TGA Ship Texturing?
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I was wondering if there is a way to “change” a ship’s textures, by using UTF Editor to export the ship’s texture files. Then change their hue/saturation in something like Paint.net, and simply import them back in? I’m really not that good with milkshape, and I’d prefer to do texture changes through tga format. If anyone can help me it would be greatly appreciated!
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Try the .mat files.
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@Devastation:
You can do it by opening a ship’s .mat file via utf editor.
Simply export it’s textures in .tga format, make the changes then import back. If you don’t want to retexture or recolor a vanila ship then you have to use the ship cloning tool what can be found at downloads section somewhere. You need this because all ships got unique name and textures as well otherwise you might get issues in game.Update:
Here’s the model cloner:
http://the-starport.net/freelancer/download/singlefile.php?cid=2&lid=8 -
Hot damn! Turns out I’d been doing it wrong all this time! Whenever I opened up the mat files I would export the textures in tga format. However, when I would try to edit them it would always encounter an error. After a bit of digging, I found out that the procedure should go a little something like this - open mat file in UTF, pick a texture and export it in dds format instead, and presto! Thx guys, without your help it would have never even hit me!
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MIPS are dds and MIP is tga. MIP0 is the largest tga texture.
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Yeah, you should use .dds instead of .tga because .tgas are usually flipped in game.
Here’s the converter though:
http://the-starport.net/freelancer/download/singlefile.php?cid=2&lid=7 -
Devastation wrote:
Hot damn! Turns out I’d been doing it wrong all this time! Whenever I opened up the mat files I would export the textures in tga format. However, when I would try to edit them it would always encounter an error. After a bit of digging, I found out that the procedure should go a little something like this - open mat file in UTF, pick a texture and export it in dds format instead, and presto! Thx guys, without your help it would have never even hit me!You are not exporting in .dds format nor .tga format.
The textures are already either .tga or .dds, you have to see which it is, as Timmy51 has described for you, and just enter the name and the right extension when you are prompted for a filename to export the file.
And if you had read the error message it tells you it is a .dds file incorrectly named. IrfanView asks if I want to rename it to the correct extension. So you could have saved yourself a lot of time and disappointment - RTFEM!! (Read The Fine Error Message!!)
As Davis says, .tga textures are flipped upside down, so if you make a couple of test textures with arrows in them you can see which way you have to flip your texture if it makes any difference.
Also you will see that .tga files are larger than .dds files. (The .mat file will be bigger too).
If you look in the .mat file tree in UTF Editor the texture names are usually .TGA and you can rename them .DDS or anything you like, as long as you fix the same material names in the ship’s cmp files.
Take note to use ModelCloner if you want to make a new ship or change the texture names for now until you get familiar with doing this.
Take it step by step and ask when you need help.
You should read Osprey’s tutorial too, it will help you to understand how texture and other names are turned into hash codes/CRC codes and how they are used, and to make correct new icons for your new ships.
Here it is: http://www.fileswap.com/dl/cOIp1fxBY3/Ospreys_Ship_Icon_Tutorial.pdf.html
And Argh’s Texturing Guide may be useful too: http://www.fileswap.com/dl/H8L3rullbg/Arghs_Texturing_Tutorial.zip.html
Good luck.
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Um…yeah. I did read the fine error message, but it never said anything about what it was supposed to be, nor did it say it was incorrectly named. Btw, I use Paint.net, not Photoshop (if that makes a difference). Either way, the problem’s solved.
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Heheheh…
Iss OK, all cool, none of us read either the Fine Manual, nor the Fine Error Messages
And as you say not all software gives the same or meaningful message. Luckily for when I was starting out, IrfanView does. Then I found out that only a couple of dds editors actually work reliably. That was a long trial and error session.
The quickest way is to look at the file contents in the ASCII window when you click on the MIPS or MIP0 or other image node in UTF editor - a .dds file has “DDS” as its first 3 characters.
Right - you are embarking on a tricky task, so watch out for the following:-
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bad texture naming can cause two dissimilar ships to blur, fade, swap texture blocks, or exhibit other weird texture behaviour if they share the same texture name and they come in sight of each other in the game.
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the ship icon in the ship dealer can change to the original one if you don’t create a correct new one for your new ship but use the other and just import a new image and rename the icon - you have to fix the hashcodes in the icon.
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upside down textures - if you copied a .tga and converted it to .dds you may have to “uninvert”
I think there are others but I’m tired, others can tell us.
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