[TEC] textures for ships

[iowa101]

how do i change a texture on a ship to match a more modern look, like this

http://www.usmilitaryart.com/BB61_90_18351-1500.jpg

i dont like the textures you get on most ships, i want to apply a...

light grey to hull
dark grey to the turret where the barrel meets the mount
dark wood to the deck
a 01 on the tower and front of ship

if anyone can tell me how to do this that would be great

[sergei]

Look in the SH4/Data/Sea folder, for the folder relating to the ship you want to skin.
In this case NBB_Iowa.
In it you'll find a file called NBB_Iowa_T01, this being the file for the main body of the ship.
Looks something like this

http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/6672/iowa.jpg

Make a backup of this file, and get your hands on S3D.
In fact, what I would do is just copy the whole NBB_Iowa folder onto my desktop temporarily.
Why do you need S3D? Because of a cool feature it has that lets you see a live preview of your skin change without having to load up SH4.
(I can't believe I made the whole Merchant skinpack without knowing about this! Man it would have saved me so much time!)

Right, let me show you S3D.
Open up the ship DAT into it. (Open it from your copied NBB_Iowa folder on your desktop).
Looks like this.
Click on the Node for the ship, then click on model preview.

http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/6458/s3dy.jpg

Now, click on the 'Enable Diffuse Map' button and voila, a preview of the ship with the tex file enabled.

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/3559/s3d2.jpg



http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/1328/s3d3.jpg

Right, lets try something a little funky.
I'm going to make some changes to the tex file in GIMP.

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5736/gimpagain.jpg

I've made what looks like the main hull texture purple, made below the waterline a much stronger red, changed the panel that I assume is used for the superstructure green,and replaced the decking texture.
Re save this, keeping the same file name. S3D shows you the preview with the tex files that's called T01. It calls on the first one. So, if you have a ship with maybe 3 or 4 different tex files, it'll only show you the one called T01.
You are saving this into the copied NBB_Iowa folder on your desktop, aren't you? To make sure you're not overwriting any game files? Good.

To update the image in S3d, close the model preview, then open it again.
And here you have it.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/2789/s3dagain.jpg

This is typically how I would start to skin a ship. Make bold colour changes to different parts of the tex file, so you can easily see where it gets applied onto the model.
I do this because in a lot of cases, it does not apply certain sections of the tex file to where you would logically assume it goes.

Once you have a good idea of what goes where, you can start editing your tex file properly.

When you are happy with your NBB_Iowa_T01 file, I suggest making it JSGME friendly.
Make a folder, called, oh I don't know, 'My Cool Iowa'.
We want to follow the same folder structure that the game uses, so JSGME puts our file in the right place.
So, in 'My Cool Iowa', we need additional folders and our tex file
Data/Sea/NBB_Iowa/NBB_Iowa_T01.dds

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/3438/90800380.jpg

Drop this in your mods folder and enable.
Go to the musem to check out how your work looks in game.

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5686/iowah.jpg

Mmmmm, nice :03:

Now strictly speaking, you don't actually need S3D for any of this. You could just copy out the tex file into a JSGME friendly folder, edit it, enable it, launch SH4, go to the museum, find you're not happy with it, disable it, re-edit the tex file, re-enable it, launch SH4 etc etc etc.
Which is fine if you're only planning on doing one or two ships.
But if you are planning on doing a whole load of them, S3D's preview feature will save you an absolute ton of time.
I've just come off the back of doing a dozen skins with dazzle variants for 17 ships. And only found out about this feature right near the end of it all. :damn:
I'm not exaggerating when I say knowing about this this would have saved me literally days, if not weeks, of work.

I would advise getting the skin to being where you are happy with the way it looks in S3D, then enable it and view it in the museum, so you can decide on finishing touches.

Don't know where you'll find the tex files for the turrets and guns, I've never skinned a warship.
But I'm sure someone will pop along shortly to enlighten us :03:

Useful links

S3D
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=119571

GIMP
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=1356

Credits: SKWasjer for giving us S3D. A massively useful application. Thanks mate :up:

[haozhibof1]

Aye-aye sir, but how to make it feels like metal instead of plastic?
http://bbs.ecust.edu.cn/home/attachment/201008/9/209646_1281352734kH4e.jpg
And it is more serious in the game.

[Karle94]

Aye-aye sir, but how to make it feels like metal instead of plastic?
http://bbs.ecust.edu.cn/home/attachment/201008/9/209646_1281352734kH4e.jpg
And it is more serious in the game.

This is the place I am having problems with my modern ships. They have a light grey color, but in-game it`s almost white and plastic like.

[haozhibof1]

This is the place I am having problems with my modern ships. They have a light grey color, but in-game it`s almost white and plastic like.
Yes. And it feels extremely strange that it is more different from the imported image than the original ones.

[sergei]

Could you post a screenshot of what it looks like in game?
I am having trouble visualizing what you are saying.

[virtualpender]

Thanks, Sergei!

I gave up on skinning because it was too time consuming to figure out what laid where. This is a great tutorial.

And yet again, another feather in the cap of Skwas for S3D.

[sergei]

And yet again, another feather in the cap of Skwas for S3D.

Agreed.
I cannot emphasise enough just how massively useful S3D's preview feature is. :yep:

[tater]

Regarding the turrets, there is a problem in general. The turrets are in the Library and are used by potentially multiple ships in different camo measures.

As a result, they may very well not match. In order to make a specific turret match a specific ship, you'd want to make a new dat with just the turrets you want with all new IDs, and new names. Then you can paint those, and change the eqp to use that version of the turret.

[iowa101]

how do i open dds files in gimp, thats all i can find no tga formats for the t01.

[sergei]

Oops, forgot about that iowa101.
You need the dds plugin.

http://www.filefront.com/17187358/gimp-dds-win32-2.0.7.zip

[iowa101]

thankyou lol, also has anyone heard if anyone is working on any new ships and subs

like

astute
daring
seawolf and etc

[Karle94]

thankyou lol, also has anyone heard if anyone is working on any new ships and subs

like

astute
daring
seawolf and etc

I assume the Daring is the Type 45 Frigate. Check this thread:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=169977

[iowa101]

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/bb/bb-67/350-mp/mp-index.html

so now i can edit the ships textures how would i do a texture like this, bare in mind im a noob and this would be my first mod, i am using the model of the uss montana from Karl94 i think, great model.

how would i get the texture to match up sort of like that, because karl94's texture is great i just want something different.

[haozhibof1]

OK, my screenshots. Er...how to make it smaller:damn:
http://bbs.ecust.edu.cn/home/attachment/201008/10/209646_1281404184Fb7B.png
http://bbs.ecust.edu.cn/home/attachment/201008/10/209646_1281404178pj3H.png
http://bbs.ecust.edu.cn/home/attachment/201008/10/209646_12814041735jYd.png

[iowa101]

im havin alot of trouble with karl94's montana. i edit the dds file for the texture and save it. when i check in s3d it's changed the tower and apparently the hull but when i load the ship in game it remains the same as before. the camo all over the ship, and it wont change.

how do i edit or get rid of his texture and how do i save the god dam thing properly.

i also tried with a montana that had the normal texture and no luck there either so i obviously not doing something right.

[sergei]

@ haozhibof1. Hmmm. I see what you mean. What does your tex file for the turrets look like?

@ iowa101. Right. That could be a problem. Some warships have a camo in their occlusion map. (eg NBB_Iowa_O01.dds).
If you have access to 3d modelling software you could make a new clear O Map.
Does karl94's montana come with more than one OMap? He might have included a clear map with no camo.
Note, you can also review the OMaps in S3D, it's the button next to the Diffuse Map button.

[Marka Ragnos]

In the past i've also tried editing the iowa textures.

I use paint.net to edit those files, a good piece of software to edit the dds files.


I eventually gave up :)

[haozhibof1]

im havin alot of trouble with karl94's montana. i edit the dds file for the texture and save it. when i check in s3d it's changed the tower and apparently the hull but when i load the ship in game it remains the same as before. the camo all over the ship, and it wont change.

how do i edit or get rid of his texture and how do i save the god dam thing properly.

i also tried with a montana that had the normal texture and no luck there either so i obviously not doing something right.
You need to edit the imbedded image first. That has the highest priority.

[Karle94]

@ haozhibof1. Hmmm. I see what you mean. What does your tex file for the turrets look like?

@ iowa101. Right. That could be a problem. Some warships have a camo in their occlusion map. (eg NBB_Iowa_O01.dds).
If you have access to 3d modelling software you could make a new clear O Map.
Does karl94's montana come with more than one OMap? He might have included a clear map with no camo.
Note, you can also review the OMaps in S3D, it's the button next to the Diffuse Map button.

There is no O map. In S3D open the node USA_Montana_T01 and there is a embedded picture. Change it and the ship will appear ingame with your textures.

[skwasjer]

And only found out about this feature right near the end of it all. :damn:
Ouch! :D

Good job on the explanation :yeah:

[iowa101]

if you guys could help me do the colour scheme that i posted that would be great, and i figured out how it works now lol.

also how do i edit turrets textures to match the one in the link i posted.

[iowa101]

i managed to get the front part of the ship texture right only to load it up in s3d and have all the way down the length of the ship, if anyone at all has good experience putting these sorts of textures on ships could you please give me a hand with how and where to put the parts on the dds image so that they load correctly instead of everywhere i dont want them

here's the link for the texture i want to do for the montana.
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/bb/bb-67/350-mp/mp-index.html

[haozhibof1]

i managed to get the front part of the ship texture right only to load it up in s3d and have all the way down the length of the ship, if anyone at all has good experience putting these sorts of textures on ships could you please give me a hand with how and where to put the parts on the dds image so that they load correctly instead of everywhere i dont want them

here's the link for the texture i want to do for the montana.
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/bb/bb-67/350-mp/mp-index.html
It will be better if you check the texture in 3DS MAX or blender using uvmap.

[iowa101]

i do but it always ends up the same, when i put the first area of the texture on the nose of the ship so to speak, it ends up in that place and also blotched across the hull.

i want to be able to do the whole side of the hull like the bismark.dds, it has the hull at the top of the file in two halfs.
the top layer is the nose to middle, the second one below is the middle to aft.
then he's seperated the tower into sections and done the different areas one by one, and the deck aswell, but i dont know how to do that.

the texture i want on the ship is the one in the link i posted a few posts down, but i cant do it unless someone helps me out on how to do a texture layout that allows me to what i need and easily.

because the texture isnt the same on both sides of the ship it's diferent,
if someone could help me or give me an easier way of painting the ship with the texture that i want i would release it for my first small mod, before i start to try modding different things.

[haozhibof1]

i do but it always ends up the same, when i put the first area of the texture on the nose of the ship so to speak, it ends up in that place and also blotched across the hull.

i want to be able to do the whole side of the hull like the bismark.dds, it has the hull at the top of the file in two halfs.
the top layer is the nose to middle, the second one below is the middle to aft.
then he's seperated the tower into sections and done the different areas one by one, and the deck aswell, but i dont know how to do that.

the texture i want on the ship is the one in the link i posted a few posts down, but i cant do it unless someone helps me out on how to do a texture layout that allows me to what i need and easily.

because the texture isnt the same on both sides of the ship it's diferent,
if someone could help me or give me an easier way of painting the ship with the texture that i want i would release it for my first small mod, before i start to try modding different things.
All texture positions are defined in UV files. That's why I advise you to try that. BTW, it's very easy to learn blender, a free software.

[iowa101]

i've tried to use blender for editing model but i dont know how so i might try it for textures.

will it allow me to put the texture from my link onto the ship using blender, and if so do you have a small tutorial for me to follow because i've never really used it only about two times for 5 mins so i never learned how to use it.

[haozhibof1]

i've tried to use blender for editing model but i dont know how so i might try it for textures.

will it allow me to put the texture from my link onto the using blender, and if so do you have a small tutorial for me to follow because i've never really used it on a bout two times for 5 mins so i never learned how to use it.
I use a tutorial for X-Plane, planemaker and blender. And it is also available on youtube. Hope that can help you.:D

[iowa101]

no still nothing useful to what i need,

those tutorials tell you how to add textures in blender and 3dsmax but i am using gimp a program im used to, the texture i want is in the link i posted, now if anyone at all knows how to actually do this sort of texture please help me, dont just say random stuff that wouldn't help.

i've told you before that i cant follow tutorials becuase the person doing the tutorial always flies off and heypresto his finished.

i want to do this texture as my first mod so if anyone with experience would kindly give me some help that would be great

p.s how do i post pics

also how do edit ingame models i dont recognize any 3d file formats and no program i run opens them.

[iowa101]

i've just found something useful an interesting on a site that allows you to download free 3d models and use them however you please. i have downloaded one but i dont know how to post pics, if someone can tell me how that would be great

[sergei]

i dont know how to post pics

Read the first post in the screenshots thread, there's a little 'how to'.

[mobucks]

DXTBMP to open a .tga maybe.. thats what i use for my texture editing. I really have not a damn clue how to do the things u r talking about.

[iowa101]

well, im trying to get a texture that may well be impossible so i changed my mind, does this texture look good enough to you guys

http://a.imageshack.us/img245/2549/068901.jpg

let me know what you think ok, also how do i edit deck gun textures

[sidslotm]

This has been a brealthough post for me, thanks Sergie. DDS file format as good as it is, is a bit of a hidden art for me. I have been working on my first boat skin for a while now, a high res skin for the classT Triton by keltos. In my NNS Triton folder are 6 seperate skins, 2 of which seem to be negatives of some kind then 4 main images as follows.

NSS_Triton_T01...NSS_Triton_T01_Ir...NSS_Triton_T0 2...NSS_Triton_T02_Ir

I experimented with the Nvidia file save in Pshop and have been saving with 4Xcompression DXT3 and DXT5 and, not bad. My question is this, are the four highlight buttons in silent editor to highlight the 4 file types, see image, note the dive plains how they change the from grey to black when enable ambient occlusion is pressed, why, lol. I want grey dive planes not black.

thanks Sid
http://a.imageshack.us/img294/9370/classtb.jpg


http://img294.imageshack.us/f/classtb.jpg/

[sergei]

In my NNS Triton folder are 6 seperate skins, 2 of which seem to be negatives of some kind then 4 main images as follows.
NSS_Triton_T01...NSS_Triton_T01_Ir...NSS_Triton_T0 2...NSS_Triton_T02_Ir


There is the texture file (T), the occlusion map (O) and the bump map (N).

Check out this thread sidslotm
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=145555

Tater sent me the link this morning, as I have been having troubles with my specular masks.
Contains a complete run-down of the texture map, occlusion map, bump map and specular mask.
What they are and how the game uses them - a massively useful thread.
I've given it a little bump.

EDIT: Sorry sidslotm
Try this thread first
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=126436&highlight=tutorial
It's more of a general overview of the files.
The first thread I posted a link to is more of a technical how to if you want to make your own bump maps etc.

[sidslotm]

thanks for that Sergei, I'm looking at the links right now.

I'm thinking maybe a sticky set aside just for this sort of DDS file. If I would have known the time taken to make a skin I'm not sure I would have started.

But thanks for sharing this info with us, I can plod on now, lol.

sid