How to make skins for Reforged?

[Trolldaeron]

Hi. I am completely new here. I have very little texturing experience but I can do 2D art that isn't a texture. I wanted to learn how to import Reforged files, how to edit them and how to put them on a model. I have never made a mod for Classic Warcraft 3 and I am very bad at blender. Is there any tutorial for complete beginners?

 

[Footman16]

So I've been doing a bit of reforged skinning so ill share what i know.

First of all youll need CASCview in order to access the game files for warcraft 3 but there's tutorials that should help with that. You can then export the textures for anything. All the units have a diffuse, emissive and normal texture. The one you'll probably be most interested in is the diffuse texture which is the basic skin and determines what the texture looks like. So if you export it you can then modify it in your image software of choice, i personally use gimp because its free.

When exporting your skin you'll need to export it as .dds with mipmaps generated using a Mitchell filter.

Hope this helps.

 

[Trolldaeron]

What is a Mitchel fliter? Also, I don't think there is an option to save as .dds in Photoshop.

 

[Footman16]

What is a Mitchel fliter? Also, I don't think there is an option to save as .dds in Photoshop.

The Mitchell filter is just the method by which it generates the mipmaps when saving.

Hmmm, I'm not familiar with photoshop sorry, I use GIMP but if you look up how to export/save files as .dds in photoshop you might get some results.

 

[Trolldaeron]

Ok. Thanks.

 

[SerenityInFire]

Nvidia makes a plugin for Photoshop that lets you open and save .dds files.
Download Center
Download Center

 

[Trolldaeron]

Thanks.

 

[Archaos]

So I've been doing a bit of reforged skinning so ill share what i know.

First of all youll need CASCview in order to access the game files for warcraft 3 but there's tutorials that should help with that. You can then export the textures for anything. All the units have a diffuse, emissive and normal texture. The one you'll probably be most interested in is the diffuse texture which is the basic skin and determines what the texture looks like. So if you export it you can then modify it in your image software of choice, i personally use gimp because its free.

When exporting your skin you'll need to export it as .dds with mipmaps generated using a Mitchell filter.

Hope this helps.

Alright heres a question for you, ive been trying to do the same, editing some skins, however even exporting this way (im using gimp too) the skins are appearing for white for me, of course i have the proper paths, also ive noticed i dont have a preview of it on the file like the original ones or yours even for example lol. so do you know whats going on there, how exactly are you doing it lol why yours show and mine dont lol

 

[Footman16]

Do you mean in-game or in editor or what?

I'm not sure what could be causing that problem other than maybe saving the skin incorrectly.

 

[Archaos]

Do you mean in-game or in editor or what?

I'm not sure what could be causing that problem other than maybe saving the skin incorrectly.

ah in game they appear white, in a model studio it shows right

 

[Footman16]

I can't remember the exact save type, but are you saving it as DXT5/3/1?

 

[Archaos]

I can't remember the exact save type, but are you saving it as DXT5/3/1?

as in compression? that is set to none, heres what i see, should one of these be selected. this is my first go really, ive just been winging it xD

 

[Footman16]

Yeah you need to set it to DXT1/3/5 doesn't matter which, just affects the level of compression.

I should've mentioned that in my original reply.

 

[Archaos]

Yeah you need to set it to DXT1/3/5 doesn't matter which, just affects the level of compression.

I should've mentioned that in my original reply.

alright i will give that try and see what happens, would there be anything else than what you mention to set by chance ?
Updates: nope to my question there haha
working now picked the first one and now shows properly, thank you very much for your quick reply and help

 

[Footman16]

No problem, was just heading to my bed when I saw the alert. If you need anymore help let me know.