[Question] How/where to put in modified diffuse files

[AdamB]

Hey guys,

I've recently started a mini project on re-skinning
the parachute texture/skin, and ive successfuly
saved a WIP progress version in jpeg format.
What I'm really in need of is how/where to put
this file and in what format it needs to be saved in.

This would be very helpful as I dont think (but am
unsure) that the current parachute is not histroically
accurate and needs a bit of color to it.

This is what ive come up with so far,

I must stress that this is a Work in Progress and will
be changed, this is just a start

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/i323/BullyBoii/ParchuteTest.jpg

Thanks in advance,

AdamB

[Ali Fish]

if you follow the folder route in which you took the file out of(its in your screenshot) and give your mod the same folder structure but just leaving your "DDS DXT3" texture in there. youl need dds tools and kegety's DLL file

[AdamB]

if you follow the folder route in which you took the file out of(its in your screenshot) and give your mod the same folder structure but just leaving your "DDS DXT3" texture in there. youl need dds tools and kegety's DLL file

Ok, thanks for that i'll try it once I have some DDS converter/tools,
any ideas where I can get these/this

Thanks in advance

AdamB

P.s. good luck with the Ground textures, they look brilliant, just like looking outside of where I live (Canterbury - and no, i'm not the arch bishop)

[Shado]

Good morning Chaps,

AdamB I see you are using Infranview, is that looking at a file within the _dump folder created by the Kegetys mod?

If its is and I read Ali's post correctly then you would need something like this to manipulate the files:

DXTBMP : http://www.softpedia.com/progDownloa...oad-53836.html

Load up the dds file in there and export/save it as a jpg, do your work on it in your programme Gimp, Photoshop etc then open it up in DXTBMP and save it as DDS DXT3 , using this example it would be too :


C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover\MODS\Adamchute\$bob\3do\humans\aircrew\parac hute\parts

Then in your shortcut properties it should be :

"C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover\Launcher.exe" -mod=MODS\Adamchute

Thats if I understand Ali's post correctly.

[AdamB]

Thanks very much Shado,

yeh as you can probably tell I'm not a very clever computer whiz,
but hey, we all have to start off somewhere. Thanks to the both of you for helping now I can test this and get some in-game screens

Cheers,

AdamB

UPDATE!!!!!

I have finally got the skins into the game. I have used the skin above in DDS format and used the stock night skin in the same folder (ie. the one that was included in the _dump),
However, when I go to bail out and deploy the parachute, the chute looks like it has not got any textures on it. I followed AliFish's and Shado's instructions very precisely, but still it does not want to work.
Do any of you have any suggestions or have I missed something

Thanks in adavance, I am really greatfull for the help this site and its members have given so far

AdamB

[Shado]

Firstly Adamb, never a problem mate :grin:

I'm going to give this a try when I get home from work, thinking about it you could try saving a jpg with the same name to the same folder, dont know bottom of the Barrel stuff from me, hopefully Ali will come up with a better solution as he knows what he's talking about.

[Ali Fish]

Adamb i shall have a look a bit later on this evening for you.

[AdamB]

Adamb i shall have a look a bit later on this evening for you.

Cheers, I appriciate the help.

I was looking at you landscape dev. page and I was wondering if you need any help painting the fields etc. seeing as I am from around the area in question.

[Ali Fish]

Cheers, I appriciate the help.

I was looking at you landscape dev. page and I was wondering if you need any help painting the fields etc. seeing as I am from around the area in question.

much of the thread is wrecked, i had so many pictures of what i was doing shown which was nice till the bandwidth ran out for the pics. Doh ! using imgur now which is a bit better.

well tbh ive sacked that mod idea. atleast untill official modding is accepted and understood. to explain in basic terms there are too many variables to the scenery that i cant change in order to do what i want. so for me the only scenery youll see from me is a built from scratch full scenery replacement. probally some maps for multiplayer etc. or more detailed but smaller portions of england. And all that depends on the SDK and just how much of a kit it is. Besides i happen to quite like the scenery as it is and after patches.

well anyway its time to take that dump. im a squeeze me some il2 files out. lol.

[Shado]

Never lose faith my friend, just hair :)
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a4LnaaiiYsU/TgObsBM_x4I/AAAAAAAAEY8/HAF31Hmp4Vs/s1024/2011-06-23_00002.jpg

[AdamB]

Never lose faith my friend, just hair :)
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a4LnaaiiYsU/TgObsBM_x4I/AAAAAAAAEY8/HAF31Hmp4Vs/s1024/2011-06-23_00002.jpg

Hey very nice and funny screenshot you got the,
I really hope that is not edited .
Please can you tell me how you got those skins into the game
as this is the only problem i am having, (as you can see on
AAS i have moved on to improving the runway testures whilst this mod
is pending.

Please please please tell me how you have done this and where I must have gone wrong, your help will be very much appreciated

Cheers

AdamB

[Shado]

Hi Adam, no not edited, it is in game, I was scratching my head after I was getting the same no shows as you in game so I checked everything then it dawned on me I had done a steam verify files and of course it overwrote my Launcher.exe.config

I put the lines back in and my hysterically correct chute worked, you might want to check yours.


<setting name="nativeDLL" serializeAs="String">
<value>kegetys.dll</value>
</setting>

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-fPORzk5ngbE/TgOsF8CV9oI/AAAAAAAAEZU/1mhi-SKjrLo/2011-06-23_00003.jpg

I used Gimp in this instance:

Open up Kupol_Parasuit_Diffuse.dds in DXTBMP, then goto image command and select send to editor, this will convert it to a bmp and open up your editor Gimp,CS5 etc, providing you have told DXTBMP what you default editor is in the preferences.

So there I have it in gimp ready to go, create a layer for each adjustment that you make, that way its easly undone an you can minipulate them a lot easier.

When your happy with your adjustments flatten the layers and save it under the same name, remember it's still in bmp format at this time.
Leave your editor open that way if you have to make some more adjustments you can easily und/go back and adjust, of course if your in photoshop you can save it as a psd and this will keep the layer structure intact providing you havent flattened them, if you have just do a step back and save again once you see all you layers displayed.

Open up that bmp in dxtbmp and now save it as a dds dxt3 file.
Mine lives in : C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover\MODS\Chute\$bob\3do\humans\aircrew\parachute \parts

let me know how you get on.

[Ali Fish]

or just use dds tools for photoshop. http://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop

[Shado]

Or just use the DDs tool that Ali kindly pointed out, as you can gather I had no idea that existed so a big thank you Ali :)

[AdamB]

Hi Adam, no not edited, it is in game, I was scratching my head after I was getting the same no shows as you in game so I checked everything then it dawned on me I had done a steam verify files and of course it overwrote my Launcher.exe.config

I put the lines back in and my hysterically correct chute worked, you might want to check yours.


<setting name="nativeDLL" serializeAs="String">
<value>kegetys.dll</value>
</setting>

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-fPORzk5ngbE/TgOsF8CV9oI/AAAAAAAAEZU/1mhi-SKjrLo/2011-06-23_00003.jpg

I used Gimp in this instance:

Open up Kupol_Parasuit_Diffuse.dds in DXTBMP, then goto image command and select send to editor, this will convert it to a bmp and open up your editor Gimp,CS5 etc, providing you have told DXTBMP what you default editor is in the preferences.

So there I have it in gimp ready to go, create a layer for each adjustment that you make, that way its easly undone an you can minipulate them a lot easier.

When your happy with your adjustments flatten the layers and save it under the same name, remember it's still in bmp format at this time.
Leave your editor open that way if you have to make some more adjustments you can easily und/go back and adjust, of course if your in photoshop you can save it as a psd and this will keep the layer structure intact providing you havent flattened them, if you have just do a step back and save again once you see all you layers displayed.

Open up that bmp in dxtbmp and now save it as a dds dxt3 file.
Mine lives in : C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover\MODS\Chute\$bob\3do\humans\aircrew\parachute \parts

let me know how you get on.

Yes this is exactly what I did first time but I'll try it again and ill see if it will work and that I might have left soemthing out

Thanks for this

AdamB

UPDATE

Ok I tried exactly what you said, but unfortunately it hasnt worked the parachute is still a no show
I'm running on the latest version of kegetys and the latest patch of CoD (not the beta - official only)
Is it a problem with saving - in GIMP i'm saving with the default template of 24bits rather than 16 or 32 is this a problem?
Also, do i need the other files from the dumps e.g. the Kupol_parasuit_NM_MAX file and other mesh files or is it just the file I have editied?
http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/i323/BullyBoii/Untitled.jpg
My target for launching the game is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover\Launcher.exe" -mod=\MODS\Chute
which is fine for any other mod
And i have put the file in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover\MODS\Chute\$bob\3do\humans\aircrew\parachute \parts
I'm really struggleing to find where I'm going wrong, if anywhere I've checked everything and it is fine, I'm very bemused :(:confused:

[Shado]

Hi Adam, firstly can you confirm that your Launcher.exe.config contains the kegetys lines :

<setting name="nativeDLL" serializeAs="String">
<value>kegetys.dll</value>
</setting>

I save as 24 bit bmp files in Gimp so thats fine your doing it right just make sure you convert them back into dds files to use them, no other files are needed in this instance.

[AdamB]

Hi Adam, firstly can you confirm that your Launcher.exe.config contains the kegetys lines :

<setting name="nativeDLL" serializeAs="String">
<value>kegetys.dll</value>
</setting>

I save as 24 bit bmp files in Gimp so thats fine your doing it right just make sure you convert them back into dds files to use them, no other files are needed in this instance.

Yes, I'm not dumb, I have other mods running fine, like BPsound mod.
Anyway, me and Ali Fish (I say me, ali fish implemnted the whole thing, I just drew the thing) but I'm still having a few problems. I'll see what I can do tommorrow, but I've got a lot of work to catch up with, so I'm off to bed

AdamB

[Shado]

Yes, I'm not dumb, I have other mods running fine, like BPsound mod.
Anyway, me and Ali Fish (I say me, ali fish implemnted the whole thing, I just drew the thing) but I'm still having a few problems. I'll see what I can do tommorrow, but I've got a lot of work to catch up with, so I'm off to bed

AdamB

Err I never said you were Dumb, thats what I get for trying to help you I guess, I should have known better.

[AdamB]

Err I never said you were Dumb, thats what I get for trying to help you I guess, I should have known better.

No thats not what I meant, I had already said that I have the kegtys enabled otherwise how else would I be playing mods, as you have to have kegetys in your root folder, what I was asking if there is a special way you did it, i.e. saving as a different bit (e.g. 16 or 8 bit instead of 24 bit which is default).
Also, Ali Fish pointed out to me that you have to save as DDS DXT1 instead of DDS DXT3.

I'm really stuck and I still need help, but I'm not having a go at anyone for helping me, it was just that I had already said that I had put this command line thingy in already. No offense meant.

Thanks

AdamB

[Shado]

Kool bananas all is well then, sorry if I mis-read your post.

Right DXT1 you say, I save mine as DXT3 and they work, strange, there is obviously something , but what, I'm patched up to the latest version not that makes a difference.

"waiting for a lightbulb moment"

[AdamB]

Kool bananas all is well then, sorry if I mis-read your post.

Right DXT1 you say, I save mine as DXT3 and they work, strange, there is obviously something , but what, I'm patched up to the latest version not that makes a difference.

"waiting for a lightbulb moment"

Yeh, Ali Fish said that they re meant to be saved as DXT1, I'll tell you what
I'm gonna post up a vid on Youtube of me trying to put my skin into the game, from unlocking it, creating it, and then putting it into IL-2. If anyone would be so knid as to watch it for me to see if I'm doing anything wrong it would be much appreciated.

[Ali Fish]

ok so your kegety's usage is ok. considering the package i made works, i think your issue is the target line parameter for launching the mod. and explicitly how you are pointing to that mods folder. suggest you 2 share these exact lines. i personally do not use this "mods" folder. i intend to add each independant mod folder to the target line. i say intend i have not got around to adding more than 1 mod or folder at a time. so im a little expereinced with that at present. but im sure thats where your problem lies AdamB.

[AdamB]

ok so your kegety's usage is ok. considering the package i made works, i think your issue is the target line parameter for launching the mod. and explicitly how you are pointing to that mods folder. suggest you 2 share these exact lines. i personally do not use this "mods" folder. i intend to add each independant mod folder to the target line. i say intend i have not got around to adding more than 1 mod or folder at a time. so im a little expereinced with that at present. but im sure thats where your problem lies AdamB.


I dont think that is the porblem because I could use your variant of my mod and the command line should be the same seeing as i tried the exact same file structure and the same files (but used my variants) and my mod doesnt seem to work.

Ive just finished a video which shall be on youtube in the next day or so, in this vid, i show the creation to completion of my mod and then the implementing.

So please feel free to have a look

Cheers

AdamB