[MDL ED] Trying to learn how to edit a model

[zergling50]

This is a little confusing, and I dont expect to fully understand all of it at the moment. I really want this or this one project as it really compliments the story and adds more depth to the game. If you guys could word your answers in a straightforward yet simplified way that would be great. Anyways I appreciate that you guys are trying to help, and once my game is done im going to make sure to include all of you guys who have helped me in any of my threads in the credits. Once again thanks! And sorry if i say anything stupid or dont make a connection you expect me to make, because as I said earlier this is a little confusing (not overly as I thankfully have some programming background).

Obviously E:/Frictional_2/animations/mutant_Project/ does not exist on most people's systems. But what kind of insight does it provide? It tells us the game doesn't use absolute paths when loading files. It tells us that the game uses the file name of the images referenced. Therefore, having something as simple as servant_grunt_custom.dds would suffice for init_from. The game would then look for a MAT file named "servant_grunt_custom" when loading the DAE file that references servant_grunt_custom.dds.

So basically, I need to rename both the .dds and the .mat to (insert name here) and then reference that .dds name in the DAE file where you showed me and then everything will work? Do I need to change any other names or should that fix it. Ill try it out and see but if im missing something let me know. Thanks!

So I changed all the references to the original files listed in the directory of the DAE file to the newly renamed ones. Most of them werent even in the DAE file, but dds and mat were in it (it said material instead of mat but i figured it was the same thing since I think mat is short for material). I crossed my fingers and opened it up and... HOORAH it didnt crash. Sadly it didnt work either, but baby steps im getting there. When I opened him up he has the same default skin. Originally before I did all this messing around (right after you guys introduced me to gimp) I made skins for the characters and were able to make them wear them by changing their material to the .mat file thing. However as soon as I start making changes this material seems to completey disappear. It now only shows the default skin to select with the same name as my new monster.mat and gives me no option to select my newer skin like before. Then again, when I would attach the skin that way it wouldnt show up in the level editor so I'm guessing that wouldnt work. What do I need to do now to get the model to wear the skin and keep it thus finally solving this dilemma? This is going to be the most complicated thing im going to do for this story, so once im done with this the rest shouldnt be too bad. Thanks for all your support and let me know of what I need to do.
EDIT: Im going to a camp today. I might be able to continue talking, but ill be back friday and I wont be able to make any changes till then. Still, If I can figure this out by the time I get back thatd be great. If I dont respond to any answers please dont take that as me having figured it out. In fact the more replies the better so ill have more to work with when I get back. Once again Thanks!