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How to replace Lara with the bad guy #16 in the Nevada level (TR3)



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  • Open the nevada level with TRViewer.
  • Browse the moveable #16. Notice that it has the same number of meshes than Lara (moveable #96 - if not, the drag and drop won't work) but its hierarchy is a little different from Lara's one: left and right inner arm are inverted. This one is not a problem because we can change the hierarchy with TRViewer.
  • Drag the moveable #16 (left click on it in the tree view and stay clicked) and drop it on the moveable #96 (Lara). Just click Ok when prompted.
  • Click on the moveable #96 to select it.
  • So, we have to invert left and right inner arm: click on the "Show hierarchy" button in the "moveable toolbox" window, then drag and drop mesh #75 on mesh #74 in the hierarchy tree. Now, mesh #75 (left inner arm) is correctly positionned under mesh #78 (right inner arm), but mesh #81 (head) should be the last mesh under mesh #74: so, just drag and drop mesh #81 on mesh #74 to make it the last mesh of the sub-hierarchy of mesh #74. You're now done for the hierarchy: it is the same as Lara's one.
  • Drag and drop moveable #16 on moveable #0. Click Ok when prompted. If you look at moveable #0 before replacing it, you will see that all meshes are mesh #0: these are place-holders only and are not really the mesh #0. So, when replacing the moveable by our bad guy, we don't want to replace these meshes by the meshes of the bad guy. However, we do want to replace the hierarchy (positions of meshes relative to each other). So, there are two solutions: we replace the hierarchy / meshes by those of the bad guy, and then we replace the meshes by the mesh #0. We can make these changes by selecting each mesh in the hierarchy tree then pressing 0 on the numeric keypad for each; or we can let TRViewer do it itself by choosing "Keep mesh#0 in the destination moveable" when we drop a moveable into another: that's what we did when we selected 'Ok', because this option is checked by default. In fact, "Keep mesh#0 in the destination moveable" means that, when importing a moveable into another, if a mesh in the destination hierarchy is mesh#0, TRViewer won't replace it by the corresponding mesh of the source moveable.
  • Select moveable #0 and invert left and right inner arm as explained two marks above.
  • Drag and drop moveable #0 on moveable #1. When prompted to copy, check "Do not copy mesh#0 from source moveable". This option prevents replacing a mesh in the destination moveable by a mesh from the source moveable if this mesh is mesh #0. That's really what we want: in moveable #1, the mesh hands are the mesh guns, and we don't want the copy of moveable #0 into moveable #1 to replace these meshes. If that were the case, gun meshes would be replaced by the corresponding meshes in the moveable #0, that is mesh #0 (all meshes of moveable #0 are mesh #0). That would not be irremediable, though, because we could change back to gun meshes by selecting mesh in the hierarchy tree then typing 2 on the numeric keypad for the right hand mesh and 3 for the left hand mesh.
  • Select moveable #1, click on the second mesh of the hierarchy tree (left thigh), then type 68 on the numeric keypad: this will replace the Lara's left thigh with the bad guy one's. Do the same thing to replace the right thigh (mesh #71).
  • Select moveable #2, then click on the right mouse button and select "clear meshes": it will remove the Lara's ponytail.
  • Drag and drop moveable #0 on moveable #3 with "Do not copy mesh#0 from source moveable" checked.
  • Drag and drop moveable #0 on moveable #4 with "Do not copy mesh#0 from source moveable" checked, then select moveable #4.
  • Replace the Lara's left and right thigh with the bad guy one's as explained 4 marks above.
  • Do the same thing for the moveable #5 as for the moveable #4, but in addition replace the Lara's head by the bad guy's head (mesh #81).
  • Drag and drop moveable #0 on moveable #6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 with "Do not copy mesh#0 from source moveable" checked.
  • Last point: the pivot point (origin of coordinate system) of the bad guy's head is not correctly positionned. So we have to move it. To do this, select the mesh #81, then click on the "Automatic" button of the "Mesh toolbox" window when the head is approximately facing you. This will stop the camera and will ease the positionning. Then push the shift and ctrl key down and the "page up" key together to move upward the head. You can see where the green plane should approximately be by browsing mesh #19, which is Lara's head. You have to use the shift and ctrl key to move to mesh because if you only use the shift key, the collision sphere will not be moved with the mesh and then will be off-centered (click on the "show" button for the collision sphere in the "mesh toolbox" window to see the collision sphere for the mesh).


  • Congratulation: you are done ! You can now save the level, name it jungle.tr2 and put it in the data directory of TR3 to be able to play it.

    It's a rather long explanation, but when you know what to do, it's typically a matter of 2 or 3 minutes to replace Lara with another mesh. And it's only some seconds to replace another moveable: just drag and drop the source moveable on the destination moveable, and change the hierarchy if necessary !

    Note: replacing Lara by Mrs Legg in the office level is a little easier because her hierarchy is exactly the same as Lara's one. So there is no need to invert left and right inner arm.

    Come back to home.