How to combine the effects of multiple .MPQ files

[Davion1]

I am trying to combine:

Race change: HuM -> BeF with the blood elf modification. When I name them independently of each other (patch-4.MPQ and patch-5.MPQ) it changes my character to a female blood elf but does not apply the Blood-Elf-Female modification to my character, but rather only to other (real) BeF's.

I tried making a new config but since WoWMEfix doesn't work with Vista-64bit I couldn't get it to work. Additionally, from what I have been reading you shouldn't even need WoWMEfix anymore?

If someone could either post a working guide for this solution or simply merge them for me, that would be great.

Resources Used
Race change from HuM->BeF
Female Blood Elf Modification mod


For the life of me I can not figure out how to both change from HuM->BeF as well as get a better model applied to the character. I am trying to applying the "patch-normal" to the BeF models.

[Zurhho]

I am not sure how your HuM>BeF is done, but if it contains .skin + .m2 + .anim in the Character\Human\Male, you can manually combine the two .MPQ you've got together.

My assumption of why the two .MPQ do not work together:
- HuM>BeF uses normal BeF model and skin (original BeF model > HuM).
- BeF Mod only affects actual Female Blood Elves (modified BeF model > BeF)
- They do not combine effect, since the .MPQ are linked to different models

To actually combine the effects (resulting MPQ will only affect HuM):
1) Extracting their contents with MPQ Master or MyWarCraftStudio.
2) Copy the .m2 and .skin (Character\BloodElf\Female) from "BeF Modification MPQ"
3) Paste into the Character\Human\Male folder, of the "HuM>BeF MPQ"
4) Rename the pasted files: BloodElfFemale > HumanMale. Delete the existing .m2 and .skin files before renaming.
5) Create and compile the HuM>BeF folder (with the renamed files) into a .MPQ file.
x) Might need to include .blp files for skin/texture.

If you want to combine both effects into one single .MPQ:
5a) Copy the entire extracted HuM>BeF folder (with renamed files) to the extracted folder of the BeF Modification MPQ. (Should have both Human\Male and BloodElf\Female in the Character folder)
6) Create and compile the BeF Modification folder (with HuM>BeF folder) into a .MPQ file.
x) Might need to include .blp files (from BeF Modification folder) for HuM>BeF folders.

btw, WoWMEfix is no longer needed. Just put the .MPQ file in WoW\Data will do.

[Davion1]

Thank you very much for your reply. I can follow all of the steps up until step 5.

When I create a new .mpq in MyWarcraftStudio I do the following:

1) Click "Pack" and select "Create MPQ Archive"
2) Attempt to "Import Folder", which is where everything goes wrong. When I try to select the folder it insists I navigate deeper instead of just allowing me to import all components of the folder. I have to keep clicking in through "Character", then "Human", then "Male", then "HumanMale.M2". When I finally select "HumanMale.M2" it imports it, but in the file tree in the MPQ screen it is just: "Male -> HumanMale.M2" ...

I have tried adding the file individually to the existing HuM->BeF MPQ and that also did not work, even when specifying the correct tree when importing the replaced "HumanMale.M2". This sounds like it should be very easy, but it is not.

I tried to look up the other program you recommended "MPQ Master", but could not find it.

Lastly, there are no ".blp" files in the trees that I can see. The only files that get extracted are:

Character\bloodelf\female\BloodElfFemale.M2
Character\Human\Male\HumanMale.M2
Item\ObjectComponents\Head\....(89 different head files)

Argh, this seems so simple, but I guess so am I!

[Xel]

Download Glitchy's old Model Editing Suite and use it's MPQ combiner function.

[Zurhho]

Hmm, sorry about the confusion. I only know how to import single folder to MyWarcraftStudio, so I shouldn't have suggested using that.
1) Make a .txt file in the folder you want to import.
2) In MyWarcraftStudio, import Folder, and select the .txt file; should import everything in that folder.

As for MPQ Master, I found it using google.
www(dot)d3scene(dot)com/forum/downloads/warcraft-3-tools/8/mpq-master-474/
1) File > New
2) Click 'ok' at the 'New Archive' choice
3) If the 'Operation' is grayed out, close the program and redo 1) and 2). Sometimes it bugs out like that.
4) Operation > Add Directory
5) Pick the main folder (with Character and Item folders) you want to import, press 'OK'
6) Operation > Compact(Flush)

[Davion1]

If I use the "Glitchy's Old Model Editing Suite" to combine the 2 MPQ's I get the effect of both but I still get the original Blood-Elf Female skin instead of the modified one on my Human-Male models.

If I do the other method where I replace the HumanMale.m2 with a renamed BloodElfFemale.M2 then when I load up the game I get a super glitched out character model.

[Davion1]

Resources Used
Race change from HuM->BeF
Blood Elf Modification mod

Can anyone just alter the HuM->BeF model to be the "patch-normal" from the female blood elves modification file? I really can't figure out how to make it work...

[dvoges218]

I used Glitchy's Model Editing Suite to combine a few mount swaps into one MPQ, since when I just threw all three into the data folder I could only get one to work. Now, when I combine them, none work. Did I do something wrong?

[Zurhho]

I think I did what you've asked. Not sure if it will crash over time, but when I tested it on my HuM warrior for like 5 minutes; it was fine. The steps of what I did:

1) Downloaded the .MPQ in the links you provided ("HuM>BeF" & "BeF v3.3 by Wokzor").
2) Extracted both .MPQ: 3 folders from HuM>BeF, 1 folder from BeF_v3.3.
3) Renamed the files in "character\bloodelf\female". From BloodElfFemale to HumanMale.
4) Cut and paste the renamed files to Character\Human\Male.
5) Created and compiled the .MPQ.

Note: It should only affect HuM, possibly some HuM NPC too; should not affect any BeF. Cannot say for sure that this .MPQ will not crash.

Result:
HuM > BeF-N
*link might expire eventually, not sure the duration.