[newbie] How to start skinning ?

[vlorp]

Guys please help me.

I want to start a racing crew for GTR 2 with my mates and design a skin for our cars.
I downloaded 3dsmax and paintshop pro can u guys tell me where to begin or have any good links to tutorials because i haven't got a clue where to begin.
many thanks in advance

Greetz Vlorp

[rstratton]

look for it at www.inethouse.info

[SFDMALEX]

Get a program like photoshop.


Then download some photoshop compatible templates.

A template is a blank picture file which is layerd so you can spary paint and paste pictures over it such as logos.



So once you have the templates which should be either ingame already or availible to download you open them with photoshop and use the good old internet to download logos and such so you can paste them on the template.

[Baz70]

Hi there


I was wondering...now as I`ve downloaded the templates and done the painting...how do I get theese cars to show up in GTR2? And how do I make them appear as stand-alone cars.
Obviously the file`s need to be converted into "GTR2" format,but I cant find any info as to wich progr to use,and where to get it?

[seb--morin]

Hi there


I was wondering...now as I`ve downloaded the templates and done the painting...how do I get theese cars to show up in GTR2? And how do I make them appear as stand-alone cars.
Obviously the file`s need to be converted into "GTR2" format,but I cant find any info as to wich progr to use,and where to get it?


I actually have the same problem :cry: :cry: :cry:

Anyone can help???

[lenoire77]

Hi there


I was wondering...now as I`ve downloaded the templates and done the painting...how do I get theese cars to show up in GTR2? And how do I make them appear as stand-alone cars.
Obviously the file`s need to be converted into "GTR2" format,but I cant find any info as to wich progr to use,and where to get it?

Just a quick one - where did you get the templates from? - In GTR1, they were in the game files - is it the same for GTR2? - Can't seem to find them anywhere?

[seb--morin]

I got them on a Deutsch site... i'll try to find it out and post the link.

[dragoicho]

With a little help of google you must find dds plugin for photoshop and Geditor.
For more, use your mind. It`s not a complicated task. The car skins data is in GTR2/GameData/Teams

If you want something so much, you must be more insistent, but not just "Tell me please... "
Good luck!

[Daves Pub]

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html

I'm also learning to skin cars. I'll post updates on how its going...

[Daves Pub]

Ok. I have a new skin, and I want to make a standalone car. So I copied another lambo folder, called the new folder Daves Pub, replaced the dds file with my dds file, and changed the year/number in all of the filenames.

The car doesnt appaer in GTR2? Any ideas. No errors - it just doesnt show up.:confused::

[lenoire77]

With a little help of google you must find dds plugin for photoshop and Geditor.
For more, use your mind. It`s not a complicated task. The car skins data is in GTR2/GameData/Teams

If you want something so much, you must be more insistent, but not just "Tell me please... "
Good luck!

Geditor - That's all I needed!!! - Cheers dragochio

[seb--morin]

I want to know how i have to make the windows transparents??? Because i set the opacity at 0% or 10% in photoshop but then when i have to merge all the layers together for the dds saving, the all come white and it look awful in the game!

thks guys

[skridge]

where can i find blank templates for the cars?

[JesterGT]

Ok. I have a new skin, and I want to make a standalone car. So I copied another lambo folder, called the new folder Daves Pub, replaced the dds file with my dds file, and changed the year/number in all of the filenames.

The car doesnt appaer in GTR2? Any ideas. No errors - it just doesnt show up.:confused::

I've just started skinning, too, and have managed to create standalone cars OK. :D To help myself I wrote a quick (for "quick", read "idiots"!) guide which is based on the various guides I've come across on this forum and on Race Sim Central. This might be of some help you and others so here it is in full...it looks a bit scary, but if you follow it step-by-step you should have no problems. Let me know how you get on. :cool::

This example is assuming that you want to create a standalone BMW M3, car number 999 and team JesterGT Racing. You will need a copy of Photoshop with the DDS plug-in and a copy of GEditor.

Note - when choosing a car number you need to do a search of the GTR2 folders to make sure that the number is not already used in the game. The number is composed of the year and then the car number - e.g "04999".

1) Create your body and windows skins in Photoshop.
2) In Photoshop do an Layer>Flatten Image then save a copy of your windows skin in dds format as 04999_BMW_M3GTR_windows.dds using DTX5 ARGB (Interpolated Alpha).
3) In Photoshop do an Layer>Flatten Image then save a copy of your body skin in dds format as 04999_BMW_M3GTR_body1.dds using DTX1 RGB (No Alpha). Note this is the “ultra” body texture.
4) Save another copy of your body skin in dds format as 04999_BMW_M3GTR_body1.dds, again using DTX1 RGB (No Alpha) but at resolution 1024 by 512. (As it’s the same name you’ll need to put it into a different directory.)
5) Copy the existing BMW Motorsport folder - GTR2\GameData\Teams\24H\BMW M3GTR Teams\BMW Motorsport, rename the folder as "JesterGT Racing” then paste it back into the GTR2\GameData\Teams\24H\BMW M3GTR Teams folder.
6) Go into your new JesterGT Racing directory and delete all the files starting “04143” which will leave you with a set of files starting with “04142”.
7) Rename all the files in the JesterGT Racing directory, changing the prefix from “04142” to “04999”.
8) Open up the 04999_G2_BMW_M3GTR.car file with notepad/wordpad. Go to the bottom of the file and rename the Team from “BMW Motorsport” to “JesterGT Racing” and change the Number from “142” to “999”. Save.
9) Using the Geditor utility open up the 04999_CPIT_ULTRA_TEX.gtr file. Taking each file in turn - extract it from the .gtr file (this puts a copy into your JesterGT Racing directory), rename this copy from “04142” to “04999”, import it back into the .gtr file, delete the “04142” file from the .gtr file and then delete the “04999” copy file from the JesterGT Racing directory. Repeat this for all the files and you should end up with a set of files in the .gtr file all starting with the number “04999”. Save.
10) Using the Geditor utility open up the 04999_ULTRA_TEX.gtr file. Import the body dds file created in step 3 (your ultra body texture) and delete the “04142” dds file. Save.
11) Using the Geditor utility open up the 04999_TEX.gtr file. Using the same process as for step 9 replace the “04142” files with ones numbered “04999”, apart from the body1.dds and windows.dds files. These files you replace (using the same process as for step 10) with the body1 and windows files created in steps 2 and 4. Save.
12) Run the game and load up your new standalone car!

[S.Charlie Gog]

Im getting lost around step 9 :(
9) Using the Geditor utility open up the 04999_CPIT_ULTRA_TEX.gtr file. Taking each file in turn - extract it from the .gtr file (this puts a copy into your JesterGT Racing directory), rename this copy from “04142” to “04999”, import it back into the .gtr file, delete the “04142” file from the .gtr file and then delete the “04999” copy file from the JesterGT Racing directory. Repeat this for all the files and you should end up with a set of files in the .gtr file all starting with the number “04999”. Save.


Im not sure if it matters but im trying to paint an MC12 using your tutorial..and like i said all goes well until step 9.When I get through it and go into the game ive for a white blank car.:confused::

[JesterGT]

Im getting lost around step 9 :(


Im not sure if it matters but im trying to paint an MC12 using your tutorial..and like i said all goes well until step 9.When I get through it and go into the game ive for a white blank car.:confused::

It should work no matter what skin you're creating...

The key thing in step 9 (and also steps 10 and 11) is that you're copying each file from the .gtr file and renaming it outside the .gtr file. You then have to bring the renamed file back in and delete the original numbered file from the .gtr file.

The ultimate aim is to have your .gtr file containing file names with your new number and have none of the old named files left.

The extra bit with steps 10 and 11 is that you are replacing some of the original dds files with your own.

The first time I tired this I only did all the renaming steps I didn't try to replace any of the dds files with my own. Once I managed to do that OK I could then bring my own skins in. Maybe you should give that a go first.:D

Let me know how you get on. :up: :down:

I'm not going to be around much for the next couple of weeks, but I'll check the forums when I can - good luck!:D

[S.Charlie Gog]

:up: Got it working..it was one of those deals where I zigged when i should have zagged and then tripped over my own two feet:D
Actually I just had left out renaming the files in the gtr file and was just trying to replace.
Also,and this one is embarassing,I was painting the right template for the wrong car...d'oh.(was trying to do a 996 GT2 team when i was painting a 996 GT3 RSR...double d'oooh!)

Great job on the tutorial and thanks a ton!
Ive got a couple of new GTR2 paints at my site www.djhos.com in the GTR2 section.
Thanks again!:D

[jsimmons]

I tried to add a a new team with one car, but it shows up as black in the game. All of the files have the correct names (03040...), and the GTR files contain the correctly named DDS files. I also made sure the .CAR and .TXT files all use the correct info.

Does anyone have any idea what I might be doing wrong?

[jsimmons]

Okay, I figured out what I was doing wrong - I was using the external filename with the "GT_" in it for the DDS files)...

Painting question:

I'm painting a 2003 Saleen (#40 Alamo Racing Composites), and the vents on the top of the fenders are red in the game. I haven't found a way to change them (I looked at all the GTR files for the Saleen, so what do I have to do to paint these vents myself (or even better, eliminate them from my car)?

Here's a pic of what I have now:

http://75.11.0.158/home/images/gtr2/40_saleen.png

One last thing - how do I pick different wheels? I want the black 5-spokes...

[jsimmons]

I found that the fender grill (and the screen just behind the front wheel) are in the WINDOWS.DDS file, but I haven't found a template for that file anywhere. Does anyone know where I can get the template for that file?

[JesterGT]

I found that the fender grill (and the screen just behind the front wheel) are in the WINDOWS.DDS file, but I haven't found a template for that file anywhere. Does anyone know where I can get the template for that file?

Nice paint job for the Saleen.

Here's a link to a couple of Saleen templates, not sure if they have the windows.dds files, though :-

http://www.gtr4u.de/jgs_db.php?action=showkat&katid=54&sid=18e93817dc59b3898aa2dbf105bd0581&page=2

Here's also a link to tell you all about changing wheels :-

http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=268355

Hope this helps. :D

[JesterGT]

Great job on the tutorial and thanks a ton!


Glad to be of help. Like I said I'm a noob myself so once I found out how to create a standalone skin I thought it would be useful to try to put together a clear (ish) step-by-step for anyone else starting out. :D

[kimi311]

Thanks for all the help but i have already created a car but the car number doesn't appear in it. have i to design the car number too?

[kimi311]

please excuse me i'm silly i have found number plates' templates on the internet.

[kimi311]

what can i do to make my windows transparent?, in photoshop i delete all layers on the windows but then they appear white.

[JesterGT]

what can i do to make my windows transparent?, in photoshop i delete all layers on the windows but then they appear white.

Please check that you are following step 2 exactly - I have just edited the wording slightly of my original post as it was maybe confusing.

You don't delete the layers you "flatten" them so that you end up with one single layer just before saving into dds format. Remember also that the windows must be saved as "DXT5 ARGB (Interpolated Alpha)".

It is also recommended that you use "Blackman" under the MIP Map filtering button and I use 6 levels of MIP Maps for both the body and windows dds files.

Good luck. :D

[kimi311]

thanks

[=MM= Simmons]

Glad to be of help. Like I said I'm a noob myself so once I found out how to create a standalone skin I thought it would be useful to try to put together a clear (ish) step-by-step for anyone else starting out. :D

Hey Jester!

You like to help Simmons's ?


:D

[JesterGT]

Hey Jester!
You like to help Simmons's ?
:D

Anytime Simmons - I help you with skinning, you help me with Photoshop and driving fast(er) laps. :up:

[neurokinetik]

Two questions:

Does anybody know the significance of the number of mipmaps? Is it to save the GPU some cycles when having to resize the graphic? I've seen it mentioned that we should always use at least six.

One thing I've tried after seeing some others mention it is to go to an even higher resolution than 2048x1024 for my "Ultra" body texture. I've made a couple of cars with 4096x2048 in the Ultra file, and assuming my understanding of mipmaps is correct, I've also doubled them up to 12 (which, now that I think about it, is probably wrong, since each mipmap drawing seems to be half the size of the last one. I guess I should only be adding 1 additional mipmap level when going from 2048x1024 to 4096x2048). I've had no problems running the super-duper 4096 resolution cars on my machine, but I'm not sure if they will work for everybody. (video card nv7950GT with 512MB of RAM)

[WildBat]

I see some small problems with my standalone Cola Seat Toledo:

1. Id like to change the color of the wheels but even if I change the dds files and reload them into the gts file that stills how up as standard. Can this be changed?

2. The banner on the window. The file that controls that is in the main folder of the Toledo team and if U change it and reload it into the gtr file it will change all team cars?

New to skinning GTR2 but old to skinning aircraft in CFS3.

[WildBat]

The banner in the windshield seen from the inside problem:

If I want to have a different one seen from the inside in my standalone car that the standard one on, say, a toledo, how do I go about it?

I see the file SEAT_TOLEDO_CPIT.GTR is in the main toledo folder. and the inside view of the banner is a dds file inside SEAT_TOLEDO_CPIT.GTR.

So can I copy SEAT_TOLEDO_CPIT.GTR to my own standalon team folder and rename it and out a different banner dds file inside it to make it whow up inside my standalone car?

Which file calls the SEAT_TOLEDO_CPIT.GTR?

I want to make my standalone coca cola team toledo more correct.

[FBlue]

Naming it "SEAT_INTERIOR_BANNER.dds" and putting it in the folder should work for that car. Other cars you might have to put a number in front of them.

[WildBat]

Naming it "SEAT_INTERIOR_BANNER.dds" and putting it in the folder should work for that car. Other cars you might have to put a number in front of them.

Thanks :)

Allthough I just figured it out by my self and uploaded a 1.1 version of my Coca Cola Team Seat Toledo.

[October]

Hi,

I just started skinning, or trying to skin at least :)

Followed the steps in your tutorial which seems like the easiest and quickest way to get going but have one question... I notice that some .dds files have mipmaps in them and others do not, specifically step #3 from your tutorial:

3) In Photoshop do an Layer>Flatten Image then save a copy of your body skin in dds format as 04999_BMW_M3GTR_body1.dds using DTX1 RGB (No Alpha). Note this is the “ultra” body texture.

You make no mention of what to do with mipmap settings and yet I see some .dds files from other ULTRA_TEX.gtr do have mipmaps (five of them). Do we need them? Do we always need them?

P.S. If you don't have Photoshop, don't want to buy or steal Photoshop, you can legally use The GIMP (http://www.gimp.org) for free with it's own .dds plugin (http://registry.gimp.org/plugin?id=4816) but you might have to edit the mipmap levels by hand (by default the Gimp plugin creates 11 levels, not 5... just delete the last six) or do the skinning from a template in the Gimp, save it as a tga and use the excellent DDS Converter v2.1 (http://eliteforce2.filefront.com/file/DDS_Converter;29412#Download) to convert.

[hoboholic]

does anyone know where to get v8 supercar templates from, cant seem to find em

[DutchBart]

I have a problem which occurred yesterday, the files I convert seem to drop down from 32 bit colors to 16 bit colors, that hasn't happened with cars I previously made, what settings in DDS Converter should be used to make it function properly?

[October]

What's up with license plates? I made one for my first car and it only shows up (in replay) when it is fairly far away from the camera! Close up and it's like it isn't even there...

Thanks in advance!

[scca1981]

1) Create your body and windows skins in Photoshop.
2) In Photoshop do an Layer>Flatten Image then save a copy of your windows skin in dds format as 04999_BMW_M3GTR_windows.dds using DTX5 ARGB (Interpolated Alpha).
3) In Photoshop do an Layer>Flatten Image then save a copy of your body skin in dds format as 04999_BMW_M3GTR_body1.dds using DTX1 RGB (No Alpha). Note this is the “ultra” body texture.


You don't have to flatten the image. Just merge the paint layer. I think you get a little better quality if you don't flatten the entire skin.

[scca1981]

I have a problem which occurred yesterday, the files I convert seem to drop down from 32 bit colors to 16 bit colors, that hasn't happened with cars I previously made, what settings in DDS Converter should be used to make it function properly?

I've never seen this.. but maybe your desktop settings are only 16bit instead of 32? Not sure if it impacts the image program or not but possibly.

[scca1981]

Hi,

I just started skinning, or trying to skin at least :)

Followed the steps in your tutorial which seems like the easiest and quickest way to get going but have one question... I notice that some .dds files have mipmaps in them and others do not, specifically step #3 from your tutorial:



You make no mention of what to do with mipmap settings and yet I see some .dds files from other ULTRA_TEX.gtr do have mipmaps (five of them). Do we need them? Do we always need them?


Save your dds file with 6 mipmaps for best quality. If your using the photoshop plugin use "blackman" for your mipmap filtering.

[hoboholic]

If your using the photoshop plugin use "blackman" for your mipmap filtering.

first, what are "mipmaps"
second, do u have to be using the photoshop plugin to do mipmaps,

[October]

first, what are "mipmaps"
second, do u have to be using the photoshop plugin to do mipmaps,

I'm not the right guy to answer this because I'm learning myself but "mipmaps" seem to be smaller images used probably at further distances when great detail isn't needed. If you open a .dds file that contains mipmaps you will see that it actually has several smaller versions of the original image contained within it, each one smaller than the one before (maybe half the size of the one before?) so by the time you get to the last mipmap, five or six, it's very tiny.

No, you do *not* need the photoshop plugin but IF you have photoshop that is probably the best (and most popular) way to do them.

I don't have photoshop and refuse to 1) pay a ton of money for a bit pushing program 2) steal a copy. So I use free (and cross platform) software instead like The Gimp. I do .dds compression (which actually creates the mipmaps) using another free program called DDS_Converter. Look back a few posts for links and details.


-----------------------

Now, my problem.... I still haven't figured out the magic trick to doing license plates? I assumed they were just part of the main texture but apparently not as they are not visible at close range, only at a distance! Would someone please share the secret of license plates with me? Thanks!