Skinning & IWI's

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Skinning & IWI's

Post by Soviet » February 21st, 2006, 5:51 am

To begin you first must have a version of photoshop or paint shop pro (any other version besides cs or cs2 might not work but not positive) (for this tutorial ill reference to photoshop as that is what i am used to, but understand i am also referencing to paint shop pro as well)

Find the File

The first thing you need to do is find the skin file you are looking for. Usually these can be found according to a common name that you suspect they would be called. For example- grenade_american_mp is the american grenade skin. These files occur under the later iw_# iwd files under the directory images.

Convert it to a Editable Format

Next you need to make it editable, as obviously .iwi is not editable. To do this you need to download a converter which can be found HERE. To use it simply put it in the same folder as the iwi file, and drag the iwi file on top of it, a .dds file should be produced in the same folder a few seconds later.

Now the file is in a .dds format. But unfortunately this is still incompatible with photoshop, so download this handy .dds plugin HERE and install it.

Edit With Photoshop

Next you need to actually edit the picture. First open it with photoshop, when it asks if you want to display mipmaps, select yes. In all my previous experiences in skinning, mipmaps will be displayed by a black portion of the picture, if this is the case, do not edit it. Now simply edit the skin to how you like. Now go to file, and save as. Select to save it as a .dds file. When saving you want to keep your current mipmaps, so all settings should be in place there. Look at the upper left area. Select DXT5 for the mipmap type, then save it. (it will take a little while)

Back to .IWI

Now you must use one last converter to get your file back into .iwi format. This converter can be found HERE. Very good. If it does not work when attempting to reconvert, then you must presume you did something wrong in either the opening or the saving process of the file. Now you need to pack it back into an iwd file. To do this follow the next instructions.

Pack Into An IWD File

Copy and paste an existing .iwd file into the folder with your skin (the smaller the file the better). Using winRAR (or some other utility if it works) go into the file and delete everything but one folder. Now create a folder called images. Now put your skin files inside the folder you made and delete the other folder. The only reason we did not delete this folder before we put the skin is because it would have made the file delete itself due to lack of content. Now simply rename it whatever you want and put it in your main folder

:) hope this helps if anyone is unsure and happens to be skinning and hope im okay under the presumption of making it a sticky is ok.
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Re: Skinning & IWI's

Post by Commando-FFS- » August 17th, 2008, 12:26 pm

Hi,
Ihave a problem,
I just followed your tut on changing menu background. and it didn`t work.
Extracted the background_american_.iwd file, converted it to .dds , edited it in photoshop,then saved it as .dds, opened an ,iwd file with winrar,deleted everything exept 1 folder, put in the folder images,put in my iwi file and put it my main folder.
started up my game and nothing changed.

can you help me fix this problem?
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Re: Skinning & IWI's

Post by Soviet » August 17th, 2008, 5:18 pm

did you convert it back to iwi?
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Re: Skinning & IWI's

Post by Commando-FFS- » August 17th, 2008, 6:17 pm

yes i did,and i did delete the folder i left in there
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Re: Skinning & IWI's

Post by Soviet » August 17th, 2008, 7:55 pm

can you upload your iwd as an attachment to the site please?
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Re: Skinning & IWI's

Post by Commando-FFS- » August 19th, 2008, 12:49 am

sorry to reply so late m8,couldn`t get on earlyer,cause of internet problems.
Here`s the .iwd file
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Re: Skinning & IWI's

Post by Pedsdude » August 19th, 2008, 4:51 am

Ah, there it is :roll:
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Re: Skinning & IWI's

Post by [SoE]_Zaitsev » August 19th, 2008, 5:01 pm

Stop being suck dickheads.

You forgot to attach it.

I suggest to just catch Soviet on xfire and try and get help there.
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Re: Skinning & IWI's

Post by Commando-FFS- » August 20th, 2008, 5:54 pm

Hi,
I followed the tut you reffered me to soviet, but when i put it in my main folder,i get an error,saying "error couldn`t load bg_front2"
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Re: Skinning & IWI's

Post by Rezil » August 20th, 2008, 6:52 pm

how about you posted the .iwd here so we can see what's wrong with it?
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Re: Skinning & IWI's

Post by Commando-FFS- » August 20th, 2008, 9:16 pm

how does it work?
i entered the iwd file, clicked on add the file,saw it getting uploadede and nothing is there.
(same as first time)
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Re: Skinning & IWI's

Post by [SoE]_Zaitsev » August 20th, 2008, 10:38 pm

You used the attachement ?

I figure it's a big file, maybe it takes longer ?
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Re: Skinning & IWI's

Post by Commando-FFS- » August 21st, 2008, 12:49 am

ok i`ll try that
iw_zzz_menu_mod.zip
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Re: Skinning & IWI's

Post by Rezil » August 21st, 2008, 1:30 am

um, there is no original bg_front2 in any of the iw_*.iwds. Atleast there are none in any 'images' folder so there's nothing to replace. You need to name the .iwi exactly as the original was named in order for it to work.
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Re: Skinning & IWI's

Post by Soviet » August 21st, 2008, 5:00 am

actually there is. Check iw_00.iwd. tbh I'm not sure why it isn't working

In the zip you placed the file within multiple layers of iwd's and zips so I don't really know what was up there. I am just going to assume it was a mistake with putting it together to upload though. Try placing it as a mod (cod4 main folder/Mods). Create a new folder named menu mod or something and put the .iwd in there. Then, start up your CoD, select the mods menu, select your mod, then hit launch. That is the only way I've ever gotten it to work, but then again, it is the only way I've ever tried.
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