Skin Mod - How To

First off in order to make a new skin you have to unpak the Art0.FPK file with the PakBuild utility found here:

Windows XP: http://www.civfanatics.net/downloads...y/PakBuild.zip
Windows 2000: http://www.civfanatics.net/downloads...ld-Win2000.zip

Next you need to get a .dds converter found here:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads10/dds_converter_v21.zip

or if you are using GIMP you may find this better as it will make it so you can load .dds files and save them without the conversion process. This is a very nice plugin.

http://nifelheim.dyndns.org/~cocidius/dds/

Now you need some sort of graphic editor. I prefer GIMP as it is free and really good which can be found here:

www.gimp.org

1. Now we are ready to make a skin. You should have unpaked the Art0.FPK file already and put in in a folder for reference.

2. Start off by starting up the dds converter and then go to where you unpaked the Art0.FPK file and select the file you want to make a skin for. Convert it to a format like .gif, .jpeg, or .png in a folder seperate of the place you unpaked the Art0.FPK file as this will be you working folder.

3. Go to where you you converted your file and open it with your graphics editor. Change the texture until you like what you see then save it in the same place you converted your file to with the same name as it.

4. Now load up the dds converter again and go to the file you just got done creating. Select .dds as the extension to save as, and click Convert.

5. Go to the folder you now converted .dds file is in and edit, copy it.

6. Go to your My Documents\My Games\ Sid Meier's Civilization 4\CustomAssets\art\ and put in in the file that corresponds to the one you originaly converted it from.

7. Load up Civ 4 and see the new skin in action, as it will override the original file.

8. If you decide you want to get rid of the skin and use what came with the game instead or use a different skin simply replace it with a new .dds file or delete the one that is already there.

Nice info. As an old time modder, it made me quite happy to be honest.

However, the converter .zip is broken. I don't think it's too big of a file anyway, why not just upload it to CFC?

There tell me if it works now. It isn't my upload by the way. It is one I found in another post. I am using it because there compression software must be much better than mine because mine gets it just over twice the amount alotted.

If you guys are having any trouble with the dds programs, you can try this:

DDS Gimp Plugin

Truthfully, I'm not sure how well it works in terms of writing to a dds file, since I've only used it so far to read from them, so it may not support all the needed features for your needs. Perhaps someone more experienced could shed light?

Thanks I just dl the plugin and it does work great. You can preview the picture before you open it and then save with it again. Works perfect. Also is it ok if I make reference to your post in the first one?

Yeah, the plugin works great.

For whatever reason, that upack utility can't manage the Art0.fpk file... any ideas on why this is?

erikg88 said:

For whatever reason, that upack utility can't manage the Art0.fpk file... any ideas on why this is?

Click to expand...

Ditto here. A directory problem, maybe?

Now when you say it can't manage it, do you mean it comes up with an error or it seems to freeze? If it seems to freeze just wait longer, on my computer it takes it about 5 minutes to do this, you have to realize that it is working with over 300 megabytes. If it comes up with an error, tell me what it says and I'll see if I can figure it out.

yea, it won't respond when i try to unpack the file, but maybe it us just my fully-******ed computer
anyway, any ideas for a newb on making skins?

Got it now. Used Pak on top bar instead of file.open.

meeeeeeeeep! OOSeful!

OK, I'm trying to mod the Swordsman into a Scottish Highlander.

I've managed to unpak to art0.fpk file and found the Swordsman folder.

Question is, there are two .dds files, Swordsman.dds and Swordsman_128.dds

What is the difference between these files? They're visually different. Do I need to mod both? Are the two combined to make the final product?

thanks in advance.

Also..

Within the \art\units\swordsman folder there are 35 other files besides the .dds files. I assume these are the animation files.

So if I want to add "Highlander" to the game without replacing "Swordsman" do I need to copy/rename this folder and all it's contents?

Can I refenece/use this new unit by only hacking the appropriate xml files, or do I need to hack python as well?

thanks again.

WaxonWaxov said:

OK, I'm trying to mod the Swordsman into a Scottish Highlander.

I've managed to unpak to art0.fpk file and found the Swordsman folder.

Question is, there are two .dds files, Swordsman.dds and Swordsman_128.dds

What is the difference between these files? They're visually different. Do I need to mod both? Are the two combined to make the final product?

thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

yes you will have to do them both but you could just make the same one then save it to both names.

The reason they are both there is because you may notice that after making a few of the units not all of them look the same some would be the Swordsman.dds and some would be the Swordsman_128.dds.

Also..

Within the \art\units\swordsman folder there are 35 other files besides the .dds files. I assume these are the animation files.

So if I want to add "Highlander" to the game without replacing "Swordsman" do I need to copy/rename this folder and all it's contents?

Can I refenece/use this new unit by only hacking the appropriate xml files, or do I need to hack python as well?

thanks again.

Click to expand...

This would include both python and xml files and seeing were we can't make models yet you would have to copy the contents of swordsman file then paste in the highlander file. Add your new skins. And thats as far as I can get you as I havn't dived into unit creation yet.

jak08 said:

This would include both python and xml files and seeing were we can't make models yet you would have to copy the contents of swordsman file then paste in the highlander file. Add your new skins. And thats as far as I can get you as I havn't dived into unit creation yet.

Click to expand...

OK, So I guess my question is do I have to rename "swordsman_md_diea.kf" to "highlander_md_diea.kf" for example?

you could but you wouldn't have to. you could just leave it were it is and call it in python or copy it over with the same name or change it. I ugess it would depend on how you want to do it. all that is different is a couple of keystrokes.

ooo.. problem is I don't know the first damned thing about python.

Visual Basic is my life (and my living) I'm an old BASIC programmer from back in the day (started on an Atari 400)

If I try to convert a jpeg to dds I get an error message saying "could not create xxx.dds --> file not found."

Why is that?

If I try to convert a jpeg to dds I get an error message saying "could not create xxx.dds --> file not found."

Why is that?

Click to expand...

Hmm I'm not sure. You may try using .png for the extension. That is all I have personally used and haven't had a problem with it.