Adding a custom skin

[Revenant100]

I posted about this in another thread but I haven't been able to make this work so far.

I'm trying to add a custom imp and cacodemon skin, but every time the game just loads the default skins. First I had the skins extracted to where they would normally be in the base folder (If the pk4 files were all extracted), then I added them to my own pk4 file and put them into the base folder. I know the path for the skins are correct, and the file size for the tga files are exactly the same as the originals so I don't think the game is not recognizing them. But when I load the game, it still uses the default skins. I renamed the pk4 for to Classic, put it into a folder in the main Doom 3 directory called Classic, and now it can be chosen as a mod under the Mods button in the D3 menu, but it still doesn't load the skins I made.

The only difference at all between the skins in the original pk4 file and the pk4 file I made are the compression rates. The compression in the pk4 file I made is slightly higher than the orignal, but I've tried maxiumum, normal, fast, and super fast compression and they were all different from the original pk4 file.

[Darkhaven]

Hmmm...Is your mod PK4 file named pak005.pk4?

[Revenant100]

If it's a subdirectory under the Doom 3 directory to be loaded as a mod in the main menu, it doesn't have to be named as pak00#.pk4 or whatever, but I just made the pk4 the same name as the directory. Anyway I did have it named pak005.pk4 when I was testing it in the base directory, but I'm using the mod method so I know for a fact that the pk4 is being loaded, but something is preventing it from loading in the game.

Anyway I tried repacking the ungibabble mod myself and loaded it as a mod and it worked fine, so I can know now that the zipping of the file is not what's causing the skins to not load. Basically, everything it set correctly, but it just doesn't work.

I was told by someone that the game creates a cache of some sort and you have to reload it for the game to recognize any new textues. I don't know if this is true or not, but for now it looks like the only way I'll be able to use any custom textures is to overwrite the original tga files themselves. Damn. :/

[Revenant100]

Okay, I guess I'm the only one trying to do anything with this but I'll post what I've found out anyway.

For whatever reason, the custom skins only work in Ultra detail. I can set the game in Ultra detail, restart and see my skins, set the game in Medium detail, restart and see the default skins. I have no idea why this is, but I guess it isn't feasable to force people to play in Ultra detail just to see the custom skins working.

But I've also seen people editing the flashlight texture, and while I haven't tried using any of them myself, for some reason those work ok, yet these monster skins I'm trying to change will not work unless it's Ultra detail (Assuming that the people who made their own flashlight texture mod isn't playing in Ultra).

Edit: Now that I think about it, it may also still be part of the cache issue, since I don't normally play in Ultra, loading the game in Ultra for the first time would reload all the textures again, and thus use the new textures that are available.

[A655321]

This is pure speculation, but perhaps the pk4 with the mod would come before the pk4 with the original files alphabetically, and it's written over.

Somewhere to start if you're entirely lost, though I doubt that's it. Good luck.

[HackNeyed]

i really like your classic skins mod! :D

i messed with an Imp's skin and it worked fine and im running doom in med Q...

i opened the skin with IrfanView and saved it as a bmp, edited it with Adobe Photoshop 6.0, resaved and then converted back to .dd using this program below.

http://doom3.filefront.com/file/DDS_Converter_2;29052

good luck on the mod and envisioning the colors for new enemies... i'll be in line to download :)

[Revenant100]

So the game uses the dds files for medium quality and the tga files for ultra quality?