HakPaks
From NWN1 Custom Content Guide
Contents |
[edit] General
HakPaks are archive files which contain various custom content files within it. Common files are 2DAs, models, textures, sounds, tileset .SET files, and others. Think of it like a .ZIP or .RAR archive, only there is no compression applied on the file (otherwise load times would increase dramatically).
It's a quick and easy way to distribute content around, as dumping the files into your override directory leads to messes as certain files override others.
[edit] Usage
| Image:Hak ccpanel.png | From the Aurora Toolset, go to Edit -> Module Properties, then go to the Custom Content tab.
From there, you add your hakpaks to the list from the dropdown list next to the grayed out Add button. When you have your hak selected, just hit the Add button and you'll see it added to the list above. You can also specify a custom TLK file here too, for more information on TLKs check out TalkTables. You use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to rearrange the order of the haks. THIS IS IMPORTANT because the topmost hak on the list overrides the files of everything below it. Why is that? See the next section on... |
[edit] Using Multiple HakPaks
This is an issue that a lot of people don't get, which results in a lot of cherry picking of custom content on the Vault and fragmentation of files. NWN has supported multiple hakpaks for awhile, but how do you use it effectively?
Well, first thing you have to realize is that NWN uses a flat resource system, that's why files in override work, and how the whole hakpak system works as well. In order of where NWN looks for content is in the default NWN .BIF files first, override, the lowest level hak, then the highest level hak last.
As an example, let's say we want to make a DLA vs. CODI creature arena mod. So there will be 2 creature files we want to use, a CODI_critter.hak and DLA_critter.hak. But since both contain creature models, it means both will contain the appearance.2da file and neither one would reference the creature models of the other hak. So at the moment, if we put the CODI creature hak on top, we'll only have planar creatures available to us, and if we put DLA's hak first we'd only have draconians, kender, etc. So what do we do?
We make ANOTHER hak that contains a new appearance.2da file that merges the various creature lines from both haks so they all play nice. Ideally since it would be a module specific hak, we'd probably call it modulename.hak. So now in the hak list, we'd have the modulename.hak first, followed by CODI_critter.hak then DLA_critter.hak (or DLA then CODI, it doesn't really matter at this point).
[edit] Making a HakPak
There is an application in /nwn/utils/ called nwhak.exe, this is the program that you use to create a hak, and similarly, delete and extract resources from a hak.
[edit] Adding to a HakPak
Go to Resource -> Add (or just hit Ctrl-A) and it will pop up a file browser window. Browse to the directory of your files, select them. Usual Windows selection rules apply here: click-drag a selection box, or use Shift+click, or Ctrl+click to add/remove a specific file from the selection list.
Alternatively you can just drag and drop from the Windows Explorer to the HakPacker window and it will add the files to it.
Add a title, URL, and description if you want (not necessary, but helps for identifying the contents of the hak).
Then go to File->Save or File->Save As and save your hakpak!
