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How to install skins


RogueSnake79

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Hello All,

Is it possible to have more that one variant of a tank/vehicle in the same texture folder? Let's say two Leo's and change their names?

Tanks

Andy

Have you thought of using JGSME to handle your mods?Once you get the hang of it its a doddle.

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  • 6 months later...
M-1,T-72,and T-80

Salute richard.

SBProPE updated the 3D models indicated by Tacbat. As a result of this, any skins made for those models before the release of 2.460 are unfortunately no longer usable. If you are getting other skins to work but not those in question then you may be trying to use pre 2.460 skins.

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  • 2 months later...
I just tried to use the strv-121 camo skin. But its still the same old skin as before when i start the game. Both on Desert and Woodland. Do i need to renamame the bmp files?

If you are trying to use the ones from KingTigers pack you will need to rename it so the sim will recognize it . If you are running the newest version of SB I dont think those skins are compatable with the new Leo model. These skins are for versions prior to 2.46

Directly from the download info, "This is a request, its my old strv121 with MekB10 marking.

Both in DDS and BMP. use DDS for BETA version and BMP for normal SBP".

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It's hidden. The location depends on the operating system. For Windows 7 (and, I guess, for Vista too) it is C:\ProgramData\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\maps. For XP it should be C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\maps.

If in doubt, check the file paths as listed on pages 3 & 4 of the user manual, and then check for the system variables. I think you can even use the console with cd %variable% or so, but I haven't tried that since old NT 4.0 days.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 4 months later...
You'll notice other files in my picture, and a folder titled "Red".

The other files are skins for other vehicles I have downloaded, and installed.

Now, the red folder. This folder is for vehicles on the red team. If you've played any scenerios at all, you've noticed that there are always two teams. A Blue team, which is almost always you in single player. And a Red team, which is often the bad guys.

This red folder is for the bad guys :) The reason we have this red folder is to alow both teams to use the same vehicle, yet have different skins.

So if you download 2 different skins for the Abrams, you can put one in the main desert folder, and one in the red desert folder. And you won't have to worry about killing your own guys.

Where is the blue folder? Well, my last pic shows it. Once you enter the desert folder, your in the blue folder.

All I have stated goes for any skin, for any vehicle. Winter, Desert, Woodland. Just find the appropriate folder and paste.

And always put mods in the mods folder. Do not place any mod files in the games main directory.

The mod folder is there to keep you from having to back any files up. When the game starts loading a mission, and it looks for the skins, it looks in the mods folder first.

If it finds anything, it uses it. If it doesn't, it goes to the main install, and loads them.

Its pretty simple. I hope this helps.

Once again I find myself needing help with the MODS. I have closely followed the “How to Install Skins” topic but I am at a loss. When I download a skin it does in a DDS format, not the format shown in this thread. This is what I am doing……………I find a nice mod supported by SB RO PE 2.5. I will then click on it and send it to a Working mods folder on my desktop for extraction. I “Extract all Files Here” only to view DDS files. I have tried to open them with every program I have available. They convert but I still cannot open them. On a few files I was able to open them but they appear as templates. By accident I manage to mod the Tiger ARH but don’t know how.

Q. Do I need as program to convert the DDS Files?

I am not the most savvy computer guy out there. I recently converted from Windows XP to Windows 7. I re-installed Silent Hunter 5 and JSGME. Now I am having problems with the mods for that game also. Before Windows 7 MODS were not a problem.

Should I look at a DDS Converter like this http://eliteforce2.filefront.com/file/DDS_Converter;29412 .

If so, then what?

I really wish someone with Windows 7 would do a U Tube Vid…………

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I'm not sure what you are expecting to see or do for that matter?

Assuming that

1) you want to change the skin for a T80U be the old-style 'Soviet Green' for the woodland scheme (so that T72 and T80U are harder to distinguish just from colour).

I find and select this file:

http://www.steelbeasts.com/Downloads/p13_sectionid/287/p13_fileid/1032

Extracting the contents to a folder somewhere where I can find them - keep it out of the SB directories for now. I can see that there are 8 green skins, all named correctly but distinguished by their folder names. All 8 are BMP files, but the process would be identical for .dds files.

I choose the one I'd like - I'm going for Russian, with nets and mud.

I open a second explorer window at <my documents>/eSim Sames/Steel Beasts/Mods/Textures/

Because I want to display this skin in Woodland maps, and only for Red vehicles I now navigate to Woodland/Red and CTRL-Drag a copy of the .bmp or .dds file into the folder.

Now run SB and check the skin. (I chose a recent upload, but it was still 2008 and there is a chance that the model has changed since then...)

Attached images show a Blufor T80U and Redfor T80U in the same scenario - I could convert the T80U.bmp into a T80U.dds for slightly faster loading times, but there is no difference in in-game performance, and it is not required.

SS_01_04_37.jpg.efdd28b6747300ebb201c24f

SS_01_04_55.jpg.d97a168b785c5990498fb85a

SS_01_04_37.jpg.efdd28b6747300ebb201c24f

SS_01_04_55.jpg.d97a168b785c5990498fb85a

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Do not attempt to convert or modify .dds files beyond renaming them to match the original file you wish to replace, if required. All the files in my mods folder are .dds files and they work fine. I

Ensure that the skin you wish to use is for the same version of the model currently in use. If your trying to apply a skin made 2 years ago to the Bradley in the current version, it isnt going to look right.

The short version: Place .dds files (whether you can view them or not) in the appropriate seasons folder inside the mods folder. Green skins in woodland folder, brown skins in desert folder, white ones in winter etc.

If it still doesnt work come on teamspeak and ask someone for some real time help. Even if you dont have a mic you can type and hear peoples responses.

Mog

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  • 2 weeks later...

So basically even if you put them in the right folder (which should be pretty straight forward) its pretty much "pot luck" unless the creater actually included in the label which version it works with (and even if they have there is no guarrantee that it will work with other versions)?

So something that has "2.483 and later" in the title you know wont work with versions earlier than 2.483 but still may not work with 2.5x because things have changed sice 2.483?

You only really know it will work with 2.483.

And it doesn't matter if its a *.bmp file or an *.dds file.

Think I'll just stick with the default (lot less angst).

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OK so here's where the confusion on my part kicks in.

If I say download the AUSCAM M1A1 mod (consisting of a M1A1.bmp file and a M1A1_roof.bmp file) and place them in "my":

\mods\texture\woodland folder

and there still exists a M1a1.dds and M1a1_roof.dds files in the "game's":

\texture\woodland folder

Which takes precedence (i.e. is loaded).

Do I need to rename / delete the *.dds files to ensure SB Pro PE is loading (successfully or not) the mod I've downloaded?

I know if I rename the *.dds files and place the *.bmp files in:

SB Pro PE\texture\woodland folder

That I end up with white M1's

So I'm "guessing" (and that's the correct term as there's nothing definitive in the Manual or Wiki and the sticky thread above here goes back to 2006 so I have no idea whether its still relevant or not) that the *.dds files need to stay in location?

And I'm not even going to touch on "Why *.BMP and *.DDS formats?" :)

Edited by Gibsonm
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I see your issue with an old M1A1.bmp file - it is seen on the turret roof (M1A1roof.bmp) and hull (M1A1.bmp) when viewed from the TC position.

However from the driver and External view it is showing the default M1A1.dds file.

This is not how it is supposed to work as far as I can tell - if the 'wrong' texture is applied I would expect to see either "no change" anywhere (wrong file name and no link) or a skin which is uniformly applied, but looks wrong.

Converting the M1A1.bmp to M1A1.dds fixes the behaviour and now the driver/external view is correct to the skin.

Attached is the skin as modified - one of DarkAngel's Aussie skins.

I'll log this as a bug.

M1A1-Aussie_rar.35463e82f4fbf29cc2defa78

M1A1-Aussie.rar

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Ah,

So the External view was showing the default "dds" file (no wonder I couldn't tell if the mod was working or not).

Thanks very much, looking forward to downloading when I get home (or at least off this network).

Is there a reason why we have both "dds" and "bmp" files?

I presume "dds" needs different (or at least not commonly available) software to create?

Would it be easier (albeit limiting) to require all skins to be in "dds" format before being approved for uploading?

Anyway, looking fwd to running AS M1's around the place.

Thanks again. :)

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BMP are lossless, and easy to modify (at the simplest all you need is MS paint, included with Windows - though I wouldn't recommend it :cul:)

DDS is a compressed format used by graphics hardware, that also supports transparency. Having a smaller file size it greatly reduces load times, but AFAICT they are converted and treated the same within the graphics card anyway... but the time to convert the file is added to the already longer time of the unconverted BMP.

Frequent editing of DDS files leads to a degrading of quality over time, as the edge artifacts introduced by compression become treated as details that should be retained in further compression runs.. So for template style skins they should remain in a lossless format (preferably in a layered file for ease of changing), but there are advantages for saving as DXTC skins for final usage.

The M1 behaviour is anomalous - other vehicles could display a BMP skin correctly.

Anyone using Photoshop or similar can use the free DXTC/DDS plugin from Nvidia which can load and save these files, and a second DXtools application allows them to be previewed in windows explorer - but in a vanilla install of windows and photoshop these formats are unreadable.

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