This is how you make skins work with Texture Compression On!
 

I've seen so many good mods be released without the necessary file inlcuded to make the mod work for people who have texture compression ON like myself. Many people dont want to turn it OFF because you lose graphic quality and its unnecessary.

So...

For all you modders, here is a simple way to make skin mods that will work with texture compression ON and OFF, and for those people who have downloaded mods and want to make them work, read also!

First things first, you will need Pakscape for ease of use (this enables you to open .pk3 files into an easily viewable and editable way - get it here - http://www.alliedassault.com/pafiledb/p ... le&id=1836 )

A mod will contain a path as follows when opened in PakScape:
e.g for the Allies Colt Pistol - Textures/Modesl/Weapons/Colt45/Colt45.tga

Now, Colt45.tga is the skin, BUT, this on its own wont make the mod work for people with texture compression ON.

What you need to do is open this file in PaintShopPro or Photoshop or any good image editing programme, and then save the files in .DDS format.

You may require a .DDS plug-in which can be obtained from this site here: http://udn.epicgames.com/pub/Content/Te ... fications/
It can be used for any texture compression (It has UT2003 as examples but works with any game so dont worry)

It also shows you the menu that it brought up when you save a file as .dds.

Dont alter any of the settings, just save it as the same name as the weapon.tga you are making i.e Colt45.dds. Take this file and put it into the same folder as the Colt45.tga using Pakscape, so there should be 2 files now in the mod in the SAME folder (eg Textures/Modesl/Weapons/Colt45/)
Save it and make sure the .pk3 you have made/edited is in the Mohaa/main folder where all other mods will be. It should now work if done correctly, and no other mods are intering with the file.

Basically, a .DDS file is a compressed version of the skin, so in game it now works with texture compression on.

I hope this helps a lot of you out there!

Feel free to ask me any questions you may have.

(Might be useful as a sticky thread)

Do u need to refer in .shader file to the .dds files like u do with .tgas?

No you don't have to reffer to it it should look for the file on it's own as it is with the tga file

I 've been having some trouble changing a MOHAA weapon skin to a diffrent format. This is not my skin and I am NOT editing this skin, I downloaded it from Alliedassault.com. I simply want to see the skin with my texture compression on. The original skin is only a .tga file so I am using a plugin for Photoshop-6 (Nvidia-DXT-Tools)to change it to .dds format.

I was able to change the existing skin to the .dds format so it could be viewed with texture compression on but now in .dds format the skin is unorganized...the "colors/textures" are in the wrong place(when viewed IN-GAME), I noticed when saving from .tga to .dds that the Nvidia-Dxt-Tools menu had ALOT of options for the save...do these have to be set in a certain way?? or do you know what I can do to fix this??

I have not messed with the .tik files in my MOHAA files for this weapon. I dont know if I need to, and actually dont know what I would do to the .tic file anyway, (I am assuming I would use the .tic file from MOHAA and not from the .Pk3 skin file...the .pk3 dosent have a .tic)

I have read many skinning tutorials but none I have found cover this particular problem
ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

Junorion
(I've got pic I can e-mail)