I have no real 3d gaming skills .My efforts at making anything for this Gore Ultimate
Soldier video game,created by Joel Huenink, are basically hackwork done with free tools.
The original game designs,graphics and ideas all come from 4Drulers and their game
forum. I used their ideas,to come up with the methods I used to manipulate the game
images.I will share here sporadically,and this will not be any kind of official type thing.
To start , one needs to download the free XNVIEW still photo edit program.
http://www.xnview.com/
Also,the awesome, free,open source, THE GIMP.
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
You can also use the edit programs of your choice.I have Photoshop, but prefer The Gimp.
Ok,good.
For a regular person,skins are basically the outside layers of 3d models.
The colors you see on characters and weapons and stuff. There is more to it,but for our
purposes,that will suffice.
Gore skins are in the Gore program file,assuming you have Gore installed on your
computer. There is a free download of the demo version of Gore.
Do a google search - gore demo -
Free download. 105 megabytes. Demo has 2 maps, and 4 player models, I think.
I will use the demo version of the game for my tutorial,since anyone can get it,and the
tools to make skin changes, for free. Then, the methods can be used to do the full retail
version of the game, using the tools desired.
Be warned;I can be long winded,in my attempts to make this info understandable to an
absolute beginner.
Now,the demo vesion of the game would usually be installed to:
c:\program files\goredemo
I will show some ideas for making a skin for a player model called scout.
He can be found at:
c:\program files\goredemo\models\players\scout
You will see about 9 files there. The ones with the .dmt on the end can be made to look any way you want!
I personally would make a copy of the entire models folder,and put it somewhere safe.
That way you can still change stuff back to stock,or see your stock files again,as they are your templates,or patterns used to make your little mods.
One way to see these .dmt files is to simply rename it to a .bmp, or a bitmap image.
For example:
scout_head.dmt could be renamed to scout_head.dmt.bmp
The computer will ask if you really want to do that. Go for it.Be brave.Fear thou not...
Now,you can double click on the renamed file,and it will open in xnview,assuming you installed it.
I will henceforth assume you installed xnview,the gimp,and the gore demo,for purposes of my little lessons. When you went to school,they told you what books to read,and to use a #2 pencil,etc. I am doing this as if I were teaching newbs.(noobs)*
*aka-noobie
someone who is new to a game, or website, online game, or something.
"lets go mess with the weak little noobs" or somesuch.
Now that you can see the graphic file,save the file as a bitmap,and overwrite the original
dmt-bitmap. Now,you are boss of that file. You can rename it back to scout_head.dmt after you make any changes,and they should show up in a game played on your pc.
IMPORTANT! The game itself will only recognize the original names of files.
They must be in the exact form they were in before you messed around. They even need to be kept the same file dimensions,and color depth.Meaning that a 400x400 pixel 24 bit bitmap image must remain a 400x400 pixel 24 bit bitmap that has been renamed back to be a .dmt image,so the game can see and use it. That is where xnview excels. It keeps the files intact,so the game will see them.Also,The Gimp can now see them,and work on them,after they have been reoriented by Xnview.they work hand in hand.They even can use a lot of the photoshop plugins available online.
I had to figure out this stuff by trial and error,and the information posted on the 4d rulers gore forum.
Go experiment.One day soon,I plan to add photos to this lesson.
My main Gore page;
http://www.esnips.com/web/gore-files
