Having problems editing armor textures!

[MistressX]

Hey everyone,

In my race to learn as much as I can about texture editing in WoW, I decided that the next step would be learning how to edit armors - so that I could take some of the awful looking pieces like the badge rewards and touch them up a bit. I've managed to retexture a number of in game items and so, I figured this would be as simple as copying the file structure/trees, redoing/replacing the textures, zipping them up in an MPQ file and voila - new pretties! Simple right?

*buzzer sound* Wrong!

Despite my best efforts I simply cannot get armor edits to work on any level. The textures show up as wrong (made a pally chest look like warrior T4 for example) or just bizarre and strangle textures that I never such much as previewed in the editor, much less exchanged or replaced.

I've uploaded an MPQ intended to replace the paladin badge reward chest, using textures from a recolor of pally T5. I am 110% certain that I not only have the correct texture names (copy/past ftw!) and the textures I wanted to use (can see then in MWCS) but the right folder structure as well. Could someone please look at it and help me figure out what is going wrong? Extensive editing like this is probably the last major hurdle for me to cross - I would be very grateful! Here's the link;

RapidShare Webhosting + Webspace

[Grymskvll]

If you're editing the actual texture and not just swapping; remember to change the image mode back to index or you'll get a random armor texture loaded for that slot. (assuming you're using Photoshop)

[MistressX]

Hey, thanks for the reply. I tried this, and when I went to convert the TGA files back into BLPs, it said they were not formatted properly. So, I'm pretty much at a loss for what to do.

[Knomez]

I have the same problem i htink i can get shoulders and head shields weapons capes... (pretty much anything in Object Components reskinned) but then when i get to the Texture component stuff it becomes invis after i reskin it..

[Randie]

I have the same problem i htink i can get shoulders and head shields weapons capes... (pretty much anything in Object Components reskinned) but then when i get to the Texture component stuff it becomes invis after i reskin it..

I have the same problem when I use TGA converter, all I do is save the .tga I edited as a .png and then use the other converter..

[MistressX]

The problem with PNG files as I understand it is the lack of alpha maps. So textures that need to be reflective, as an example, or have tranparent areas will have problems.

So, if any of you know how to create PNG files with proper alpha maps.. please share. I'm losing my mind over this stuff.. lol.

[Knomez]

Personally i use Tgatoblp2 and blp2toTga converters or i just save the image directly from MWS (yes you can do that with out having to convert it)

[MistressX]

Ok, clearly some knowledgeable people replying here, so I will give a very thorough example of what I am trying to do and the problems I am having. NOTE: this only applies to editing FLAT armor textures. Legs, chest, belts, etc. I can do weapons/shields/etc fine.

As an example, lets go with the Sunguard Legplates. I want to retexture these because they have a simply horrid color scheme, so, I use MWCS to extract the texture as a TGA file.

I then load it in photoshop as a TGA, where I use brushes and layers to modify the colors of it. Once it is more pleasing to my eye, I save it and drag the finished file into my TGABLP2 converter. I get a nice shiny BLP file with 100% of the transparencies and such of the original. However when I create my new MPQ, the texture I changed does not appear properly because - apparently - I did not set the image mode to 'indexed'.

So, I load it again and convert the color mode to "Indexed" which I understand is a necessity, and save it. Alpha map is still intact, colors are still intact. So, I drag THIS version of the file onto the converter.exe and get the message that "this file is not formatted properly!"

Its like, I can't win for losing! If I use PNGs I seem to lose all my alpha layer data (and ergo, my transparancies and reflections) or I go TGA, and have either this indexing/random/no texture issue or I change it to indexed and then it won't convert. I am seriously just at a loss for how to get around this.

So.. if any of you can outline a specific process for getting around the issues I am having, I would probably love you forever. How can I:

A: use PNG format and retain the Alpha maps for shinyness/reflection, or:

B: Properly convert 'indexed' TGA files so that they show up in WoW?

[MistressX]

This must be like, one of the great mysteries of WoW, because no one seems to be able to give me an answer I can get to work.

[Sylcai]

You use BLPconverter, and you learn that PNG is better.

You also will learn that you can set the ALPHA layer from a PNG towards an ALPHA CHANNEL instead of TRANSPARENCY too.

Once you master this, your edits will stun the world. (of warcraft)

[Knomez]

i helped MIstressX already ^^ well in PM anyways