Create a retexture guide??

[Bushidozeb 10]

I would like to see if someone could create a retexture guide step by step. I want to learn as many others to be able to "repaint" the textures on soldiers and wehicles.

So it looks great, you get the right shades of ex creases in uniforms. Which tools you use to for it to be neat and not messy? How do you usually start and so on.

I know that many would be happy to learn. :)

Edited November 28, 2010 by Bushidozeb

[scifer 10]

I know that many would be happy to learn. :)

Me too :now:

[PELHAM 10]

It's something I have been learning today but I'm just a beginner. I managed to change some character textures and use them in a mission by doing the following.

If you use the UnPBO to unpack for example Arma2/addons/characters2.pbo

you will find in the unpacked folder (all the soldiers, animals etc are in there)

e.g characters2/Civil/Woman/Damsel/Data

some .paa files which are the textures, bump maps, lighting

and .p3d files which are the 3d models.

To open the .paa files use TexView2 from BIS Editing Tools.

Find the texture .paa (usually _co in the filename) (the bump map is grey and the lighting is pink/yellow)

I saved it as a .tga (all files) with TexView2 and edited it with the free drawing program Gimp. ***In Gimp make sure you un-tick RLE compression when you save the file or it will not work***

Convert your edited .tga back to a .paa with TexView2 and save it to an editor created mission folder under:

My Documents/Arma2OtherProfiles/-You-/missions

To use it in the mission - place the correct type of unit in the editor and in it's init field use the following code:

this setObjecttexture [0, "yourtexture.paa"];

(Edit: what [GLT]Myke says below is important - use the naming format to identify files and probably best to use it when renaming the .paa)

The .paa must be in the mission folder or you will get an error about it not being found.

This seems to be a first step to playing around with the textures, I need further guides too on the bumpmaps etc if anyone can recommend something?

Next I am going to download one of the character addons from Armaholic, UnPBO it and see if I can learn more. It will be nice to create my own mods one day!

Good tutorials here:

http://www.ofpec.com/addons_depot/index.php?action=list&game=ArmA&cat=tu&type=te

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Mondkalb%27s_Addon_Tutorial

Edited December 30, 2010 by PELHAM
spelling and extra info

[[frl]myke 14]

Most texture files have additional info in the filename which helps you to identify what it is:

* _CO - color (difuse map), sRGB color space

* _CA - color with alpha (difuse map with alpha), sRGB color space

* _NO - normal map

* _NS - normal map specular (with alpha)

* _NOF - normal map faded (mipmaps fade the texture in distance, usefull for terrain)

* _NON - normal map with noise in alpha channel ( noise is used for vegetation lods blending)

* _NOHQ - normal map high quality

* _NOVHQ - normal map high quality

* _DT - detail texture, average color should be 0.5, texture has got fade out filter in mipmaps

* _CDT - colored detail texture, average color should be 0.5 in all R G B channels, texture has got fade out filter in mipmaps

* _SKY - sky texture

* _MC - macro texture, sRGB color space

* _AS - ambient shadow texture

* _SM - specular map

* _SMDI - optimised specular mapa for better bitdepth

* _LCO - layer color map, texture used for satelite and mask textures on the terrain

* _MCO - multiply color map, texture used to multiply with color map (as cdt) without fade out filter, average color should be 0.5 in all R G B channels

In bold are the commonly used for any sort of objects.

You can only alter the main texture. You can't alter any of the other textures as these aren't referred from the model itself but from the .rvmat file. So when doin retextures, you should make sure that the new texture fits with the old. Often logos (like flag symbols) have additional shine defined in the _smdi file. So even if you remove the logo from the main texture, the old logo will still shine through.

There is no way to avoid this unless you have the mlod to create your own rvmat file which refers to a also adjusted smdi file.

[Mr. Charles 22]

PS2RjuVdjLQ

All thx to Aeneas2020

[[aps]gnat 28]

Thanks Mr Charles!

Added to the YouTube Tutorial thread.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=83921