Texture (TEX) Viewer / Converter [Archive]

Max

07-07-2006, 01:19 PM

I've written and released a tool for viewing and converting the TEX files used by Titan Quest into some common image formats. This should be useful for anyone who is interested in making modifications to the textures used in Titan Quest.

You can find the tool here (http://titanquestvault.ign.com/View.php?view=ToolsandEditors.Detail&id=2) at the Titan Quest Vault site.

To get access to the TEX files used by the game you'll need to use a tool to unpack the archives (like the ArchiveTool that ships with the game or one of the tools created by the community). If you're making a mod, you can override a TEX file used by the game by putting your new file in the same directory under the Art Manager that it was located in the original archive.

Although I work at Iron Lore, this tool is something I made in my spare time and isn't an official Iron Lore release. As such, it's not supported by Iron Lore.

Max

Shark

07-07-2006, 01:36 PM

If you wouldnt be from Iron Lore I would say good work! :lol:
So I say, that its time that such a thing was released! :happy:

ok you did it in your spare time so I say not bad! ;)

Prowlinger

07-07-2006, 01:53 PM

Yay! Thank you! :)

hash311

07-07-2006, 02:10 PM

I'm just a souless lurker (<-- See, no avatar!). But I wanted to jump on and say thank you! Taking your spare time to help out the modding community is very noble and kind. Again, thank you.

*Edit* Was just messing with it now. For some reason I can view the .tex file, but I can't seem to save it as another image type (using export, I assume.). It gives me a "error exporting texture." Is there a location that the actual TextureViewer needs to be? I'm sorry if this has been answered already. I'm not worthy.

Phnx

07-07-2006, 02:22 PM

Yeeeehhaaaa!!! I was waiting for this!!!! :D :D :D

Shark

07-07-2006, 02:39 PM

hash you have to add the .psd/.tga/.jpg on the end then it works

Sven

07-07-2006, 03:17 PM

So, we can only replace textures, not allow for new ones? Or am I reading that wrong?

killnpc

07-07-2006, 03:29 PM

"viewing and converting the TEX files ... into some common image formats."

"This should be useful for anyone who is interested in making modifications to the textures"

Happyface

07-07-2006, 03:32 PM

guess i can stop making the converter huh, good call. Saves me time :D

Phnx

07-07-2006, 03:41 PM

guess i can stop making the converter huh, good call. Saves me time :D
You could make a re-converter just like the texture converter, but with reversed function! :)

hash311

07-07-2006, 03:54 PM

Ah, thank you Shark! Very much appreciated!

Slayde2

07-07-2006, 04:05 PM

Thanks Max! You Ironlore guy and gals rock. :clap:

Max

07-07-2006, 04:08 PM

You could make a re-converter just like the texture converter, but with reversed function! :)
That's what the TextureCompiler application that you will find in your Titan Quest directory does. Although generally you don't need to run this yourself since the Art Manager will automatically execute it.

Max

Phnx

07-07-2006, 04:16 PM

Yes, I used this already, but I don't like working with the dos console. It's uncomfortable ;) I am modifying the normal game not custom map so the Art Manager won't work.

Linque

07-07-2006, 05:08 PM

Devynista

07-07-2006, 07:27 PM

Thanks a lot Max :) I've been waiting for this since the day I picked up TQ!

Devynista

07-08-2006, 03:58 PM

I've been trying to replace the texture for the female pc with a modified version. I used the TextureCompiler to turn my TGA into a TEX, and the ArchiveTool to put my TEX into the Creatures.arc file. I've confirmed as best I can that the TEX file in the Creatures.arc are my modified version, by extracting them and viewing them with the Texture Viewer. When I go into the game and make a new character(white a white outfit) it defaults to the original textures though.

The files I'm replacing are femalepc01_white.tex and femalepcskirt01.tex(I decided to just change the white color at the moment, and will do the rest of the colors when I get white working). Am I replacing the wrong files?

Edit: One thing I've noticed is that my files are much bigger than the originals... The original 2 TEXs are 341kb and mine are 1.33MB.

Shark

07-08-2006, 04:17 PM

Linque

07-08-2006, 04:19 PM

The .tex files my Art Manager makes for my custom mod are only about 50 bytes, but I guess they just refer to the .tga files that are in the 'source' folder .. those are 500k-1mb

Though I don't know much about editing the main quest.

Devynista

07-08-2006, 04:30 PM

Hmm Devynista no idea why it dont work for you. The size does not matter because its the same for me but still worked (femalepc01_white.tex) I did not changed the skirt texture though.

maybe pack your texture with winrar or similar tool and put it online so we can look at it?
I'd love it if you(and anyone else out there) would take a look at the files. Here's a link:

http://rapidshare.de/files/25313677/Devynista.rar.html

I included a JPG of the arcexplorer window so you can see that they are in the right place :)

Shark

07-08-2006, 04:50 PM

I edited the file and the file works, but the hair changed just dont show up... i believe the hair must be definded somewhere else?

Also the femalepcskirt01.tex file is not used at all for anything I believe.

Phnx

07-08-2006, 05:08 PM

Devynista

07-08-2006, 05:08 PM

I edited the file and the file works, but the hair changed just dont show up... i believe the hair must be definded somewhere else?
I just checked my game, and noticed that the skin/eye color changes I made do show up, but you're right... The hair stays the same. Time to mess around some more I guess :P

Also the femalepcskirt01.tex file is not used at all for anything I believe.
Well that's good to know. At least I don't have to add that file :)

Edit: It looks like it could possibly be from the femalepc01.tex file... Looking at the texture, it has pieces of the ponytail that aren't visible in the files I originally edited.

Edit2: Or not. That didn't work either :P

Shark

07-08-2006, 05:36 PM

Lol Phnx ;) you misunderstand he used both femalepcskirt01 and femalepc01_white and i just pointed out that femalepcskirt01 is completely unused.

@Devynista the femalepc01.tex is not used either. Its the one from the bikini model(msh) Of course its a must to use the bikini from that texture! for the normal skirt one.
My favourite =

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/3774/zalirahottie8wp.jpg

kencube

07-08-2006, 08:25 PM

the hair file should be EquipmentHelm\femalepc01hairhelmet.tex (without helm) in items.arc

with helm is using another files, but not find out yet.

Shark

07-08-2006, 09:26 PM

the hair file should be EquipmentHelm\femalepc01hairhelmet.tex (without helm) in items.arc

with helm is using another files, but not find out yet.

Ah thats good to know, hope you find out where the with helm is too!

Devynista

07-08-2006, 09:56 PM

the hair file should be EquipmentHelm\femalepc01hairhelmet.tex (without helm) in items.arc

with helm is using another files, but not find out yet.
Thanks for the info! It works perfect for some helmets(the gorgon crown) and without a helmet, of course.

Unfortunately, it looks like the various c_helm* files all have hair textures in them... That means I would have to change the hair color for at least 25 different textures, which seems excessive. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Shark

07-09-2006, 04:28 AM

lets hope its not that much work, but you also could only edit the hemelts you wear anyway. There are so ugly ones i would throw them away, no matter what stats they have. ;)

Devynista

07-09-2006, 06:06 AM

lets hope its not that much work, but you also could only edit the hemelts you wear anyway. There are so ugly ones i would throw them away, no matter what stats they have. ;)
Good point! That's what I'm going to end up doing I think... The alternative is just too much work. It would be one thing if the hair was in the same place in each texture, because then it would just be a matter of copying and pasting(though I'd still have to use the archive tool on each file... yuck!)... but it's not.

Edit: From what I can tell, it looks like almost every helmet model in the game uses it's own hair texture. There are a few exceptions... But even the various circlets seem to use their own texture for hair. So frustrating... I don't want to have to quit the game and edit the texture every time I get a new helmet :P

Devynista

07-09-2006, 02:12 PM

@shark(or anyone else)

I was wondering if you could help me figure something out.

I extracted the entire items.arc file so I could browse through the helms while trying to figure out which ones controlled the hair texture. In equipmenthelm it created two folders that don't show up in arcexplorer -- 'default' and 'uibitmaps'. I decided to start converting some of the common low-level helmet textures to my blonde haired texture, and started with the circletfemale*.tex files which I found in the 'default' folder.

When I try to add the modified textures into equipmenthelm\default, archivetool doesn't give me a "added" message and they don't show up in game. When I add them to just equipmenthelm it puts them in the arc, but they still don't show up in the game(I'm assuming because it's the wrong arc).

Since the 'default' folder doesn't show up in arcexplore, I'm wondering where these files are supposed to go. Any ideas?

Shark

07-09-2006, 02:35 PM

I dont think you should edit that default files only the ones directly in the equipmenthelm folder. (You can look in Art Manager which files are bount to the helms and have to be edited)

Sontrois

07-10-2006, 09:08 AM

What would give you the most lossless conversion, PSD--->TEX or TGA--->TEX?

Shark

07-10-2006, 09:11 AM

I dont think the programm can convert psd to tex. Would surprise me!

So its tga ---> tex.

Sontrois

07-10-2006, 09:25 AM

I dont think the programm can convert psd to tex. Would surprise me!

So its tga ---> tex.

Actually you can, that's what I've been doing, figuring that PSD is completely uncompressed....

Shark

07-10-2006, 09:30 AM

Thats good to know lol. I never tried that because I thought it would not be possible... how large are the psd files becoming after converting?

Max

07-10-2006, 09:43 AM

Sontrois

07-10-2006, 10:00 AM

The PSDs are uncompressed and they tend to be big, but that's what we used for all of our source artwork since it allows you the most flexibility with layers, etc.

If you've using Photoshop CS you need to make sure you have compatibility mode turned on in the file options.

Max

Cool, thanks that's good to know. That way we can edit the textures without worrying about losing image quality. I always thought TGA was uncompressed as well, I may be wrong...

berserkqy

07-10-2006, 01:31 PM

I can't seem to save it as another image type,It gives me a "error exporting texture." How to use it?
I want change my Character's skin color,but I don't know how can do it...Who can teach me? I need help~~~~

Shark

07-10-2006, 01:32 PM

Add .tga/.psd at the end

berserkqy

07-10-2006, 01:57 PM

Thank you~~~I did it~
But I don't know convert tga to tex...how convert tga to tex?

Sontrois

07-10-2006, 02:12 PM

Thank you~~~I did it~
But I don't know convert tga to tex...how convert tga to tex?

You need to use the Texturecompiler included in the TQ directory. It's a command line program, so you need to run it from the command prompt.

Kampfschaf

07-13-2006, 05:18 PM

With wich Command Line I compile TGA to TEX?

Prowlinger

07-17-2006, 08:29 AM

Can someone here compile a how to guide and I will link it to the Editing post?

Thanks

Sven

07-17-2006, 08:40 AM

How to do what exactly?

Sober_Sean

07-17-2006, 02:23 PM

cd c:\

c:\texturecompiler "pc\female\femalepc01_gold.tga" "pc\female\femalepc01_gold.tex" -format .tex

That is the shorthand version of how you should be doing this. Took me like an hour to figure that out on my own. Haven't used command line since like 7th grade. I'm 33 now.

Basically the first paramater is the file you want to change, ie. the "tga" file. The second parameter is the name of the file you want your changed file to become, ie. the .tex file.
The third paramater is the command to format that file into a .tex file.

If you just type in :\texturecompiler, it gives you a rough outline of how to do this, but the above syntax that I typed in is how I got this to work.

Prowlinger

07-17-2006, 03:16 PM

Sober_Sean

07-17-2006, 10:17 PM

Does anyone know what BMP format to use for the "heightmap" dds/bmp images for textures (psd/tga)? I am using the Nvidia tools to do it but they are not looking anywhere close to the right MIP settings...

Thanks!

I use the export as "DXT5" setting with the Nvidia DDS converter/exporter for photoshop, making sure to use all the default settings.

I came to the conclusion that DXT5 was used as the compression algorhythim (sp) after poking around in the Texture Viewer and examining the properties of some of the textures.

DXT5, interpolated alpha. Just make your normal map (bump map) with the DDS converter and save out as DXT5 in .tga format, then use texturecompiler commandline to convert this .tga file to a .tex file. Use the exact same naming convention that the .msh file needs or you wont' get accurate results, or any results for that matter.

For example, the normal map for the female skirt texture is named something like "pcskirt01_bmp.tex". That is the name that the pcskirt01.msh is going to try and lookup for it's bump map, and if the name is different, it won't access anything, or it will access the file you have in the archives already with the proper name.

Now, given that the Nvidia DDS plugin produces some pretty low quality normal maps, (compared to making them yourself professionally) they *work* and that's what's important. :)

Prowlinger

07-18-2006, 09:05 AM

I notice that no matter how I try to compress textures, they are not compressing at all. What is normally a 300k file from the original TQ/IL, is
compiled to around 1.5mbs using the free Texture Compiler.

Is this something that can be addressed or will be addressed?

Reason is that after doing about 50 texture changes... in theory and memory... using the current texture compiler... that equals 75mbs vs. 15mbs... We can't seriously expect computers to run well with ratios like that...
Even my power system starts chugging now...

What if we compress the TGA before compiling? Will this help? What TGA format do we need to use then?

Max? Anyone? :errf:

Sober_Sean

07-18-2006, 01:27 PM

Prowlinger, you're doing something very wrong if your 512x512 .tga files are coming out as 75 megabytes.

.tga files in themselves, just open one up from the game resources in photoshop. Go to image/image size and check the aspect ratio and file size.

Then work from that. Get your image to be that size first, then export. Don't start with some ridiculously large image then expect it magically to get compressed. Tga files aren't really a compression format as much as they are a format that supports alpha transparency. You could compress them, but why? Just start with a small enough file then save out.

75mb .tga would have to be HUGE.

For example, the 512x512 .tga images ripped from the TQ resource archives weigh in at around 768k each. That's the .tga format. I'm not quite sure what if any compression takes place after converting to .tex, but still, 768k versus your claim of 75mb, shows me that you're not understanding properly the method of creating a texture file in the first place.

All retexturing operations are and have been working fine for most everyone else while retexturing TQ, including myself.

Go ahead and put a step by step up of what you're doing, what you're trying to do and link to the images as well so we can see what it is you're doing wrong, then pinpoint it. You should not be working with any file that is 75 megs unless you're messing with video or audio. :lol:

Prowlinger

07-18-2006, 01:30 PM

I am basing this on (50) textures changed @ 1.5mbs each...

When I compile 1 TGA / PSD to a TEX... it is roughly 1.5mbs

Somehow Ironlore got the exact same TEX to be around 300k

There has to be a reason or solution why... I am changing alot of textures and do not want to use 250% more ram space than what is actually needed... but the real question is... why is texture compiler making such big TEX files ?