Erm, yeah... Not a gimp wiz.

[Artemis]

I actually have two three! questions, but the Gimp one is more important.

 

So, I am taking a few sections of the twilek female skin, sticking them together through the .skin files, and trying to end up with a model.  I want to edit the textures of the model.  To be specific, I want to remove the tattoos from the headtails in the tentacles_01.png.  I load the picture into Gimp, erase the tattoos, and save it.  I can no longer see them when I look at the thumbnail!  But when I load the model in ModView, the tattoos have mysteriously reappeared...  I even renamed the picture, and corrected its name in the .skin files where it was referenced.  No luck.  To further test the issue, I colored the head.jpg bright red, saved it, and loaded the model in ModView.  No red.  The folder itself is not named jedi_tf, and everything in the .skin file has been fixed to point to the correct folder.  Is this a Gimp thing, or a model thing?

 

Second, which MIGHT not be an issue, I just haven't gotten that far yet, is how to get the model into the menu where the other non-custom ones are.  I previously did a reskin of the Tavion for myself, and it has an icon that appears, but I want to know if I make an icon for the Twilek, will it show up outside of the sp customization?

 

Third, I also tried to make a shader for the Tavion one, but it made the model become Kyle, and I think it removed the icon.  I think it has to do with paths, but I'm not quite done researching shaders yet...  I did make the shader from scratch, if that gives any clues!  xD

 

Any help would be great.

[Futuza]

Model thing, (unless your saving the gimp file as an xcf or something instead of as a jpg/tga, which in that case it wouldn't be overwritting the old one at all.)  Sorry I haven't done skinning for a while, somebody else might be able to help you out with your other questions.

[mrwonko]

How are you selecting the model?

[Artemis]

Nope, I'm saving it in the right format.

 

If you mean the Tavion model, I tried through the console when I didn't see the icon, and it still didn't show up.  I'd like to double check it, but I'll have to hunt around and see if I kept that particular pk3.  Kinda moved off of shaders after that.

[Circa]

Are you editing the file in the right folder? Maybe you aren't opening the right one in ModView. 

 

As far as the menu goes, you need 3 .skin files named head_a1, torso_a1, and lower_a1. All with corresponding icon files named icon_torso_a1, icon_head_a1, icon_lower_a1.

 

EDIT: Oops. I read your post wrong. To get the skin in the menu with an icon, you just have to have a skin file called "model_default.skin" and an icon called "icon_default.jpg"

[MagSul]

I actually have two three! questions, but the Gimp one is more important.

 

So, I am taking a few sections of the twilek female skin, sticking them together through the .skin files, and trying to end up with a model.  I want to edit the textures of the model.  To be specific, I want to remove the tattoos from the headtails in the tentacles_01.png.  I load the picture into Gimp, erase the tattoos, and save it.  I can no longer see them when I look at the thumbnail!  But when I load the model in ModView, the tattoos have mysteriously reappeared...  I even renamed the picture, and corrected its name in the .skin files where it was referenced.  No luck.  To further test the issue, I colored the head.jpg bright red, saved it, and loaded the model in ModView.  No red.  The folder itself is not named jedi_tf, and everything in the .skin file has been fixed to point to the correct folder.  Is this a Gimp thing, or a model thing?

 

Second, which MIGHT not be an issue, I just haven't gotten that far yet, is how to get the model into the menu where the other non-custom ones are.  I previously did a reskin of the Tavion for myself, and it has an icon that appears, but I want to know if I make an icon for the Twilek, will it show up outside of the sp customization?

 

Third, I also tried to make a shader for the Tavion one, but it made the model become Kyle, and I think it removed the icon.  I think it has to do with paths, but I'm not quite done researching shaders yet...  I did make the shader from scratch, if that gives any clues!  xD

 

Any help would be great.

1) Do you want your twi'lek to retain the colour customisation aspect? If not, just open the file in Paint and save it as a standard .jpg, this is how I usually remove the alpha (transparent) layers that you can't see in GIMP. Then open it up and draw out those tattoos. If you want to retain the colour customisation, you'll need someone who knows how to view that alpha layer for editing. That person is not me, sorry!

 

EDIT: Found it! Google search

 

To edit the Alpha channel with GIMP:

• Open the image
• Go to the Colours menu
• Go to the Components menu
• Select Decompose
• Select the second option: RGBA (Note: Not the same as RGB)
• When done editing, go to Colours/Components/Compose and again select the second option: RGBA (Note: Not the same as RGB)

 

I learnt something new!

 

2) For a model to be in the species menu, you require individual .skin files for model parts - head_a1.skin torso_a1.skin lower_a1.skin, etc and a playerchoice.txt, for every .skin there needs to be a 128x128 icon (.jpg) of the same name with a icon_ prefix. E.g. icon_head_a1.jpg. That's how your twi'lek is currently set up.

To get the twi'lek to appear outside of the species menu and into the regular character selection menu as well, you need to combine all of the text in the head, torso and lower .skins into one .skin file: model_default.skin, which in turn will need a 128x128 icon_default.jpg

 

3) Removing the icon will not cause your reskin to change model from Tavion to Kyle. If you shared a skin with no icon, you would still be able to see it in game, or access it with the "/model modelname" command. The only thing removing an icon will affect is whether or not you will see it in any menus. No icons = No appearance in any menu + only accessible via the command I just mentioned.

 

Did you skin work before you tinkered with shaders?

[Artemis]

Yes, I'm editing everything in the right folder.

 

Ohh.  Ok, I have already made a model_default.skin file, and the icon should be easy enough.  Thanks!

 

Well, the model has already lost the color customization, so nah, doesn't matter...  at least with the /char_color cmds, nothing happens.  I only included white in the playerchoice thing, but I don't think that matters, does it?

 

Aha, thanks!  I'll take a look at that, and see what can be done with the tattoos.  Changing them to something else might be cool too.

 

Well, I didn't remove the icon.  All I did was make the stuff required for the shader.

 

Yep, it worked just fine.  I can't find the right file now (they're all named the same!), so I'll just have to try again.

 

At least you learned something. 

[Circa]

The playerchoice.txt is not necessary to put it in the SP menu, contrary to popular belief. It's only if you actually use it for color customization.