A guide to editing Character Meshes
When replacing meshes for characters such as Squadmates or well known characters you have to edit what is called a pcc (package) but sometimes the pcc's are shared between multiple characters.
So these types of mods do sometimes come with incompatibility problems however that is where Mounts, Patching, Moddesc oh my comes in to save the day.
I suggest a read of this tutorial as it gives a good idea of how patching works in Mass Effect modding. However don't be discouraged as modding and seeing your mod in action is a great feeling.
I also highly suggest to check any patches for the games for files that have been fixed so your mod can include those fixes instead of overriding them. Due to your mod mounting higher than the Patches.
I also suggest the LE3 Community Patch's optional Framework if it has a character you want to edit included.
If you are looking to edit hair colour, eye colour or skin tint then I advise this tutorial: How To Change Hair, Eye, and Skin Color for NPCS
Legendary Explorer
- Asset Database
- Package Editor
- Mesh Explorer
- TFC Compactor
ME3 Tweaks Mod Manager
- ASI Manager (Streaming Levels HUD)
From this point onwards I will assume you have your meshes ready for import if not follow these tutorials;
The Streaming Levels HUD ASI is super handy to help work out what PCC you want to edit.
You can find it in ME3 Tweaks Mod Manager > Mod Management > ASI Mod Manager (see image 01)
Once open click on the game you want to install the ASI for, then click on Streaming Levels HUD and then install ASI (see image 02)
Then in game you get to the area you want to edit. On top left you will green and yellow text such as image 03 below. In my case I went to the area Garrus is to see what PCC's are being used there.
So why do we do this? We do this to better work out what PCC we may need to edit in the area we go to. So when we use asset database we can compare what we search for there with what is being used in the scene we take screenshots of to see currently used packages in that area/scene. This is especially helpful when you are looking for one specific location/scene to edit.
Now for companions or others such as Joker or Anderson we need to edit all PCC's their meshes show up in, in order for our edits to show up. Unless you are just editing one instance of them, however its still good to use Asset database. As it is a great tool to use to find these PCC's if you know what you're looking for.
In Legendary Explorer go to the utilities tab and the asset database (see image 04)
If you have already scanned the game to create the database for the game you're editing it will look something like this (see image 05)
For more detailed information on the other tabs we won't be using in this tutorial for Asset Database including setting up the database see this guide Finding in game assets quickly by Kinkojiro
However if you want to generate a new database go to Database and generate new database (see image 06)
Some are straight forward but I will still write them, others have unique code names. So this list will show what they are known as usually in packages as well the short hand used in their unique meshes and textures. When not listed it means they don't have a unique mesh/texture and instead use generic outfits that are shared, and/or use morphs to define a unique face.
When not using unique assets this does make it a bit harder to locate their packages but this is where the ASI I showed you how to install comes in handy.
Table below is for LE3.
| Character | Package | Assets |
|---|---|---|
| Ashley | Ashley | Ash/Ashley |
| Garrus | Garrus | Gar/Garrus |
| Kaidan | Kaidan | Kai/Kaiden |
| Liara | Liara | Lia/Liara |
| James | Marine | San/James |
| Javik | Prothean | Prn/Pro |
| Tali | Tali | TLI/Tali |
| EDI | EDI | EDI |
| Jack | Jack | JCK/Jack |
| Aria | Aria | ARA/Aria |
| Cortez | Cortez | N/A |
| Brooks | Femme | FTL |
| Joker | Joker | Joker |
| Anderson | Anderson | Anderson |
| Hackett | Hackett | Hackett |
Please be aware some characters use outfits with generic names rather than part of their character name. Such as Jacob's armour is called HMM_ARM_MEDe. But if you can locate their files, you are halfway there. Another part of this tutorial will be showing how to find what else they use via references.
| Character | Package | Assets |
|---|---|---|
| Thane | Assassin | THN/Thane |
| Jack | Convict | JCK/Jack |
| Grunt | Grunt | GNT/Grunt |
| Jacob | Leading | JCB/Jacob |
| Legion | Geth | LEG/Legion |
| Garrus | Garrus | GAR/Garrus |
| Samara | Mystic | Sam/Samara |
| Mordin | Professor | MOR/Mordin |
| Tali | Tali | TLI/Tali |
| Kasumi | Thief | KSM/Kasumi |
| Zaeed | Veteran | Zad/Zaeed |
| Miranda | Vixen | Mir/Miranda |
Now we have our list we can search for the character we want to work on, in my LE2 examples I will be using Garrus as there is something else I want to show as LE2 has some unique issues that in this case are luckily an easy fix.
However first lets open up another Asset Database and in one type in the search with the Files tab open the character we're searching for using the tables above to better find them. And here is the why I have in some cases two instances of Asset Database open. It is so I can have both File tab open and the meshes tab open, this way we can compare to see what PCC's actually have the meshes we want to edit in them.
As in some cases we may have PCC's with the character name that don't actually require editing due to not housing the meshes we want to edit. You could just use the meshes tab but to be on safe side I do have both open in order to compare on what needs editing and what doesn't need editing. (see image 07)
Now we click on the mesh in my case TUR_HED_PROGarrus_Damage_MDL as his armours don't have his name in them and then I compare the list of usages on the right with meshes to the list of PCC's in my file search. (see image 08)
So now to explain which we use when there are more than one, why? Simply that with Legendary Edition patches were made as separate "DLC" and therefore mount higher than the basegame so if we were to use the basegame version of the file we wouldn't have any fixes done in the DLC_METR_Patch01. So if you ever see that latter name when there are duplicates always use that version instead.
In the Image 08 below I show this highlighted in red. Highlighted in green is the mesh I mentioned and highlighted in yellow are the PCC's I would require. As you can see comparing the right list to the left we do not need to edit the LOC_INT files as they do not contain the meshes.
Now we know which ones we want right click on the PCC name on either file tab or meshes tab and click open in Windows explorer (see image 09)
Now copy this pcc into your mods folder, repeating until you have all the PCC's you require to edit (see image 10)
Now for characters like Garrus he has two unique head meshes in LE2 this means I also need to check what PCC's that is in, as that is another mesh I would need to edit. Especially since the mod I am creating will be editing the head. If you want to see the mesh you're clicking on Press Toggle Mesh Rendering at the bottom of the middle bar, with doing this I can see when clicking on TUR_HED_PROGarrus_MDL that is the other mesh I would need to edit. (see image 11)
Now as you can see we can now see the mesh in the middle section, as well as another PCC I would require to edit (see image 12)
Now before I start editing these files once I have all the ones I need I copy them to a seperate folder somewhere else, usually my workspace folders. So in case I mess anything up I don't have to do all that again to get the file. Only slightly increases the workflow speed but also a nice thing to do if its a character I also regularly make mods for, as then I have a starting point each time.
And when I successfully make edits that could then work as a base for other mods I also tend to back those up into their own folders as well. (see image 13)
So now we know how to use asset database and the asi, we can now start making the edits we want to make on the files for our mod idea. For this LE2 mod I will be showing replacing the head, outfit which also include importing new textures. So this will be a combination of import and cloning.
I will also be showing how to fix a common bug when editing meshes in LE2, it does happen in LE3 as well and the fix will work there as well but it happens much less in LE3 than it does in LE2. It now has the name of melting face bug and you will see why when we come to editing the head.
Now for LE2 the first rule is remember when importing a mesh always use Import as Single LOD. I will be covering this again in the steps but stating it now as well. As it is an important part of LE2 mesh modding.
Another thing you must know before moving onto modding LE2 characters is that squadmates do not have their own Non-Combat outfits for down time like they do in LE3. Instead whatever armour you choose is what they wear on the Normandy for example.
I am starting with the head to show the bug that happens when you are only editing the head. This is so if you decide you only want to edit the head you will know how to fix the bug.
So we want to first open Package Editor (see Image 14)
As we covered a lot of bases in the LE2 mod, this version for LE3 will be showing how to just edit the Non-Combat (NC) files, these are the files your squadmates use when on the Normandy and when roaming about in places where they are not wearing armour, such as some citadel scenes.
If using the LE3 Community Patch Framework you will also have NPC files for characters such as Joker.
So for the LE3 example, I will be showing editing one NC file from the vanilla game and one NPC file from the Framework. Kaidan's NC file, and Joker's NPC file from the Framework of the LE3 Community Patch.