of a lot more than I’m making note of here, and can be used to edit the information within the files if you know what you’re doing… I’m only giving a very layman’s explanation of one use of it to look at file information. Below you will find a very simple set of directions on using the Inspector tool to open props to find a character’s ptables, and then opening a character mesh to find the associated textures.

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Ptables and Animations

For example, let’s say we want to figure out what ptables Carley uses in season 1, and we notice that she doesn’t have any ptables in any of the data archives. We therefore have to find out whose ptables she is using if we want her to have an animated face during swaps.

First of all, we want to use Telltale Explorer to export out her prop file (save it somewhere handy so you can find it again later), and from there we can use Lucas’ Telltale Inspector to look at it properly.

1. Run the TelltaleInspector.exe, and click the [Open] drop down menu and select [Open Prop]

2. There will be another drop down menu that says [Select], we want to select the game where this prop file came from – in this case we need to select [The Walking Dead: Definitive Series]

3. Press the [Select] button to confirm you have selected the correct game

4. You should now have the interface for prop files from that game, but to look at the specific file we have previously exported using the Telltale Explorer, we need to click on [Import Property Set]

This should open up an explorer window where you need to direct the Inspector to the prop file you want to open.

5. Once you have successfully loaded the prop file, you need to click on the [>Properties] sub menu to expand the information shown at the bottom of the window. The information about phonemes is right near the bottom of the list as shown here when hovered over:

Click on the [Modify Handle Value] on the right column next to where the phoneme information was shown. A new window should open, and here we can see the name of the phoneme file that her default state is drawing from. In this case, we can see Carley is using Lilly’s ptables.

However, I will note that in other seasons of the game, this same information can be seen in a different location but with the same 5 steps leading up to it… for example, in A New Frontier, if you wanted to know which ptables and animation files are used on Javier’s father when he appears in flashbacks near the end of the game, you could look into the sk61_salvador305.prop.

Here we can see that his “Skeleton Face” is wd300GM – this means he uses the ptables and animations with this name. I assume the name implies “Walking Dead, Season 3, Generic Male”, I don’t know if that’s accurate, but what matters is that you now know it’s these generic files that he uses.

And if you want to look for a minor character in The Final Season, like the rancher who was taking care of baby AJ, the same situation applies here.

Her skeleton face is the same as Lilly’s in season 4, and therefore when Rancher Helen doesn’t have her own files to load, she is loading Lilly’s ptables and animations.

=====

Meshes and Textures

Let’s say we have tried to do a swap, but for some reason part of the swapped character isn’t loading. A common one that can happen is characters having missing eyes, but it could be something like missing hands or missing hair if it turns out we are swapping a character who uses a texture that is not named in the same manner as their mesh.

Since it has been a problem I’ve seen a few times, let’s use Kenny in season 2 as an example. If you try swapping him into another season without knowing what files he uses which are not named with “kenny202” at the start, he won’t have eyes or hands. And since Kenny in season 2 is one mesh called “sk54_kenny202.d3dmesh”, we can use the Telltale Inspector tool to see what textures we are missing.

1. Run the TelltaleInspector.exe, and click the [Open] drop down menu and select [Open D3DMesh]

2. There will be another drop down menu that says [Select], we want to select the game where this prop file came from – in this case we need to select [The Walking Dead: Definitive Series]

3. From here we need to click on [Open File] and an explorer window will open – we need to direct it to the mesh we want to look at.

4. And now we should have all the relevant information about the selected mesh.

What we are particularly interested in is the list of “Mesh Textures” shown at the bottom. Here we can clearly see the texture files that aren’t named consistently, and what we likely would miss without prior experience or knowledge of the character files. Aaaaand because I have the opportunity to share this little titbit, if you have tried editing textures, or simply swapping textures to see the results – you may encounter some instances where you simply wonder “I thought this would have changed? Why didn’t it?”, or alternatively “I changed this, why did this also change?” Here’s my contribution to fun trivia that I found myself quite some time ago, but now I can show it with the Inspector.

Aasim and Violet share a hair texture.

[pi-creates]

Chronic fatigue sucks, and I'm tired...

I do see the inbox messages where people are asking for help with model swaps, model swap requests, and even the occasional wholesome message that make me feel warm and fuzzy (staying in my inbox forever, thank you)... but the sad truth is that I'm extremely tired on most days and struggle to keep up with daily life. Making swaps isn't something I want to be doing on request, I don't even really play the game anymore except as a means to help demonstrate for others how to make edits. If I have an answer for your problem, I will try to give it when I can - but other times I don't have the answer, or I don't have the energy to respond. For most instances, I would encourage people to try asking on the Telltale Modding discord that you can join from the github link listed >>HERE<< where they have a help channel and are far more active than I am.

[pi-creates]

Hi, I'm sorry to bother you. I'm trying to figure out the whole model swap for TWDG and for the life of me I can't. Your tutorials are very well written but I am an idiot when it comes to this type of stuff. I'm trying to swap S1 Kenny with the S2 model and if you are busy or just not in a mood to help I'll understand :) I'll keep trying to make sense of it in my head anyway ':D

I have actually puzzled through that particular swap before - and don't worry, it wasn't just you who had trouble with it.

The basics are the same as outlined in the tutorial where you want to get your season 2 files for Kenny, rename the mesh(es) and related skl to overwrite the files in season 1, and then also get the relevant textures so the mesh doesn't end up invisible. But if you just look at Kenny's files, it can be a little overwhelming since he also has files in season 2 for all his damaged states as well as for when he appears in flashbacks from season 1.

The only mesh you want to deal with is called "sk54_kenny202.d3dmesh" - this is the way Kenny appears when you first see him in the ski lodge. And the skl file associated with that mesh is called "sk54_kenny202.skl". These should be the only two files you need to rename in order to replace Kenny in season 1.

As for what textures Kenny needs... you need all the d3dtx files that have the prefix "sk54_kenny202". All of those are needed to make sure his clothes, body, head, and hair all load correctly.

What's weird about Kenny is he also has updated eye textures in season 2, and if you don't bring these files back as well, he will just have empty eye sockets... his new eye textures come from the files beginning with "sk_wdSharedParts_eye_brown200" - there are 4 files you need to copy over, don't just take the texture without taking the detail, normal map, and specular files.

While you're in the textures for shared parts, there are also 4 parts for eye covers starting with "sk_wdSharedParts_eyesCover" - you will want to save these too.

And lastly, even if you do all of the above correctly and load up your game - you will quickly notice that for some reason season 2 Kenny doesn't have any hands. This is a weird one, but just trust me... the texture for the hands is combined into the textures for the character's head; so what you need to do is save the texture files for Luke's head, that gives Kenny hands.

... I don't know why he apparently uses Luke's hand textures when Kenny has his own, but whatever.

So if you want to bring season 2 Kenny into season 1 episode 1, here's what your files will end up being:

I hope the visual gives you a better idea of how the swap works - because I really get it... it can be confusing when you're looking at all the files, but seeing the end state and working backwards can sometimes help to make sense of things.

And basically, if you wanted this swap to be present in the other episodes of season 1, you'd have to to use the same mesh and skl, but duplicated to rename the meshes and skls that Kenny gets in the other episodes. But at that point, at least it's just the two files and all your texture dilemmas are already sorted.

Good luck, mate!