Basics of CTM

CTM Basics

You will need to find the specific ctm files relating to the costume slot you want to apply your costume to. The files are located in “i2401-bin-server\bin\localdata\menu\costume\Localized”

You will find a bunch of folders, the ones you want are Male, Female, and Huge. Within each of those folders you’ll find “All”, go into that and you’ll find more folders with different categories. If you want to make a head costume piece, go into “Head.”

There you will find the ctm files. There’s quite a lot, and some are misleading as to what they actually do compared to what you want. If you wanted to make a detail head slot, you’d actually want to look at “Menu_Standard.ctm”

I use Notepad++ to edit these. Right click one of them and open with that application or whatever you like using. Scroll down till you see the comment Detail 1, and that is where you will put your entry.

Ctm entry filles will look something like this:

Info
   	Geoname "Name"
   	DisplayName "Name"
   	Geo  "GEO_File.geo/GEO_File"
  	Tex1 "Texture"
  	Tex2 "Texture"
End	

All entry files must be contained within Info and End. The quotation marks are needed.

• Geoname: GeoName is used when the BoneSet is in GeoTex mode (Type 1) instead of Geo mode (the default) - in this case, a single entry will be made for all consecutive Info blocks with the same Geo (Not the same GeoName), and a second scroll selector is shown below. This first selector uses GeoName (which should be set the same for all grouped Info blocks), and the sub-selector uses DisplayName
• DisplayName: This is what the costume name will be in game when the player is browsing and looking at it.
• Geo: The former part is the overall geo name if you exported multiple models into one file from Max. The latter is the specific geo file you want to use. For instance…
  • GEO_Head_3DGlasses.geo would be the umbrella file that contains all other individual files.
  • GEO_Head_3DGlasses_M would be the former, specifically telling the program to use the _M (male) file from the bunch in this instance.
  • GEO_Head_3DGlasses.geo/GEO_Head_3DGlasses_M would be the entire path you would use in this instance.
• Tex1: You need to make sure to have a ! in front of every texture reference. The ! tells the program to look for the exact filename you specify. If you don't have the !, the engine will attempt to convert what you supply into a filename based on what bone is being used (if anyone wants the full rules for implicit texture name conversions, I can write them up - BW)
  • If you are not using tricks, this will be for the _B file.(GEO_Head_3DGlasses_B)
  • If you are using tricks, you will reference the X_ line of your trick file, (X_3DGlasses_Tex)
  • Example no tricks: Tex1 “!GEO_Head_3DGlasses_B
  • Example using tricks “!X_3DGlasses_Tex”
• Tex2: This is for the color mask if you are not using tricks. The same applies above, if you are not using a trick it would be something like “!GEO_Head_3DGlasses_CM”
  • If you are using tricks, then your _CM file will be included within the trick, so you would leave Tex2 as “None”
  • If a BoneSet contains Mask blocks, then you can set Tex2 to "Mask", and all the masks will be available in the costume selector (this is how chest patterns work, for instance). Masks can also be used with tricks, if the trick is set up to handle them.

When you are finished, do this again for the female and huge files if needed. Be sure to save when you are done.