Difference between revisions of "Getting Started"

Revision as of 01:27, 27 January 2010

Installing the toolset

• First, make sure you have the game installed. The toolset relies on the game's resources and engine and cannot function without them.
• Download the toolset from here.
• Creating an account - how to create an account for this wiki and social.bioware.com
• Installing the toolset
• Installation troubleshooting - information on how to fix things in the event that toolset installation goes awry.
• Known issues with the current version of the toolset

Overview of the Toolset

• Overview of the toolset - How the Toolset manages Resources you create, and giving a quiet good overview.

• Comparisons with other toolkits - for users who are familiar with other similar toolkits (eg, the Neverwinter Nights tookit) and would like a brief overview of how the Dragon Age toolkit compares.

Starting the Toolset

How to determine which module is currently open

Before using the Toolset it is important to take note of the module the toolset has open. A module is a "container" that game resources are stored in; you will only be able to see the resources for the currently-open module (and any modules that it is marked as depending on). The default module when first starting the Toolset is the "Demo" module, which is a very small and simple module intended to show several common resource types in a basic pre-built adventure you can experiment with safely.

The main Dragon Age: Origins campaign resources are stored in a module named "Single Player". If you're just starting out with the toolset it can be dangerous to edit these, as you could inadvertantly corrupt your main campaign. Take care when exploring not to export any resources without knowing what you're doing.

The first basic steps in the Toolset shall be to create your own Module. The only possible type of Module is "Addin", but note that this name is somewhat misleading; it is possible to have "standalone addins" that are completely separate from any other module (such as the main campaign).

• Creating a module

Using the Toolset

As described in the overview linked to above, the game uses a wide variety of resource types. A "resource" is something that you can create, such as a script or a creature, and you will often need to combine many different resources together to accomplish a particular design goal. The toolset consists of many independent tools for working with these different types of resources. These tools can be well discussed separately.

The next best step for learning the toolset would be to look into the categories on the Main Page, which link deeper into each topic and the tools involved with them. If you are having questions at a specific part of the toolset give this Wiki a search for it. This can be very specific, and always worth a try. You may also find the toolset forums to be useful in solving specific problems the documentation here may not cover.

A list of certain Interest, and the 3 Resource types:

• Design - Talks mainly about Designer Resources, in question is Items, Monsters, NPC's, Vendors, etcetc
• Art - Talks mainly about Art Resources, in question Models, Textures, Facemorphs, etcetc
• 2DA - Talks about the 2DA Resourcetype, which is sets of Gamewide usable variables and references.
• etc

Tips and tricks

• Shortcuts - Assorted toolset shortcuts.
• Common Problems - Little things that most people will need to know but that are not necessarily obvious.

Specials

Deleting a module - This is currently not possible by normal means.

If you run into a problem that the documentation doesn't cover and that you can't fix, contact toolsetsupport@bioware.com