icon mods

Paderborn · #1 October 26th, 2011, 01:32 PM

How do I go about changing the light-green paint scheme of the Jaguar 1 and 2 to a camoflage? Thanks!

RecruitMonty · #2 October 26th, 2011, 05:49 PM

Well, let me see.

You need the ".shp editor". There is a copy provided with the game in the "Graphics" file, found under "Game Data". TCW - Camo Workshop - provided a better version on the forum too, somewhere. You will also need some form of icon editing programme. MS Paint suffices.

Go into MOBHack (in "MOBHack" file) and look in the West Germany OOB. Find the Jaguars. Look at the icon numbers at the bottom to the left of the icon itself (you will see a picture of the icon on the screen in the bottom right hand corner). Note the number. Go into the "WINSPMBT_MasterIconList" - a notepad file on my PC - ("Game Data" under "Design") and type the number of the icon into the text box under "Find" (Edit -> Find...). Once you have found what you are looking for on the list you should then look for the ".Shp file" the icon is contained in. In the case of the Jaguar ATGM this would be Icon0001.shp at slots 72 & 73 .

Download the two icons - hull and turret - and then edit them. A step by step guide as to how to do this is on the forum too somewhere.

Have fun producing your very own icon mod

.

mkr8683 · #3 October 26th, 2011, 07:38 PM

Be very careful - you won't want to stop once you figure it out.

Paderborn · #4 October 26th, 2011, 08:22 PM

Thanks very much! I'm going to try to apply the camoflage of the Fuchs or the Luchs to the Jaguars. Thanks again!

Paderborn · #5 October 26th, 2011, 08:23 PM

I think you're right.

DRG · #6 October 27th, 2011, 12:15 PM

Unfortunately the BMP is too large to post and there are weird little residuals in JPG's so you will not be able to cut and paste these without doing a bit of work but applying the proper Icon palette then saving as BMP will fix most of it and all that will be required is a bit of touch up around the edges

These have been reposted in PNG format

mkr8683 · #7 October 27th, 2011, 03:16 PM

Don showed me a trick a long time ago where you copy and paste two or three images of the same icon, then apply a 'wash' of a certain color, eg brown to one, green to the next, black to the next, so that you keep the integrity of the highlights and shadows while changing the whole color. Then it's just a matter of erasing the 'negative' out of the camoflage pattern, then copy and paste that over the base icon. Et voila. IIRC this worked in PSP, I haven't done vehicle icons in a long time so I don't remember which tools to use.

DRG · #8 October 27th, 2011, 03:46 PM

The tool to use, once you have a series in basic colours like green, brown, black, tan etc etc and have applied the palette and are happy with how the basic single colour Icons turned out all you need to do then is use the freehand tool to carve a camo pattern out of one base colour then cut and paste it to the base colour Icon. You need to line up the slice exactly with the base icon but that is easy once you get the hang of it. If you want a three tone pattern then carve the colour out of the new one then past it into the base. The trick is knowing what combination of lightness and contrast to use when lightening or darkening the basic Icon to generate the coloured ones becasue each one needs its own specific TLC before the pallete is applied.

These were just done quick as an example then enlarged 2X. Sometimes you need to darken or lighten areas if needed

Don

The image has been reposted in PNG format

DRG · #9 October 27th, 2011, 04:05 PM

...and the other little trick is to not make the camo pattern too small or overly complicated otherwise all you do is accomplish the purpose of camouflage and they just look like a multi-toned lump and any detail you have worked to put in fades into the camo pattern

Like this.........

or this.......

K.I.S.S

The images have been reposted in PNG format

Don

mkr8683 · #10 October 28th, 2011, 07:57 PM

I'm not seeing any of the images you posted.