Custom Textures+Question!

[meepsa]

Hey everyone! I'm going to be doing some custom textures, mostly for dragons, but I have a few questions I would like to have answered if possible before I can start. ^^;

First of all, I know I need the .agh viewer to be able to even touch the texture files, I was wondering if anyone happened to have a link to it as I seem to have lost whilst switching files from my old laptop to my new one.

Second of all, I've heard that implementing the texture properly can be quite a nasty process too, if anyone could guide me through this that would be great! (it might be something as simple as just flipping the image, but I'm not entirely sure about that, hence the question)

Lastly, and most importantly, The process of actually making it appear in game, I remember Blue Hasia had made a mod which used the sunscopes to trigger the texture to appear (effectively replacing the sunscope effect), I was wondering what has to be done to get a similiar effect. In fact, I'd like exactly that effect. :P
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I plan on doing a bunch of custom texture mods as well as part of a little portfolio expanding, so bring up your ideas! Anything is welcome!! well aside from head texture altering, as that can really mess up depending on the head style. And I don't feel confident enough to even try that.

[meepsa]

All questions have been answered, thank you very much!
I'm still very open for texture ideas though!

[Cegaiel]

Can't answer the textures part, but can point you to the files and some notes about the operation of the program.

The AGH Viewer is at both http://fridlekh.googlepages.com/ and http://istariareference.com/mirror

http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...onvert-to-work is a good thread with some additional info about the viewer. Also check out http://istariareference.com/mirror/AGHViewer.txt for some copy/paste notes I made from a blog (that seems offline now) for some extra notes about the program.

Good luck!

[meepsa]

Can't answer the textures part, but can point you to the files and some notes about the operation of the program.

The AGH Viewer is at both http://fridlekh.googlepages.com/ and http://istariareference.com/mirror

http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...onvert-to-work is a good thread with some additional info about the viewer. Also check out http://istariareference.com/mirror/AGHViewer.txt for some copy/paste notes I made from a blog (that seems offline now) for some extra notes about the program.

Good luck!

Thanks Ceg! I did find the .agh viewer on my own, but the link you sent definately helps me when it comes to converting my images back to .agh!

The only thing I'm having trouble with now is the Body Texture of dragons...really can't read which arm is which without a UV map of it haha.

[Solitaire]

It has been a long while since I have worked with the dragon textures but I think that the forelegs are on the left and the hindlegs are on the right. The legs as a pair are basically mirror images of each other and use the same part of the texture.

I can offer you a tip that will certainly help you out. Create a grid texture, white lines with empty spaces between them. Overlay that over top of the dragon texture you are working with. Save and get the texture converted to agh. Once you load up the game and the texture is visible, the grid is a handy reference to see how the texture wraps around the model. You will notice that it is not exactly even which always drove me nuts when working with the models. But with that grid you can look around the model and take some screenshots to see where you need to make modifications & corrections.

You can also color some of the grid lines or tint the area inside them different colors to see where they apply to the dragon. Basically, the body skin is chest in the middle, right side at the top and left at the bottom. The seam runs down the middle of the back and is hidden by the dorsal fins. Chest is left and tail to the right.

[Solitaire]

Correction. The legs are all separate. I found an old jpg of the body with a UV overlaid on it which I linked. Is not the best image but it could help out some.

dragon_body_UV.jpg

[meepsa]

Thank you very much Solitaire! I actually managed to find a way to grab the UV map directly from the model (okay, maybe not directly we needed to do a lot of converting from filetype to filetype before we finally managed to get a result. We being my significant other and myself) but your overlay will definately help as well!

Also, thank you very much for the grid tip! I actually completely forgot about that (shows how much attention I payed during texture lessons ehehehe ^^

[meepsa]

And we get one thing to work and another thing that boggles our minds XD
If I were to edit the head/wing texture, and I make sure there's nothing on the parts that should be alpha layered (the edges of the wings/spine and the head fins) and turn it into a .tga to convert it back to .agh, would it preserve the alpha settings?
I'm asking because when I converted the .agh to .tga for the head texture, it got a yellow background where there would be no pixels. and I'm a little confused as to how to get this to properly display.

sorry if I worded this like complete garbage, even though I've had some texture lessons they seem to have slipped my mind haha.

[Racktor]

Usually I save files as .png to preserve the clear background. If the background isn't clear all the parts of the model that are there but not textured (the transparent parts on the fins, for example) would be just a white block along the edge of the model. Haven't tried .tga's though, not sure if they preserve transparency.

Remember also to open and save things as greyscale or else they won't take on the colors of the character, even if the colors are grey!

I'd try to figure out when/if you have to flip textures but unfortunately my AGHviewer decided to stop working on me out of the blue.

[Kida]

Haven't tried .tga's though, not sure if they preserve transparency.

Popping in to say that .tgas are what I've been using all through my Game Art course! They preserve transparency and are completely lossless, from what I understand. c: