Retexturing Weapons

[Prelithe]

Weapon Retexturing

 

Had a damn problem with the weapon textures. Firstly they were damn ugly, too small and faded, and what could be better than learning how to texture when your fustrated? Well i could of downloaded replacement weapons, but whats the learning in that?

 

Tools Needed

 

IMGTool 2 - http://gta-sanandreas.com/downloads/pafile...tion=file&id=48

TXD Workshop 3.5 - http://gta-sanandreas.com/downloads/pafile...tion=file&id=51

3dsmax - http://www.discreet.com

Photoshop - Or any other img editing tool http://www.adobe.com

 

Plugins for 3dsmax:

 

GTADFF - http://www.geocities.com/kam_b_lai/GTA/fil...DFF_IO_v43b.zip

Texporter - http://www.cuneytozdas.com/software/3dsmax/

 

Learning Objectives:

 

* Find out what the files are for weapon models and textures

* Be able to edit textures with a guide of a UV map

* View the weapon and new skin in 3dsmax

* Have a new skin ingame

 

Before we start, extract the IMGTool and TXD Workshop files you've downloaded into folders so you have them ready. Also, install texporter and the dff plugin for 3dsmax.

 

Well firstly we'll need the txds and the dffs for our weapon. All the weapons are located in the gta3.img file.

 

txd - Contains all the skins, textures, hud icons for our weapon

dff - the actual model, we can use to extract the UV map and preview our skin

 

Load up imgtool and open gta3.img. Now from here you can search for the weapon you want, in this tut i will be using the Chrome Shotgun. press F2 to enter the name and find the corresponding txd and dff. Press ctrl+E to extract both files. Create a folder to put these files in so it's neat and all.

 

 

First i'll extract the old skin as a guide. Load up TXD Workshop and load up the txd. Find your skin and press the export button and export to tga (much more fuss free) in the folder where the the txd and dff is.

 

 

So you should have three files in the dir:

 

*.dff

*.txd

*.tga

 

where the * is the name of the weapons etc.

 

Fire up 3dsmax. On the right should be some tabs. Click on the utilities tab (the hammer) and Kam's GTA scripts should be present below if you installed them right.

 

 

For us press the "DFF IO (All version)" button. Make sure the Image Type is selected as tga, so it knows that the skin is TGA. Press "Import DFF" and find the dff of your weapon.

 

 

There should be a small dot on your views, so zoom up till you can see it. Now lets preview it before we get started on the skin. Press F10 to load up the render scene window. Leave everything as default and press the render button. It may say missing file muzzle texture, but that file doesn't matter to us anyways. Just continue. If you did everything right, you should see your weapon model + the skin on it.

 

Now we'll need the UV map so we know which part of the skin goes where. In the utilities tab (the tab where we found the GTA plugins) and press More.

 

 

Choose texporter and something new should be added after Kam's GTA stuff.

 

 

Now in the parameters section, set the width and hieght. For this tut, set them to 256. Polygon Fill is set to default true, but i don't really like it so uncheck it (you don't have to). Press the Pick Object button and click on the weapon on the viewport. A window should popup with your UV map.

 

 

Press the save button and save the file. Don't close 3dsmax.

 

Now we're gonna get to the real texture editing. Load up photoshop and create a new 256x256 image or the same dimensions as your UV map. Open the old texture and add it to your image and stretch it so it fits, for my example Ctrl+T and resize it 400%. Then open the UV map and copy it over to your image. Now the UV map should be the top layer and the stretched texture should be the bottom layer. Decrease the opacity of the UV map so you can see which parts are suppose to go where.

 

 

From here on you can use the brush or pencil, create a new layer above the UV map layer and draw funny symbols so you can see what things are positioned where. You don't need to do this, but it does help when you don't know which part is where. Since the chrome gun has a very easy UV map, i won't need to do this. Save the file as a tga, and from here you can overwrite the old texture tga, or you can save it as a different tga. If you don't save over it, you'll need to do something additional, which i'll explain later on.

 

Go back to 3dsmax and press m. This will load the materials editor window. Select one of the balls and press the get material button. A material/map browser should popup. In the "browse From:"box choose scene and GTA_Mtls should be shown. Doubleclick on the Text on the list which is the gun texture material, i.e. not the gunflash one so it adds it to the ball we selected.

 

 

In the material editor, click on the button of the tga file.

 

[Prelithe]

Click reload if you have replaced the weapon, or click on the filename button to pick the file with your skin in it. After that, you can render and see your new skin in action.

 

 

Now comes the hard part...skinning. Try to find hi res images on side views and little variances of light. This will not only make your weapons look better quality, but more real. If you want a brief overview of skinning, follow on.

 

Change back to photoshop. Now load up a picture (here is one i used: http://rds.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=pump+act...es/DSCN1235.JPG ) and use the magnetic lasso tool. Trace over the handle thingy, but don't worry if it doesn't match exactly, we can use the eraser to clean up.

 

 

Copy and paste it back, then use your transform tools, to fit it into the shape of the UV map. Take your time, and use the clone stamp tool to extend the texture if needed.

 

 

After each part, save, switch to max reload the texture and render. Repeat.

 

Once youve finished the skin, it's time to update the gta files. Load up your txd in TXD workshop, select the old skin, and choose import. Replace it with your skin and save.

 

 

Do bascially the same thing in IMGTool like in the beginning of the tut, but instead of extract, replace the old txd with your new one. Wait for it to rebuild the img file and load up GTA and voila! Have fun.

 

Edited September 16, 2005 by Prelithe

[teknogeek]

I need to try this badly, will try soon.

[booboomc21]

hey just wanted to say that this was a very good tutorial. Thanks. It helped me a lot. now i just have to learn how to make the models. lol

[RaifalM3n]

omg 10x very cool!!

[jarjar]

Nice tutorial, very easy to understand. Nice work

[pcformat]

i have problems!!! every time when i click ''import dff'' and click on colt45.dff file it says that there is an error in script!!!!

[pcformat]

wait i advanced but i got stuck again. Could you exacly write that photoshop thing again! please im begging you

[pcformat]

can you tell me exacly how to do the layers. i got stuck there! i don't realy know how to create new ones and how can you merge that two damn pictures. show me please!!!! I have been reading this hundred times, belive me but i still can't solve these layers!

[Grant]

The layer rollout in Photoshop is in the bottom right of the window, just select the layer that you want to merge with, then select it, using a bunch of right clicks and selecting merge. It's something like that i can't remember off the top of my head.

[lowridincrew]

The Plugin isnt allowing me to open the colt45.dff

[pcformat]

I've MADE it!!!

[graw2killer]

when i click to import the dff i get this error --Runtime error: Invalid setFace vertex index :[24,1,16059]

also my photoshop trial is done so i can't use tga should i use bmp?

i am really new to this 3d stuff so i have no clue what i am doing

[graw2killer]

fixed

[Bialas]

when i click to import the dff i get this error --Runtime error: Invalid setFace vertex index :[24,1,16059]

 

Plz, plz, plz... Tell me what to do. I have same problem, what should I do so I can import DFF?

[mike-wil]

Weapon Retexturing

 

Had a damn problem with the weapon textures. Firstly they were damn ugly, too small and faded, and what could be better than learning how to texture when your fustrated? Well i could of downloaded replacement weapons, but whats the learning in that?

 

Tools Needed

 

IMGTool 2 - http://gta-sanandreas.com/downloads/pafile...tion=file&id=48

TXD Workshop 3.5 - http://gta-sanandreas.com/downloads/pafile...tion=file&id=51

3dsmax - http://www.discreet.com

Photoshop - Or any other img editing tool http://www.adobe.com

 

Plugins for 3dsmax:

 

GTADFF - http://www.geocities.com/kam_b_lai/GTA/fil...DFF_IO_v43b.zip

Texporter - http://www.cuneytozdas.com/software/3dsmax/

 

Learning Objectives:

 

* Find out what the files are for weapon models and textures

* Be able to edit textures with a guide of a UV map

* View the weapon and new skin in 3dsmax

* Have a new skin ingame

 

Before we start, extract the IMGTool and TXD Workshop files you've downloaded into folders so you have them ready. Also, install texporter and the dff plugin for 3dsmax.

 

Well firstly we'll need the txds and the dffs for our weapon. All the weapons are located in the gta3.img file.

 

txd - Contains all the skins, textures, hud icons for our weapon

dff - the actual model, we can use to extract the UV map and preview our skin

 

Load up imgtool and open gta3.img. Now from here you can search for the weapon you want, in this tut i will be using the Chrome Shotgun. press F2 to enter the name and find the corresponding txd and dff. Press ctrl+E to extract both files. Create a folder to put these files in so it's neat and all.

 

 

First i'll extract the old skin as a guide. Load up TXD Workshop and load up the txd. Find your skin and press the export button and export to tga (much more fuss free) in the folder where the the txd and dff is.

 

 

So you should have three files in the dir:

 

*.dff

*.txd

*.tga

 

where the * is the name of the weapons etc.

 

Fire up 3dsmax. On the right should be some tabs. Click on the utilities tab (the hammer) and Kam's GTA scripts should be present below if you installed them right.

 

 

For us press the "DFF IO (All version)" button. Make sure the Image Type is selected as tga, so it knows that the skin is TGA. Press "Import DFF" and find the dff of your weapon.

 

 

There should be a small dot on your views, so zoom up till you can see it. Now lets preview it before we get started on the skin. Press F10 to load up the render scene window. Leave everything as default and press the render button. It may say missing file muzzle texture, but that file doesn't matter to us anyways. Just continue. If you did everything right, you should see your weapon model + the skin on it.

 

Now we'll need the UV map so we know which part of the skin goes where. In the utilities tab (the tab where we found the GTA plugins) and press More.

 

 

Choose texporter and something new should be added after Kam's GTA stuff.

 

 

Now in the parameters section, set the width and hieght. For this tut, set them to 256. Polygon Fill is set to default true, but i don't really like it so uncheck it (you don't have to). Press the Pick Object button and click on the weapon on the viewport. A window should popup with your UV map.

 

 

Press the save button and save the file. Don't close 3dsmax.

 

Now we're gonna get to the real texture editing. Load up photoshop and create a new 256x256 image or the same dimensions as your UV map. Open the old texture and add it to your image and stretch it so it fits, for my example Ctrl+T and resize it 400%. Then open the UV map and copy it over to your image. Now the UV map should be the top layer and the stretched texture should be the bottom layer. Decrease the opacity of the UV map so you can see which parts are suppose to go where.

 

 

From here on you can use the brush or pencil, create a new layer above the UV map layer and draw funny symbols so you can see what things are positioned where. You don't need to do this, but it does help when you don't know which part is where. Since the chrome gun has a very easy UV map, i won't need to do this. Save the file as a tga, and from here you can overwrite the old texture tga, or you can save it as a different tga. If you don't save over it, you'll need to do something additional, which i'll explain later on.

 

Go back to 3dsmax and press m. This will load the materials editor window. Select one of the balls and press the get material button. A material/map browser should popup. In the "browse From:"box choose scene and GTA_Mtls should be shown. Doubleclick on the Text on the list which is the gun texture material, i.e. not the gunflash one so it adds it to the ball we selected.

 

 

In the material editor, click on the button of the tga file.

 

Which are the best tools for weapon Retexturing

[Helghast]

Umm, I am having problems installing KAMS tools. I follow the instructions, yet when I load Automax 2011 and click on utilities, KAMs tools isn't showing up.

 

Can anyone help me, this is really frustrating

[Fantomax]

can't use 2012 version anyone can send me a older one ? (example 2005-2007)

[Fantomax]

make video about this please confused here

i mean what are you meaning 'open old textures'?

[TommyMan]

 

can't use 2012 version anyone can send me a older one ? (example 2005-2007)

 

Download 3ds MAX 5 here Click here