Help with Texture/model uniform changes please

[MasterChaos]

Hello everyone, I am new to modding NTW and total war games in general. So far I am up to the stage where I can open the PFM and edit unit stats, weapon ranges, damage, accuract, costs etc. However I want to move on to actually making my own full fledged and unique unit in the game and I feel one of the important features of this is making it look different hence why I came here. I apologise in advance if how to do this has already been stated, I have looked around but its quite a large section and being new to modding, I may be looking at an answer and not realise its what I need.

Ok, so my goal is to make a completly new british infantrymen based on the coldstream guard regiment or elite foot guards. I want to make the texture/model uniform look less generic (I dont like the NTW coldstream uniform) and change it to the same uniform a General wears apart form perhaps the hat. I am curious, is this possible or will the mesh designed for a cavalry unit look strange on an infantry unit or are the meshes for uniform similiar sizes etc? I guess thats my overall goal but I do not even know yet where to find said uniforms or how to change it so it works.

Another question related to the first, would be is it possible to use meshes from ETW, I prefer some of the old ETW uniforms by far especially for some of the infantry and horse lifeguards and it would be nice if i could have my new unit wearing them.

Thank you in advance for any replies.

[Steph]

If you just want to exchange part of uniform with another, and not actually modify the texture, it's realtively easy.

Open the variant.pack file from your data folder with PFM. That's where the detail of uniforms and textures can be found.

You will see many entries there (they correspond to what you can find in the unit_uniform table in the db), in several versions (officers, soldiers, musicien, flagbearer).

For each of them, you'll see several parts, like heads, torso, etc, and for each you have entries, with mesh and texture. You can select an entry, right click to copy, and then select another and right click to paste.

To do what you want to do here, open the General, select the Torso, copy, select the Coldstream, select the torso, and paste.

Don't forget to copy the mesh and the texture (two steps) or you may get weird results.

This is good if you want to just change a few things.

If you want to change a lot (ie take the complete uniform, except the hat), then it's too long. In that case, right click on the uniform you want to copy and export it. Then delete the uniform you want to replace. In the folder where you exported the uniform, rename it to the want you want to replace, and import it. Last, change the few items.

Ex: export the general. Delete the coldstream. In folder, rename general to coldstream, import (in effect replacing general with coldstream). Then just edit the hat as described in first method.

[MasterChaos]

Ok I looked in there and found "british officer coat 2" which may be the one I want. Its in the Varientmodels pack 1/unit parts/euro/torsos/British/British_officer_coat_2/tex/

If this is the texture, I assume I also need the mesh or something? and I also need to find out which one the coldstream guard uses. I assum its the foot_guards_coat part of the database. So if these are the actual textures/meshes, where is the identity connection that connects each mesh/texture with its unit? I assume I have to copy and past the officer meshes/textures in the coldstream guards area?

do you know where those areas are?

[Steph]

Actually, since the coldstream are in a DLC, you'll find them in patch3.pack, not in data.pack, and variant.pack.

[MasterChaos]

Oh ok, i did not realise I am so used to them being part of the game I had forgotten. Thanks for the heads up and the help.

[king of prussia]

how do i make a completely new texture?

[Steph]

Depends, a texture for what?

[Poacher886]

Breifly what software is required and how difficult is it for a novice to create a unique unit and add it to a factions selectable roster for NTW? by unique, im talking selecting an existing unit from any existing faction maybe changing a few items of clothing / equipment from others, picking colours for the said units uniform and then making it available to recruit by a given faction from whichever building..

Basically i want to dig up an elite unit for say the British that was'nt employed in the game, create something similar and add it for my pleasure of seeing something i've created in action in-game.

I doubt its that easy, but maybe if it can be done via free software without to much knowledge required on my part, it would be a good insight and head start into the wonderfull world of modding!!

Thanks

Edit: Sorry i've just seen the "Tutorials page" i look there first!

[Steph]

If you want to swap equipment from units in the same roster (exchange: take the shoulder strap from a british unit and put it to anohter), or want to change the base colours (coat/trouser/facing), you can do it relativly easily with PFM.

If you want to edit some details (like add a button), you can do it by modifying a texture in dds format. You need PFM to extract the textures, then gimp can edit it.
It's not very easy since you may have to coordinate the change in several images (base texture, normal, gloss).

If you want to swap equipment from units in different roster (ex: take the Kilt from the British and add it to the Swiss, silly example I know), then it's more difficult since you need to take part of the equipment from one texture and copy to the other, including the base texture, the gloss, normal, etc.

[Ishiro]

how do i make a completely new texture?

Depends, a texture for what?

How about editing one instead; maybe it's size, adding some stripes of colour, for example let's say an austrian helmet or kasket whatever you wanna call it. What would one have to do?

[Steph]

you cannot edit the size of the texture. If you want to change the size or shape of an element, you edit the mesh. There's a converter, but I haven't tried it.

It's a lot more complex.

Adding some stripes without changing the shape is doable, it falls in "If you want to edit some details (like add a button), you can do it by modifying a texture in dds format. You need PFM to extract the textures, then gimp can edit it.
It's not very easy since you may have to coordinate the change in several images (base texture, normal, gloss)."

[frogmillhouse]

Hey, I'm brand new to modding but I'd really like to learn how to make new units with unique uniforms. I've seen it done in other mods (e.g. French Forien Legion mod). One the new units have Carabiner Helmets and fusileer uniforms and I'd really like to be able to do that. I know it was stated above how you can acomplish this but but I don't really understand it. Could someone please help me?

[Agamemnon]

Would it be possible to replace units from one faction with another? I ask because I want to replace the Napoleonic uniforms of the Greeks in TGW with the Austrians' uniforms.

[Steph]

Easy to do with PFM.
Open the uniform table, and the uniform_to_faction_colour.

For uniform table, the 2nd column give the faction name. Go where you have Greece. For each unit (4th column), you have a variant (third column) and a uniform ID (first column).

Replace the variant with the equivalent for Austria.
Exemple (name may not be exactly the same)
If you have for the Greek line infantry

greece_inf_line_infantry

replace with

austria_inf_line_Austrian_infantry

Then, in uniform_to_faction_colour, find the line for each uniform (first column from the uniform table) with the values for austria.

Exemple (values here are just for illustration, I don't have the game with me so I just made them).

In uniform table you have these two lines

Austria_Line_Infantry | austria | austria_inf_line_Austrian_infantry | Inf_Line_AustrianInfantry
Greece_Line_Infantry | greece | greece_inf_line_infantry | Inf_Line_Infantry

And in uniform_to_faction colour

Austria_Line_Infantry | austria | 255 255 255
Greece_Line_Infantry | greece | 60 60 120


at the end you will have in uniform table
Greece_Line_Infantry | greece | austria_inf_line_Austrian_infantry | Inf_Line_Infantry
Greece_Line_Infantry | greece | 255 255 255

[Agamemnon]

Man, I'm really sorry, but I took a wild guess and figured that out last night, my modifications work fine.

[ordoprinceps]

Steph,
Which adobe photoshop should I buy to mod units and icons? Element 10? 11? CS6? I don't know anything about these software programs but I want to try my hand at modding units and unit cards.

[ordoprinceps]

Steph, if I wanted to replace a bicorm hat with a shako would I simply cut and paste with PFM?

[Benew4956]

good evening
I also got started it there's little time in the modding. I installed lme4 and I wish him add units but I'm a little lost. In fact I would like to create the custody of the Convention. But to do that I need to combine a white wig, tricorn the National Guard and then the uniform of grenadiers.
Could you help me

[Steph]

Sorry, I didn't notice theses messages earlier.

You don't need photoshop, gimp is sufficient, and free. I use nothing else to edit the textures.

Steph, if I wanted to replace a bicorm hat with a shako would I simply cut and paste with PFM?

Depends. See my tutorial.
If another unit from the same faction uses the shako already, you can just edit the variants with PFM, and change the hat mesh and texture (copy from the unit with the shako to the unit with the bicorne).
If not, then you'll have to extract the textures and edit them to add the bicorn textures.
The mesh you can just copy & paste from the variant.

[ordoprinceps]

Sorry, I didn't notice theses messages earlier.

You don't need photoshop, gimp is sufficient, and free. I use nothing else to edit the textures.


Depends. See my tutorial.
If another unit from the same faction uses the shako already, you can just edit the variants with PFM, and change the hat mesh and texture (copy from the unit with the shako to the unit with the bicorne).
If not, then you'll have to extract the textures and edit them to add the bicorn textures.
The mesh you can just copy & paste from the variant.

Thanks Steph,
I downloaded Gimp but haven't had success using it yet. Its not intuitive for a guy who has no knowledge in this area but I am sure very easy with a man of your knowledge and training. I will keep trying.

Thanks for the advice on head gear, I can do that. It is what I thougth bit thought to ask an expert first.

Last... how do I know which columns under color variat are the coat or front panal of a coat. I may not be unisn the right word. You know how the swiss line infantry has a red coat and yellow front panel? Thats what I am refering too.