Fashion Week

[birdstrike]

I have done a little texture mod for those who feel the US uniforms have too much an "Imperial Stormtrooper" feel to them.

The mod uses 9 different vest/molle combos and 4 different helmet textures to make US troops look more diverse and give them an "improvised gear" or "short of supply" look.

The basic US Ragtag Uniforms Mod is available at any CMMODs Store near you.

Two notes:

1)There is a little strap attached to the soldiers left side which is not part of the vest or molle textures. To keep the basic mod small, I decided to use the stock uniform.bmp for all soldiers. This will make the strap color look "off" on some uniforms. If you don't care for this little detail, you just download the basic mod. For the perfectionists, I can make a uniform supplemental mod which includes all the appropriate uniform.bmps.

2) Another issue are the randomly assigned helmets.

In some cases, the colors might not go well with the rest of the uniform like here:

If this is an issue, I will put up a second supplemental mod which assigns a specific helmet to each vest/molle combo, but this would a) increase file size and reduce randomness.

I'm by no means an expert in this stuff and took some artistic freedom. Any suggestions for improvement are welcome. (But don't expect wonders, my texturing abilites are quite limited )

[JohnO]

Can there be a mod where the gasmask case is not there? Is it possible to remove them?

[birdstrike]

Yes, of course. Actually that's a great idea. Thanks. Will get right to work and make a mod without the GM case.

EDIT:

it is possible to remove the GM case, but the shadow of the case is still projected onto the uniform with Shadows set to on.

I guess I'll keep it as it is for now, unless people would prefer the shadows over the wrong colored strap. :confused:

[ March 27, 2008, 12:21 PM: Message edited by: birdstrike ]

[M1A1TC]

Awesome!

[ChrisND]

Originally posted by birdstrike:

Yes, of course. Actually that's a great idea. Thanks. Will get right to work and make a mod without the GM case.

EDIT:

it is possible to remove the GM case, but the shadow of the case is still projected onto the uniform with Shadows set to on.

How did you make it vanish, through alpha channels? If you could post a how-to, I would greatly appreciate it. I have Photoshop CS 3, but I am still learning my way around alpha channels.

[birdstrike]

Sure thing. It's not complicated.

I'm using GIMP 2.4.4, but I expect the proecedure in photoshop should be the somewhat similar.

Here's an example how to remove the camelback:

First, you need to find the texture which is used by the part of the model you want to get rid of. The camelback is quite easy to find. It's the big square thing in center of the ussoldier-molle.bmp.

Next thing I do is to add an alpha channel to the bmp:

Then I simply cut out the texture related to the object I want to remove.

Which should look something like this:

Then I save it as a 32-bit bmp.

In Gimp there is an option when saving a bmp where you can specify whether to save it in 16-bit, 24-bit or 32-bit format. There also is an option for "A8R8G8B8" or "X8R8G8B8".

The "A8..." can use the alpha channel, so I save it as 32-bit A8R8G8B8.

That's all.

And voilà, the camelback is gone.

Some effects, as shadows, or the outlines can reappear when looking at the model under certain angles. I reckon that's because the model is still in the game, just invisible.

For example, removing the Stryker cages will have the Strykers still have their defensive bonus.

[ March 28, 2008, 09:28 AM: Message edited by: birdstrike ]

[JohnO]

So what you just explain is what I can do to remove the GM from the soldier as well? I want to see if even removing the GM and having the mod for BDUs, how much would the shadow will be seen when playing the game? Will it stand out like a sore thumb?

[birdstrike]

Yes, the same procedure applies to removing anything else.

As for how much the shadow on a BDU uniform would stand out, I don't know. But since the stock uniforms are quite light, I guess if you use a darker camo on the uniform, it wouldn't be as noticable.

[ChrisND]

Cool, thanks birdstrike!

[MikeyD]

Someone (Sorry, I can't recall who) did a white UN Stryker mod deleting the slat cage. I said it couldn't be done and was proved wrong The cage SHADOW disappeared along with the cage! The point being that removing extra stuff from the uniform *may* remove the associated shadow as well. ...maybe.

[ChrisND]

Good news - using birdstrike's technique explained above, I was able to remove both the groin protectors and collars from the body armor. I didn't see an shadows.

[JohnO]

How about the gas mask case? Could you see if it could be removed and the shadow have a small affect to the uniforms?

[ChrisND]

Originally posted by JohnO:

How about the gas mask case? Could you see if it could be removed and the shadow have a small affect to the uniforms?

Still working on it. I will have screen shots later today.

[JohnO]

Thanks, looking forward to get the mod when your done

[MikeyD]

You guys are giving me ideas. i could strip down the U.S. uniforms for a blue helmet African Union force for my ongoing African Theatre mod project.

[ChrisND]

Originally posted by JohnO:

Thanks, looking forward to get the mod when your done

Its acting really weird. Hopefully, I can get it to work.

[birdstrike]

Glad I could be of help.

Originally posted by MikeyD:

Someone (Sorry, I can't recall who) did a white UN Stryker mod deleting the slat cage. I said it couldn't be done and was proved wrong The cage SHADOW disappeared along with the cage! The point being that removing extra stuff from the uniform *may* remove the associated shadow as well. ...maybe.

Yeah, I know that guy

The strange thing is that the shadow usually does disappear when the corresponding item is "removed". But for the GM case it didn't work for some reason. :confused:

I first thought it was part of the uniform texture, but if you toggle shadows off, the dark spot on the uniform disappears, so it's not a texture problem.

Oh, and sometimes I had problems saving the files with the alpha channel: the whole texture would disappear along with the removed item in the game (in the bmp it was still visible).

If that is what is troubling you, Normal Dude, I worked out a solution which usually worked:

first save the "invisible" texture as a 24-bit bmp to make it reappear, then apply the above alpha procedure again and save it as 32-bit.

[ChrisND]

Originally posted by birdstrike:

Oh, and sometimes I had problems saving the files with the alpha channel: the whole texture would disappear along with the removed item in the game (in the bmp it was still visible).

If that is what is troubling you, Normal Dude, I worked out a solution which usually worked:

first save the "invisible" texture as a 24-bit bmp to make it reappear, then apply the above alpha procedure again and save it as 32-bit.

I think this was the problem, thanks.

[ChrisND]

It isn't working for me. The entire "vest" texture just keeps disappearing, seemingly randomly, but when it does, it stays disappeared in-game until I delete the whole file and start from scratch. I'm not sure this is worth the trouble.

[birdstrike]

I see, I've been there before. But don't delete the files which are not working just yet.

Maybe this helps:

To restore the invisible file save the non-working file as a 24-bit bmp. Make sure it appears in the game.

If saving with photoshop doesn't work, try another program which is not using alpha channels. (MS paint doesn't seem to work, though.)

I'm using Irfanview for these cases to save the file as a normal bmp - this works).

1)Once you checked the texture is visible in the game, retry applying the alpha and saving it as 32-bit bmp.

2)If this still doesn't help you, you can try this:

Again make sure you have a file which is visible in the game and has no alpha channels.

create a new empty image of the same size(pixels) as the bmp you want to use. Add an alpha channel to the new image. Copy and paste the things you want to see from the working (non-32-bit)image into the new one. Save the new one as 32-bit bmp.

It's important to use a working bmp without alpha channels to solve these issues. So you should first make sure you have a working, visible bmp to start with.

Getting a little late here, so I hope this makes sense. Good luck.

[JohnO]

Hey Normal Dude if you can't get it, no problem, at least you tried. I think you for that.

[ChrisND]

OK, that worked birdstrike.

Here is the result:

However, no one get too excited, because a weird outline of the groin protector is visible from a certain distance (Click on the thumbnail to see it):

[SgtMuhammed]

This is great stuff. When I get time I will have to fool around with these a little.

[ChrisND]

Helmets, neck and groin protectors, and promask carriers have all been removed.

The only one that is bug-free is the nexk protectors. With helmets and promask bags, there are weird shadows left behind (I imagine these vanish if you turn off shadows), and with the groin guard a faint outline of it can be seen from a distance.

[SgtMuhammed]

I see a lot of guys about to get chewed out by their 1SG.