New to modding, question about image skins for ships.

Paint.net (plugin required), GIMP, or photoshop, and perhaps others. All image files are in either .tga or .dds files (I think ships are in .dds), not sure if all of those can open them without plugins. If you just want to put some emblems or something on your ships, you'll just want to edit the -cl texture for the given entity.

The biggest thing that might cause confusion is that the alpha channel on the cl texture is used for putting your player color on ships, not transparency as is most commonly used. Thus you might not see much of the texture when loading it depending on your image editor. You'll need to either hide the alpha channel to just edit the RGB, or extract it to a different layer/image depending on which program you are using.

Guess I'm trying Paint.net then, since Gimp won't let me open the files up. If you have anything else to say for me then lemme know, I can already tell this is going to be a pain in the butt. lol

Yeah I have no idea what I'm doing. T.T

I opened up one of the files that I think is it, and I don't see much, they're like, a couple of lines. :/

There's not an easier way to do this huh?

Eh...I give up...can't figure anything out. >.>

It would be easier in gimp. In paint.net you need a plugin to extract channels, in GIMP I guess you need a plugin to open the file.

I may mess with it more later, but I already uninstalled Gimp for PaintNET, but I'll keep this thread in mind.

Are you able to like, get an idea of where the image will pop up on the ship with the channels? Because those line markings I spoke of earlier doesn't help much.

Like I said, the editor is thinking the alpha channel is transparency. Its team colors The texture is the entire image, you just need to see only the RGB channels.

I'm really lost here...I feel like I'm doing something wrong, I opened up the cl.dds file (I'm assuming its the TEC Starbase), with the Alpha view disabled or whatever I pretty much get a blank page. Can't really tell where anything is at when I mess with the channels either. :/

Finally found the thread I was looking for all this time, this should tell you how to get Gimp to deal with those pesky alpha channels.

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/412235

Anyways GeoFan, basically if I just want to add simple images/emblems or whatever to the texture just work with the cl.dds files right? The Alpha Mask plugin helps now.

Though I'm somewhat unsure on where everything should be located on the model. Figured I would start on the Advent first and have CapitalPsiColony-cl.dds opened up first. (the Progenitor or whatever that thing is called, lol. :p)

Hold on, I might just take a screen of it in a few.

Here ya go...so is the thing on the top the ship's sides? What about the things on the side of the image? (also, should ask...will my images be stretched when Sins loads it in-game?)

What's the plugin for paint.net?  Looks easy there compared to some other things.  Alpha channels has been my big prob so far and I hate Gimp (which is ironically the program I started in graphics on waaaay back)..

Just Google Alpha Channel plugin for paint.NET, should be the first link on the list. And yeah, I'm sick of Gimp too, lol.

Yup. Unless you want them to glow or light up or something.

There's not a lot you can do except experiment. Each ship's texture is set up different, and without the converted model files you really can't change where the game looks for the texture at each spot (I.e. the UV map). Fortunately, in the developer.exe, the game will reload textures as you change them, allowing you to quickly change it without needing to exit the game.

If you really can't find something, you can try either a texture of colored blocks or a two way gradient to try and get some idea how the UV map is set up. Here's one I did when I was trouble shooting a minecraft texture pack, from left to right I did a black to white gradient, while from top to bottom I have a blue to red gradient, giving each pixel a unique color. If you have a pixel color tool you can even find the exact RGB values (might be a bit off due to shaders) and get the exact spot.

Well photoshop is certainly the easiest and probably most effective thing to use. If you need something free (like me), I've found paint.net is usually the fastest and simplest thing to use, I use it almost exclusively for UI work, or for just looking at CL textures like in this case. I've only just started using GIMP, however it seems better for more complicated things, like if you need to a lot of texture building, selection work, or for say the DA textures, where you need to modify each channel independent of each other (I have an extract channel plug-in for paint.net that allows you to get just one channel, but its a pain to get the R, G, B, and A channels as separate images/layers and then recombine them, so GIMP wins on that despite the annoying process to get the alpha read correctly).

Also its best to be able to do basic things in both, as having them increases your filter library, which can be a big help.

Delevoper.exe...heh, I'm gonna enjoy this.

Does it update automatically, or do I have to do it manually in-game here?

Anyways thanks.

Automatically, you don't even have to touch the commands. The files must be already located in the mod texture folder when the game starts though, it won't pick up additional files you add until you restart the game.

Gonna play around with this tomorrow then, gotta get to bed.

Where's the mod texture folder? I don't see it anywhere...(or any mod folders in general)

Well, you're going to be making a mod since you don't want to overwrite the main texture files. Just go to your mod folder, make a new folder, in that folder make a folder called "Textures", and place the texture files in there.

Thanks for the point.  I have photoshop elements in right now and the alpha layer doesn't work there.  My crashed hard drive has my full photoshop on it so when I get a chance I can dig it out.

The other issue I have had is saving the proper format.  Carbon walked me through one night and we got it right but it was guesswork--and now I forgot what we had guessed.

I hope I do all of this right...gonna start messing around with everything...

One last question, since I know it'll affect everything. How do I make it so only my ships have the skins/textures? Where the AI/other players will have the normal texture.

To do that you would need to make a whole new player, like playerTEC2.enity. If you edit a texture for, let's say, the KOL, every KOL in game gets it. Make a new team with your new ships attached is the only way around that.

Okies, might do that later...still trying to learn to work with this paint. NET...since its being a pain sometimes. >.>

Anyways the Dev.exe isn't updating the changes I make with the ships. :/

Did you enable the mod? Do you see the changed textured at all?

But yeah its enabled and everything...what has to be in the folder again? Just the files I'm going to edit, or is there others that need to be in there?

Just the files you are editting. It should be Mods-Rebellion v1.031 Dev (I forgot, a new thing they added was a seperate mod folder for the dev.exe) -> Mod Name -> Textures -> files.

Yeah my mod folder is in the right place and everything. Is there something I have to activate in-game with the debug menu? (or whatever its called)

Also, what about when saving the file in Pant.NET, do I need to do something before saving?

I don't think it should affect anything, but make sure you save using the DTX5 format, and make sure your texture files use the exact same names.