[Tutorial] Simple Re-texturing Guide (From Start To Finish)

[Apex5 10]

Huh, could've sworn I had updated C++ a week ago, thanks, Eliteness launched

[Amit 17]

Good to hear this was resolved.

[Apex5 10]

funnily enough, just when I thought I was done with running into problems, Photoshop CS5.1 or GIMP 2 wouldn't open PAA files with the Plugin provided on the first post, any ideas?

[PuFu 4600]

funnily enough, just when I thought I was done with running into problems, Photoshop CS5.1 or GIMP 2 wouldn't open PAA files with the Plugin provided on the first post, any ideas?

do NOT use PAA plugins for either GIMP or PS for that matter. Period. (and the OP should surely take that off quickly, too many issues with 3rd party plugs).

Use BI Texview and convert your files to TGA, then use them in your preferred image editing software. Same goes for converting those TGA to PAA (make sure the said TGA is 8bit/chnl)

[Apex5 10]

How do I convert PAA to TGA and back?

*edit Never mind I figured it out after second thought haha, forgot how simple it is

Edited September 11, 2013 by Apex5

[barakokula31 10]

do NOT use PAA plugins for either GIMP or PS for that matter. Period. (and the OP should surely take that off quickly, too many issues with 3rd party plugs).

Use BI Texview and convert your files to TGA, then use them in your preferred image editing software. Same goes for converting those TGA to PAA (make sure the said TGA is 8bit/chnl)

Is there a difference when using .tga and .png? I heard that you can also use .png and I really like good ol' Paint.

[Amit 17]

do NOT use PAA plugins for either GIMP or PS for that matter. Period. (and the OP should surely take that off quickly, too many issues with 3rd party plugs).

Use BI Texview and convert your files to TGA, then use them in your preferred image editing software. Same goes for converting those TGA to PAA (make sure the said TGA is 8bit/chnl)

I don't know if that's the case with the GIMP, but the PAA plugin works perfectly fine with the versions of Photoshop that I have used it on: CS2, CS4, CS5, CS5.1, CS6. Personally, I find the work of converting the PAA to TGA and then opening that in Photoshop to be unnecessary since it does not affect the texture you'll be working with in any way. Issues with certain 3rd party plugins is not a reason to stop using plugins altogether. I have provided one that is confirmed to work on the most recent versions of Photoshop. For that reason I will not remove the link to it from the guide.

I haven't checked, but it may be possible the the plugin is not 64-bit compatible if you are using that version of Photoshop. Is there an error message you are getting Apex?

Edited September 13, 2013 by Amit

[[aps]gnat 28]

but the PAA plugin works perfectly fine with the versions of Photoshop that I have used it on

Wrong

This forum is littered with problems created by the plugin (over years!! ). People think all is fine, but later discover weird stuff the engine isn't doing properly, like shadows from other objects won't cast across the texture etc etc

My continued recommendation, dont use the old plugins

[Amit 17]

I think you may be confused about the situation. To be clear, I'm not saying people should be saving their completed textures as PAAs from Photoshop using the plugin. I only used it to open the PAA file from photoshop. If you read my tutorial, then you would have known that I specifically tell people not to save it as a PAA using the plugin, but as a TGA and then convert it to PAA using TexView 2. I've textured a number of things for Arma 2 and 3 including weapons, infantry, vehicles, and static objects. None of them have shown any problems that you describe in your thread about the PAA plugin. Probably because my method doesn't use the PAA plugin to export the final texture.

Edited September 14, 2013 by Amit

[[aps]gnat 28]

Apologies, sure, that will work, but I recommend NO PUBLICITY for the plugin, because someone will try to use it to save a PAA.

Opening a PAA in TexView2 then saving as a TGA works just fine ..........

[Amit 17]

I suppose somewhere down the road someone will try to save it as a PAA from photoshop, myself included the first time I used it. However, it only takes the first use to realize that the plugin is absolute rubbish for creating PAA's and will not only take a long time to produce a PAA file, but add a bunch of random garbage to it. A good habit is to review the PAA after you have exported it from TexView to make sure it turned out the way it's supposed to. If the same thing is done for the plugin produced PAA, the person will realize that the plugin is not the way to go for generating PAAs. At most this will set the person back a few minutes of testing when they realize they need to export to TGA and convert from there. So, I still won't remove the link to the plugin in my post because if someone is dedicated to doing things properly, they will read all of the tutorial before jumping ahead. If they jump ahead without reading the notes/warnings, then that's their own fault.

[thetrooper 10]

ok, got issues. Can someone point me in the right direction with the Eliteness and dll install.

Downloaded the Eliteness 3.10.04.installer, DePbo4.11and PAA plugin for Photoshop.

Eliteness installs and places in X86 folder. There's a docs and bin folder in here.

Tried extracting DePbo and tried both of these folders, i also followed direction to place in the windows/system folder. I also installed Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (x86).

Instead, I keep coming up with the following message despite anything I try to do.

The program can't start because MSVCP110.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

Any ideas?

[surpher 1]

You need Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package, see post #24.

[thetrooper 10]

yep, as above, I installed that as well. No difference

I found the 'msvcp110.dll' in windows/system32. took a copy and moved to the location of the eliteness.exe file. Then came up with a new error message.

Seems to be looking for the file in a place where should either be system 32 or sysWow.

Stuck on this one.

Edited September 15, 2013 by TheTrooper

[Ekko 1]

yep, as above, I installed that as well. No difference

I found the 'msvcp110.dll' in windows/system32. took a copy and moved to the location of the eliteness.exe file. Then came up with a new error message.

Seems to be looking for the file in a place where should either be system 32 or sysWow.

Stuck on this one.

I've sorta got the same problem, only mine says DePbo.dll. I am sure I have followed the guide thoroughly, but alas, no success. Getting stuck so early into the process is quite lame.

[barakokula31 10]

I've sorta got the same problem, only mine says DePbo.dll. I am sure I have followed the guide thoroughly, but alas, no success. Getting stuck so early into the process is quite lame.

https://dev-heaven.net/attachments/d...teness2.96.rar

https://dev-heaven.net/attachments/d.../DePbo4.10.rar

https://dev-heaven.net/attachments/d...actPbo1.86.rar

____

Read the ReadMes included in the Eliteness package for a proper setup.

[Ekko 1]

https://dev-heaven.net/attachments/d...teness2.96.rar

https://dev-heaven.net/attachments/d.../DePbo4.10.rar

https://dev-heaven.net/attachments/d...actPbo1.86.rar

____

Read the ReadMes included in the Eliteness package for a proper setup.

Did you check those links you sent me? because they won't work with me, I just get the 404 error

[barakokula31 10]

Did you check those links you sent me? because they won't work with me, I just get the 404 error

Sorry, this is all I got:

https://dev-heaven.net/attachments/download/20819/Eliteness2.96.rar

https://dev-heaven.net/attachments/download/20818/DePbo4.10.rar

https://dev-heaven.net/attachments/download/20829/ExtractPbo1.86.rar

If you can't get it from there, I'll upload it somewhere.

_______________________________________________________

I've got a quick question: when you convert the files to .png and edit them in Paint, will they have any issue when converted back to .paa?

[Ekko 1]

Sorry, this is all I got:

https://dev-heaven.net/attachments/download/20819/Eliteness2.96.rar

https://dev-heaven.net/attachments/download/20818/DePbo4.10.rar

https://dev-heaven.net/attachments/download/20829/ExtractPbo1.86.rar

If you can't get it from there, I'll upload it somewhere.

_______________________________________________________

I've got a quick question: when you convert the files to .png and edit them in Paint, will they have any issue when converted back to .paa?

I've got it to work with ExtractPbo from dev-heaven, so I don't need Eliteness anymore. My only problem now is the PAA plugin not working in Photoshop CS 5.1(64). I've put it in the right folder, but I don't see it in the file formats when opening a file such as “heli_transport_01_ext01_blufor_co.paaâ€. Stuck again I guess.

[barakokula31 10]

I've got it to work with ExtractPbo from dev-heaven, so I don't need Eliteness anymore. My only problem now is the PAA plugin not working in Photoshop CS 5.1(64). I've put it in the right folder, but I don't see it in the file formats when opening a file such as “heli_transport_01_ext01_blufor_co.paaâ€. Stuck again I guess.

Using TexView, convert the .paa to .tga, edit it and then save it as a .paa in TexView.

[Amit 17]

I've got a quick question: when you convert the files to .png and edit them in Paint, will they have any issue when converted back to .paa?

I'm not sure, I've never tried. If you're not using the PAA plugin, then you should convert to TGA instead of PNG just to be sure.

I've got it to work with ExtractPbo from dev-heaven, so I don't need Eliteness anymore. My only problem now is the PAA plugin not working in Photoshop CS 5.1(64). I've put it in the right folder, but I don't see it in the file formats when opening a file such as “heli_transport_01_ext01_blufor_co.paaâ€. Stuck again I guess.

I still haven't confirmed whether or not it works on 64-bit versions of Photoshop, but that may be the issue. Try running PS in 32-bit mode. That should work to at least get you the stage of opening the PAA with the plugin and save it as a PSD file. Then you can switch back to the 64-bit version and edit from there. Failing that, use TexView 2 to convert the PAA file to a TGA file (Save as>File Type: All Files> File name: {texture_name}.tga). I'll add the instructions to the guide as well to help people who have this same issue.

[barakokula31 10]

I'm not sure, I've never tried. If you're not using the PAA plugin, then you should convert to TGA instead of PNG just to be sure.

Well, that's kind of a huge setback.

[Ekko 1]

Using TexView, convert the .paa to .tga, edit it and then save it as a .paa in TexView.

Thanks! And by the way, should I add anything specific into the four boxes when saving the file as .tga in Texview?

Edited September 23, 2013 by Ekko

[barakokula31 10]

four boxes

Which boxes?

[Amit 17]

Thanks! And by the way, should I add anything specific into the four boxes when saving the file as .tga in Texview?

No, leave them at the default settings.

Which boxes?

He means the options in the top left corner of texview for alpha and stuff.