#custom textures

Another thing about me: I will still plan out a mod and create textures for it. For fun. So I might as well share.

A third thing about me: I really really like tea.

I've finished working on custom textures In Formula Nippon (PS1), with the sponsors added on the kart, the patches added on the outfit, and of course: a replica of Pedro Lamy's helmet.

Some people have been asking how I get the dbh models to look like this in my game:

So today I’m going to break down how to manipulate the textures in the game with deadray’s custom tool and how to avoid crashing. 

Before we start with the tutorial, we require several tools. The dbh custom tool found on the website linked above, a texture exporter tool and an image converter which you can find and install in the "resources” folder I’ve prepared here.

PART 1: RECOLORING CLOTHING & ACCESSOIRES.

The character textures we want to change are in the tools "catalog" section. You can locate any specific model by typing their name into the search function, we are going to start with Kara. Kara uses mostly DDS textures which won't cause trouble in your game, while Alice and Connor for example use mostly QD textures which will cause crashes if not used correctly.

Once we’ve searched for KARA, the catalog lists all of her models. Here I have opened the section “maid” which is her standard outfit and selected her armband. To change the texture, we select to “extract” the file and pay attention to the required image format listed on the right side of the panel. Her armband is listed as DTX5 / BC3. 

Once you have installed the Nvidia Texture Exporter, launch Photoshop and open your exported DDS file. (Btw, the texture tool can’t be installed with a cracked PS version, so if you can’t purchase PS then Gimp will also work.) In Photoshop, I have recolored the blue armband to pink and I save my new file, selecting the “DDS - Nvidia Texture Exporter” under “Data Type”. The Texture Exporter will open in Photoshop and ask for the required DDS image format. I select BC3, as listed by the custom tool, and click “save.” 

Now you need to insert your new file into its respective thumbnail by selecting “import” in the custom tool. I have changed Kara’s triangle in addition, which is the same image format (BC3) as her armband. Close the tool, open your game and voilà, Kara is now sporting preppy pink android markers! 

PART 2: OVERWRITING FONTS & SERIAL NUMBERS.

To change fonts and serial numbers, we simply need to paint over the file’s original letters and overwrite it with something else. Here you can see an example of Connor’s original model identification marker and my custom marker. You can blacken out the whole thumbnail if you want to erase the markers on the jacket altogether. The image format for this particular DDS is DTX1 / BC1 and you can find it in the catalog under CONNOR_HOSTAGE, CONNOR_INT02 and CONNOR_WAR.

CONNOR_INT03 is NINES, so don’t change those files unless you want to overwrite Nines’ markers as well.

Serial codes can be swapped and overwritten in a similar fashion. The RK models all draw their serial numbers from the same file. In this example you see I’ve swapped the serials of Connor-51 and Connor-60. The image format for this particular DDS is DTX1 / BC1.

However, a swapped serial won’t update accordingly with every death within in the game. If you were to do a death run starting with -60, the serial bugs out at death five because of the modified starting number. -65 becomes -66 instead because -55 can’t be overwritten. 

PART 3: EXTRACTING AND IMPORTING QD TEXTURES.

Don’t start with QD textures unless you’re already experienced with DDS textures or don’t know what you’re doing. Otherwise I guarantee you will break/corrupt your game files. Always have a backup of your original files on your PC in the case of corruption. QD textures are usually shared between various different models and need to be updated within every single model in the game that uses the same texture. Otherwise, your game will crash.

First things first, open the tool and add the detroit_img.exe in tool settings in order to display QD texture thumbnails.

We are going to change Hank’s intro shirt for the QD example. All of Hank’s shirts are shared between HANK_INT01, HANK_INT03, CLO_HANKSHIRT_01 and  CLO_HANKCLOTHESBALL. They are DTX1 / BC1 QD formats. In order to export the texture, we need to unlock “enable editing” on top of the catalog chart.

To export and edit QD files, it's important to "enable editing" in each catalog section you want to modify. QD files are exported in uneditable data format. Drag and drop this data file into the detroit_img application to convert it into a TGA file. Open this TGA in Photoshop or Gimp and flip the new image vertically before you save the edited file as a DDS. 

Afterwards you need to import this new DDS into each thumbnail that used the original QD texture. After I imported the first custom DDS into HANK_INT01 its thumbnail will turn black in every other section and needs to be refreshed. Therefore remember the position of your original thumbnail or note their file names in order to find them again later. If your game starts crashing because you haven’t refreshed every shared texture, selecting “restore” for the thumbnail won’t work for QD files. So it’s always important you have backed up your game files in case something goes wrong.

For beginners, stay away from QD eye colors since they are shared with lots of random NPC. (If you’re absolutely itching to edit the eyes, you can message me and I can send you a list of known NPC who shares it with them).

PART 4: COUNTERACTING SHADERS.

Some texture have an inaccessible colored shader assigned, meaning your own recolor and this shader will combine and create an entirely different color. We don’t want that, so we need to counteract the shader’s color preset. An example is North’s hair for EXT01 and EXT02, both are assigned a red shader. To turn her hair brunette I’ve recolored her hair texture into a soft blue and lowered the lightness to counteract the red. 

Some color shaders are accessible to you, like the hair coloration of Echo (blue) and her girlfriend Ripple (reddish). Her shader looks like this: 

In Echo’s case, I’ve turned her hair black just by recoloring the blue-ish section and left her actual hair texture the way it is. I don’t recommend recoloring these type of shaders with android uniforms unless you only want to take photos, as it will take a toll on gameplay and cause a slight lag (same goes for editing facial textures with heavy make-up).