Skiners

[LYeah101]

Looking for some help doing skins if someone would like to help me out???? Thanks

[LYeah101]

HUM no painters here?????

[AOD_Whaleco]

There was a time that it was easy to 'paint' a plane or tank because the decals were not so limited in stretching like they are now... Then it was easier to try & modify the looks of a plane. Since they implemented the restrictions, it's limited in options, so I didn't really look into it anymore... Perhaps several others also share this feeling.

[LoneSpirit]

Needed Program(s):

TGATool3.exe - Get that from here http://goo.gl/8UPGxj (Extract into a folder of your own)
War Thunder (Obviously)
Paint Image editing tool (Standard with Windows)

Optional Program(s):

Gimp Image editing tool (If you are running any OS before WinXP then this won't work for you, sorry. This image editing tool is much easier to use than paint as it has more tools and operates with the .TGA file format which Paint is unable to do. (This can be used instead of both Paint and TGATool3 as It can open both file formats.)

Using the instructions below, use Gimp to load and save as TGA file. The exporting of the BMP file can be missed out. Simple load your TGA file into Gimp, edit the texture then save over your previous file



Creating editable files
1. Login to War Thunder
2. Locate the plane you want to edit and view it using the customization option
3. Click the Wand Icon next to the refresh icon in the lower left.This creates an editable and convertible format in your War Thunder Directory.
4. Make sure your user skin is set to 'User: Template_<plane_name>



Using the tools.
1. Open TGATool3.exe (Download at start of post).

2. Click File, then Load/. Head to your War Thunder Directory ((C:\Program Files (x86)\WarThunder\UserSkins)) and Open the plane template which you would like to edit.

3. Next click Export then 'BMP (no alpha)'and choose where to save this file (preferably the desktop for ease). You can name this file anything you like. This will create a Bitmap image file of the TGA file. Now your file can be edited. You can use
different editors which support the .bmp format but I use Paint which comes with windows itself. Now close TGATool.



4. Open you .bmp file using paint which ever way you like. Now edit your texture. This can take some time as the plane will be in a flat format which allows the computer to piece it together in-game. Obviously this isn't user friendly but it bearable and worthwhile as you will see when you have finished editing your Textures.

5.After editing go to File then SAVE. Don't use Save As because this creates a new file with different characteristics compared to the edited file create by the game itself.
Now open up TGATool again, and load the .bmp image which you just edited (make sure when searching for the file, the type is BMP Image or your file won't be shown). Now To save the file, Click Save, Navigate to your WT directory again (C:\Program Files (x86)\WarThunder\UserSkins) and find the one which you opened. Now click this file and click save to overwrite the existing one.
That's it. You have finished and imported your texture back into the game.

6. Go back into WT and click the small refresh Icon in the customization tab and your Model should be updated.
You can leave Wa Thunder open during this whole process and it won't harm the game. If you closed war Thunder during the process, then it should be there when you log back in. Thanks for reading :D


Tips: You can keep the .Bmp files which you created during the process to use later as it is identical to the new .TGA file which uses your texture. I have added some screenshots of my Yak 9T which I completed in about 10 minutes time. I colored the ailerons black and some bolts around the exhausts black also :)

[LoneSpirit]

https://forum.warthunder.com/index.p...g-for-dummies/