Trouble with Re-Skinning Units

**Malcolm** · July 23, 2014, 04:48 AM

Hi guys, I am having a bit of trouble here:

When I try to re-colour the kilt (trousers) of a new unit (based on Britain's Black Watch), the colour stays the same. I have looked through all of the tutorials and can't find where I have gone wrong.

It could be that the colour is just being taken from the faction colour and overriding what I put into the RGB in uniform_to_faction_colours?

Secondly, there were uniforms made for another kilted unit in ETW which I still have these files for:

unitmodels/
scott_high_line_lod1.variant_weighted_mesh
scott_high_line_lod2.variant_weighted_mesh
scott_high_line_lod3.variant_weighted_mesh
scott_high_line_lod4.variant_weighted_mesh

unitmodels/textures
scott_high_line_diffuse.dds (Picture attached)
scott_high_line_gloss_map.dds
scott_high_line_normal.dds

How can I use these to create new uniforms in NTW?

I have read about 40 different threads and still haven't managed so any help would be much appreciated, especially as everyone is onto Rome 2 now!

**Steph** · July 23, 2014, 11:31 AM

Can you detail what you are doing ? What files do you use as a base? Did you create a new modpack? What files did you include inside? What tables did you change? What unit are you creating?

**Malcolm** · July 23, 2014, 12:31 PM

Thanks for the quick reply Steph,

I have installed Darth Mod to my NTW. I then added a new .pack file mod of my own that gave me a new unit based on the British Black Watch unit. This worked fine in-game.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

I didn't want the units to be identical so I tried to copy and rename the Black Watch variantmodel files. Once these files were correctly named in the uniforms section of the mod, I attempted to alter the RGB of the legs. This failed to have any effect in-game.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

So I tried to edit the diffuse.dds files. I used photoshop to only change the colour of the kilt (shown below). This ended up changing the colour of the kilt to something unrecognisable. Below are the changes I had made:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

After this didn't work I trawled through a load of forums and couldn't find anything that changed this.

I would like to use the old files from ETW to skin the NTW units.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

There was no tutorial to do this but when I tried to insert the units from ETW themselves I didn't have all of the files to do this.

Is there any way to use these old ETW files to skin my NTW units?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Again, thanks for the quick reply Steph. I was worried nobody would bother with NTW anymore!

**Steph** · July 23, 2014, 01:14 PM

Don't worry, I'm still quite active with NTW! Masters of Europe mod requires a lot of work still. By the way, it contains new textures for Scotland.

Ok, let's start by the beginning then.
I'll focus on NTW, since I'm not using ETW.
You did a relatively good start.

First, in your uniform_to_faction_colour table, the RGB colour is defined for Scotland. I suppose you are testing the unit with the Scotland faction? If you try with another faction, the colour will not be defined, and so NTW will use the general faction colour insteead.

Second, the RGB colours require a colour mask. I see that in your mod, you have included the britain_diffuse.dds, but not the britain_colourmask.dds. If you look at it in the patch4.pack (I think it is the latest version, I believe you used the version from variantmodels.pack).
For the kilt, it contains a blue area, and you can see in the diffuse it is white. So in game the engine draws the white diffuse, but apply a colour change to the area in blue (in the colour_mask file), and it uses for that the values in the third set of column in the uniform_to_faction colour tables (R3, G3, B3).
What colour did you define for these column? Your screenshot shows only the first and second set?
The first set correspond to red areas in the colour_mask (no effect for the kilt), and the second test to the ribbon (in green in the colour_mask).

**Malcolm** · July 23, 2014, 02:21 PM

That looks really good! I always thought Scotland was in need of a good re-skinning in NTW! If you ever need any diffuse.dds files with different Scottish uniforms from ETW let me know, you're more than welcome to have them if you can figure out a way to use them or take out any parts of them you want.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

I have been testing the unit with the Scotland faction. I put the R3:255 G3:255 B3:10 (bright yellow) but when I played the game as Scotland, the kilt did not change colour.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Ok, so I have taken the britain_colour_mask.dds from patch4.pack and inserted that into my BRITAIN_MOD. Now that it is there, will that alter the colour of the kilt when I change R3 G3 B3? or will it come up with the same colour if I test the unit as Scotland (as the colour of the unit is assigned to Scotland?)

If that is the case, how do I stop that happening?

**Steph** · July 23, 2014, 02:32 PM

The ETW method for texture is quite different from the NTW, and I already have a full roster for Scotland, so I don't need it.

I don't think you need to include the britain colour mask. If you don't include it at all, then the engine will load the last one it can find (the mode from patch4). And it should work. I have the impression your table is maybe not loaded properly.
Can you make a version of your mod without the textures files, to maker it smaller? For just what you want to do, you should not need it.

There's probably a small error in the tables, I can try to have a look at it.

Since the unit appears in game, and has the correct base uniform (except the colours), I think the uniform_to_faction_colours table contains an error.

**Malcolm** · July 23, 2014, 05:21 PM

So I have set up the mod again making it more simple. I have not made any individual uniform files for the new unit. It is using the Black Watch files.

Here is the Uniform_tables:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Here is the uniform_to_faction_colours table once I had changed the R3G3B3 to a dark red (123/33/6) and the result in-game:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

So no change... I then tried to change the R3G3B3 to a blue...

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This also had no change. Please tell me I have forgotten to do something.

**Steph** · July 24, 2014, 01:23 AM

Just from the screenshots, it looks good. Can you upload your mode, or send it to me by email? It would be easier if I can actually test it.

**Malcolm** · July 24, 2014, 03:23 AM

Yeah here it is.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Thanks again for helping out.

**Steph** · July 24, 2014, 03:37 AM

I am at the office, so I don't have the game or modding tools here, I'll have a look at it this evening when I'm home.

**Steph** · July 24, 2014, 03:54 AM

Question, did you try this mod alone, without DarthMod, or another mod? May be another mod is altering the uniform table or the atlases, and so it cancel your changes?

**Malcolm** · July 24, 2014, 05:56 AM

There's no rush just now anyway, I am working at a festival until Sunday so I won't have a chance to test it without DM installed until then.

Please let me know if you find anything I have done wrong, would love to get back on Sunday to be able to mod a unit properly!

Cheers!

Edit: change of plan, should be able to get back on it tonight after work so any suggestions of what to try tonight I can do!

**Steph** · July 27, 2014, 09:52 AM

Sorry, I was out today, we went to a medieval fair with the familly. Lots of fun with jousting, swordfighting, archery, etc.

So.

In your "uniform" table, the frst column has this identifier

"Inf_Elite_British_Royal_Jacobite_uniform"

And in "uniform_to_faction_colour", the first column has this identifier

"Scotland_Inf_Elite_British_Royal_Jacobite"

The ID should be the same.

PFM has a bug, in "uniform_to_faction_colour", it says "unit_ID" for the first column.

But actually, it is not a unit ID, it is a uniform ID, and it should be the same as in the first column of the "uniforms" table.

So here is how it work
- In uniform columns, the last column give the ID of the unit, and the name of the faction (so the same unit can have different uniforms, depending on the faction)
- The third column gives the name of the variants, that should be used to describe the torso, shoulders, legs, etc for officer, soldier, etc. And it is also used for the name of the icon and info card.
- The first column is actually a reference to the colours, found in uniforms_to_faction_colour.
- In uniforms_to_faction_colour, the first column is the ID of the uniform, then you have the faction, and then the set of colours (first set = main colour, part in red in the colour mask, second set = regimental colours, part in green in colour mask, and third set = legs, part in blue in colour mask).

By the way , if you look at CA's XSD documentation instead of the name of the column in PFM, you 'll both columns are name <uniform_name>, and not "Unit ID" for the uniform_faction_colours, as wrongly displayed in PFM (at least in my version of PFM).

**Malcolm** · July 27, 2014, 11:45 AM

No problem. I was at the re-enactment at Bannockburn a couple of weeks ago, impressive stuff!

I changed the ID in "uniform_to_faction_colours" and then tried to change the R3G3B3 but again no luck in-game. The kilt doesn't change colour.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

I really don't understand what the issue is with it

**Steph** · July 27, 2014, 12:04 PM

To be sure there is no spelling mistake, try to use copy and paste between the units table 1st column and uniform last column.
Then copy paste between uniform first column and uniform_to_faction_colour first column. From your screenshots above, one ends with "uniform" but not the other.

**Malcolm** · July 27, 2014, 12:24 PM

You got it!

There was a tutorial I followed when first making the unit and it said to include "_uniform" at the end of that entry. Anyway, the kilt has finally changed colour!

Thanks a lot for sticking with me through this!

**Steph** · July 27, 2014, 01:02 PM

Adding uniform is a good idea, but you need to do this everywhere it has to be done. And using copy/paste is the best way to be sure you have the correct names.
A spelling mistake somewhere (including a "blank" at the end) can lead to errors, or even crash.

**Malcolm** · July 28, 2014, 02:36 PM

This has given me quite the taste for editing the look of the Scottish units.

Do you know if it is possible to use parts of uniforms from ETW?

Maybe by using GIMP or Photoshop to copy in parts of ETW uniforms into NTW uniform files?

I have these files for them?

diffuse.dds

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

gloss_map

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

normal.dds

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Mesh files

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

I will have a look around for colour masks. Do you think it would be possible to almost copy/paste them into new copies of uniform files in NTW?

I have seen in threads that it is possible to import units from ETW but no idea how to use the individual textures.

**Steph** · July 29, 2014, 12:20 AM

Using the individual textures will be difficult as you need to copy them "exactly" other the NTW texture, to be sure every part is where it should be.
You can do that only if the shape of the textures is almost exactly the same in both game. Or you may use small details from ETW and copy it on NTW. For example,if the cuff or collar as some fancy leaves as decoration, you can take only the leaves and paste it on top of the cuff in NTW, as long as it fits inside the space reserved for the cuiff