Any way to use the old skin and the imported skin?

[Sukramo]

Say I wanted to import a Scarlet Crusader Skin that takes up the Footman skin.

Is there any way to just have some footmen use that skin and all the other ones be normal Footmen? I dont want every footman to be a Crusader.

 

[Wwallace_]

You can replace an unused unit model path

 

[PublishedShadow]

Yes. You need to Download Magos Model Editor.(http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/tools-560/war3-model-editor-62876/)

Once downloaded open the program do the following:

Windows Tab --> MPQ Browser

"MPQ Browser Window will open"
In the MPQ Browser Window, Go to File ---> War3.mpq
Units --> Human ---> Footman --> Select Footman.mdx and hit Enter

Once selected, The footman will now be in the editor.
Windows Tab ---> Texture Manager
Right Click the texture Manager and select 'Import'
Browse to the location of your downloaded texture and hit enter.

Now go to Windows Tab --> Material Manager
Double Click the second Material ( new window will open)
Double Click the second MaterialLayer
Use the drop down window and select your texture (make note of the texture's path). Hit Ok then Ok again

Double Click the 3rd Material in the list
Do the same steps as above
Close the material window. Your Footman should now have a new skin
(Lower file size by going back to the Texture Window and Remove the Textures\Footman.blp from the List once you no longer need it.)

Go to the file Tab --> Save As "yourmodel.mdx"

Import yourmodel.mdx to your map.
Import the texture. Remove the "war3imported" from the texture path.
You now have a separate model that uses that texture, without overwriting the Footman texture.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Unfortunately there is no way around importing a copy of the model into your map with a different path and using a different texture path. This eats up quite a bit of space so you have to really consider if it is worth it for the asset or not.

In StarCraft II they added the replaceable texture feature to support this. Using that feature the same model could be given any number of textures at any path greatly reducing the amount of model data redundancy as well as improving flexibility.

 

[The General]

it is possible but you'd waste space like Dr super good said, The method I use to do this is simple you extract the model and portrait from the MPQ(I use Warcraft 3 Viewer) then convert it to mdl Link to converter http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/tools-560/mdlx-converter-62991/ Rewrite example path Textures/footman to Textures/Crusader(can be anything you don't even need to put Textures/) then reconvert the mdl to mdx and finally import both the crusader texture and the model into the map then Rename the Crusader texture to the path you put in earlier and Wallah.

 

[Dr Super Good]

convert it to mdl Link to converter MDLX Converter Rewrite example path Textures/footman to Textures/Crusader(can be anything you don't even need to put Textures/) then reconvert the mdl to mdx

It is worth noting that this could potentially corrupt the model. According to various experts of the mdx and mdl formats they are not fully compatible. Specifically the text file form cannot express various features the binary file supports which can result in loss of information.

Generally this is not a problem as few models use such features.

 

[teozamait]

Ultimasa Hojo has released quite a few optimized versions of the already existing models. These models only have extra/optimized animations but perform mostly the same as the standard models.

What you can do is download one of his models and put the skin path to override the downloaded model. This way only the downloaded model will get the skin while the standard ones will remain as they are.

 

[Ardenian]

As PublishedShadow says, but more in detail, with pictures: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/3d-modeling-tutorials-282/add-multiple-skins-single-model-262796/