How to install skins

[Gibsonm]

Trying to follow this thread. Two scenarios:

1. Soviet T-72M1 goes in Documents\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\mods\textures\woodland\red Yes?

2. Iraqi T-72M1 goes in Documents\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\mods\textures\desert\red

- OR -

In Documents\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\mods\textures\desert\ir ?

Thanks.

Depends on who "red" is.

"Red" is the OPFOR.

If the Soviet T-72M1 or Iraqi T-72M1 are on "your" side (i.e. "blue") then you need to put them in the sub directories that match the nationality that is represented by "Blue".

If you are fighting against the Soviet or Iraqi T-72s then sure they go into the Red sub directory.

[Barkhorn1x]

Depends on who "red" is.

"Red" is the OPFOR.

If the Soviet T-72M1 or Iraqi T-72M1 are on "your" side (i.e. "blue") then you need to put them in the sub directories that match the nationality that is represented by "Blue".

If you are fighting against the Soviet or Iraqi T-72s then sure they go into the Red sub directory.

TY, yes the latter is what I am doing.

[Barkhorn1x]

One more question:

- When do you use the Autumn folder as opposed to the Woodland folder?

[Ssnake]

When you want to have brown trees rather than green ones because the terrain theme is set to "autumn". Whether an army would go at lengths to adjust a camo paint scheme is up for discussion, but suppose you want to simulate it, this is when it comes in handy. Typically however "Woodland" tri-color is good enough for all seasons but snow conditions.

[Barkhorn1x]

OK, TY makes sense.

[Red2112]

Will the actual skin mods in the download section work in SB Pro 4.0?  Are there any with just the interior skin mod?  Sorry if this is a nob question...

 

Care,

 

Red

Edited August 19, 2016 by Red2112

[Tacbat]

Some will work, and some won't. It depends on whether or not the 3D model has been updated.

 

It would be helpful if you were to try a certain mod, to leave a comment about it's compatibility with 4.0. Then others will know in the future.

[Red2112]

8 hours ago, Tacbat said:

Some will work, and some won't. It depends on whether or not the 3D model has been updated.

 

It would be helpful if you were to try a certain mod, to leave a comment about it's compatibility with 4.0. Then others will know in the future.

Thank you Tacbat.

 

New to SB and it´s mods so I havent tried any mods yet.  I will see if I can find which 3D models have been updated so I can discard those.

[Monkie]

I can't seem to get any of the skins I put in the MODS folder to show up in game. Is there something I need to do to make sure the game is looking at the Mods folder first? I am using a Summer theme and trying to replace the "M60A3" skin, however the skin in the main texture woodland folder keeps showing up instead of the one in my mods folder.

 

The Mods folder was installed into the C:\ drive directory which has the windows 10 operating system while the SB game directory was installed on my D:\ drive. Maybe that is affecting something.

 

Also I notice that some folders are missing in the mods folder (ie. textures\camo\default) can I simply create this folder on my own if I wanted to mod the textures in it or has it been left out on purpose?

Edited September 3, 2016 by Monkie

[Ssnake]

Maybe the mod files no longer have matching file names, which in turn suggests that maybe they were made for an earlier version of Steel Beasts; they might have become obsolete. But that's all speculation on my part.

[Gibsonm]

8 hours ago, Monkie said:

I can't seem to get any of the skins I put in the MODS folder to show up in game. Is there something I need to do to make sure the game is looking at the Mods folder first? I am using a Summer theme and trying to replace the "M60A3" skin, however the skin in the main texture woodland folder keeps showing up instead of the one in my mods folder.

 

The Mods folder was installed into the C:\ drive directory which has the windows 10 operating system while the SB game directory was installed on my D:\ drive. Maybe that is affecting something.

 

Also I notice that some folders are missing in the mods folder (ie. textures\camo\default) can I simply create this folder on my own if I wanted to mod the textures in it or has it been left out on purpose?

 

Did you sync the nationalities as well?

 

E.g. If you put a skin in say:

 

C:\Users\insert account name here\Documents\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\mods\textures\woodland\au

 

Then you need to ensure that:

 

The "Options:Camouflage Scheme" in the scenario is matched to "au" too.

 

It wont work if you put the mod in the "au" folder and leave the scheme as say "US 1990".

 

Edited September 3, 2016 by Gibsonm

[Maj.Hans]

While youre doing skin mods, you may want to do some other things like Gibson mentioned.

 

Specifically, you might want to move the Aussie camo jobs from the main folder and replace them all with more generic schemes, so that vehicles like the LeopardAS1 are more appropriate in a plain green scheme for a 1A3/1A4 etc.

 

You probably also want to populate your AU folder with a bunch of Aussie skins for the M113 and stuff too.

[Gibsonm]

From Monkie's post (the one I was responding to) I don't think he has any Australian skins.

 

I was just using that as an example.

Edited September 3, 2016 by Gibsonm

[Monkie]

I am not using any custom mods, I simply copied an M60A3 skin texture from the winter folder of the main directory and put it into the "woodland" folder under the Mod file structure. So the skin is vanilla SB. I also checked and yes I'm using the proper US scheme. I tried all 3 US schemes and it doesn't make a difference, and I used a winter scheme in the Mods directory to replace the summer scheme so it would be obvious if it was successful.

 

EDIT: At first I thought the sound mods were not working but they are working fine when I put them in the mods "fx" folder. The main program is seeing and accessing the Mods folder on the C:\ drive fine, just no luck with the mods\textures folder.

 

 

Again the Mods file structure is installed under my C:\ drive which has the Windows 10 operating system on it while the SB main program is on the D:\ drive.

 

"my scenarios" file is in the same file structure on the C:\ drive and the game accesses that folder with no issue.

 

 

Edited September 3, 2016 by Monkie

[Splash]

4 hours ago, Monkie said:

I simply copied an M60A3 skin texture from the winter folder of the main directory and put it into the "woodland" folder under the Mod file structure.

 

To restate and expand on what Gibsonm was getting at:

 

It appears from your description that you have placed your desired skin in the mods/textures/woodland folder.  

 

But that folder also contains 36 subdirectories for the choosable nationalities, does it not? If you want your skin to appear when US 1990 is chosen as your army's camoflage, you must place the skin in the "us" subdirectory folder. 

 

At the risk of getting too complicated: The mod woodland, winter, desert and autumn folders don't seem to function globally in the same manner as the main game folders (the ones on your D: drive). In most cases (I won't get into apparent exceptions) the game doesn't see .dds files placed outside of the nation folders in the mod woodland, winter, desert or autumn folders. If there's no skin for a vehicle in the nation's mod folder, the game looks elsewhere, bypassing the mod season folder.

 

It's a complicated thing to explain. But if you do as directed above: place your skin in the "us" folder within the "woodland" folder within the "textures" folder of your "mods" directory ... AND select "US 1990" for the party you're modding on a WOODLAND-themed map -- it will work. Trust me. When painting a skin I go through these steps a gazillion times.

 

So let it be written; so let it be done: Skin in the country folder of the season matching the mission; same country assigned to the party in the mission. 

 

If it still does not appear to work, start the mission. I've found (not so much with 4.0) sometimes the change doesn't seem to 'take' in the 3-D planning/building view.

[Monkie]

Ok Splash you were correct, I was looking at the two file structures as being exact mirrors of each other but that isn't exactly true, and by using the US 1970 camo scheme I set myself up for a lot of confusion. The M60A3 file I thought I was replacing is in the main "woodland" folder but if I want it to be replaced I had to put it in the mods\US 1970 folder. There is no specific folder in the main directory for US 1970, ugh, totally missed that.

 

Thank you for clearing that up for me, all is working great now. I decided to use JSGME to keep everything in order from here out.

 

Sorry for the initial confusion on this.

[sjr162]

All,

 

I have loaded the various mods into the MOD/Textures/Camo/Country file for INF Skins and for vehicle skins MAD/Textures/Woodland/Desert etc/Country.  However, when I am building missions I only get the option to set the camouflage to the country and not to the individual skins.  I select options/Blue or Red Camouflage options, but he individual MOD skins do not appear in the available characters apart from the AFV Crew Mods that I downloaded.  What am I doing wrong?  

[Splash]

I don't think you're not doing anything "wrong" --  assuming your infantry textures are also in the correct 'theme' folders -- But your expectations are a bit off-base.

 

In SBProPE you are able to set camouflage for each SIDE ... not by individual unit. That's why the drop-down menu gives only countries as choices. 

 

Some creative variations are possible with troops and crews ... but only to the extent that you are using the available civilian characters. (AFV crews live in the civilian category, strangely enough). 

 

If you'll offer more specifics about what you're trying to achieve, I might be able to help.
 

[sjr162]

Splash,

 

thank you.  I am trying to use the MOD for the UK INF 4 Armd Bde.  But all I see in the game is the woodland green camo for UK.  I have both MTP and the BRIT INF MTP Camo 2.640 whith 4 Armd Bde anad 16 Air ASslt Bde in my textures/camo/uk/woodland folder.  Should I delte the ones I do not want - I was under the impression I could select in the one I wanted using the civ character table - but obviously not?  

[Ssnake]

I'm skeptical that a uniform mod for version 2.640 will work in version 4.019; the infantry 3D character models were introduced after version 2.6.

[Splash]

The infantry 3D character models were introduced prior to 2.640. The textures became moddable with that version, but the procedure was bugged until 3.x, and the folder structure has changed since then, making any included readme for files of that vintage outdated.

 

Also, normal and specular mapping and better lighting have been introduced which make 2.640 skins look pretty bad in 4.0, imho. That's especially true of cata's "British MTP Multicam skins" package, which sjr162 is trying to use, since cata painted a different style of body armor than the model now uses.

 

Lots of complicated issues here, but the skins are still useable.

 

First, choose which of cata's four versions you want to use. (As mentioned above, you can't install them all and then choose among them in-game).

 

Second, rename the "interceptordress" file to "US_molle" because the UK troop model has changed since 2.640.

 

Third, place this US_molle.dds file and its companion US_equipMOLLE.dds file in the appropriate uk mod folder. This is a crucial step, in that you must have the files in the correct season/theme folder of the correct nation folder. That would be \Documents\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\mods\textures\camo\woodland\uk, assuming your scenerio is on a woodland-themed map.
(I typically put mods in all four season folders just to cover my bases.)

 

Also, you weren't clear, but make sure you're copying only the graphics (dds) files into your mod folders -- and not cata's whole "4th ARM Bde Inf with helmet netting" folder, for example. The sim won't see them if they're contained in their own folder.

 

[sjr162]

Splash,

 

mission achieved - thank you.  I now have created my old Battle Group from 4 Armd Bde!!!  If I was being picky - helmet and OSPREY would need a little work, but to be honest I am delighted with the overall look.  Thank you once again.  

 

SnS

[wildbillkelsoe]

so I am trying to install a modified 16 mb BMP file of M1A1 skin but I follow to docs/esim/mods/textures and there is all sorts of winter/summer/camo/spring/etc..

 

 

I want to apply the texture to the tanks in the tutorials for M1A1. Its a color map for the different parts. I wonder if it is not working as it should. I have PE.

[Splash]

The sim prefers the .dds format for textures. (It might still read bmp ... but probably only if no default dds exists -- and one does for pretty much every texture in the sim).  So you'll need to convert your bmp to dds. There are converters available for download if your graphics editing software doesn't offer the option to export as dds.

 

Save it -- in the case of a vehicle skin -- with DXT1 compression; RGB8 format; generate mipmaps.

 

As far as where to put it, (most of) the vehicle tutorials use the us 1990 camo on woodland-themed maps. So put your M1A1.dds skin in the "us" folder in "woodland" of your mods/textures directory. This will, of course, change the skin in other similarly-themed missions, too. So when you want to go back to the default, remove or temporarily rename your mod.

 

Easy peasy.

 

 

Edited December 16, 2017 by Splash

[wildbillkelsoe]

On December 16, 2017 at 2:40 PM, Splash said:

The sim prefers the .dds format for textures. (It might still read bmp ... but probably only if no default dds exists -- and one does for pretty much every texture in the sim).  So you'll need to convert your bmp to dds. There are converters available for download if your graphics editing software doesn't offer the option to export as dds.

 

Save it -- in the case of a vehicle skin -- with DXT1 compression; RGB8 format; generate mipmaps.

 

As far as where to put it, (most of) the vehicle tutorials use the us 1990 camo on woodland-themed maps. So put your M1A1.dds skin in the "us" folder in "woodland" of your mods/textures directory. This will, of course, change the skin in other similarly-themed missions, too. So when you want to go back to the default, remove or temporarily rename your mod.

 

Easy peasy.

 

 

 

Will DXTBMP work? Here is what happens when I open a downloaded woodland skin bitmap mod that I want to edit, I first convert it to RGB image mode, then touch up by selecting each component with woodland camo and layer via copy it to a new layer, renaming it, after going through this process, I delete the background image and turn off layers like the fifty caliber gun, wheel spokes, light bulbs, etc.. then I begin putting paint layer on each component conforming it to that component shape (glacis for example). After that when all layers have been modified with the paint job, I enable the other layers hidden not painted, and also switch channels from normal to screen. 

 

 

Lastly I save the project as BMP but dont export it, then open it with DXTbmp and switch it to DXT5. 

 

I still cant see my camouflage.

 

Am I at least right with the sequence?