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Converting q1 skins to png

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2014 5:05 pm
by Cobalt
Trying to convert some of the skins in the 250 skins pack for Q1 to be compatable with the new skinning system for the engines that support the newer external skining systems, IE: player.mdl_1.tga - would be an override for skin1 on the player model and so fourth.

I took Primeevils alternate player skin which is in PNG format, and merely converted the old skin to a .png file then made it the same dimensions and pixel depth. The skin seems to wrap around the player, and the pixel septh and res seem to be ok, but for some reason the left side seems to be darkened out on both the front and back of the skin. I used MS photo Premium 10 to do the conversion. Would Gimp be a better choice?

Re: Converting q1 skins to png

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 5:49 am
by mankrip
Can you post a screenshot?

Re: Converting q1 skins to png

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 6:15 am
by xaGe
I've never had an issue with png skins or textures in photoshop from version 7 onward or gimp. I've even been using krita lately a few times too with ok results.

Re: Converting q1 skins to png

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 4:41 pm
by r00k
can you batch convert pcx to png with some program?

Re: Converting q1 skins to png

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 5:34 pm
by qbism
r00k wrote:can you batch convert pcx to png with some program?
Ifranview.

Re: Converting q1 skins to png

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 6:39 pm
by Cobalt
If you mean the model in the game with the skin showing the defect, yea, I can put one up. Meanwhile here is the skin in png format that is producing the dark shadowing issue. I am usong DP, and I first thought maybe it was a lighting / map side effect but the shadow seems to always be there no matter where the player is. So I tend to think its something wrong in the skin?

Image

mankrip wrote:Can you post a screenshot?

Re: Converting q1 skins to png

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 9:27 pm
by frag.machine
The problem seems to be related to the skin being resampled at one point. If you're trying to convert it to a power of two, do not resample the image; add to the right/down.

My pipeline to convert from/back to Q1 skin consists in:
a) load the model in QuArK 4.07;
b) right click the desired skin, "Copy skin";
c) Ctrl+V in any image editor/viewer (for example, as someone already mentioned, Irfanview).

Re: Converting q1 skins to png

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 11:47 pm
by Cobalt
Here is the screenshot of how it looks in the game. The skin is originally case in BMP format. The reason why Im doing it this way with external skins is quark qont let me import it, well it does, but there is an import issue apparently. While it lets yo import it, it will show up on the model as rotating through all the skins when that one is set. I also tried just directly converting to PNG in Irfanview, same thing, as shown in the screenshot.

Image

frag.machine wrote:The problem seems to be related to the skin being resampled at one point. If you're trying to convert it to a power of two, do not resample the image; add to the right/down.

My pipeline to convert from/back to Q1 skin consists in:
a) load the model in QuArK 4.07;
b) right click the desired skin, "Copy skin";
c) Ctrl+V in any image editor/viewer (for example, as someone already mentioned, Irfanview).

Re: Converting q1 skins to png

Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2014 1:27 am
by frag.machine
I stuck on 4.0.7 a looong time ago since it worked well to me. I suspect you may not find it easily to download nowadays. :(
From what you describe, maybe your QuArK version is saving your 250 individual skins as one single animated skin.
You may want to try QME instead, but be sure to NOT put all skins into a single skin group.

Also, if you change the skin dimensions / proportions it's very likely you are messing up the skin verts mapping.
At least keep the proportions between width and height, otherwise you get the wrong mapping seen in your screenshots.

Re: Converting q1 skins to png

Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2014 1:58 am
by Spike
many quakeworld PLAYER skins are 320*200, but the actual player model uses a smaller size than that (I don't remember exactly, but its not a guessable size). this is problematic because quakeworld engines will STRIP OUT the extra pixels around the side. this allows you to write copyright text or whatever there, and it'll never be uploaded to the gl driver.
when converting such skins to regular model skins, you will need to crop the extra pixels from your image. you can then rescale to 256*256 or whatever if you want to avoid npot issues, but you cannot include the same padding as found in a quakeworld _PLAYER_ skin.
QuakeWorld is special. QuakeWorld's players are special. And by special, I mean that using anything other than the original pcxes is extreemly problematic, from a consistency perspective. Or, in other words, GOTCHA!

open up the mdl in qme or something (read only). Read the skin size. _Crop your original pcx to match that_. Resize that to some larger resolution if you want and re-paint it however you want. Save using your choice of engine's replacement skin texture naming convention. Load your choice of engine.

for bonus points, you should allow for the skin to smear outside of the parts of the texture that are actually used. This avoids the background colour showing through when the model is distant and thus mipmapped. Software rendering did not support mipmapping skin textures, and the vanilla skins lack this. glquake flood-fills the background of skin textures as a way to hide the issue, but this can cause other bugs and is thus typically not done for 32bit textures, so you need to do something similarish yourself.

Re: Converting q1 skins to png

Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2014 2:17 am
by Cobalt
Looks like that would be 296*194. Skins I have imported with those exact dimensions in Quark always seem to work. Some that are 320*200 also seem to work, but not always. So far if I convert a skin thats 296*194 to PNG, seems you cant go wrong, and you always get a file that shows up ok as an alt skin. Once you leave those bounds, you are open for possible issues....like you have just mentioned. So far 1 of the skins in this 250Q1skins file that are 320*200 and I converted to PNG following PrimeEvils example format, worked fine and a couple others seemed to exhibit this problem, but the one that works happens to have black shirt and pants, so perhaps the issue is there just not showing up. Thanks guys for the help, I will keep trying to get it going.
Spike wrote:many quakeworld PLAYER skins are 320*200, but the actual player model uses a smaller size than that (I don't remember exactly, but its not a guessable size).

Re: Converting q1 skins to png

Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 7:26 am
by r00k
i just downloaded hundreds of qw skins fromt he id1stuff ftp used infraview to view them.
infraview will read the file header and pops up warnings that most files were written as wrong file extensions.
and give u the option to change the filename. i have noticed in the past how these wouldnt load up in other views and u had no idea what format it was originally saved!

Re: Converting q1 skins to png

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 5:00 am
by Cobalt
Oh forgot about those, went there and snagged some. so far the ones I got are all PCX mostly. Having better luck thus far converting them to png. I guess resizing was not the way to go, so I cropped like spike said, and adjusted the new crop window to the extreme left side. Seems to be ok so far. This one I changed the hue a little bit and shows up fine.

Image


Im wondering if there is a way to convert them all to higher resolution skins and have thgem look as fancy as the Primeevil skin in pixel depth etc...?


Edit, showing off another one with altered color.

Image

r00k wrote:i just downloaded hundreds of qw skins fromt he id1stuff ftp used infraview to view them.
infraview will read the file header and pops up warnings that most files were written as wrong file extensions.
and give u the option to change the filename. i have noticed in the past how these wouldnt load up in other views and u had no idea what format it was originally saved!

Re: Converting q1 skins to png

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 2:46 pm
by r00k
i noticed that some were same size but were off centered from the original.

It should be possible to create a higher res image. you might have to retouch it with a paint program.