Finding in game assets quickly (Asset Database)
Asset Database is the go-to tool for locating any existing asset, such as a mesh, texture, class, or even plot element across the game. It creates a searchable database of many of the assets in game and allows you to quickly open them in a variety of tools, with built-in viewers where necessary.
This is the tool to go to if you need to locate specific usages of an asset, or you would like to browse which classes, meshes, textures, etc are available. This is also the go-to tool for any research into how the plot variable system is affecting the game.
This tool typically does not let you search by actual contents of assets, only by name and category of assets, with some exceptions (such as material bool parameters, mesh bone count). If you are, for example, looking for any BioPawns in the game with a specific set of properties, and are tagged "Ashley", you would be better off using a tool like Package Dumper with GrepWin. High-level asset browsing, and research into asset usages are this tool's forte.
Open the Asset Database program. Under the Database menu you can select which game to focus on, and generate a new database. Scanning a single game should take less than 2 minutes on a modern PC with SSD.
Under the "Tools" menu, you can enable scanning of Texture CRCs, as well as select a game localization to scan. If you are a texture modder and are used to working with CRCs, this option will allow searching by CRC, though it may slightly increase scan time. You will need to generate a new database after changing these options.
Each category of asset that the database will scan has it's own tab.
The files tab is a list of all files in the game, including DLC. You can sort by file, by DLC directory name (BioGame is the basegame directory), or by mount priority. On the top right is a search box, enter part of a filename and the main screen will filter down. This is a convenient way to open files without having to go through the game directories.
Right click any file and you can open it in a variety of tools. You can also add any file to a custom file list (visible in the fly-out panel on the right hand side of the files tab). This custom file list allows you to selectively filter any other asset category to only the files you have selected. Options to configure the file list can be found in the "Filter" menu.
This contains information on all UnrealScript visible classes used by the game, as well as each usage of these classes. These are used by the game to run UnrealScript functions that carry out a very wide variety of actions in game. The left tab shows a searchable list of classes. In the "Filter" menu you can filter for classes that work specifically with Kismet (sequences) or Matinee (cutscenes). Right click to open the script definition file (often contained in SFXGame or Engine) or the superclass (its parent class).
In the middle are all the properties for that class. On the right is the list of usages. This shows every file and export where this class was used. Right click to Open Usage, which will open it in Package Editor. Note the default version of the class is listed in bold. This contains the default values of properties that will be used if not present in a usage.
Class usages that are contained in mod-added DLC will have their usage entries show up in red. This is to differentiate easily from "basegame" entries.
By default, the usage pane only shows one usage of a class per package file. You can enable "Show multiple per file" to see every single export in the game of that class, but it can get overwhelming quickly.
You may also optionally search through the classes by property name. To do this, type "prop:" in the search bar followed by the name of the property you are looking for. This will filter the list of classes down to only classes which have a property of that name. You don't have to type the full name of the property, any property name that includes what you have typed will be included (eg."prop:Actor" will match ActorGameName as well as NewActorClass)
This tab works similarly to the classes tab. Material records are on the left, details in the middle, and usages on the right. Right click the usages to open in Package Editor. Assets with a grey background are DLC only (this typically only matters to ME2 and ME3 modding, not LE).
There are a wide variety of filters you can set in the "Filter" menu depending on what type of material you are looking for. Filters are autogenerated for every possible boolean property for materials in that game, selecting multiple boolean filters will only display materials that have both bool properties.
The meshes tab allows you to view meshes as well as search and filter functionality. Select a mesh and click "Toggle Mesh Rendering". This will enable the mesh viewer, the database will fetch the assets from the first usage, and show the mesh similar to the Mesh Explorer. If a mesh doesn't show, it may be because the correct materials/textures couldn't be found, try clicking view in wireframe. You can then open the mesh in Mesh Explorer by right clicking the usage.
Just like the classes tab, meshes that have been modified in a mod-added DLC folder will show up in red. I believe the mesh actually needs to be changed for it to show up in red as as second entry. Actual usages in the right panel that happen to live in a mod-added DLC folder will also show up in red, however this doesn't mean that the mesh has been changed.
An advanced search parameter in the meshes tab lets you filter by bone count. Typing "bones:24" in the top right search bar will, for example, filter to only meshes that have 24 bones. There cannot be any spaces in the search parameter for this to work.
Similar to meshes you can also view Textures and TextureMovies in the Textures tab. Click "Toggle Texturing Rendering" to show the textures you click on the left panel. As with materials, gray background indicates DLC only usage. If you use this texture in your mod the DLC must be present. If you clicked "Compile Texture CRCs" you can search by CRC from the filter box. In the "Filter" menu you can filter textures by LODGroup, as well as by resolution.
Just like the textures tab, mod-added textures will show up in red, while usages in mod-added DLC folders (modified or not) will also show up in red.
These tabs work similarly to all other tabs, with records on the left, details in the middle, and usages on the right. The VFX tab allows you browse Particle Systems and Receiver Effects. The GUI tab allows you to browse ScaleForm assets.
If TLK files are loaded for the selected game in the TLK manager, the Lines tab will allow you to browse every single dialogue line in the game, sorted by Speaker tag and by conversation title. You can search by line text or by conversation title in the search bar, or use the "Filter by Speaker" drop-down to search by Speaker tag. Dialogue lines can be opened in Package Editor or in Dialogue Editor. At the bottom right, you can listen to the attached audio for the dialogue line.
Note that most characters are referred to as "Owner" by the Speaker tag, so searching for every line spoken by a specific character is almost never possible.
I often use this tab to locate the package file for a specific scene in-game.
The Plot Elements tab allows you to browse every plot boolean, integer, float value stored in the save file, as well as each transition and conditional that is used to modify or check these plot values. This tab also catalogues every single usage of each of these elements. With this tab, you can determine how plot variables actually affect game behavior, which is extremely helpful when modifying quests, dialogues, and other gameplay sequences.
This tab is different from the Plot Database tool in that it only scans what is actually used in the game, where the Plot Database tool includes many elements from BioWare's own database that aren't in the game at all. The Plot Database also has no information on how the plot variables work, only what they are.
The sub-tabs allow you to specify which type of plot element you are browsing, and the usage tab lists which exports reference that element. Right clicking on a usage or a plot element allows you open it in it's relevant tool, whether it's Dialogue Editor, Sequence Editor, Plot Editor, or the Conditionals Editor for LE3.
Coalesced files are not currently scanned by the Asset Database, so any plot usages there will not be visible. Plot elements directly modified by arbitrary UnrealScript code are also not scanned. However, .CND files and the UnrealScript conditionals in Games 1 and 2 are scanned.
As before, plot element usages in a mod-added DLC folder will show up in red. This does not imply the usage has been modified in any way from vanilla.
Read the Introduction to Plot Management tutorial for more information on how plot elements work and are used by the game.
When modding I will frequently use the Files tab to open specific files across the game, instead of Windows Explorer. I find it is faster to search in the files tab, and I know will get files in all DLC folders in my results, instead of digging across the game directories. If you know the name of the file you are looking for, Asset Database is often a faster way to get your file into Package Editor than using Windows Explorer.
Custom File Lists can be used to very quickly locate assets in a specific subset of files. For example, if you are working a lot in one map and need to find usages of things, you can add all the BioD or _DSG files for that area into a file list, and then only look for assets in those files. This can reduce the "noise" of the sheer amount of data in Asset Database and make it easier to find things you are actually looking for.
Here, I am adding all the _DSG files for ICE20 into my custom file list, in the files tab. I am making sure to use the file that lives in my DLC mod. The DLC folder can be seen inside the custom file list.
This file list won't do anything until I hit "Filter" in the file list fly-out. I can also check "Filter by Filelist" in the Filter menu to enable this. Once I have enabled the filter, only my selected files will be visible elsewhere in the database.
These are the only plot bools that are referenced in my chosen files.
File lists can be saved to disk as text files, allowing you to load a commonly used file list in another modding session, or to let you quickly switch between file sets. Note that regenerating your database may unfortunately corrupt your saved file lists.
If you are looking to mod a specific cutscene in game and you aren't sure which set of .pcc files it is in, try using the Lines tab. Running the scene in-game with the Streaming Levels ASI will tell you which files it may be in, but you will still have to check in each of the BioD or DSG files until you locate the scene, and you will spend a lot of time digging through Package or Sequence editor to find the right exports.
If you instead search one of the lines of dialogue from the cutscene in the lines tab, you will be able to jump right into the dialogue editor, right to the line you are looking to mod! Sometimes even searching for the scene on YouTube to find a line of dialogue to search for is faster than opening the game.