How do I reskin a model?

[Feerless 10]

So I have just gotten into this and never done it before. I believe I have the sdk tools kit because I made a squad.xml and you need it for the logo. I have no clue how to get the textures I need to reskin what I want. Can anyone guide me? http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA_2_OA:_Infantry I want to reskin the operator. Someone please give me a full guide and it will be much appreciated. Thank you! (.'s are replaced with zeroes due to this being my first post)

edit:url now functioning - Max

Edited May 22, 2013 by Max Power

[Richards.D 761]

Well, there are certainly plenty of tutorials you can read regarding this, using "Search" will definitely get you some good results. While I don't think I have time for a complete step by step response I will try to at least get you on the right path.

So there are essentially two ways to do this. The first is simply re-skinning the current in-game units so when you play with them you get other ones. I don't recommend doing this as it will change the default game units. What I would suggest would be to make new units, based off the old ones with new textures.

This task is actually quite simple, and will only involve some basic knowledge. The first step is to ensure you have your p: drive setup. This will allow you to actually build the mod and pack it properly.

The first step is to make a new folder in your P: drive that will contain your model. Call it something with no special characters or spaces. If you need to use a space, use _ instead.

Now, you'll need a PBO unpacking tool for this. Depending on what you want to reskin detemines what model you want. If you want an OA model, unpack characters_e.pbo. If you want an Arma 2 model unpack characters2.pbo. From there you can find the .p3d (model file) of what you want. Take that model file and move it to your folder. Now, you'll need a configuration file. Make a new text document, and save it as "All Files" and type: config.cpp as the file name. Now as for the contents, I am at work so I'll most likely need to get home to show you exactly what to put in, however there are tons of tutorials and with some success you can copy the config.cpp and cut the parts you do not need out from the default one in either of the characters pbos.

Once you've made the config, got your model the only step is re-texturing. Now even though you've made a new model folder, and you've got the model it will still use the path to the arma 2 default textures. You want to map to your own custom ones, so we'll need a program called Moveobject.exe. It is a command line program that can seem quite daunting, but honestly once you do it once you can rinse and repeat for a long time. I'm honestly not very good at it, and using search will turn up a few tutorials.

Now if that way of texturing seems to difficult, thankfully many of the models include "Hidden Selections". By including this in your models config.cpp you can simply apply a new texture, ensuring it is in that model folder. This is a much easier way, but only really lets you do small re-skinning because usually is only setup for the default _co texture, and uses all the other default supporting textures.

Once you have your model in the folder, a good config.cpp, and the textures mapped, you can use "Bin PBO" to pack that folder into a .PBO. Do not use binarise, the model is already.

I hope that helps a bit..

Richards

[Feerless 10]

Well, there are certainly plenty of tutorials you can read regarding this, using "Search" will definitely get you some good results. While I don't think I have time for a complete step by step response I will try to at least get you on the right path.

So there are essentially two ways to do this. The first is simply re-skinning the current in-game units so when you play with them you get other ones. I don't recommend doing this as it will change the default game units. What I would suggest would be to make new units, based off the old ones with new textures.

This task is actually quite simple, and will only involve some basic knowledge. The first step is to ensure you have your p: drive setup. This will allow you to actually build the mod and pack it properly.

The first step is to make a new folder in your P: drive that will contain your model. Call it something with no special characters or spaces. If you need to use a space, use _ instead.

Now, you'll need a PBO unpacking tool for this. Depending on what you want to reskin detemines what model you want. If you want an OA model, unpack characters_e.pbo. If you want an Arma 2 model unpack characters2.pbo. From there you can find the .p3d (model file) of what you want. Take that model file and move it to your folder. Now, you'll need a configuration file. Make a new text document, and save it as "All Files" and type: config.cpp as the file name. Now as for the contents, I am at work so I'll most likely need to get home to show you exactly what to put in, however there are tons of tutorials and with some success you can copy the config.cpp and cut the parts you do not need out from the default one in either of the characters pbos.

Once you've made the config, got your model the only step is re-texturing. Now even though you've made a new model folder, and you've got the model it will still use the path to the arma 2 default textures. You want to map to your own custom ones, so we'll need a program called Moveobject.exe. It is a command line program that can seem quite daunting, but honestly once you do it once you can rinse and repeat for a long time. I'm honestly not very good at it, and using search will turn up a few tutorials.

Now if that way of texturing seems to difficult, thankfully many of the models include "Hidden Selections". By including this in your models config.cpp you can simply apply a new texture, ensuring it is in that model folder. This is a much easier way, but only really lets you do small re-skinning because usually is only setup for the default _co texture, and uses all the other default supporting textures.

Once you have your model in the folder, a good config.cpp, and the textures mapped, you can use "Bin PBO" to pack that folder into a .PBO. Do not use binarise, the model is already.

I hope that helps a bit..

Richards

Ok I downloaded Kegetys tools or whatnot and I'm using CPBO and nothing is happening, I'm stuck!

---------- Post added at 00:30 ---------- Previous post was at 00:22 ----------

Well, there are certainly plenty of tutorials you can read regarding this, using "Search" will definitely get you some good results. While I don't think I have time for a complete step by step response I will try to at least get you on the right path.

So there are essentially two ways to do this. The first is simply re-skinning the current in-game units so when you play with them you get other ones. I don't recommend doing this as it will change the default game units. What I would suggest would be to make new units, based off the old ones with new textures.

This task is actually quite simple, and will only involve some basic knowledge. The first step is to ensure you have your p: drive setup. This will allow you to actually build the mod and pack it properly.

The first step is to make a new folder in your P: drive that will contain your model. Call it something with no special characters or spaces. If you need to use a space, use _ instead.

Now, you'll need a PBO unpacking tool for this. Depending on what you want to reskin detemines what model you want. If you want an OA model, unpack characters_e.pbo. If you want an Arma 2 model unpack characters2.pbo. From there you can find the .p3d (model file) of what you want. Take that model file and move it to your folder. Now, you'll need a configuration file. Make a new text document, and save it as "All Files" and type: config.cpp as the file name. Now as for the contents, I am at work so I'll most likely need to get home to show you exactly what to put in, however there are tons of tutorials and with some success you can copy the config.cpp and cut the parts you do not need out from the default one in either of the characters pbos.

Once you've made the config, got your model the only step is re-texturing. Now even though you've made a new model folder, and you've got the model it will still use the path to the arma 2 default textures. You want to map to your own custom ones, so we'll need a program called Moveobject.exe. It is a command line program that can seem quite daunting, but honestly once you do it once you can rinse and repeat for a long time. I'm honestly not very good at it, and using search will turn up a few tutorials.

Now if that way of texturing seems to difficult, thankfully many of the models include "Hidden Selections". By including this in your models config.cpp you can simply apply a new texture, ensuring it is in that model folder. This is a much easier way, but only really lets you do small re-skinning because usually is only setup for the default _co texture, and uses all the other default supporting textures.

Once you have your model in the folder, a good config.cpp, and the textures mapped, you can use "Bin PBO" to pack that folder into a .PBO. Do not use binarise, the model is already.

I hope that helps a bit..

Richards

Ok I downloaded Kegetys tools or whatnot and I'm using CPBO and nothing is happening, I'm stuck!

[Richards.D 761]

I would try using Eliteness to unpack a PBO.

[Feerless 10]

Ok none of these programs are working, can you pretty please just give me the Operator textures?

[max power 21]

Please don't redistribute BI's property.

I'm not sure that the OA operator is actually reskinnable. I think you might have to use Jonny's Special Forces models, which are SF models made by the same guy who did BI's operators.

@Feerless, I hope you do get the tools working. Unfortunately, unpacking is the easy part. Getting an addon to work is more complex than that, so I would keep trying. BTW, I wouldn't use Kegety's tools. Some of them are outdated, which might explain the problems you are running into.

[fkymplbo 5]

What is 'move object.exe' please?