Can't Get Character Tools 1 or 2 to Work With Win XP

[SpecterFan]

A while back my PC crashed and I've been slowly been putting things back together. I now have two PCs: one is running Win 98 SE and the other is running Win XP. My problem is with the "XP" machine. FF1 and FFv3rdR both seem to run OK but the Character Tools will not run properly.

Character Tool 1 seems to run for some meshes but not for others. Example: Queen Angela hexxed by Ultimate Evil from Ink's Lifeguard mesh. It works fine on the "98 SE" machine but it's all "blown apart" on the "XP" machine.

Character Tool 2 (which is currently only on the "XP" machine) will not open FF1 meshes and usually crashes anyway.

I'm running an Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.40GHz with 768 MB of RAM. My graphics card is a VisionTek ATI Radeon HD 3650 with 1 GB of DDR 2 memory.

I'm at my wits end here. ANY help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
SpecterFan

[GogglesPizanno]

Is your XP upgraded with any Service Packs?

[SpecterFan]

Yes. I believe it is up to Service Pack 3.

[cripp12]

I was having the same issue until I reinstalled and updated to FF patch 1.3. Now it works but you can only view about 4 or 5 before crashing. Then I moved my stuff into the new character files.
Better then none.
Hope this helps.

[SpecterFan]

I did apply the patch. Thanks for the info, anyway.

Another thing that has been nagging at me is whether the source of the Character Tools has anything to do with all the problems?

[daglob]

I had that problem and was never able to get CTool 1 to work on XP.

[SpecterFan]

I think I remember reading something about Freedom Force and Service Pack 3 "being at odds" so to speak. If that's the case, how do I remove it? I found some methods for removing SP 3 but I need a hidden folder named $NtServicePackUninstall$ which I do not have.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

If you're computer came with SP3, which is more than likely--Your computer would have to be about 6 years old or older not to have--you can't remove it.  Patch 1.3 was made specifically to make the game playable in SP3, however.  While it does fix the game itself, it does nothing for any of the game tools, such as CTool and FFEdit, which continue to have conflicts with SP3.  There's nothing you can do about it, I'm afraid.

[SpecterFan]

I went back and looked for the file I just said I couldn't find and found it. I successfully removed SP 3. Ctool still doesn't seem to work right. Ctool 2 seems a bit better but when I try to open a FF1 mesh I run into problems. The Nif Viewer opens the mesh but it will not render it (or maybe I just don't know how to render it). Ctool 2 will not open it at all. Ggrrrr!

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Ctool 2 was made with SP3 in mind, so that is not the issue at all there.

[Previsionary]

When you say, "Won't open at all," what do you mean? Do you mean it crashes the program? If so, that just means that the mesh needs to be converted for use with FFv3R usage. Ctool2 is made with the upgrade in the .nif system in mind.

[SpecterFan]

The mesh I've been working with is hexed from Ink's Lifeguard mesh so I'll continue with Lifeguard.

When I open the mesh with Nif Viewer, I see a solid pink figure. I don't see any animation. I can get a wireframe view. I can not open Lifeguard at all with Ctool2. It would crash before now it doesn't.

[daglob]

I don't use Nifviewer for that very reason.

For me, CTool 2 almost always crashes when I try to view FF1 meshes; that's one way I can tell if they are converted or not.

Does it show up at all in CTool1?

[SpecterFan]

Shows up fine in Ctool 1 BUT only on my Win 98 machine.

[Naathez]

Character tool 1 worked fine for me on XP SP3. CT2 doesn't, and I have the exact problem described here http://freedomreborn.net/archive/index.php?action=printpage;topic=48020.0 - but I can't seem to understand where to find the powers.dat file it requires or where to put it.. anybody knows how to help?

[Kenn]

My CTool (1) has been on the blink since I finally got my service packs (up through 3) installed.