SkinnerUI question....

[channel]

 
alrighty guys i think my heads about to explode after like a week of trying to get skinnerui to make sense.... my initial goal is just to edit one of the existing skins and get this baby back into the game. i've been searching through the forum for an easy step by step but i'm still having trouble.  i understand where to find the IGB files for the character i want to edit, but when i load them into the skinnerui it says the whole...

"muaskinner.cfg has not defined the BMP locations for this IGB.file...etc"

i opened the 15702.igb in the texturefinder but i don't see nearly enough information to successfully fill in all the availible offsets. the only thing i can see is that it's DXT3.  I'm trying my best to search through the forum before nagging anyone but i have a good feeling i'm making it more difficult than it needs to be.  It's a shame i feel like i could probably make a fairly impressive skin, unfortunately it seems as though all i make is a mediocre modder, haha.  anyhow if there's someone out there who could maybe direct me in the right direction i'd really appreciate it, and again i'm sorry if i'm regurgitating an older thread here...i did try my best to search through the forums before posting i just think it's a matter of my understanding it all. thanks again guys.

[iammingy]

here are a few things that you need to pay attention to:

1. All the entries in the CFG file are arranged alphabetically and no spaces between each line.

2. The file name (15702) and extension (.igb) match the ones listed in your CFG entry. This means both letters and case have to match. In this case, 15702.igb works but 15702.IGB doesn't work.

3. There is one empty line at the end of the CFG file.

For example:

15702.igb,DXT3,256,256,54761,128,128,38377,64,64,20289,32,32,15925,16,16,16949.
Apocalypse,DXT3,256,256,54761,128,128,38377,64,64,20289,32,32,15925,16,16,16949.
Pyro.igb,DXT3,256,256,54761,128,128,38377,64,64,20289,32,32,15925,16,16,16949.
<empty line>

Good Luck.

PS: I had lots of problems with SkinnerUI for quite a few months until I upgraded to Windows Vista... I got no spyware defenders in Windows XP, but it closes without my command and it crashes all of a sudden!??! However, SkinnerUI is a really handy tool!

[boreman]

The hardest part of using Skinner for me is finding offsets. Are you scrolling the offsets (changing the values) until the very first pixel of the BMP is on the upper left corner of the TF preview window? Have you checked the cases or tried with both combinations (.igb and .IGB)?

[DJay Saint]

http://marvelmods.com/forum/index.php?topic=320.0

[channel]

hmm i think i better back up a bit and be less specific with my questioning. oh and thanks guys for all the help...

so i've edited an IGB file with photoshop (sort of paiting over an already existing character to one i desire) and saved it as a BMP.  here is where i'm stuck.  I suppose i just don't know how to make the custom BMP back to an actually IGB file so that i can put it into the game.  I haven't a clue if it's even that simple.  Can you guys maybe give me a step by step from here if it's possible?


....this is generally what i look like right about now. haha.

[Norrin Radd]

did you extract the bmp file with skinnerui to edit it?
(if so, it will be really easy to put it back in)

[channel]

nahh i actually used the texturefinder program and exported the orginal IMG as a bmp , so that it could be edited.

[Norrin Radd]

if you go here:
http://www.nba2kstuff.org/mua/
and get muaskinnerui or muaskinner, install it, and read this:
http://www.nba2kstuff.org/mua/help_skinner/index.html (for graphical version)
http://www.nba2kstuff.org/mua/muaskinner.txt (for command line version)
it says how to use the program (how to import and export files), I use the command line version so I do this:
c:> MUASKINNER 1203.igb 1203.mymod.bmp
to import a file, but before you do that, you have to edit the MUASKINNER.CFG file, to know what to put in it, you can see the link Burning Rage posted above.
To find the offsets for the skins (if you havent found them yourself) look here:
http://marvelmods.com/forum/index.php?topic=142.0

[Tetragene]

I've been having several headache-inducing problems myself, channel--so you are not alone, lol.  I've read tons of pages in the forum and still can't seem to get the hang of it.  Everytime I load muaskinner I get a "create dev" pop-up--which I though was only supposed to pop up after you entered a command (???).  That aside, I'm almost absolutely positive I've gotten the offsets correct for 0403.igb (I've found all except 16x16) and entered it into the muaskinner.cfg

And my bmp is flipped and RGB channel changed to BGR...but everytime I enter the "import" command line and hit "enter" the program just exits   I'm really lost about what to try or change next.

Just to make sure I have things correct, and to give a better idea of exactly what I'm doing--this is the edited bmp after its been flipped and the RGB channel changed to BGR (note: was changed from .bmp to .png upon uploading to imageshack):



and this is what I have entered in muaskinner.cfg :

0403.igb,DXT1,512,512,822030,256,256,953102,128,128,305934,64,64,280718,32,32,1543198.

and then to import the edited bmp into the 0403.igb file, I entered this:

C:\Documents and Settings\Tetragene\My Documents\MUA\muaskinner20>muaskinner 0403.igb dazzlerclassic2.bmp

but then it closes out :?  I'm feeling pretty stupid right about now.  I could get skin editing for XML2 pretty easily...but MUA is just confusing the hell out of me.

[Norrin Radd]

did you save your bmp as 32bit,
also, are your entries in muaskinner.cfg in alphabetical order (if you only want to convert this skin, 0403.igb,DXT1,512,512,822030,256,256,953102,128,128,305934,64,64,280718,32,32,1543198. can be your only line)

[Tetragene]

I believe so--in paint shop pro I haven't seen a an extra "save as" option come up when saving bmps :/  But--I took the 0403.bmp I was able to export from 0403.igb (in the GUI version of skinner) and just edited it, so I assumed when you exported it saved the bmp as 32-bit.  I dunno, I'm getting so confused  

[Norrin Radd]

I believe so--in paint shop pro I haven't seen a an extra "save as" option come up when saving bmps :/  But--I took the 0403.bmp I was able to export from 0403.igb (in the GUI version of skinner) and just edited it, so I assumed when you exported it saved the bmp as 32-bit.  I dunno, I'm getting so confused  

I dont know about paint shop pro, but it doesnt necessarily save as the same bit number as what you imported. you can right click on the picture, then properties, and search one of the tabs, it says how many bits the picture is.
Edit: the summary tab, look for Bit depth

[Tetragene]

I dont know about paint shop pro, but it doesnt necessarily save as the same bit number as what you imported. you can right click on the picture, then properties, and search one of the tabs, it says how many bits the picture is.
Edit: the summary tab, look for Bit depth

I just checked the properties and they were all 24-bit (O_o).  Apparently PSP doesn't have a way of saving 32-bit bmps, so I'm downloading a trial version of photoshop to test out.  Thanks for your help and patience--will post later if it works or not.

[Norrin Radd]

Well I'm glad you found the problem.
By the way, I use the Gimp program, it is free and can export to 32 bit, and has alpha channel handling etc., so if you want one thats free, I suggest that one. For the 32 bit export you need to use an "unstable" version (which works fine for me) however, I cant remember what version that is (because Im not at my home computer), but I can check if you want, and I should be able to find the link for the download.

[Tetragene]

Well I'm glad you found the problem.
By the way, I use the Gimp program, it is free and can export to 32 bit, and has alpha channel handling etc., so if you want one thats free, I suggest that one. For the 32 bit export you need to use an "unstable" version (which works fine for me) however, I cant remember what version that is (because Im not at my home computer), but I can check if you want, and I should be able to find the link for the download.

Thanks, I would appreciate it