Looking for a Modding Mod...

[mjkerner]

I'm not sure what to even call the thing I'm looking for, so my attempts at Googling it came to naught.  It's a utility(?) that paints bright, multiple colors on to vehicle and airplane texture bmp's (well, probably any kind of texture) so you can identify the various parts of a complex bmp.  Someone posted one to the repository years ago, and I thought I dld'd it at the time, but I can't find it in my files.  Anyone here know what I'm talking about? If I know what to call it, I'm sure I can find it online.

Thanks, and Merry Christmas!

mjk

[MikeyD]

I know what you mean. I use stuff like that. Let's see what I've got. A combination of gradated colors & numbers so you can say 'the hatch is positioned at yellow-9'

 

[mjkerner]

Great, thanks MikeyD!  Do you know what they are called, btw?

[MikeyD]

Not a clue.

[mjkerner]

l tried that in Google already....no dice!

[Sgt.Squarehead]

1 hour ago, MikeyD said:

From that famous tome, 'Timothy Leary On Camouflage'. 

[mjkerner]

This one's tame compared to the one I'm thinking of.  Further research based off the name on one of these is they are UV mapping tools for 2D mapping of 3D surfaces in-game.  These work well, but the one I recall would actually put a different color on each separate part of the texture.  Either that, or Timothy and I spent too much time together back in the day, lol.

[umlaut]

I made this years ago and have found it extremely handy ever since. Not much different from Mikeys, though:

[mjkerner]

Hi umlaut, thanks, I’ll add it to my collection. I’ve used MikeyD’s and another one I found on the net, and I’ll be using your too. I never thought of making my own, duh! 

[Offshoot]

Textures are mapped to models using UV coordinates. I'm not sure there is a specific name for the type of texture you want, but "UV grid" with the "checker" option pulls up a few on Google - https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&client=firefox-b&tbm=isch&q=uv+grids&chips=q:uv+grid,g_1:checker:Bq6VhtdZSz8%3D&usg=AI4_-kTuZJZIg8_wBDIcplFJNhTikHBAqQ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPwJ2X7r_fAhXPSH0KHYdgDpcQ4lYIKigA&biw=1774&bih=1037&dpr=1

[Xorg_Xalargsky]

I know that there are UV map overlays included in the BRZ packs for some assets in Shock Force 2 (files named "XXX map.bmp"). I wish there would be more.

[SchnelleMeyer]

You could use Sbobovyc's modding tools for Blender: 

 Import the model to Blender and save out the exact UV-grids. This will let you know where and what everything on the texture is.

[mjkerner]

Thank you for the suggestions and information fellas. I think for now I'll hold off on delving into Blender and sbobovyc's mod tools, but it does look interesting. And thanks for the link to that thread...I had forgotten about it.