Making Character Skins

[Samno]

Really want to create some new skins.  I was wondering how to do that, i unzipped the character file, and found the character art, but there in .dds format, is there anyway to edit these skins, by the way, I'm using a mac.


(edited after bug fixes)

after downloading a skin, unzip it open your art folder, unzip characters, place the Dermm (blue) file in the characters, rename it to DERMM go back to the characters page compress all the files into a zip file, rename the file characters, and place it in your planeshift art folder

Skins
Dermorian Male Blue shirt (in progress)
Download
dermm (blue).zip

Screen



Dermorian Male green suit (finished)
(upload download later)

[Caarrie]

http://www.lemkesoft.com/content/193/key-features.html

[Mordraugion]

If you want something less expensive

Imagemagick a command line utility that can be used to convert image files from one format to another has had .dds support since earlier this year

The Gimp can be used to open convert and edit .dds files

[Caarrie]

that app can be used free and still do what was asked as far as i know, also on a mac since gcc is not installed by default and i dont think imagemagick is either that makes using gimp and imagemagick harder to use

also on all macs to run gimp you need to have X11 installed and unless you are running leopard it is not installed by default.

so to make this short the link i pasted which you can use for free [see download link on site] is the easiest way to view dds files on a mac.

[Mordraugion]

Imagemagick nor The Gimp need gcc to install and are in fact just as easy to install as GraphicConverter although Gimp does need x11 installed first, easily done via install disc, which makes neither of them "harder to use" and they don't have any restrictions on use

And the best is that you can test our award-winning software practically without any restrictions* at your leisure until you decide to make the purchase.

*Restriction: the unregistered version takes slightly longer to start and the batch processing function is disabled

[Caarrie]

keep in mind mord this user said they are on a mac. installing on a mac is NOT the same as linux.

Requirements

GIMP will only run on Mac OS X, not on version 9 or earlier of the Macintosh operating system. There are a number of reasons why it is unlikely that GIMP will ever run on older versions of Mac OS. In addition to Mac OS X, the following is a list of what you will need to run GIMP on your Macintosh:
X Windowing Layer
GIMP uses a separate windowing layer, the X11 windowing protocol, on Mac OS X, which must be installed first. The XQuartz project provides this functionality. There you can download the most recent version of X11.app.

to get the dds plugin working you DO need gcc to build the plugin

[Mordraugion]

Keep this in mind you're not the only one with a Mac, nice of you to edit your post after I posted though.
Personally I used the win32 binary .dds plugin didnt need gcc and it works well.

As for easy IM beats all

Code: [Select]

convert image.dds image.jpghow easy is that

bear in mind there are easy ways to skin a cat, but you can't always make a glove out of whats left

[neko kyouran]

keep it friendly you two.

[Entevir]

"The eternal battle of the image editing programs" illustrated here in the PS forums is a masterpiece created by Mordraugion and Caarrie. It is an early XXI century work which displays similarities to the "The Battle of the OS" by Windows vs Mac.

This was the first thing that popped into my head upon reading this thread.

[Ulf_the_Moose]

I use GraphicConverter in it's free version (ie: not registered, bad I know, but I don't use it much). Open the .dds save it as .png. Spend my time doing art not fussing over apps.

[Caarrie]

and guess where i learned about the GraphicConverter? Ulf_the_moose

[Samno]

Thank you for the programs, currently using graphics convertor, and it works fine, I'll post some skins soon

few questions first though.

1. I got the skins done, and I converted them to dds, but which form should I use?

2. Is there any programming required to change the skin file?

3. How can I test to see if the skins are working?

[Caarrie]

the easiest way to do things is to save the skin files as png and edit the extensions in the cal3d file for the race you have worked in, you can open the cal3d file with any text editor. to test you can load them ingame, there is not really any other way to test them then ingame, the dev applications are not available for others use at this time as far as i know.

so if for example you are working on the dermm and you have opened the dermm.cal3d file, you will see lines like

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<texture name="dermm_hair_texture"><file>/planeshift/models/dermm/dermm_hair.dds</file></texture>
        <texture name="dermm_torso_texture"><file>/planeshift/models/dermm/dermm_torso.dds</file></texture>now to make it work with a png file you need to change it like this

Code: [Select]

<texture name="dermm_hair_texture"><file>/planeshift/models/dermm/dermm_hair.png</file></texture>
        <texture name="dermm_torso_texture"><file>/planeshift/models/dermm/dermm_torso.png</file></texture>
do not change the texture name unless you know what you are doing just change the file extension or name as needed.

[Samno]

Thanks Caarie, that helps alot, i'll see if I can get a different Dermorian shirt working, I'll try to get it uploaded soon.

Wish me luck.

[Mordraugion]

No battle of the image editors I dont care what anyone uses, I just like to give people a choice and not push mine with false information