Dragon Age 2 Character Creator Guide

• Make sure you have both Dragon Age: Origins and the Toolset installed
  
  
  • I recommend applying the LAA patch to your toolset
    
    
• Install all the components from this mod:
  
  
  • Extract ZZ. Dragon Age CC from Dragon Age 2 CC Core Files.7z to:
    
    
    • C:\Users\[USER NAME]\Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\packages\core\override
      
      
  • Backup your DefaultSettings in C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Dragon Age\tools
    
    
    • Extract contents of Dragon Age Toolset Settings.7z to:
      
      
      • C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Dragon Age\tools 
        
        
• Open the Toolset as normal and click File / New / Morph
  
  
  • You will now have five additional options at the bottom of your [Choose Base] list:
    
    
    • HM_UHM_DAEa_0 (Human Male)
    • HF_UHM_DAEa_0 (Human Female_
    • EM_UHM_DAEa_0 (Elf Male)
    • EF_UHM_DAEa_0 (Elf Female)
    • DM_UHM_DAEa_0 (Dwarf Male)
      
      
• Create your new morph 
  
  
  •  For the most part, everything will work the same.
  • FOR HAIR/BEARD: Make sure you are only selecting options that DO NOT have a LOD version attached to it (_0, _1, _2). Dragon Age 2s models do not use LODS and the toolset does not particularly like it when two objects in the same scene are named the same which is what happens because DA2 head meshes have all the pieces in the same file so it has a scalp built into it already - a DAO hair mesh also has one and the two conflict as they both are named HairM1. 
    
    
    • Custom DA2 hairstyles will have to be converted over. Only default hairstyles were converted. 
    • DO NOT select a DAO hair mesh! You can pick which ones are DAO and which are DA2 by the presence of the LODs at the end of the filenames (_0, _1, _2). This WILL crash your toolset! This simply because of the material conflict I described above. 
      
      
  • TINTS: Tints are mainly the same across the two games. DA2 has more tints which have been converted for DAO - DA2 uses the 32 bit color palette while DAO uses 8 bit. Simply dropping DA2 tints into your override will result in much darker tints and have to be converted for the DAO environment. Please report if any of the tints are drastically different when you get into DA2.Be careful to only select default tints as custom tints in your DAO override will obviously not carry over.
  • Mark of the Assassin and Legacy: If you do not have the DLC installed for DA2, obviously these assets will not work. 
    
    
• Save and export and post to local
• Locate your brand new .MOR file and open it in either the Dragon Age Toolset or in pyGFF
  
  
  • I recommend pyGFF just because you can better see the MORPH_NODE names
    
    
• Drop down your MORPH_PARTS:
  
  
  • You will have to rename this to the base DA2 mesh including the file path
    
    
    • Dwarf Male: art\characters\playercharacter\dwarfmale\mt_bas_dm
    • Elf Female: art\characters\playercharacter\elffemale\mt_bas_ef
    • Elf Male: art\characters\playercharacter\elfmale\mt_bas_em
    • Human Female: art\characters\playercharacter\humanfemale\mt_bas_hf
    • Human Male: art\characters\playercharacter\humanmale\mt_bas_hm
    • Why is this the case: DAO is very particular about file names especially with head meshes. Had I used the default names from DA2, the exporter during conversion from the DA2 format would have deformed the UV maps on eyelids and eyes so it has to be named on DAO format and renamed for DA2. Sorry folks. 
      
      
  • You will see your other parts like hair and beard models. Add the extension to the front of the name:
    
    
    • i.e. em_har_hc1a becomes art\characters\playercharacter\elfmale\em_har_hc1a
      
      
• Tints in DA2 do not require a file path so we can skip over MORPH_TINTFILENAMES
• Drop down MORPH_NODES
  
  
  •  Drop down FaceM1/EyesM1/HairM1 (this is why I suggest using pyGFF so you aren’t dropping down every single node blindly)
    
    
    • Drop down MORPH_TEXTUREPARAM and then each node from there where you will MORPH_TEXTURE_NAME
      
      
      • Do the same as above and add the filepath to the front of each texture. If you aren’t sure what it should be, I have organized everything in the core that is in your DAO override to how it is in DA2. Most of the time, it should be art\characters\playercharacter\shared\heads\textures\
      • You probably will not have to do this if you haven’t selected a different eye texture or scalp texture for EyesM1 and HairM1
        
        
    • For HairM1: Rename this ScalpM1
    • For HairM2: Rename this HairM1 
      
      
• Save and drop into your Dragon Age 2 override 
  

•  Change out your morph parts (remember to change your base head in the first row; see above for equivalent) and include the file path.
• Drop down your MORPH_MAT_PARAM and make sure you add the file path to each texture and change the names of HairM1 to ScalpM1 and HairM2 to HairM1 
• Do the same in MORPH_MAT_VEC_PARAM
• Download the CC Sliders for MOP in the downloads section and place this one in your Dragon Age 2 Override
• Drop down MORPH_MODEL_PARAM and add art\characters\playercharacter\shared\heads\ to each line so it reads like: art\characters\playercharacter\shared\heads\UH_NOSI_09a_0
• Drop down MORPH_TEXTUREs. Change each instance of HairM1 to ScalpM1 and HairM2 to HairM1 and add the file path for each texture. 
• Save and place in DA2 override