Exporting ymt results in null characters

[lgoins 1]

OpenIV exports the .ymt files into txt or xml just fine. But when I export as a ymt, it's all null characters.
And when I edit the txt or xml file in notepad++ then save as a ymt, OpenIV can't read it.

I've modded ymt files before without a problem. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong?
I re-installed the game, OpenIV and notepad++ to be sure but no dice.

 

Edit: I downloaded a new horse ymt. Without ever having to try and open it in anything else, OpenIV says it's corrupt however I can read it in notepad++ just fine.

Edited December 27, 2022 by lgoins

[LMS 676]

You are confusing real ymt files and those that are actually text files just renamed to ymt. Normally, a ymt file is a binary file and hence you cannot open it in notepad++. Similarly, OpenIV expects them to be binary (that is the whole point of ymt, after all) and hence errors when you try to open a text file that just got renamed to ymt instead of meta/xml. Now why do people rename text files to ymt? LML forces the game to consider ymt as both, binary and text. This allows you to modify a ymt file as text and load it back into the game without having to compile it back into a binary representation. What you are seeing is expected behavior.

[lgoins 1]

My ultimate problem is solved. I will explain with the crayon that I needed to use in order to understand what I was doing wrong. I knew it had to be something stupid since I couldn't find it anywhere online (I'm not a real modder, just editing stuff and getting into trouble).

 

OpenIV doesn't have support for RDR2 so you have us it to extract files to an XML file. Open in notepad++, edit, save as with the .ymt extension (I kinda already knew this part but the game was crashing when I spawned in the file). In the .ymt file, it has "<UNK_TYPE_....". at the very top and bottom. "Type" has to be changed to member or, as what I did, delete the UNK part and just have the hash code (<0x4BD672F>).  Having "type" is the part that was causing the game to crash when I spawned it in. All is well and I have a new horsey.