[SOLVED] Strat Model Difficulties

**King Siegfried** · October 15, 2009, 10:48 PM

I am having difficulties with my strat models for Antioch. They don't show up due to "[data.invalid] [error] Insufficient video memory to load requested texture set." So I looked up how to make new strat models, but maybe I'm just incredibly thick-headed, but it's just not sinking in. I believe my problem has to do with the .cas strat files? (unsure). But I only have Milkshape, and the only tutorials I can find on modifying the .cas files are only for 3D Max.

Is it possible to bring the Antioch textures to northern european strat models on Milkshape?

Here are my current text files, in case that's the problem (all my texture files are ready to go):
(descr_model_strat)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

(descr_character)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**KnightErrant** · October 15, 2009, 11:40 PM

Hi King Siegfried,

You can try GOAT

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downl...o=file&id=2233

It does a lot of things you might not be interested in, but some buttons
(meaning converters) work on the strat models and convert them to .ms3d
format so you can edit them in Milkshape and convert back. The strat models
usually have the old RTW skeletons so it's probably best to ignore the cloak
bones and just deal with the bones that matter to what you want to accomplish.

**Eothese** · October 16, 2009, 08:49 AM

AL has explained this problem fully in the past, but I can't find the relevent post. The problem is due a .tga file reference being needed in your descr_models_strat for a particular faction type. Its likely the .tga your using is needed for another model, possibly as a default for that model type. Try re-naming the .tga you want and leaving the original's as they are if possible. Sorry I can't explain this properly but I couldn't really get my head around the reason behind it, I just know it worked for me...

**King Siegfried** · October 16, 2009, 11:59 PM

I tried GOAT, but I didn't see how I could modify the .cas to contain the texture set for Antioch. If it is possible with Milkshape, I can't find a tutorial on it. All the other tutorials are very confusing, and I keep getting lost.

Now, Eothese, I read somewhere that you cannot have a duplicate entry for a faction. So I'm gonna have to make all the Antioch files named after the Templar files since I'm replacing the Knights Templar? (I actually just now really registered that this is probably what you were saying - long days make it very hard to comprehend things sometimes lol) I'm gonna try that and we'll see how that goes...

EDIT :: Nevermind. The Knights Templar just use England's models for everything... how can I get around this? All I want to do is change the Knights Templar's strat model textures to Antioch's...

**Eothese** · October 17, 2009, 06:08 AM

Sounds crazy but I'd suggest you try it with the Jerusalem texture, if that works open both .tga's up and fill the Jerusalem with black and paste the Antioch onto it. The reason I suggest this is that I believe the Jerusalem texture may be the key to unlocking the Antioch texture, you may even get away with just having all the files that use this model type in your folder...

**Augustus Lucifer** · October 17, 2009, 07:09 AM

You need these files in your mod folder:

\models_strat\textures\late_general_england_strat.tga
\models_strat\textures\late_northern_captain_england_strat.tga
\models_strat\textures\northern_generic_king_rebels.tga

That is assuming you are using the default models for those three models_strat entries.

Each character CAS model defines one file that it requires no matter what. It doesn't matter if you actually reference the file or assign it to any faction, it still has to be present in the mod folder or the CAS won't work. To figure out which file this is, open up any CAS file in the models_strat directory with Notepad++ and on the last line if you scroll over it should list the path.

This can be remedied by working with the comments in the model as I recall, but that's something for a modeler not a coder.

**King Siegfried** · October 17, 2009, 12:03 PM

Well actually, I'm modifying Stainless Steel's mod folder for now (have two back-ups!).

I did as you told me, Augustus, and the only texture that I could see missing was "northern_general_01.tga", which I promptly brought over. I then went through all the different strat model files for spies, assassins, etc, and made sure the files were in the mod folder. Unfortunately, it's still giving me trouble. I don't quite know what I'm missing here...

Now, Stainless Steel doesn't have all the strat model .cas's in the models_strat folder, so might that be the problem? I could try moving all of SS's textures to the root M2 folders... see if that solves the problem...

EDIT :: Argh, I'm getting seriously frustrated with these things. I have all the agents' required files in both 'models_strat/textures' folders and each strat .cas in both models_strat folders. Yet it still crashes. The only thing I can think of is that perhaps one of my paths have a typo, but I've double-checked several times and haven't noticed my error. I don't think it's the fact that I replaced the knights_templar paths because they just directed to england's textures...

**Augustus Lucifer** · October 17, 2009, 04:32 PM

Originally Posted by King Siegfried

Now, Stainless Steel doesn't have all the strat model .cas's in the models_strat folder, so might that be the problem? I could try moving all of SS's textures to the root M2 folders... see if that solves the problem...

You'd have more luck with the opposite, moving all of the CAS files that SS has texture for to the mod folder. I don't know anything about that though because we don't use any models from vanilla.

**King Siegfried** · October 17, 2009, 10:51 PM

Hmmm. I put all files in both folders. The SS folder should override the root folder, correct? Meaning the game only looks for files if they are not present in the SS folder? Because if that's the case, then I don't know what the problem is. The game still CTDs when I try to load a campaign.

I'm almost to the point where I'm about to request someone else to get these textures working for me (and receive credit)...

**Eothese** · October 18, 2009, 08:18 AM

If your having serious trouble with this then I can suggest an alternative method, a whole new entry in your descr_models_strat along the lines of the teutonic and fancy generals, etc. Just copy and rename both the model and texture and remember to make the required changes to descr_character. Hope that gets you through...

#Edit
Is your faction actually called knights_templar in descr_sm_factions???

**King Siegfried** · October 18, 2009, 11:08 AM

Yes. I'm making a sub-mod for Stainless Steel (see sig for more info), and I couldn't quite get renaming the faction altogether down, so I instead just changed the in-game text to reflect the Principality of Antioch. The faction is also southern european in culture. I don't know if that makes a big difference in how the files line up in descr_character. I tried giving them southern european strat model textures, but nothing worked (they loaded the default english textures).

When I get home, I'll try making a new entry in descr_models_strat like you mentioned. Maybe that will work.

EDIT :: Made new entries in descr_models_strat and directed to them via descr_characters. Nada. Same problem exists. I am completely baffled as to what's going wrong here. And I'm getting unbelievably frustrated with these stupid strat models. As this is clearly beyond me, I'm no longer going to attempt this.

EDIT #2 :: Soooooooo... I just had the biggest "d'oh!" moment in my life (or way up there, at least). Turns out I was saving all my textures as "blahblahblah.tga" in .dds format. So the files read "northern_generic_king_antioch.tga.dds" and so on. Well, the text files wanted just "northern_generic_king_antioch.tga". For some reason, throughout this entire week, I simply did not make that connection. After being thoroughly aggravated, I decided to test something just so I could access the late era campaign again, loaded the textures as plain targa's, and surely enough, the textures work just fine!

So thank you all VERY much for your help and patience! +rep goes to all who gave me a hand.