Dragon Stance Texture Tutorial

Tutorial for Making Your Own Dragon Design Textures (Using Stances)

Hi guys! Since for a while I have been seeing a lot of people struggling on how to specifically make their own "costume" or design for their dragon. Well I'm here to help! Lets begin shall we? ;)

~--------Setting up AGHviewer--------~

If you haven't already, download AGHviewer and its DLLs. (They are required files for AGH to work) Make sure to put those DLLs in the same folder as AGHviewer is in.

AGHviewer Download Link: https://sites.google.com/site/fridlekh/

If you wish to use AGHviewer properly, open it up and click on "File", and then "Change Root". Find your Istaria folder and click OK.
You should have access to all of the Istaria texture files. To save a texture, simply right click it and save as .png.
**All textures are flipped vertically when you save them. Make sure to flip them vertically before you start testing anything.**

~--------Starting the Magic--------~

Follow these steps:

1. Click on this link to download any of the skin texture UVs that you'll be needing: (They are all grabbed from AGHviewer)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Io...p3CY8QKxzp9six

2. Open your art program and open up the desired skin head UV and/or body UV if you want to do both.

3. Flip the texture vertically (For both) so that the long back fins are on the bottom and the body (On the body UV) is on top.

4.The way I do this step: Bring the UV layer opacity down and make another layer on top of the UV. That layer on top should be your texture that you'll be drawing on. This step consists of you making your design of whatever you desire your dragon to look like!

Reference guide for the UVs. (What and where everything goes)
Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oJ...kgW34vfoiwhbkf

5. Once you're finished, MAKE SURE TO DELETE THE UV TEXTURE LAYER!! If you don't, some grey UV texture would be covering your entire draggie. No fun!

6. Save you're body and/or head texture(s) to your "resources_override" folder as a PNG. Make sure to name your head texture: "headtexture" and body texture: "bodytexture". You can name them whatever you'd like, but they have to match up with the "aug_stance_blue" code within the lines: "string texFilename = "headtexture.agh"" or "string texFilename = "bodytexture.agh"".

7. Open your "resources_override" folder (if you haven't already); create a "resources" folder inside and open that folder; create a "definitions" folder inside of "resources" and open that folder; create an "effects" folder and open that folder; finally, create a "item_equip_spell" folder inside of "effects".

8. BARE WITH ME. Make a folder inside of "item_equip_spell" called "textures_agh"; move into that folder, then create a "characters" folder; move into that folder, then create another "characters" folder; move into that folder, then create a "dragon_u" folder; move into that folder, then finally create a "clothing" folder.

Now you have all the folders to replicate the games system. (In order for the game to read the code correctly.)
At this point you should have this:
resources_override > resources > definitions > effects > item_equip_spell > textures_agh > characters > characters > dragon_u > clothing

~--------Coding the Magic--------~

9. Open Notepad and copy + paste this code in it FOR PEOPLE ONLY WORKING WITH THE HEAD UV TEXTURE:

Code:

TEquipItemData dragon,dragonj,dragona,khutit/u/all { bool bodyPart = true TCompositeTexture list compositeTextureList = { { string texFilename = "headtexture.agh" string groupName = "head" string layerName = "dragon_mask" string offsetName = "dragon_head" } } TAttachModel list attachModelList = { } TCharacterMesh list attachMeshList = { } } ITEM_PROPERTIES { }

10. FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE USING THE HEAD UV AND THE BODY UV:
Copy + paste this in your Notepad.

Code:

TEquipItemData dragon,dragonj,dragona,khutit/u/all { bool bodyPart = true TCompositeTexture list compositeTextureList = { { string texFilename = "bodytexture.agh" string groupName = "Body" string layerName = "dragon_clothing" } { string texFilename = "headtexture.agh" string groupName = "head" string layerName = "dragon_mask" string offsetName = "dragon_head" } } TAttachModel list attachModelList = { } TCharacterMesh list attachMeshList = { } } ITEM_PROPERTIES { }

If you want to just use the body portion, just simply delete the head section of the code. (Between the { )

11. Save either code as: "aug_stance_blue.def" and put it in your "item_equip_spell" folder.

12. Open Notepad again and copy + paste this code:

Code:

/// a means for defining layer ordering by name instead of numbers TGlobalLayers { string list layerNames = { //----- Base Skin Layers "base_skin" "base_eye" "base_face" "base_hair" "base_horn" "modesty_clothing" "base_skin_tattoo" "skin_tattoo1" "skin_tatto02" "skin_tattoo3" //----- Clothing "c_legs" "c_head" "c_feet" "c_chest" "c_tail" "c_skilt" "c_waist" "c_arms" "c_hands" "c_shoulder" "c_forearm" "c_skirt" //----- Base Armor //LEGS "a_legs" "leg_material" "leg_trim" //HEAD "mask00" "a_head" "head_material" "head_painted" "head_trim" "attachment" //FEET "a_feet" "feet_material" "feet_trim" //CHEST "a_chest" "chest_material" "chest_abpiece" "chest_breast" "chest_painted" "chest_trim" //ARMS "a_arms" "arm_material" "arm_trim" //WAIST "a_skilt" "a_waist" "waist_material" "waist_trim" "a_buckle" //HANDS "a_hands" "hand_material" "hand_trim" //SHOULDERS "a_shoulder" "shoulder_material" "shoulder_trim" //FOREARMS "a_forearm" "forearm_material" "forearm_trim" "forearm_straps" //HIPS "a_hiparmor" //tail "base_tail" "a_tail" "tail_material" "tail_trim" //----- Armor Overlays "ao_material" "ao_painted" "ao_engraved" "ao_raised" "ao_crest" "ao_trim" "ao_straps" "ao_buckle" //----- Weapons "shield_base01" "weapon_base" "weapon01" "weapon02" "gem01" "gem02" "gem03" "orb01" "attachment" //----- Armor Details "dents" "scratches" "mark1" "mark2" "mark3" "mark4" "mark5" //----- Dragon_skin "baseskin" "muscle_tone" "muscle_highlight" "skin_highlight" "head_detail" "neck_detail" "torso_detail" "wing_detail" "leg_detail" "tail_detail" "f_claws" "w_claws" "w_fins" "eye" "teeth" "trim" "belly_plate" "belly_trim" "dragon_mask" "dragon_clothing" } }

13. Save and name that as "Layers.def" and put it in your "item_equip_spell" folder.

~--------Bringing it In-Game--------~

14. Now that we got the coding all set up, now it's time to go back to your texture. Grab your texture(s) you made in "resources_override" and put them in your "clothing" folder.

15. Start up Istaria as any character and type the following command in the chat box:

Code:

/aghconvert headtexture.png false

16. Do the same thing, but with "bodytexture.png" if you have a body texture.

You have now turned your texture into a file that the game can read. IF it says "file not found" move your texture back to "resources_override" and try again, but you'll have to restart istaria if you move any files.

17. If you didn't have any problems with the last step, you should find in your "clothing" folder 1 or 2 AGH file(s) named "headtexture" and/or "bodytexture". (Depending on if you did the head texture and/or body texture) If you did the "resources_override" route, then they should be in that folder. If they are, move them into the "clothing" folder.

18. Make sure to review these steps one more time to make sure you've got the steps correct. If so, you have correctly made a mod!

19. Start up Istaria as your character and use the "Protective" or "Primalist" stance ability and your texture should pop up.

http://i68.tinypic.com/2ynq78m.png

~--------Extra Information--------~

-- If you want to use another stance ability, simply rename the blue in "aug_stance_blue" to red, yellow, or green.

-- If you made a mistake after you've already transformed your texture files into AGH files, make sure to repeat steps 15-16. Then type in the command: /purgetex
That command will reset all changed texture files to their newly updated forms. Although you have to restart Istaria if you moved any files.

-- Coloring teeth and horns are a little bit more difficult as the stance ability doesn't really work with their file. You'll have a permanent layer on top of your dragon unless you remove the file. Teeth and horns function different as they are in another part of the games files. DM me if you want to work further into this.

If you have any problems, please don't hesitate to let me know and I can come help you. :)