Reskinning units

Due to the utter lack of fantasy unit models (WW2 fans have tons of units to use, but fantasy fans have only one unit ) I decided to do something. I'm completely inept at creating 3d graphics, so I decided to reskin some existing units. But I don't know how to do it properly - I created an edited version of the .dds file, created a copy of the .fxsxml file with the name of the .dds file inside it changed to the new one, and created an art define which points to the new .fxsxml file. But the unit in the game still uses the old texture, so it seems the <Texture file> tag in the .fxsxml file does nothing. I suppose the .dds file that is really used is coded somewhere in the .gr2 file, but I have no idea how to edit that file - it seems to be compressed or encrypted. Can someone enlighten me how to reskin units properly?

Deliverator's newly improved Nexus Buddy can be used to edit the gr2 files. I've done a basic recoloring reskin before and it isn't too complicated, even though I've never worked with 3D art before. (Reskinning is definitely much easier than creating new stuff.) Even though it's quite old, deliverator's unit reskinning tutorial is still very useful.

I look forward to some fantasy units, I'll definitely need some for my mod as well.

Hello PawelS,

the file that needs the reference to the new dds is the .gr2 file.
As S3rgeus said you can edit it with nexus buddy : open the existing file, change the dds reference to point to the new dds file and save under a new name.

When that's done open the .fxsxml file, change the gr2 reference in it (don't touch the dds reference in the .fxsxml), save the .fxsxml file under a new name.

Thanks for help! I managed to reskin the mage's robes from FramedArchitect's Fearun Scenario (which is a reskined scout) to blue.

PawelS said:

Thanks for help! I managed to reskin the mage's robes from FramedArchitect's Fearun Scenario (which is a reskined scout) to blue.

Click to expand...

Good work. I should update that tutorial to show how to do the same using Nexus Buddy 2.

PawelS said:

Thanks for help! I managed to reskin the mage's robes from FramedArchitect's Fearun Scenario (which is a reskined scout) to blue.

Click to expand...

Awesome! I'm really glad to see new fantasy art content.