Help with editing Texture DDS files

[DrGorillaNuts]

Hey all, I know I'm late to the party but I recently got the Wrestling Legends mod and LOVE it! I've wanted to add some quality of life updates to it, primarily texture editing.

I can't for the life of me find a tutorial on doing this though. I am able to extract the DDS file for the CH PAC of Superstars. When I load it into Photoshop, I can see the texture image.

A few problems I'm running into:

After editing the texture in Photoshop, the DDS file is saved at a bigger file size. I can't inject the texture back into X-Packer cuz of this.

Also, is it as simple as extracting the DDS, editing in Photoshop, and injecting back in? I feel like I'm cutting corners.

Any help is appreciated! I wish this game had a Discord or a fan base still, cuz I so want to see it explode in popularity again!

[XIII XHP]

I have an ECW Rhino attire mod I want to replace with the DLC Rhino character (he has his TNA attire but I want everyone in the game to fit a certain time period) so once this gets answered, I can update him as well.  I want to make sure when I do texture mods, though, that the normal maps & everything work properly.  I've seen so many awesome mods on this site that have so much detail that pops out when you properly edit the normal maps.  @Red Rooster & @bugsyboy are a huge help on this site.

[MKKHAN]

7 hours ago, DrGorillaNuts said:

Hey all, I know I'm late to the party but I recently got the Wrestling Legends mod and LOVE it! I've wanted to add some quality of life updates to it, primarily texture editing.

I can't for the life of me find a tutorial on doing this though. I am able to extract the DDS file for the CH PAC of Superstars. When I load it into Photoshop, I can see the texture image.

A few problems I'm running into:

After editing the texture in Photoshop, the DDS file is saved at a bigger file size. I can't inject the texture back into X-Packer cuz of this.

Also, is it as simple as extracting the DDS, editing in Photoshop, and injecting back in? I feel like I'm cutting corners.

Any help is appreciated! I wish this game had a Discord or a fan base still, cuz I so want to see it explode in popularity again!

use this link for help
https://www.mediafire.com/file/eyp10hiio0fsyi1/Texturing_Tutorial.docx/file

 

 

Edited March 18, 2021 by MKKHAN

[DrGorillaNuts]

Thanks for the replies @XIII XHP and @MKKHAN ! That tutorial doc is exactly what I was looking for!!! Can't wait to try this and see if I can get it working.

XIII, I sent you a DM too. I saw in another post you were working on similar projects with Wrestling Legends. I'd love to chat about your ideas and I can share mine. My primary goal right now is updating some texture files using my WWE 2K19-20 Face textures I've created, to basically give more details. I'll have to look more into the mip mapping thing you mentioned (I'm totally unfamiliar with modding, but decent at graphics editing). I could help create some Attire designs, and/or textures for you too.

I'll try to upload some pics of updated textures I'm working on. Right now though I have no idea how they'll transfer in-game 😂

[DrGorillaNuts]

Edit: nevermind, it's working!!

I'll show some preview shots of the updated IRS texture for Wrestling Legends. A few things about his model that bothered me were primarily the suspenders, since real suspenders don't cross to form an X in the back. That's fixed (texture wise). Only issue with it is there's slight indents where they used to be, however it's very hard to see. I'm assuming I'd need Blender or 3DS Max to redo that.

I also added some wrinkle details to the shirt that get away from that harsh flat white shirt he had! Now if I could only fix some of the morphing on his face.

Edited March 18, 2021 by DrGorillaNuts

[XIII XHP]

5 hours ago, DrGorillaNuts said:

Thanks for the replies @XIII XHP and @MKKHAN ! That tutorial doc is exactly what I was looking for!!! Can't wait to try this and see if I can get it working.

XIII, I sent you a DM too. I saw in another post you were working on similar projects with Wrestling Legends. I'd love to chat about your ideas and I can share mine. My primary goal right now is updating some texture files using my WWE 2K19-20 Face textures I've created, to basically give more details. I'll have to look more into the mip mapping thing you mentioned (I'm totally unfamiliar with modding, but decent at graphics editing). I could help create some Attire designs, and/or textures for you too.

I'll try to upload some pics of updated textures I'm working on. Right now though I have no idea how they'll transfer in-game 😂

 

That's what's up.  I'm waiting to hear back from Rad Tools about this updated Bink & Smacker that makes the trons in HD.  I have so many trons that are already done & a bunch more that I still need to finish but they'll all be specific to the 70's through early 2000's.  I need to change a few renders as well.  We will definitely have to collab & share ideas. 

 

I like how you said you fixed IRS.  I know Chris Jericho's WCW slot has an attire that has a black stripe going up his back that needs to be fixed (somebody didn't line up the texture properly for that mod). 

 

I was going to update Kane's bald (main) character slot to have his Brothers of Destruction attire as the main attire (I think it was from 2k16 or 17 so I'd set it to where you can make the Survivor Series red alternate attire in Superstar Threads), then use that model to update the Wrestlemania 18 attire & the other mods of that attire  that were made from his old long sleeved model.  Basically, the only other attires he'd have are the debut attire, reverse colors version of that, double sleeved attire, 2 other variations of the Brothers of Destruction attire aside from the red alt, his 2002 half masked attire, his bald model but with the tights from Wrestlemania 21 & one of his new masked Kane attires from 2k15.  If I can switch out this 2002 half masked atttire's head with his bald model's head, I'd rather have that attire included than his newer 2k15 one, but that's where the Kane pack stands at the moment.  My Undertaker slots are pretty fresh at the moment, but I have to double check what attires I gave him again.  I think I took out his mohawk attire & added another classic one but I forget which one.

 

Mankind's in-game slot (the one with the white shirt) has his call name & acts like the brown shirt Mankind should, so I wanted to switch their slots.  That's part of the reason why I switched Kane's slot with the masked one.  Certain character slots have specific actions built into them (Undertaker, HBK, Kane, etc.)  I also want to switch out the brown shirt Mankind's boots with the ones from CAW mode.  I might be able to make that happen with X-Rey, but I need some help with that...

 

These are just a few of the changes I'm working on / already made.  I know my Shawn Michaels' character slot is updated because he has certain entrance music set for certain attires, so for instance I believe the one attire for Wrestlemania 23 has his DX entrance music set so whenever you select that attire, that's the only music that will work, so I ended up switching out that attire with his DX tights.  Simple details like this make the game so much fresher!  We will definitely talk homie!!

[DrGorillaNuts]

I'm going to get the appropriate tools to take proper screenshots on my Xbox 360, but in the mean time here's some pictures from my phone of the updates!

Updated:

Much improved facial texture (based off my 2K19 Face Photo). New details: added purple hue under the eyes, improved skin texture, more pronounced details such as mole to the right of his nose and laugh lines, added stubble around mouth, more accurate lip coloring

Added some wrinkle details to the shirt

Added shirt pocket texture with "IRS" on it

WIP - Fixing the tie to make it accurate with the white flowers/blue swirls

Fixed the texture of his suspenders crossing to form an X in the back

Added suspender clips at the pants, with the gold trim

** One thing I have to figure out is how to change the texture indentation at the back where the suspenders cross. I did see that extracting DDS from the 000A file has textures, but I'm not sure how to edit that yet.

In game though it's a massive improvement already!

1 hour ago, XIII XHP said:

 

That's what's up.  I'm waiting to hear back from Rad Tools about this updated Bink & Smacker that makes the trons in HD.  I have so many trons that are already done & a bunch more that I still need to finish but they'll all be specific to the 70's through early 2000's.  I need to change a few renders as well.  We will definitely have to collab & share ideas. 

 

I like how you said you fixed IRS.  I know Chris Jericho's WCW slot has an attire that has a black stripe going up his back that needs to be fixed (somebody didn't line up the texture properly for that mod). 

 

I was going to update Kane's bald (main) character slot to have his Brothers of Destruction attire as the main attire (I think it was from 2k16 or 17 so I'd set it to where you can make the Survivor Series red alternate attire in Superstar Threads), then use that model to update the Wrestlemania 18 attire & the other mods of that attire  that were made from his old long sleeved model.  Basically, the only other attires he'd have are the debut attire, reverse colors version of that, double sleeved attire, 2 other variations of the Brothers of Destruction attire aside from the red alt, his 2002 half masked attire, his bald model but with the tights from Wrestlemania 21 & one of his new masked Kane attires from 2k15.  If I can switch out this 2002 half masked atttire's head with his bald model's head, I'd rather have that attire included than his newer 2k15 one, but that's where the Kane pack stands at the moment.  My Undertaker slots are pretty fresh at the moment, but I have to double check what attires I gave him again.  I think I took out his mohawk attire & added another classic one but I forget which one.

 

Mankind's in-game slot (the one with the white shirt) has his call name & acts like the brown shirt Mankind should, so I wanted to switch their slots.  That's part of the reason why I switched Kane's slot with the masked one.  Certain character slots have specific actions built into them (Undertaker, HBK, Kane, etc.)  I also want to switch out the brown shirt Mankind's boots with the ones from CAW mode.  I might be able to make that happen with X-Rey, but I need some help with that...

 

These are just a few of the changes I'm working on / already made.  I know my Shawn Michaels' character slot is updated because he has certain entrance music set for certain attires, so for instance I believe the one attire for Wrestlemania 23 has his DX entrance music set so whenever you select that attire, that's the only music that will work, so I ended up switching out that attire with his DX tights.  Simple details like this make the game so much fresher!  We will definitely talk homie!!

Oh man I need those HD Trons from the 70s-2000s!  That's going to be my primary eras for my tweaks too (with an emphasis on the 80's/90's).  I can't wait to see what you got!

Yeah I've noticed a few things that irk me too like you mentioned about the Jericho.  LOVE what the gang did with this game, I just wish we knew about this project back in the day to help add contributions like we are today haha.. It would have been real nice to be able to work with the pros on these things, cuz I'm basically learning everything right now.

I'll need those Kane and Taker packs when you're done!  LOL.. I agree that there was a bit too many modern Kane/Taker packs that I wouldn't mind replacing.  I'd love to get the classic Taker ones you're working on.  I always love throwing in Taker from when he faced off against the imposter Undertaker (grey vs purple gloves).  Kane I'm good with simply his debut look, and a few iterations of that.  Never cared for his bald look personally.

You'll have to educate me with X-Rey, and some of the switching around you're working on.  Actually I noticed the same thing about HBK, and had no idea how to fix the theme song issue!  You're gonna have to walk me through that, cuz I noticed that too almost immediately.  Another big thing I've wanted to do is swap out some lesser used models for more Double J Jeff Jarrett attires.  If you can help with any of that definitely let me know!

I'm excited to find some other users here still working on quality of life updates to this mod!  Let's definitely get a head count on others who wanna tweak things.  If there's nobody else left, then we'll put our heads together haha

[Red Rooster]

The indent of where the suspenders where will need to be edited in the normal.dds in 000A and also possibly in the alpha channel of that file too which adds shininess. 

 

IRS is looking good!

Edited March 18, 2021 by Red Rooster

[DrGorillaNuts]

3 minutes ago, Red Rooster said:

The indent of where the suspenders where will need to be edited in the normal.dds in 000A and also possibly in the alpha channel of that file too which adds shininess. 

Ohh ok, that's what I was thinking. I extracted it and noticed it in that file. I'm gonna forego emailing you about that one cuz I know I've been swamping your inbox 🤣 Some Google searching should help me with that part!

Hopefully after getting a hang of that, I can look into X-Rey and 3D Studio Max to start morphing the model a bit. Primarily I just want to fix some of his facial structure (the forehead and eyes), and then look into animating his face cuz I noticed IRS doesn't have any facial animations!

Thanks for all your help thus far!

Edited March 18, 2021 by DrGorillaNuts

[Red Rooster]

3 hours ago, XIII XHP said:

 

I know my Shawn Michaels' character slot is updated because he has certain entrance music set for certain attires, so for instance I believe the one attire for Wrestlemania 23 has his DX entrance music set so whenever you select that attire, that's the only music that will work, so I ended up switching out that attire with his DX tights.  

With the discoveries regarding having different entrance animations and different theme music for alt attires on PC you could probably look into fixing that. We had no knowledge of how that worked when we made Wrestling Legends so we just had to stick with how the slots worked in the default game

[XIII XHP]

4 hours ago, Red Rooster said:

With the discoveries regarding having different entrance animations and different theme music for alt attires on PC you could probably look into fixing that. We had no knowledge of how that worked when we made Wrestling Legends so we just had to stick with how the slots worked in the default game

I liked changing the pach for the DX slot to the black & green DX tights attire, because I wanted it to be a DX only attire anyway, so it worked out for me.  I only play the Legends mod on RGH 360, so if it's a simple attire swap to make it work, I don't mind that.  I'm trying to remember what other attires worked like that.  I have a whole list of updates that I've been going through & finding while playing the game.  I might have messed up my save somewhere along the way, though, because it hasn't been letting me create new stables or change members anymore.  I used to be able to.  It could have been when I was fixing renders or injecting CAWs that I was fixing (the ones I was telling you about).  I've been doing a complete rehaul of the CAWs, trons & themes, then preparing to replace the renders & some attires I felt needed to be changed to fit the timeline.

@DrGorillaNuts that IRS looks great!  To add more attires for Double J (I want to add more for him as well), I would recommend taking somebody who you don't mind only having one attire out of the misc.pac when you edit in X-Packer & replace their number with his.  One that I did right away was replacing Benoit's main roster slot with his WCW DLC one so I could use the other slot for someone else.  His DLC slot only has one attire now so Jarrett can have multiple.  Make sense??