3DDATA HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[shadow]

I desperately need help on opening those xbf and tga files!!! I can't see what the hell the drawing looks like!!!!!!! Please tell me how to open them!! The XBF viewer seems kind of hard to use! And the TGA files...well I don't know how to open them up!!!! I NEED TO SEE WHAT THE DRAWING LOOK LIKE, RATHER THEN X PLOTS, Z PLOTS, OR Y PLOTS FULL OF NUMBERS!!!! I JUST NEED THE DRAWINGS!!!!! Thanks ;D

[Adrian_Messecar]

TGA files are opened with paint programs like photoshop, paint shop pro, or others (if you can't afford those, there are trial versions and shareware paint programs you can download for free, although some will expire in 30 days or so if you don't pay for them).  To check what textures (TGA files) are used by an Xbf file, you can check the Xbf file with a Hex editor or Notepad (or save the text file version of the Xbf file with the Xbf editor) to read the texture (TGA) filenames.  Unfortunately, they combined all the unit textures into a few big TGA files, so you have to try to locate what parts of the files are the textures for the unit you're editing.  Some of the modders here have mapped texture locations in some of these files, so you might ask them to help you with this.

The Xbf editor just shows wireframe meshes, no textures.  You can use it to reshape, resize, move, and rotate meshes.  If you want to see the textures on the mesh, you need to download MilkShape3D and learn how to use it, then extract a mesh with the Xbf editor as an ms3d file, load the mesh file into MilkShape3D and apply the texture to it (You still have to use a paint program to modify the textures).  Or you could just check out the unit in Emperor. 

With MilkShape3D, you can modify or make new meshes and skin them (apply textures) and animate them if you want, and then you can use the Xbf editor to insert (add) a new mesh or replace a mesh with the new mesh to the unit you're editing.

[Timenn]

The document files (made by me ;D)in which you can see what unit uses what textures, and where the texture is placed (top of vehicle for example) can be downloaded on

editing.dune2k.com

[Masticore]

Just to pump Timmen's ego a little bit, those texture locations are superb.  I couldn't have done anything really cool without them.

[Inoculator9]

Yeah, really great stuff. They helped me loads when I first found out I had the ability to edit textures buried in my psyche ;)

[shadow]

Well, right now I'm in the process of download Paint Shop Pro 8.....very long thought.....I'll try with this program to open those damn TGA files.

[shadow]

Great.......I spent 25min downloading Paint Shop Pro 8....it doesn't even work on tga files...what the hell?!

[Andrew]

Discussion of obtaining pirated software is not allowed.

[Gobalopper]

You can get a free trial of PSP 8 Andrew.

According to this PSP 7 could open TGA so I doubt they would remove it in 8.

http://www.jasc.com/format.asp

[shadow]

Hey, Gobalopper, I went into that website thingy, but the only thing I found was some resources for Paint Shop Pro 7....which one should I download, because I don't think they have it. :-

[Gobalopper]

That isn't the download page. All their downloads are here:

http://www.jasc.com/download.asp