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prospero
Moderator
United Kingdom
3154 Posts |
 Posted - 23 Sep 2009 : 14:33:29
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Basic Skin Editing.
OK. First you need the Blade Tools kit. There is no complicated installation procedure with these. Just copy them to a convienient place on your HD. I have them in a folder 'Blade' in my documents.
Inside the Blade Tools folder there is a Compilers folder. Inside this
is a folder 'Textures Compiler'. There are lots of files inside. Don't edit them. For ease of use, create Desktop shortcuts to the file BAB.EXE and also the Texture Compiler folder itself. The BAB program converts files in the format .BMP into a file with the format .MMP. The MMP files are what the Blade engine reads.
To edit existing Blade skins, you first need to extract the BMPs from the .MMP file. The BAB tool will not do this, but it can be used as a veiwer. Open the BAB by clicking the desktop shortcut. Two windows will appear. You don't need the Console window yet, so close it. The BAB text is in Spanish, but don't let that scare you. Click 'Archivo' (File). Then 'Abrir' (Open). Navigate to the folder where Blade is installed. The MMPs are either in 3DObjs or 3DChars folder. All the character skins are in 3DChars folder. Open the file Kgt.mmp. All the skins for the Knight model are in here. Click KGTNF in the Nombre (Name) column. The image should appear in the lower right field.
*Word of warning here. The blade tool software was made 'in house' by RAS and has some some lingering bugs. These are not a problem as long as you know where they are. There is one here. Don't use the wheel on the mouse to scroll down in BAB unless you have a picture showing. If you do, the BAB will crash.
Most of the RAS skin mapping follows this convention:
The characters have a front and rear bitmap. In the case of the Player characters...
N = No armour
L = Light Armour
M = Medium Armour
F = Full Armour
There is a sort of system, but it's subject to a few variations, but it's not too difficult to figure it out.
KGTNF is Knight - No Armour - Front
KGTNR is Knight - No Armour - Rear
KGTLF is Knight - Light Armour - Front
KGTLR is Knight - Light Armour - Rear
Just to make things confusing the rest of the armour skins are not named like this. But ignore them for now.
All skin bitmaps have a coresponding Wounded skin. These are all named
the same as the unwounded version but with _W on the end. You have to have these even if the wounded and unwounded bitmaps are the same.
You can't save the bitmaps diectly from BAB. You have to grab them. Most graphics programs have a screen grab facility. I use PaintshopPro. However you do it, the bitmaps need to be exactly 256x256 pixels.
If you are replacing a RAS mmp file, you need to grab all the bitmaps in the MMP file. Save them to a new folder in the Textures Compiler folder with the Exactname of the MMP file you extracted them from (without the file extension). In this case - Kgt
Now the hard part.Use your fav graphics prog to alter the bitmaps. It's a good idea to save versions in seperate folders within the Kgt folder. The RAS bitmaps are quite small and it is tricky to work on them. And it can be mind=boggling trying to work out which part belongs there. I won't dwell on this as most people will be better at it than I am.
Only work on the unwounded skins. When you have got them to a point where you think they are finished, save copies of the unwounded with _W on the end to replace the original wounded bitmaps and add a few wounds.
When you have doodled about with the bitmaps and get to the point where you want to check how they look in the game, you have to recompile the bitmaps into format MMP.
Open The BAB again. This time you need the Console. To enter commands in the Console you have to do a sneaky trick to expose the input field. Hover the mouse cursor near the bottom of the Consloe window until it turns to a up-and-dowm arrows symbol. Click and drag upwards and you will peel back the bottom to expose a white area. You can type commands here. The grey field on top is purely for output messages.
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My BOD site: http://www.petrbnsfineart.com/bladestuff/bladestuff.html |
Edited by - prospero on 23 Sep 2009 15:32:35 |
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prospero
Moderator
United Kingdom
3154 Posts |
Posted - 23 Sep 2009 : 15:16:30
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Next step......
Masklin made a nice little tool to speed up the job of compiling.
Below is the code.
(Note I have altered it slightly. The original command 'process' I have replaced with 'go'. )This is purely because it's quicker to type and I'm very lazy and can't spell. )
##############################################################################
## genmmp v 1.0 - by Masklin - May-2001
##############################################################################
import BaBx
import sys
BODHome = "C:/Codemasters/Severance/" #### Edit this to your personal folder hierachy.
sys.path.append(BODHome+"Lib/PythonLib")
sys.path.append(BODHome+"Lib/PythonLib/Idle")
sys.path.append(BODHome+"Lib/PythonLib/lib-tk")
sys.path.append(BODHome+"Lib/PythonLib/DLLs")
import os
import re
Bitmaps = []
MMPName = ""
def go (dirname):
global Bitmaps
global MMPName
files = os.listdir(dirname)
files.sort()
for file in files:
basename = os.path.basename (file)
name,ext = os.path.splitext (basename)
if ext == '.bmp':
print "genmmp: Found ",basename
name=re.split ("__", name, 1)[0]
Bitmaps.append(BaBx.BitmapData(name,basename,1))
if len (Bitmaps):
print "genmmp: processing bitmaps..."
MMPName = os.path.basename (dirname)
os.chdir (MMPName)
BaBx.ProcessBitmaps(Bitmaps)
else:
print "genmmp: bmp files not found at ", dirname
def save ():
global Bitmaps
global MMPName
if len (Bitmaps):
print "genmmp: generating "+MMPName+".mmp file..."
BaBx.SaveFile(MMPName+".mmp")
print "genmmp: generating "+MMPName+".dat file..."
file = open (MMPName+".dat", 'wt')
file.write ('1\n')
for bm in Bitmaps:
file.write ('%s\n%s\n'%(bm.BMPName, bm.InternalName))
file.close()
else:
print "genmmp: bmp files not found at ", dirname
####################################################################
Copy this code and paste into a new file. Name it genmmp.py (exactly) and save it to the Texture Compiler folder.(select 'all files' option when saving). The only thing you may need to do is edit the BODHome variable to suit your own PC folder structure.
OK. Open BAB and peel up the input field in the Console window. Click in the input field and type:
import genmmp
Press Enter
then type:
genmmp.go("Kgt")
Press Enter.
If all is well, the bitmaps will load into the top of the BAB window.
When they have all loaded, type:
genmmp.save()
Press Enter.
Nothing will appear to happen, but a 1 will appear in the grey output field of the Console if it has worked. Look in the Textures Compiler/Kgt folder. There should be a Kgt.mmp file. (There will also be a .DAT file. Ignore it). To get the game to use this modified mmp file, you need to replace the original one in the 3DChars folder.
*** It's agood idea to save a backup copy of the original.
Once you have your modded mmp in the 3DChars folder, you can start the game and check out your changes.
btw. I should point out that there are various other tools that Blade fans have made to aid skinning. I don't mention them here as the I just wanted to outline the basic principles.
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My BOD site: http://www.petrbnsfineart.com/bladestuff/bladestuff.html |
Edited by - prospero on 23 Sep 2009 15:35:25 |
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charly
Dragon
Hungary
139 Posts |
Posted - 24 Sep 2009 : 10:43:23
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wow 
I hope I can figurate out  |
Edited by - charly on 24 Sep 2009 10:43:43 |
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charly
Dragon
Hungary
139 Posts |
Posted - 24 Sep 2009 : 13:06:40
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it will hard 
I am good only in this 
is it to grom to ask someone to get the skin bmp files, I edit them then someone who is good in program language make the updating
team work
I realy dont have brain for those u write above 
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Edited by - charly on 24 Sep 2009 13:11:15 |
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prospero
Moderator
United Kingdom
3154 Posts |
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Tomash
Dragon
Russia
138 Posts |
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charly
Dragon
Hungary
139 Posts |
Posted - 25 Sep 2009 : 09:00:17
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thx Tomash for the help
I make this way
for thx here are some artwork
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Edited by - charly on 25 Sep 2009 09:01:32 |
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Ianna Keeper
Dragon
Turkey
168 Posts |
Posted - 26 Sep 2009 : 13:32:04
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| nice work. reminds me artwork in credits. |
BOD_RULEZ
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charly
Dragon
Hungary
139 Posts |
Posted - 28 Sep 2009 : 09:47:33
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thx Ianna Keeper
yeee I tried to make it like in credits, those illustrations are awesome for me
Jose Luis Vaello Bertol is a great artist in fantasy
I try to make more art from the game |
Edited by - charly on 28 Sep 2009 10:00:50 |
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charly
Dragon
Hungary
139 Posts |
Posted - 30 Sep 2009 : 08:01:54
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Ok its work Prospero
it isnt so difficult like I thougth at first
soon I will get some skins, peoples can use them in the main game or in modding, I will make good and evil charachters to
thx that u show me this way |
Edited by - charly on 30 Sep 2009 08:02:25 |
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prospero
Moderator
United Kingdom
3154 Posts |
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charly
Dragon
Hungary
139 Posts |
Posted - 01 Oct 2009 : 14:02:46
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I make some skins, but there are some part of the face I cant figured out where is it on the bmp file
here a look what kind of manipulations I plan, of course I will make more bigger changes, this is just teh beginning
lizard knight, masked minotaur, and another Dal
u can see on the minotaur that on face under the mask, its not perfect
here I show which part I mean
btw. the skins will get the original wounds, it will look better
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Edited by - charly on 01 Oct 2009 14:06:54 |
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prospero
Moderator
United Kingdom
3154 Posts |
Posted - 01 Oct 2009 : 15:12:12
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That's not bad charly.
The bmps take a bit of figuring out. A lot of it is trial and error.
The Neverwinter Nights derived models are easier to skin. Each body part has a different bmp. Only problem is the head/body/pelvis are mapped symetrically, so one side is a mirror image of the other. I have got round this on some models by splitting the mesh and applying a different bmp to either side. Gets a bit complicated though..
btw. RAS models will not wear NWN meshes. They come out backwards. |
My BOD site: http://www.petrbnsfineart.com/bladestuff/bladestuff.html |
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Ianna Keeper
Dragon
Turkey
168 Posts |
Posted - 02 Oct 2009 : 13:06:55
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| loved the dal gurak, it is kinda frightening |
BOD_RULEZ
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charly
Dragon
Hungary
139 Posts |
Posted - 05 Oct 2009 : 08:19:33
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thx IK
there will be more Dals, and I work more on the skins, not just color and face changing, that would be not a big deal
I work on the armours, like here the new traitor knight skin
and maybe I can make the weapens and schild of the dals to fit to the new skins
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Edited by - charly on 05 Oct 2009 08:39:07 |
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prospero
Moderator
United Kingdom
3154 Posts |
Posted - 05 Oct 2009 : 10:44:17
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That looks really good Charly. You can re-skin the weapons in exactly the same way. All the weapon skins are in 3DObjs/weapons.mmp. To save having to extract all the weapons skins to recompile the mmp, just do the one you want in a seperate mmp with a different name. (NewGladius.mmp ?) and there is a line of code you can add to the WhatverMap.lvl file to override the original skin.
I think some of the original weapon skins look too shiney and new. |
My BOD site: http://www.petrbnsfineart.com/bladestuff/bladestuff.html |
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charly
Dragon
Hungary
139 Posts |
Posted - 06 Oct 2009 : 08:12:40
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ok here are the Dals I made at first
Dal Khruul
and Dal Nekron
Baxaxa Dal
I try to make an ork woman but it turns to something else, like a lizard woman with panther face
I will make some more skins for barbarian orcs troll then I add a download link for them, maybe someone try them
uu I almost forget, Prospero, is there a way to use prisoners in the game, those wounded old farts, it would be great to see them with large swords , or the dark master boss without the big horned body just the gollum style , maybe to put some lines in the mutation cheat, to get their skins????
and other, I make a new barbarian skin, how can we add this skin for chosing, so we dont want that we lost the barskin2 (gladiator skin), so we need a bod file for this skin to switch this skin to
I dont want only replace skins, is it a way to make more skins for one playable character witch can we use in skinSwitcher mod, of course I need help in the programing part to rewrite skinswitcher mod to enable new skins niot just multiplayer skin?
sorry that I ask so much  |
Edited by - charly on 06 Oct 2009 10:18:16 |
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Tomash
Dragon
Russia
138 Posts |
Posted - 06 Oct 2009 : 09:09:49
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I like LizardKnight. Can I download the MMP-file?
Note: There are new weapons in the mods (f.e. DwarfWars) that look more naturally than the original ones, because they have more detailed textures.
btw to Prospero
Have you made simething like new naginata except ProSpear21? :) |
my mods: http://www.reido-grunge.narod.ru/boding.html ||| my music: http://www.reido-grunge.narod.ru
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charly
Dragon
Hungary
139 Posts |
Posted - 06 Oct 2009 : 10:06:55
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hi Tomash
I wanna make the lizard knigth green skin make more better, then I get it for u.
btw the new weapons, I dont like when some of the textures are better then the game textures. so if the walls and the character textures are in a quality then the weapons are in a better quality it looks bad for me
but when someone use the skins I made, they can do with them what they want, they can give them better weapons
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Edited by - charly on 06 Oct 2009 10:12:14 |
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Tomash
Dragon
Russia
138 Posts |
Posted - 06 Oct 2009 : 13:18:29
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Some words about my needs, may be you will be interested.
In my mod I use some hero-like-NPC, now they look directly like one of the player-characters, it's not good. There are some alternative knights and dwarves(original additional skins and new ones by Prospero), but there is not new amazon, not like AmzSkin1 or AmzSkin2, but ordinary women with ordinary clothes to be a civilian-NPC. And there is not another barbarian, not like BarSkin1, but like Tukaram's brother or father(hope you understand my english)
And also I need the venomous-green cositas(something like green skeletons from FugitiveIII) and the same salamander.
It will be great if you'll make some of them |
my mods: http://www.reido-grunge.narod.ru/boding.html ||| my music: http://www.reido-grunge.narod.ru
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Ianna Keeper
Dragon
Turkey
168 Posts |
Posted - 06 Oct 2009 : 13:36:36
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| hey charly! seems like you're out of control I want to mention that there is too much repetition on body of Dal Nekron(the skulls). But his face is really cool. You made a coherence on it with horns imho. |
BOD_RULEZ
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Topic |
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Texture Editing How To
