Skinning Tutorial

[Ramon van Rijn]

I started this tutorial some months ago on RaceSimCentral, but after a while the graphics were lost. At the moment even the startpost was gone.

Recovered the text and reformatted it into a PDF.

Hope it is still useful for our members.

 

[Andreas Lündin]

Is there anyone who can explain how to make a skin with Gimp? I have done a psd and it looks good enough.. but when i use the gimp ddsfilter (that i´ve downloaded) thingy and save it it doesnt come out right.. som colors disappears and the wire layer is showing... Actually the options are quite different from the tutorials photoshop...

I have also tried using the "DDS Converter 2" but that program refuses to recognise files created with gimp even though it is the right psd format...
Strange indeed. Can anyone give a hand?

Attached the psd file ( to the right, yellow car) as it looks when trying to save as dds and also the dds outcome (to the left). Ingame it looks the same.. all black with wireframe.

 

[Jarrod Crossley]

Im not up on the gimp converter or the other programe, But wll the DDS Converter allow you to import JPG if so use the second mini image in the converter.

 

[Andreas Lündin]

Tried that but the dds converter wont accept any file created from gimp despite format.
However I fund a way to use gimp.
I had to make a single layer of all layers that are marked as visible and ignore the ones without visibility, and also make sure that all layers cuts to the same size as the bottom "base color" layer.
After that it was possible to create a dds-file that could be used within the game.
Im still not sure witch options makes the best result when creating the dds-file. Anyone?

 

[Willie Watt]

Tried that but the dds converter wont accept any file created from gimp despite format.
However I fund a way to use gimp.
I had to make a single layer of all layers that are marked as visible and ignore the ones without visibility, and also make sure that all layers cuts to the same size as the bottom "base color" layer.
After that it was possible to create a dds-file that could be used within the game.
Im still not sure witch options makes the best result when creating the dds-file. Anyone?

@Andreas

You need to ensure that you are using this DDS converter. I used it for my mini and it worked perfectly well. You don't get to chose the number of mipmaps or the filter, but it will create a correct dds.

As for making the dds. Save a copy of the psd that you are working on and delete any of the layers that you are not using. They should go if you've hidden them when you flatten the file but better safe than sorry.

Them right click on the layer's toolbox and select flatten file. Save that as say "mini_body.psd".

Then run the DDS converter.

Hopefully that will work for you!

PM me if you need anything further. I'll be on line later.

http://forum.racedepartment.com/race-07-skins/16864-skinning-beginners.html#post292834

 

[owning_y0u]

even tough i have readed it. and done everything it said i cant drive my car with my skin

 

[Willie Watt]

even tough i have readed it. and done everything it said i cant drive my car with my skin

@owning_y0u

Checklist

1. Make sure that you've saved the skin in a separate folder in the Simbim\customskins directory of "My Documents".
2. Make sure that the DDS file is in the correct format (DXT 1 with 6 mipmaps). Put the DDS file into the new directory that you've added.
3. The .ini file. The most important thing. Without it the engine won't know what car. I've never done my own just changes the details in those generated by others. Make sure that the car your skinning in the "[[[" level of the brackets is correct.
4. Just use 1 line in the .ini for a test "body=bodyname.dds". The engine will sort out the windows, driver etc.

Hope this works, does for me!

 

[Theo Loonstra]

Well i gonna give this tutorial a go since I don't know anything about skinning and photoshop i hope I can do something simple

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Theo - my advice to you, and to any new skinner, is don't spend too much time on your first skin before trying it out in-game.

I just wrote "TEST" in big letters on the template and then tried out the exporting and ini file process, just to see if I could see that in-game.

Once I knew I could get the skin into the game, I felt happier investing time in the actual skin design. It would be very frustrating to spend hours on a skin, make a really good one, and then run into technical difficulties so you couldn't get it to display in-game properly. So get the technical stuff sorted first.

Just my opinion.

 

[Jarrod Crossley]

Actually Stuart makes a good piont.

Start off as simeple as you can and keep your templates of your design. then produce your ini and dds files as needed.

This way you can see if you have got all the relavent parts in the game and as your painting skills improve you can always update your tmplate and overwite your dds files.

This way you would see your livery (design) improve as you do still knowing that it works and is in game.

 

[Theo Loonstra]

As a test I just put a different color on the car and that worked in the game :rotfl:

So i went a bit further and tried to use the polygonal lasso tool.
Now that was a bad mistake since the lasso tool could not be turned off somehow.
My tool bars were suddenly gone and everytime I made a selection it popped up a clean white project like a new file.
I had to close Photoshop and had to start over again.

Anyone got some idea how this can happen or any advice on using the lasso tool?

 

[Willie Watt]

As a test I just put a different color on the car and that worked in the game :rotfl:

So i went a bit further and tried to use the polygonal lasso tool.
Now that was a bad mistake since the lasso tool could not be turned off somehow.
My tool bars were suddenly gone and everytime I made a selection it popped up a clean white project like a new file.
I had to close Photoshop and had to start over again.

Anyone got some idea how this can happen or any advice on using the lasso tool?

Theo:

I guess that you didn't close the loop. I've had that in that you need to go back to where you started if you've made a mistake.

Better using some of the "magic" tools in PS as these close the loop for you and are a hundred times quicker. (same in Gimp for gimp users)

 

[owning_y0u]

@owning_y0u

Checklist

1. Make sure that you've saved the skin in a separate folder in the Simbim\customskins directory of "My Documents".
2. Make sure that the DDS file is in the correct format (DXT 1 with 6 mipmaps). Put the DDS file into the new directory that you've added.
3. The .ini file. The most important thing. Without it the engine won't know what car. I've never done my own just changes the details in those generated by others. Make sure that the car your skinning in the "[[[" level of the brackets is correct.
4. Just use 1 line in the .ini for a test "body=bodyname.dds". The engine will sort out the windows, driver etc.

Hope this works, does for me!

Thnx mate it works in the tutorial ramon said that you have to put the files in the steamaps/username/race 07/customskin folder but that didnt worked your solution did the trick for me arty2:

 

[Stuart Thomson]

To be fair, Ramon wrote the guide a loooong time before the recent patch, which moved the skins location from where Ramon refers to to where Willie pointed you.

There are loads of replies regarding this issue, so I suspect people assumed that that wouldn't be the problem with you.

 

[owning_y0u]

I enjoyed reading his tutorial very clear and very solid, any ways, will show my skin later on cause I'm fine tuning it

 

[Aleksey Bogatyrev]

hi guys
I got another problem, that BMW skin for WTCC and STCC gives me a mismatch in this 2007_BMW_320SI.HDC , only BMW e90si Seq STCC other ones are ok
what can be the problem? I've tried other BMW e90si Seq STCC skins from other ppl, same thing

 

[Gergo Gregasz dr]

What is the problem?

http://kepfeltoltes.hu/090427/Hiba_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

 

[Jarrod Crossley]

What is the problem?

http://kepfeltoltes.hu/090427/Hiba_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

Your adding an Alpha chennel which is not needed for the car body.

 

[Gergo Gregasz dr]

Your adding an Alpha chennel which is not needed for the car body.

THX!

 

[Martin Svensson]

Hi all!

I wonder if there is some way to skin the rims in STCC and WTCC? And if, how do I do it?

 

[Jarrod Crossley]

Hi all!

I wonder if there is some way to skin the rims in STCC and WTCC? And if, how do I do it?

Yes ther is but it involves decrypting the game files and making the car more part of the game than a custom skin.