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<big>'''Welcome to the Dragon Age Toolset documentation wiki!'''</big>
 
<big>'''Welcome to the Dragon Age Toolset documentation wiki!'''</big>
  
The documentation for the toolset is still being worked on so some of the material here may be incomplete or somewhat out-of-date. The contents of this site will eventually be refined and released to the general public; if you wish to contribute toward that (either by adding your own material or by highlighting holes) you are most welcome and your efforts will be incorporated into the finished product. If you see something that needs improvement you can mark it by adding "<nowiki>{{undocumented}}</nowiki>" at the trouble spot.
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The Dragon Age Toolset puts the power of the game developer in the palm of your hands. The Dragon Age Toolset will allow you to produce your own content including dungeons crawls, full-length campaigns, add-ons and cut-scenes you can share with friends and the BioWare community. Registered game owners of the PC version of Dragon Age: Origins can download the toolset [http://social.bioware.com/toolset.php here].
  
*For general comments, discussion, suggestions, and questions, click the "[[talk:Main Page|Discussion]]" link at the top of the page.
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'''Note that version 1.00 of the toolset has a flaw in its core resources that can prevent the main campaign from playing properly after you export resources. This can be cleaned up if it happens, but can require a bit of work to get right. See [[Plot GUID bug]] for more details. Version 1.01 (the current version) corrects this.'''
*For assistance with installing or running the game, or for issues regarding BioWare-published content, see the [http://help.dragonage.com/ Dragon Age help site].
+
  
In the meantime the contents of this wiki are covered by non-disclosure agreements, so please don't spread it around beyond this site and the designated private fora.
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'''If you are upgrading from version 1.00 to version 1.01 or later and wish to keep your existing database resources, see [[database migration]] for instructions on how to to move resources into the new version of the database. The DADBDATA format has changed between these versions.'''
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For assistance with installing or running the game, or for issues regarding BioWare-published content, see the [http://help.dragonage.com/ Dragon Age help site].
  
 
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<h2 style="margin:0; background:#cedff2; font-size:150%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3b0bf; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">[[Getting Started]] <div style="float:right; font-size:x-small;">([[Getting Started|link]])</div></h2>
  
<!-- GREEN PANEL -->
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<div style="margin:0; background: #f5faff; border:1px solid #a3b0bf; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em; float:right; font-size:x-small;">
{| style="margin:0; background:#f5fffa; border:1px solid #a3bfb1; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em; width:100%;  height:100%"
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* [[Creating an account]]
|-
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* [[Installing the toolset]]
| valign="top"|
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* [[Installation troubleshooting]]
<h2 style="margin:0; background:#cef2e0; font-size:150%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3bfb1; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;"> Getting started with the toolset </h2>
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* [[Overview of the toolset]]
 +
</div>
  
<h3 style="text-align:center;">[[Installing the toolset]]</h3>
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The toolset can be very daunting to dive into at first. This section covers topics useful to new users - how to get the toolset set up, how to navigate its interfaces, and where to look to get started on common tasks.
*[[Creating an account]] - how to create an account for this wiki and social.bioware.com
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*[[Known issues]] with the current version of the toolset
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<h3 style="text-align:center;">[[Overview of the toolset]]</h3>
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*[[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.
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*[[Shortcuts]] - Assorted toolset shortcuts.
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*[[Common Problems]] - Little things that most people will need to know but that are not necessarily obvious.
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If you run into a problem that the documentation doesn't cover and that you can't fix, contact toolsetsupport@bioware.com
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<h2 style="margin:0; background:#cedff2; font-size:150%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3b0bf; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">[[Tutorials]] <div style="float:right; font-size:x-small;">([[Tutorials|link]])</div></h2>
  
<h2 style="margin:0; background:#cef2e0; font-size:150%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3bfb1; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;"> Tutorials and how-tos </h2>
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This section contains a list of step-by-step tutorials for a wide variety of editors and tasks you might need to do. Note that these tutorials will also be linked to from the sections that cover their respective subject matter; this is just to collect them all into one place for ease of reference.
  
<h3 style="text-align:center;">[[Creating a module]]</h3>
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|-
The initial structure for the game, see subsequent sections for details on how to fill it out.
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*[[How-tos]] - short step-by-step guides for accomplishing specific tasks
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*'''[[Tutorials]]''' - lengthier documents that are intended to teach the basics of an entire topic area. Some tutorials build on material from previous ones so you may wish to read them sequentially if you're unfamiliar with any of the basics.
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**[[Placeable tutorial]]
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**[[Area tutorial]]
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**[[Item tutorial]]
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**[[Creature tutorial]]
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**[[Conversation tutorial]]
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**[[Scripting tutorial]]
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**[[Cutscene tutorial]]
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**[[Map tutorial]] (also introduces 2DA editing)
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**[[VFX Tutorial]]
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<h3 style="text-align:center;">[[Exporting and running a module]]</h3> How to actually run the adventure you've created.
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| valign="top" height="100%" style="margin:0; background:#f5faff; border:1px solid #a3b0bf; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em; width:50%;  height:100%"  valign="top"|
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<h2 style="margin:0; background:#cedff2; font-size:150%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3b0bf; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">[[Design]] <div style="float:right; font-size:x-small;">([[Design|link]])</div></h2>
  
<h2 style="margin:0; background:#cef2e0; font-size:150%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3bfb1; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;"> Editing this wiki </h2>
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Once you have the pieces you need for an adventure - level layouts, creatures, abilities, and so forth - there's still the step of putting it all together into a playable game. This involves placing resources into areas, hooking up plots, and all sorts of other miscellaneous tasks.  
  
*The [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents Wiki User's Guide] has information on how to edit this wiki.
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| valign="top" height="100%" style="margin:0; background:#f5faff; border:1px solid #a3b0bf; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em; width:50%;  height:100%; "  valign="top"|
* [[GeSHI highlighting]] is installed, including "nwscript" and "dascript" tags!
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<h2 style="margin:0; background:#cedff2; font-size:150%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3b0bf; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">[[Art]] <div style="float:right; font-size:x-small;">([[Art|link]])</div></h2>
|}
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This section covers such things as how to import new models into the game, how to design level layouts, and how to create unique head morphs for NPCs. You can download the art sources for the main campaign from [http://social.bioware.com/project/1331/#files the Single player and core resource source files] project.
  
<!-- BLUE PANEL -->
 
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<h2 style="margin:0; background:#cedff2; font-size:150%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3bfb1; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;"> Resources </h2>
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The Dragon Age toolset has two main classes of resource; designer resources that are stored in a [[database]] and art resources that are stored as files in your filesystem.
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<h2 style="margin:0; background:#cedff2; font-size:150%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3b0bf; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">[[Cinematography]] <div style="float:right; font-size:x-small;">([[Cinematography|link]])</div></h2>
  
<h3 style="text-align:center;">[[Resource list]]</h3>
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Dragon Age is a heavily cinematics-oriented game. Every line in every conversation has the potential to be written as a full-blown cutscene, though in most cases a simpler treatment is perfectly adequate. Cutscenes can also be created independent of any conversation, to be triggered by script at appropriate moments.
* The [[resource palette]] details the main interface for selecting designer resources for editing.
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*[[Creating new resources]]
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*[[Deleting resources]]
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*[[Modifying resources]]
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*[[String editor]] - A tool that allows quick and easy access to all text that might be presented to the player in the game.
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<h2 style="margin:0; background:#cedff2; font-size:150%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3b0bf; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">[[Sound and music]] <div style="float:right; font-size:x-small;">([[Sound and music|link]])</div> </h2>
  
<h3 style="text-align:center;">[[Builder to builder]]</h3>
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Sounds are used in Dragon Age in a variety of ways. Voice over, background music, the sounds of combat and spells, ambient noises placed throughout areas or triggered by scripts and player actions, are all covered in this section.
The mechanisms used by the toolset that allow packages of game resources to be shared between multiple collaborating builders. This is not intended for builder to player packaging, a separate system will be added to the toolset for this at a later time.
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<h2 style="margin:0; background:#cedff2; font-size:150%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3bfb1; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;"> Scripting and 2DAs </h2>
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|-
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<h2 style="margin:0; background:#cedff2; font-size:150%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3b0bf; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">[[Script]] <div style="float:right; font-size:x-small;">([[Script|link]])</div></h2>
  
<h3 style="text-align:center;">[[Script]]ing</h3>
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Scripting is used whenever the designers need control over the game's behaviour. The syntax for DA scripts is very similar to the C programming language. Scripting is commonly used to:
*[[Event]]s - Dragon Age has an event-driven scripting model; this page lists all known events and their functions.
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* Trigger plot events  
*[[Effect]]s
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* Create or modify abilities - skills, talents, and spells
*[[Ability|Abilities]]
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* Handle creature and party member AI
*[[Custom AI]]s
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*[[Script error]]s
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*[[Treasure system]]
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| valign="top" height="100%" style="margin:0; background:#f5faff; border:1px solid #a3b0bf; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em; width:50%;  height:100%"  valign="top"|
  
<h3 style="text-align:center;">[[2DA]] files</h3>
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<h2 style="margin:0; background:#cedff2; font-size:150%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3b0bf; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">[[3rd party extensions]] <div style="float:right; font-size:x-small;">([[3rd party extensions|link]])</div></h2>
2-Dimensional Arrays contain much of the raw data used by the game. They are generated from Microsoft Excel files. If you want to add new basic creature types, new treasure types, and so forth, you'll need to create new 2DA files.
+
  
<h2 style="margin:0; background:#cedff2; font-size:150%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3bfb1; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;"> Art tools </h2>
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The toolset released by BioWare doesn't cover every possible task that might be needed by the end user. This section covers third-party tools that don't easily fall under other subject areas covered by the toolset.
  
Art resources are files saved separately from the database. They need to be processed by the toolset (posted to local) to be visible to the designer tools and usable in-game.
 
 
*'''[[Level editor]]''' (note that this is distinct from the [[Area]] editor)
 
*'''[[Morph]]s''' are generated with the face-morphing tool.
 
*[[FMOD]] generates sounds.
 
*[[FaceFX]] handles facial expressions and lip-synching.
 
*[[Animation blend tree editor]]
 
*[[Material editor]]
 
*[[VFX editor]]
 
**[[VFX list]] lists visual effects in Dragon Age's library.
 
 
|}
 
|}
  
|-
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* Also see [[technical information]] for a list of documents about the more in-depth technical workings of the toolset and of Dragon Age: Origins.
| colspan="2" |
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{| style="margin:0; background: rgb(250, 245, 255); border:1px solid rgb(175, 163, 191); text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em; width:100%"
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== Editing this wiki ==
|-
+
|
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<h2 style="margin:0; background: rgb(221, 206, 242); font-size:150%; font-weight:bold; border: 1px solid rgb(175, 163, 191); text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;"> Technical information </h2>
+
  
The material in this section is about technical features underlying the toolset, not normally important for routine usage.
+
The documentation for the toolset is still being worked on so some of the material here may be incomplete or somewhat out-of-date. If you wish to contribute (either by adding your own material or by highlighting holes) you are most welcome to jump right in and edit. If you see something that needs improvement but you're not sure how (or you just don't have the time) you can mark it by adding "<nowiki>{{undocumented}}</nowiki>" at the trouble spot.
 +
*The '''[http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents Wiki User's Guide]''' has information on how to edit this wiki. This wiki is powered by the MediaWiki engine.
 +
*[[GeSHi highlighting]] is installed, including "nwscript" and "dascript" tags.
  
*[[File types]] - currently just a list of file format extensions.
+
{{Languages}}
 
+
*[[Database]] - database schema and other related information.
+
** [[Database migration]] - instructions for how to update your database when updating your toolset
+
** [[Database backup and restore]] - How to back up or restore the EUTS database
+
** [[Database sharing]] - How to share a database between two or more developers
+
 
+
*[[Console]] - a window for entering console commands. Caution, some of these are intended to work with an installed copy of the Dragon Age game and will crash the toolset when used in its current state.
+
 
+
*[[Release notes]]
+
 
+
<h2 style="margin:0; background: rgb(221, 206, 242); font-size:150%; font-weight:bold; border: 1px solid rgb(175, 163, 191); text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;"> Third party tools </h2>
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*[[Web Application]] - A sample web application that allows you to search and view scripts, search and view conversations, and translate strings. By Adam Miller.
+
 
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|}
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|}
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Revision as of 21:26, 12 December 2017

Welcome to the Dragon Age Toolset documentation wiki!

The Dragon Age Toolset puts the power of the game developer in the palm of your hands. The Dragon Age Toolset will allow you to produce your own content including dungeons crawls, full-length campaigns, add-ons and cut-scenes you can share with friends and the BioWare community. Registered game owners of the PC version of Dragon Age: Origins can download the toolset here.

Note that version 1.00 of the toolset has a flaw in its core resources that can prevent the main campaign from playing properly after you export resources. This can be cleaned up if it happens, but can require a bit of work to get right. See Plot GUID bug for more details. Version 1.01 (the current version) corrects this.

If you are upgrading from version 1.00 to version 1.01 or later and wish to keep your existing database resources, see database migration for instructions on how to to move resources into the new version of the database. The DADBDATA format has changed between these versions.

For assistance with installing or running the game, or for issues regarding BioWare-published content, see the Dragon Age help site.

Getting Started

The toolset can be very daunting to dive into at first. This section covers topics useful to new users - how to get the toolset set up, how to navigate its interfaces, and where to look to get started on common tasks.

Tutorials

This section contains a list of step-by-step tutorials for a wide variety of editors and tasks you might need to do. Note that these tutorials will also be linked to from the sections that cover their respective subject matter; this is just to collect them all into one place for ease of reference.

Design

Once you have the pieces you need for an adventure - level layouts, creatures, abilities, and so forth - there's still the step of putting it all together into a playable game. This involves placing resources into areas, hooking up plots, and all sorts of other miscellaneous tasks.

Art

This section covers such things as how to import new models into the game, how to design level layouts, and how to create unique head morphs for NPCs. You can download the art sources for the main campaign from the Single player and core resource source files project.

Cinematography

Dragon Age is a heavily cinematics-oriented game. Every line in every conversation has the potential to be written as a full-blown cutscene, though in most cases a simpler treatment is perfectly adequate. Cutscenes can also be created independent of any conversation, to be triggered by script at appropriate moments.

Sound and music

Sounds are used in Dragon Age in a variety of ways. Voice over, background music, the sounds of combat and spells, ambient noises placed throughout areas or triggered by scripts and player actions, are all covered in this section.

Script

Scripting is used whenever the designers need control over the game's behaviour. The syntax for DA scripts is very similar to the C programming language. Scripting is commonly used to:

  • Trigger plot events
  • Create or modify abilities - skills, talents, and spells
  • Handle creature and party member AI

3rd party extensions

The toolset released by BioWare doesn't cover every possible task that might be needed by the end user. This section covers third-party tools that don't easily fall under other subject areas covered by the toolset.

  • Also see technical information for a list of documents about the more in-depth technical workings of the toolset and of Dragon Age: Origins.

Editing this wiki

The documentation for the toolset is still being worked on so some of the material here may be incomplete or somewhat out-of-date. If you wish to contribute (either by adding your own material or by highlighting holes) you are most welcome to jump right in and edit. If you see something that needs improvement but you're not sure how (or you just don't have the time) you can mark it by adding "{{undocumented}}" at the trouble spot.

  • The Wiki User's Guide has information on how to edit this wiki. This wiki is powered by the MediaWiki engine.
  • GeSHi highlighting is installed, including "nwscript" and "dascript" tags.


Language: English  • русский