question about retexturing

[Legacy_Wall3T]

               hey everyone-

im trying to find a way to retexture a flag, mostly for testing ideas. How i chose to do it was i picked the image

th05.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2012/188/f/2/holy_roman_empire_by_themistrunsred-d56e4w4.png

(fyi it was converted into a .tga)

and overrided it with an exsting texture (both being tga files). in theory it should be just a matter of replacing the new with the old and it should work right?

after doing that, it didnt work it always shows up as the origional texture. maybe im just missing something?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Wall3T]

               im also using cep 2.4 as the base test files. i use a custom top hak that overrides the cep top hak so as not to mess with cep files
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               Assuming you have two tga textures with exactly the same name, the one in the higher hak will override the lower. On the other hand, if your "new" texture is in the override folder it will NOT override a texture in a hak... If that's the problem, you just stick your new texture in a hak higher on the Module list than the one the original is in.

Otherwise... are you certain the texture you're trying to override is ONLY a tga?
Often there may be both tga AND dds versions of a texture in a hak... A dds version of a texture will always override any tga version, even if the tga is in a higher hak.

Use NWExplorer or such to check there's no dds version of the original texture. If there is, KILL IT, KILL IT... then your override should work.
(If this is the problem but you don't want to actually delete the original texture, then you'll need to convert your new tga to a dds).
If, as I gather, your override texture is in a custom top hak above all others and has exactly the same name as the tga you're trying to change, then a dds duplicate is the most likely source of the trouble. Hit it with a Big Brick.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par PLUSH HYENA of DOOM, 01 décembre 2013 - 01:39 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Wall3T]

               that sounds like a sound solution ill return once ive banished the mystical dds file (if it does indeed exist).

i recall having done this with the mystical log cabin in the cep, and worked miraculously. But only with the origional Hak files i found here:

nwvault.ign.com/View.php

i chose this as the first test, and would move towards cep. it worked according to how i thought they would, but this version must not be in the cep (even though its the same model). as after having placed the new textures in the custom top hak, it didnt produce any results

And to answer your first statement, it is not in the override folder, i use a custom top hak that (to prevent confusion) is called "sd_core_top" which included the new override textures. this is placed directly above cep2_top_v24.

it is possible that having two of the same textures can confuse the engine, but i assumed placing SD_core_top as highest priority would well... give it priority

but for now i just want to focus on the flag, well get to the cabin another time...
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Wall3T]

               got an update. im sure im getting somewhere and close towards an end. when i came across the .dds i decided to overide it and got this result

s1350.photobucket.com/user/raven_blood_123/media/whatswrong_zpse3d258ea.jpg.html

im assuming its better to remove the entire .dds file? as what PHoD stated. im not sure how it really works entirely, becaues i dont want to remove something in the cep files if its already in place
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Zwerkules]

               That looks like the TGA you converted to DDS was copressed. Your TGA should not be compressed. If you export a TGA with the gimp, you got an option to turn compression off. Also running the TGA through the TGA-Flipper twice might before converting it to DDS might get rid of the compression.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               You don't actually NEED both dds and tga versions of a texture...

You could just override the tga in CEP with your own tga in the top hak and simply remove (without deleting it) the CEP dds version and put it away somewhere safe (out of the haks), just in case you feel you might one day wish to reinstate it.

Equally, as Zwerkules mentioned, your tga appears to have been compressed, therefore uncompressing it before converting to dds should give you a perfectly good dds override. Either solution should resolve the issue.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par PLUSH HYENA of DOOM, 01 décembre 2013 - 12:58 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Gruftlord]

               woot. uncompressing with gimp.

i had similar problems before, when converting my override to a patch-hak. dds conversion would corrupt some textures. now after i read this thread, i gave it another try, this time reexporting the file with gimp and selecting no compression. file size increased, and then dds conversion tool worked flawlessly. no corruption ingame.

thanks for the tip, and sorry to have hijacked the thread to express my gratitude.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <because size...>

While I'm glad you've discovered the solution to your particular problem, this sounds like a good thread to also mention the *size* of textures. The engine needs images that are powers of two - 256x256 and 512x512 most common. They do not need to be square - I've used 32x2048 without issues (A band of runic scribbles hidden on the inner ring of... nevermind).

When I've broken this rule, I've had textures work in the toolset, but missing in game. I've also crashed the game.

<...does matter>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               To adjust what Rolo just said - I have created and used textures that were missing the power of 2 size on at least one of the dimensions without any problems as long as they are tgas. On the other hand you will not be able to compile tgas to dds at all if the texture is not a power of 2 in both dimensions.

TR
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Wall3T]

               wow, thanks for the feedback, i went back and retraced my steps and un-compressed the .tga

it works! but with some slight "tiling" effects as shown here:

s1350.photobucket.com/user/raven_blood_123/media/whats_wrong2_zpsc1dcea49.jpg.html

perhaps i need to rotate the image or adjust it? im going to play around with it for abit see what "fits". if anyone has any ideas do let me know.

and thanks again everyone for the feedback
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Zwerkules]

               The texture used for the flags has several halves of a flag design in it which are mirrored to create the whole flag. Only a part of the texture is used and that part has to be one that can be mirrored.
Since you want the whole eagle to appear on the flag, you have to remap the flag.
You can fit the eagle onto the rectangular part of the flag, but you'll have to map the bottom triangle separately so it only uses some completely yellow part of the texture. Or you'll have to edit the texture so that it better fits the flag and maybe add some fabric folds like Tiberius did for his flags.
Without the fabric folds it won't look much like a real flag.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Wall3T]

               ah ok, i figured it was something simple. for now i just want to get the eagle onto the flag lol, ill worry about making it look like a flag later.

it seems it already mirrors so my idea is "cut" the eagle in half and see where it goes from there.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               If you don't want to put the model into gmax (etc) and hit the UVmap with a big brick, you can always try:-

Looking through similar flag models for one that applies a full texture in the way you want and override that one instead, (or create a new model based on it and add it to your 2da)...

OR

Create a NEW override texture which is simply a grid of lots of smallish squares of different colours or something equally simple which will show you what colours actually appear on the model and thus what parts of the texture you can actually "use" for that specific model. When you know exactly what area is used, place what you want to appear ONLY in that area. (Obviously that may require you to use a larger texture size). It's a low-tech solution, but if you're not familiar with UVmapping in gmax or whatever, it's a workable alternative in ninety percent of cases of textures behaving like Spleens.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Wall3T]

               thanks for the idea PHoD, actually what im currently doing as i type is reviewing all the banners, they all appear to be mirrored, so i think i know what im doing wrong.

my central (current) texture is centered, so im going to move the image to one side as shown here is my idea:

s1350.photobucket.com/user/raven_blood_123/media/whatsright_zps9c6ded4d.jpg.html

this is the flag i chose to override, cuz even though i loved like bioware, this one just had to go. the white line shows me where i plan to leave blank, and have the eagle image moved to the left.