Retexture

[kdk11 1]

Can someone point me in the direction of a up to date tutorial on how to retexture vehicles/units in arma 3 please?

[John Spartan 89]

Hi man, there are a lots of tutorials and at this moment I would say that A2 tutorials are containing all the information you need for beginning and till all information/tools will be updated to A3. Just search a "arma 2 retexture" or "arma 2 texturing tutorial" in google - a lot is coming up.

As for basic idea I will say then its probably using "hidden selections" within model [if such are defined by model author] and using setobjecttexture command changing assigned texture. it can be done in editor and storing your new textures in mission file, or creating a separate pbo [bI TOOLS for A2 will do the job].

1. So to get started first you need to find out does the model of unit you want to retexture have any "hidden selections" on it. To do that in editor place the unit and in its initialization field type:

this setObjectTexture [0, ""];

once you hit "preview you will notice that a part of model is missing, so that tells you which particular part is hiddenselection "0"

I used UH80 ghosthawk as a test and using

this setObjectTexture [0, ""]; this setObjectTexture [1, ""];

I can clearly see that 0, and 1 hidden selections are relevant to hull textures. Some units might have even more hidden slections so

keep changing the number in that line representing hidden part of model. So basically what we done is removed the texture path/texture itself.

2. Now we need to find the base textures so we can edit them before putting them back. Normally using pbo tool like Elitnes [for A2] you should be able to open BI original game file archives to

access textures. In case of UH80 its a pbo called air_f_beta in "...\Steam\SteamApps\common\Arma 3\Addons" folder. Make a copy of it and open it with Elitness. Then just browse and find

the texture you are looking to change. In UH80 case for both of first two hidden selections its one texture called "heli_transport_01_ext01_co.paa".

3. Once you have the original texture, you can edit it in your preferred program. I wont cover this part it's plenty of tutorials how to use Gimp or Photoshop.

4. Once you texture is done you have two ways to get it game:

a) place this texture in your mission folder [for example My_fisrtmission.stratis folder which is located in "...\Documents\Arma 3 - Other Profiles\My_Profile_name\missions". NOTE mission]

which was created after you saved your mission in editor. Now start up the game and in editor for the same unit in its initialization field put:

this setObjectTexture [0, "my_new_texture_co.paa"];

hit preview, you should see that first "hiddenselection" - 0 is now replaced/reassigned with new texture [your texture]. Repeat/add same code with relevant selection numbers to archive same

effect for other parts of unit model. this is an easiest and quickest way.

b) in case if its more then one or two textures its would be advised to create a custom pbo [using A2 BI tools], othervise

your mission file will be to large and people wont want to wait and download it. So create a My_addon_name folder, place your textures in it and

create a PBO [wont cover this read about BI tools here ]

After created your pbo you have to create a modefolder in game where to place it. To do that in your "...\Steam\SteamApps\common\Arma 3" folder

create new folder "@My_MOD" and alter the steam launcher parameters "-mod=@My_MOD". By doing this you make your new content available to be

used in game.

so now again in your mission in units initialization field put similar code as we don if our new textures would be in same mission folder just with a

diffrenece that we add our new PBO path

this setObjectTexture [0, "\My_addon_name\my_new_texture_co.paa"];

again in edit hit preview and you should be able to see your texture. Also you can create a full new/replacement config for your unit. That will require a correct config file for your addon. I wont go thru this - information here will cover this and there is plenty of tutorials about creating custom config files [replacement configs].

That's basically all there is, its a simple procedure, just a bit of common sense and you are there.

Hope this helps.

BTW next time probably would be better if such topic would be started in ADDONS/MODS EDITING section since it's not realy about mission editing. Otherwise forum moderators might remind about the forum rules mate.

Edited July 28, 2013 by John_Spartan

[kdk11 1]

Thank you very much mate, Very informative :) oh I didnt realise there was a seperate section for these kind of questions. I apologise.