Hello

Just got back into flying Gunship! and wished I hadn't waited so long. It's amazing how so many dedicated people have put so much effort into trying to get the most out of this sim, my hats off to all of you.

I was wondering if someone could explain to me how to extract a texture file from the games models. I was hoping to re-do the A-10's texture. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Monkie

Hi Monkie-

Don't even remember why I put this on my webhost years ago, but here ya go:

http://www.simwarrior.com/gunship/utilities/A10_GS.zip

After you make a new skin, drop the PCX file into your Gunship!\Data\Textures folder, and it should display in game. (Create the textures folder if you don't see one.)

The original skins are small, (200x256 pixels), so don't expect too much. You can also resize it up to 400 x 512 or 800 x 1024, and then reskin it for higher resolution. Make sure the 800x1024 area is laid out along the top of a 1024 x1024 256 color pcx image for it to work in game.

I think. Oh- and there was something about indexed palettes. Sorry, it's been a while.

Anybody know if there is a basic GS reskinning guide around here anywhere?

Good luck!


edit- I forgot the link to the file extraction stuff. It's on my dev page under File Stuff"

http://www.simwarrior.com/gunship/gsdev.html

Thanks FNG2K!

This is exactly what I was looking for. I saw the extractor but had no idea what it was used for, after a couple of tries I figured it out, works perfect. I was wanting to simply take the warthog snout off the front of the A-10 and add some tail codes but now I think I'll personalize a few other vehicles as well.

I only wish I had known a few years back that so many folks were still dedicated to Gunship, I feel very late to the party.

Thanks again for the info and the .pcx file as well

Monkie

GS .pcx files must be paletted. The first colour indexed will be transparent in the game.

Some video cards have issues with colours that have all RGB values lower than 10.
A colour like R8, G2, B1 might end up being transparent in-game, while something like R12, G1, B0 should be okay.

WB/Gurney’s 3dzStudio can be a valuable aid when working with textures, provided that you have the proper .3dz model. Many, but not all, of the .3db models used in Gunship! have unused .3dz analogs in the Gunship\Data\3dz folder that you can work with. Unfortunately, none of the hi-res helos (including the Blackhawk and the Hip) have .3dz versions.

If you can find the correct .3dz file for your texture, you can view (and change) how the wireframe is mapped in 3dzStudio. Makes texture editing a hell of a lot easier, imo. If your texture dimensions aren’t square, you’ll have to make them so before using the Studio. Some nVidia cards don't like anything mapped to coordinates 0x, 0y, 255x, or 255y. Just something to keep in mind if you're willing to remap stuff.

3dzStudio sometimes isn’t truly WYSIWYG. You might have a small number of elements’ mapping coordinates off by a pixel compared to what you see in-game.

If you do change mapping coordinates, you’ll have to convert your new .3dz to a .3db. There’s a 3dzread.exe utility in your \Gunship!\Data\3dz folder that’ll do that for you. But don’t run it in there! There’s a few .3dbs in that folder that were created as “native“.3dbs (as opposed to those .3dbs that were converted from the .3dz format). Running 3dzread.exe in the \Gunship!\Data\3dz directory will batch convert all .3dzs to .3dbs and overwrite the “native” .3db files. If I were you, I’d Cut&Paste that utility into another folder if you plan on ever using it.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll return to watching the Penguins beat up on the ‘Canes.

Good luck!

Oh, yeah, there is another MicroProse utility in your 3dz folder that can tell you which .3dz goes with which texture. I think fng2k has the relevant information available somewhere on his site.

Thanks for the reply, it's mainly above my head as I'm just starting to learn to put together missions and fly again. The A-10's warthog snout always did bother me and I wanted to make the A-10 look more like a vanilla hog, just my taste.

I use Paint Shop Pro for my skinning. When I load the original .PCX file I save the palette. I then convert the image to 16 million colors for editing and finish by reloading the original palette. Usually the change in color is minimal and it seems to work for me so far.

By the way Samovar I flew a mission where I landed in an LZ ahead of a flight of your UH-1's and WOW they sure looked amazing as they approached to land, one of the best looking UH-1's I've ever seen modeled.

Monkie

I also love his UH-1 Huey, HIP, Hokum, Lynx, Predator, Cobra, the utilities, and all the other stuff at samovar6's site: ShoddyWorks

very, very nice work, samovar6.