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Want To Change Some Textures - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: Want To Change Some Textures (/showthread.php?tid=59877)


Want To Change Some Textures - Boris The Spider - 10.03.2009

I have installed VPMedia's default map mod and for the most part it looks wonderful. However I noticed today after revisiting and old friend, Kuban, that I no longer have the lush greens that made that map so useful as a Burma/Indonesia substitute map. There are now lots of brown/tan/dirt textures.

I was wondering how to replace them with the old green textures. I realize that by doing this I might lose a lot of the wonderful variation that appears in his other maps. (unless of course there is a way to just substitute textures on that map).

I looked in the load.ini file but don't understand where to find those textures or clearly understand what the names even mean. I tried looking in the Tex folder in MAPMODS as well as for textures in the STD file. The only vpmedia .tga's were for city textures.

Is what I'm asking too much? I'd ask VPMedia directly but I cannot find his default map mod thread anywhere. Using the Search function failed to turn up the thread. In fact I can't locate any VPMedia stuff. All of the links he left to upgraded maps led to "This topic does not exist. It leads me to believe he left the mod community? Is persona non gratis? I certainly hope not. He's done great things here.

Any help, including "Why the h*** would you want to do that?" is appreciated. Big Grin

- Guest - 10.03.2009

Beeb...Boris, :wink: vpmedia is still around. He would be the best guy to help, but i'm sure some others can help, fly_zo, for example. :wink:
You can still get vpmedia's stuff on his site, he just removed his mods here due to an issue of the link in his sig, or some such. 8)

- canonuk - 10.03.2009

It's totally possible to just edit the textures for one map.

The load.ini contains references for textures, stored away in the MAPS.SFS file. So, if the load.ini is calling a default texture, it won't be in the MODS/maps/TEX folder, it will just be in the original SFS. Textures only need to go into TEX when they're new.

The trick is to extract (or get from someone else) the original Kuban load.ini file. It will tell you which textures are being used in which slots. Then, just replace the entries in VPs Kuban load.ini with the lines of the oriiginal load.ini you want to use. You'll need to experiment a little to see where those textures end up and see which ones replace which ones.

Hope that;s kinda clear.

Joe

- agracier - 10.03.2009

I've tried changing textures in map load.ini files. It works all right when i do a batch replace from another map, everything from 'Fields' down to the end ... in this manner I've made new maps using winter textures and also some very nice map variations using the Zimbotho textures.

But when i try to edit the textures one by one, the newly created map just doesn't seem to load. I need to replace all the textures or else the new map won't work. Editing one texture at a time, or several at a time just doesn't work.

It's all or nothing.

This is odd and I can't seem to figure out what I'm doing wrong, especially since I read that others do seem to be able to edit textures one by one.

- canonuk - 10.03.2009

It definitely works with changing just one line. Make sure you have the correct path for the textures - they're not all just Land/Summer etc. Make sure they all have .TGA on the end too.

- Jaypack44 - 15.03.2009

I'm experiencing the same problem- I'm trying to use the new italy textures, and so I went into the Italy DF map's Load.ini and copied those lines directly to another map- still doesn't work. any ideas why?

*edit- nevermind, I found the problem Big Grin

- agracier - 15.03.2009

I finally got it figured out - more or less - after a number of tries. It does work, replacing textures one by one. Enough members told me so and it finally worked.

But there are a few things to keep in mind and do.

First, I found that the game should never be running while you make changes to a load.ini. It won't effect the game of course, but I believe when starting up, Il-2 reads a number of files and keeps them as such in its memory. So when you change one of these files, Il-2 won't know or crash.

Also, for simplicity's sake, put all the textures you'll be using into one and the same directory. It will be easier that way to keep track of the path.

The default directory for summer textures is ... MODS/MapMods/_Tex/land/summer ....

put all your textures into that directory. You can also make copies of all the textures you'll be using and rename them to a system that makes it easy for you to find and remember them. Some textures have such odd and complicated naming systems that it becomes easy to make typos. Don't worry about having copies of a same texture file. As long as they have different names, the game will work fine with them. Just be sure never to use spaces in the texture filenames. If necessary use underscores '_' when renaming.

___________

Now comes the replacing part. Some lines in map load.ini's refer to directories other than the standard one above.

You will get a line like this for instance:

LowLand0 = Italy_DF/land/summer/LowLand_2neu.tga

The part 'Italy_DF/' refers to a directory that may not even be in your game folder as such. And you may not be able to find the texture file 'LowLand_2neu.tga'. It could be in a sfs file. So you will have to extract any of those files with the sfs extractor tool.

Open all map sfs files one by one and extract the textures you need. Put those textures, renamed or not, into the standard texture folder: ... MODS/MapMods/_Tex/land/summer ...

Now you can start renaming the individual lines in the map load.ini without having to worry about which folder they are in. They are now all in one and the same folder.

The line, 'LowLand0 = Italy_DF/land/summer/LowLand_2neu.tga' can then become:
'LowLand0 = land/summer/LowLand_2neu.tga'

And you can do this for any line you wish in your new map:

MidLand0 = Italy_DF/land/summer/macchia_neu4.tga,2
MidLand1 = Italy_DF/land/summer/dryland.tga,2
MidLand2 = Italy_DF/land/summer/dry1.tga,2
MidLand3 = Italy_DF/land/summer/macchia_neu3.tga,2

in the new map they can become for instance

MidLand0 = land/summer/macchia_neu4.tga,2
MidLand1 = land/summer/dryland.tga,2
MidLand2 = land/summer/dry1.tga,2
MidLand3 = land/summer/macchia_neu3.tga,2

But: remember to check for typos, wrong caps in filenames etc. Take your time and first off do one line at a time, start the game and load the new map to see it is working. Once you've gotten the hang of doing one line at a time, then you can do multiple lines with ease.

I take it that you know how to add a line in the 'all.ini' file for adding new maps. Once that is also done, you can start up the game and try out your new map.

Hope this helps. I only just got it working myself and this opens such scope for tweaking the maps to one's heart's content.

I've also started making textures of my own, working from on-line free texture libraries and turning the textures into seamless tiles with Paint Shop Pro 7. It works very easily and may be another way of helping you achieve the look you wish for on your map.