Witcher 2 Custom Tattoos Possible..?

[Windebieste]

Witcher 2 Custom Tattoos Possible..?

Seeing as it is possible to run around with a tattoo of a booby chick holding a sword on my throat, I was wondering about the ability to have proper custom tattoos modded into the game instead?

Is it actually possible at all to replace that graphic with an image of my own choosing? That would be kinda fun.

Thanks.

 

[SystemShock7]

Yes, it is. Although, some would be easier than others.
For example, Geralt's (hungover quest), Sile's, and kossacks (Numa, Dmitri, Crinfrid Reavers, etc) tattoos are decals applied to the character within the game, whereas Ves', Loredo's, Arian, elves' tattoos are all part of the skin texture.

I actually have a mod that removes them all, except for the Blue Stripes and elves. You may want to get that mod to see which files you need to edit, plus you can use the clean textures for Ves, Loredo, Arian, etc to apply your own.

http://witcher.nexusmods.com/mods/277

Edit to add: for Geralt, if applying tattoos to his arms, there are a number of armor textures that would need to be edited as well, all in cookedPC/characters/player/model/*

 

[dragonbird]

Yes, it is. Although, some would be easier than others.
For example, Geralt's (hungover quest), Sile's, and kossacks (Numa, Dmitri, Crinfrid Reavers, etc) tattoos are decals applied to the character within the game, whereas Ves', Loredo's, Arian, elves' tattoos are all part of the skin texture.

I actually have a mod that removes them all, except for the Blue Stripes and elves. You may want to get that mod to see which files you need to edit, plus you can use the clean textures for Ves, Loredo, Arian, etc to apply your own.

http://witcher.nexusmods.com/mods/277

Edit to add: for Geralt, if applying tattoos to his arms, there are a number of armor textures that would need to be edited as well, all in cookedPC/characters/player/model/*

I didn't realise those were yours - I was looking at them a few days ago and thinking how well the skin textures blended in.

I did an alternative Iorveth tat once, but it was never especially popular. I can't think why.

 

[Anwell]

OMG thats hillarious Dragonbird

 

[SystemShock7]

I didn't realise those were yours - I was looking at them a few days ago and thinking how well the skin textures blended in.
I did an alternative Iorveth tat once, but it was never especially popular. I can't think why.

HA HA! That's fantastic... like a Santa's elf with an attitude.

Yep, I got the "junmail" login because SystemShock was taken, and I mistyped "junkmail" when registering

 

[Windebieste]

Yeah. I'd figured it was s decal on his neck and that's what interests me the most. Sometimes there's some texture stutter when the the model skin and the decal compete displaying with each other. I'll check out yer mod and see wot u did thar...

Thanks.

 

[secondchildren]

Oh boy!

Splendid, dragonbird! really genial

 

[dragonbird]

Yeah. I'd figured it was s decal on his neck and that's what interests me the most. Sometimes there's some texture stutter when the the model skin and the decal compete displaying with each other. I'll check out yer mod and see wot u did thar...Thanks.

If you're comfortable working with dds files, it's fairly straightforward and yes, System Shock's mod would be a good starting point as the biggest part of the job is removing the existing tattoos cleanly.

Oh boy! :rofl:Splendid, dragonbird! really genial

Oh dear. It was supposed to be badass.

 

[Windebieste]

.dds files? no problem. Where are the files located in the game? How can they be extracted and replaced?

Actually, how about a quick tutorial to help others get their own tattoos onto Geralt's neck?

I think people would have fun with playing around with that. I would personally love to see screenshots of what weird and wonderful things people would tattoo onto a drunken Witcher's throat if they had the opportunity.

lol

Thanks.

 

[SystemShock7]

.dds files? no problem. Where are the files located in the game? How can they be extracted and replaced?

Actually, how about a quick tutorial to help others get their own tattoos onto Geralt's neck?

I think people would have fun with playing around with that. I would personally love to see screenshots of what weird and wonderful things people would tattoo onto a drunken Witcher's throat if they had the opportunity.

lol

Thanks.

Keeping in mind I use GIMP to edit .dds files and quickbms for converting .xbm files to .dds and back:

You first need to extract the files from pack0.dzip.
See this post by Ere4s3r on the gog.com forums to learn how to obtain the quickbms utility and the quickbms scripts that you'll need to unpack and convert the files from .xbm to .dds and back to .xbm. (You can also use Gibbed Red Tools to unpack the .dzip files, which you can find on the Witcher Nexus).

All character texture files are in CookedPC/charcaters.
Geralt's tattoo texture is CookedPC/characters/player/model/effects/geralt_tatoo__t1.xbm

Convert geralt_tatoo__t1.xbm to .dds using quickbms (BTW, the xbm extension has nothing to do with xbitmap)
quickbms adds a _DXT1 or _DXT5 to the name of the decompressed .dds. Leave it like that for now, but when saving the .dds in GIMP you will need this bit of info.

When you open the .dds file in GIMP, deselect Load Mipmaps.

Be aware that the area of the .dds is much bigger than the visible in-game area on Geralt's neck, so if editing this tattoo, don't make anything bigger than the tattoo in the .dds. It will not show in-game.

When saving the .dds, choose Save As so you can get the Save As dialog and be able to choose the right compression and generate mipmaps, otherwise GIMP will save the file as "default" and it will not render in-game.

Textures and diffuse maps (diffuse maps have an _s suffix) are saved with BC1/DXT1 compression.
Normal maps (have an _n suffix) are saved with BC3/DXT5 compression.
Make sure you select Generate Mipmaps for all types.

After you convert the .dds to .xbm, rename the .xbm file to remove the _DTX1 or _DXT5 suffix, and drop the file in CookedPC/characters/player/model/effects/geralt_tatoo__t1.xbm

 

[Windebieste]

God dammit... useless trying to download the QuickBMS tool - it results in an archive that won't open. Does anyone have a link to one that works? Gah.

 

[SystemShock7]

God dammit... useless trying to download the QuickBMS tool - it results in an archive that won't open. Does anyone have a link to one that works? Gah.

Works fine for me. Is this the download link you are using?
http://aluigi.altervista.org/papers/quickbms.zip

 

[Windebieste]

I'm finding that the QuickBMS utility is not converting the geralt_tatoo__t1_s.dds successfully to a file.xbm when I select BC1/DXT1 compression in Gimp. I can get it to convert successfully as a BC3/DXT5 file, but I guess normals aren't displayed as a tattoo. Any pointers?

By the way, thanks for all your help.

 

[Corylea.723]

I'm moving this to the Modder's Workshop, since that's where questions about HOW to do things go.

Good luck with your project!

 

[dragonbird]

I have a note to myself from some previous experiment that said that, when compressing,
"If it was a DXT5, select DXT5 ARGB 8 bpp | interpolated alpha and tell it to create mipmaps"

I'm still lost on exactly how DDS handles alpha, there are definitely some files, like Iorveth's cap feather, that are using DXT1 and taking it from (I think) the green channel in the normal map.

I use PS rather than GIMP, I'm afraid, so I don't know how GIMP handles it.

 

[SystemShock7]

I'm finding that the QuickBMS utility is not converting the geralt_tatoo__t1_s.dds successfully to a file.xbm when I select BC1/DXT1 compression in Gimp. I can get it to convert successfully as a BC3/DXT5 file, but I guess normals aren't displayed as a tattoo. Any pointers?

By the way, thanks for all your help.

All applied tattoos (Geralt's, S