Sunday, February 21, 2010

Dragon Age Origins Change Character Appearance 2010

It's possible! 2010-02-21 (Backup your game first by making a copy of the Bioware folder in My Documents)

So you made your character, but there's something you don't like about it. Use these steps to remake your character from scratch.

Download and install the toolset http://dragonage.bioware.com/toolset

Open Dragon Age Origins.

Load the save game you last played of the character you want to change the face / appearance of. Make a new save, name it "changeface", then exit the game.

Make a new character of the same race and sex as the character in the "changeface" game. Make the name be "MyFace". Pick out the new way you want it to look.

Tip: If you want to use the face of a character you already have to put on a different character, you can do that too, just follow the steps below about changing the game files and skip the steps about creating a new face.

Tip: You can download extra hair colors http://www.google.com/search?q=Pineappletrees+Vibrant+Colors and http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=555

Tip: Take screenshots of the sliders when creating the character, this will help you tweak it further if you don't like the appearance of your new creation.

Start the game of the new character. Check to see if you like the face.

Tip: You can run up to a solid object, then move the "camera" to be right in front of your face (between you and the wall) and it will zoom in close on your characters face.

If you don't like the face, delete the character, and start again (work off the screenshots of the sliders to get that tweak just the way you want it).

Once you like the face, save the game as "newface" then exit the game.

If you have a slow computer, you may need to Quit the Dragon Age game so the computer doesn't run out of memory when loading the game files from the toolset.

Open the toolset (Start>All Programs>Dragon Age Origins>Dragon Age Toolset)

We will first open the save game "newface" and copy the part of the file that has the appearance (called "MORPH" in the file), then we'll delete that out of "changeface" and paste it into the same place.

File>Open File = My Documents\Bioware\DragonAge\Characters\Myface\Saves\Slot_1\newface.das

Click the little plus ( + ) signs to expand them on these items:
+SAVEGAME_PLAYERCHAR
++SAVEGAME_PLAYERCHAR_CHAR

Scroll down to find a line called: SAVEGAME_PLAYER_MORPH

Right click SAVEGAME_PLAYER_MORPH and choose "Copy". We are "copying" the face from this saved game.

Tip: If your computer is slow, do File>Close before opening the second saved game.

Now we open our other character so we can "paste the face" into it.

File>Open File = My Documents\Bioware\DragonAge\Characters\\Saves\\changeface.das

Click the little plus ( + ) signs on:
-SAVEGAME_PLAYERCHAR
--SAVEGAME_PLAYERCHAR_CHAR

Find the line that says SAVEGAME_PLAYER_MORPH right click it and choose "Delete". (slower computers will *choke* for a moment)

Scroll back up to the line SAVEGAME_PLAYERCHAR_CHAR right click it and choose "Paste". (again, on a slower computer it will look like it's crashing, give it a moment)

File > Save

File > Close

File > Exit

Open Dragon Age Origins. Load the "changeface" save. You should now see the face you've created. Run around for a little bit, maybe move to a new zone or two, try going into combat, if everything looks good, save it as "twitterimkilo".

Now just play the game as normal, and enjoy the face you always wanted!

Feel free to buy me lunch (or help me upgrade my slow computer) with donating at http://milescomer.com/ or holler at me on http://twitter.com/imkilo