Texture introduction
This section was written by @muuyo
This is the basic layer of all modding in Arcsys games - recolors! You may wish to expand to mesh modding later, but this is usually what people go to first - and so will be a bit more comprehensive.
First, the basic overview;
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Extract the game assets to somewhere on your computer using Fmodel; I usually just export all textures from my desired character's
Content/Chara/CHR/Costume01/Material
folder. This should be in TGA; you need information saved in the alpha channel. In Fmodel, you can set the export format to TGA under Settings. -
Open the textures for your color slot in Photoshop or Photopea (you almost always need separate alpha editing support)
- These will usually be in:
- Content
- Chara
- Character ID (e.g. SOL)
- Costume01
- Material
- Base
- CHR_ILM, which is used for material properties - reflectiveness, drawn-on outlines, etc
- CHR_detail, which is used for little scrapes or folds drawn onto the character
- ColorXX
- CHR_base, which is the main color
- CHR_Sss, which is the texture used for shadows - the game has no builtin "shadows" beyond this image
- CHR_Decal, which is used for "transparent" overlays onto the mesh that require transparency, per-color variance or color
- An assortment of other textures; CHRW_Base is the base for the Weapon, others are usually self explanatory.
- Base
- Material
- Costume01
- Character ID (e.g. SOL)
- Chara
- Content
- These will usually be in:
-
Now that you have your character's textures in Photoshop, you can begin editing them. I would recommend viewing the section for previewing textures in Blender. As well, you may want to view the images page for a more detailed view on the operations of each texture.
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Once you have your textures edited to a desired goal, you can export them as PSD or TGA with 32-bit color and Compression On for the latter. Take care as to the alpha layers, in the images section.
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Then, simply pack them for Strive (or other Arcsys games) by following the Exporting section.