Prepping your Textures for import into your mod
This tutorial is for prepping textures for import into a Package (PCC) though technically this can also be used to prep your textures for MEM.
For this tutorial I am going to break down a few textures not all, but generally the rule of looking at their RGB(A) layers and comparing to your texture to try and match the game you're modding should work for multiple textures.
Legendary Explorer
- Asset Database
GIMP (or your preferred photo editing software but for this tutorial I will be showing GIMP as it is what I have access to)
Blender
So first we want to extract the textures we will be replacing, whether with an edited version of the same texture or one that you will be using as a base for your textures.
We also want to extract the mesh we are using, so we can view our edits to the texture in blender in "real time" also blender helps when you want to fix seams that are on textures which I will also cover the basics of in this tutorial.
This will also cover a little of transferring your Original Trilogy textures to Legendary Edition.
If you are trying to convert a favourite mod of yours from OT to LE remember if you plan to publish it to get permission from the original modder. If you plan to use it for personal use most modders are usually okay with that.
Now we want to use Asset Database to find our textures and extract them though you can also use MEM to extract your textures if you wish. Though we do need Asset Database to still find the mesh. Open Legendary Explorer
For this first one I am going to show comparing my
So with both textures open I go to Colors > Components > Decompose (see Image 29)
On the next popup for the texture with an Alpha I would choose Color Model: RGBA (see Image 30)
Then we can see on the right panel the channels have been broken down to layers, the first active one being the Red channel (see Image 31)
Now decompose the other texture, for mine it is Color Model: RGB (see Image 32)
Now if want to compare side by side rather than switching between windows first close the non decomposed versions of the textures, as we will be recomposing the one we are editing when ready. Then go to Windows > Untick Single-Window Mode (see image 33)
- this will mean you can compare side by side rather than switching between the windows, but only do this if you want. This is just part of my process I thought I would share but is not at all required.
Now make edits to your texture comparing red channel to red channel, green to green, blue to blue and alpha to alpha as well if required. For example I can see my Spec already needs adjusting on the Red channel. My spec left side and the default/vanilla spec's red channel on the right (see image 34)
Once done we are ready to pack our textures back into one layer and all channels applied together. Go to Colors > Components > Compose (see Image 35)
Then choose the format you require such as for me it is RGB, also in this window you will see your layers listed below the choice, this shouldn't need touching unless you moved your layers around. When ready press OK (see Image 36)
Now export your texture