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Complete FOJ Mod in one .exe file
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Thanks for the tip on converting the files to dds. Here is more information about working with textures for other users. Ronny from Team 6 sent me some files to help make skins for the cars.
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FlatOut3 skinning document v1.0
Tools required:
- Photoshop or any other program that can open PSD files.
Optional tools:
- 3DSmaxR3.1 or above: or any other program that can open or import .max files. Only required to view your texture before you run it in the game if you don’t modify the car or unwrap itself. Use the material editor (hotkey: M) to see what texture is on the car, and by clicking the diffuse texture on the right material slot you’ll see a new button appeared called RELOAD. That’s the one you need.
- DCT4.exe. Converts .TGA to the internal .DCT format by drag and dropping one or multiple TGAs on it.
- The game itself. May be useful while checking your skins.. Texture skins need to be in the Game/Textures/Cars folder.
Naming convention.
One skin for a typical FlatOut3 car has the following textures for the body:
- Default skin texture.
- Specular skin texture. Colors also work, so you can do fancy stuff like purple paint with yellow gloss, white car with blue gloss, green car with purple gloss, etc. White means more reflection / gloss, black means less reflection / gloss. Knock yourselves out.
- Damage level 2 texture.
- Damage level 2 shiny texture
- Damage level 3 texture.
- Damage level 3 shiny texture
Typical naming convention for the FIRST skin:
ACar.tga ordinary texture
ACar_S.tga specular
ACar_D2.tga damage level 2
ACar_D2_S.tga damage level 2, specular
ACar_D3.tga damage level 3
ACar_D3_S.tga damage level 3, specular
Typical naming convention for the SECOND (and further) skins:
ACar_C2.tga ordinary texture
ACar_C2_S.tga specular
ACar_C2_D2.tga damage level 2
ACar_C2_D2_S.tga damage level 2, specular
ACar_C2_D3.tga damage level 3
ACar_C2_D3_S.tga damage level 3, specular
Same goes for the wheels and interior btw, but they are less important. If no Color is given, the first one is used.
Setting number of skins
The number of skins for a car is listed in the skins.xml file in the vehicles folder. Example, your new CarA has 7 skins. Go to the Game/vehicles/CarA folder and open the skins.xml with any texteditor. Here you can set the number of skins so the game knows what to do.
What’s the best way to work with these PSD files?
Step1
The following step is not necessary but I found it useful to work with. The best way to do it, if not already done by someone else, is to combine the three textures into a single PSD where the 2nd and 3rd damage textures act as an layer set. This way you can quickly enable / disable the damage textures, which comes in handy by saving and previewing. This way you only have to puzzle what layers belong to what damage texture only once. In 3dsmax, don’t forget to replace the default ACar.tga with your new CCar.psd.
Step2
Usually I make another, empty layer set at the bottom of the layer stock. Usually you can do a ‘color fill’ here to start with the main color. Other decals, paints, stripes etc can be done in other layers but still in the same layer set.
Step3
Since the PSDs differ in quality for each car, sometimes you might get trouble fitting your decals in. These textures are not really skinner-friendly compared to the FlatOut1 car I got last week . Checking regularly in 3dsmax (refresh texture) avoids surprises in game. Also, don’t forget you can unhide the wireframe in photoshop: It’s usually the top layer and is disabled by default. This is useful to color certain parts of the car (bumper, door, sideskirts, parts of the hood, side mirrors, etc) with some precision.
Step4
If the texture is done and all looks fine, you might want to create a specular map that is different than the color-texture (usually referred to as diffuse texture). Making it different can achieve great results, such as making red with an orange glow, for example. One note about performance: If the diffuse texture and specular texture are the same, the game will recognize this and load it only once: Better performance. This is the reason that the majority of the standard FlatOut3 cars have similar color / specular textures now.
Step5
You can store all your skins in layersets in the PSD. Hide/unhide the proper layersets and save them as TGA files according to the naming convention part of this document. Note: Make sure you don’t store the alpha-channel since this channel needs to be removed, always. Once you’ve got all the right TGA’s, drag and drop them all on the DCT4.exe (the converter has a character limit.. usually you can do up to 25 textures at once or so). Once you’ve got the DCT files, copy them in the game and run the game to check out your new skin!
Step6
Make sure you test in different skies and lightings. What may look nice in the sunset of Rome, might make people blind in the bright afternoon of Detroit.
In the game
If developer mode is enabled, use ‘x’ to get the freecam. With the freecam you can use W,A,S,D and keypad 1, keypad 0 to move and your mouse to look around. Holding SHIFT makes you go ten times faster. With the mouse wheel you can roll the camera, which you can undo with the console command “camfix”. Use the keypad – and + keys to get those pretty ‘field of view’ screenshots. With printscreen you make default screenshots, and with the developer config file (?) you can make screenshots four times your current resolution with the F12 key.
Tech stuff:
- Use only 24bit uncompressed TGA files for car skin textures. Some programs also flip or discard the TGA data, so if this is the case.. use either photoshop or Irfanview to re-save your TGA files and the conversation will go alright again.
- The size of 2048x2048 is default. You may increase or decrease the texture size if you think your skin is worth it, but usually 2048 gives the best result.
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Hope this is helpful.
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Now to decide on what card to buy for $200 
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