Converting q1 skins to png

[Cobalt]

Trying to convert some of the skins in the 250 skins pack for Q1 to be compatable with the new skinning system for the engines that support the newer external skining systems, IE: player.mdl_1.tga - would be an override for skin1 on the player model and so fourth.

I took Primeevils alternate player skin which is in PNG format, and merely converted the old skin to a .png file then made it the same dimensions and pixel depth. The skin seems to wrap around the player, and the pixel septh and res seem to be ok, but for some reason the left side seems to be darkened out on both the front and back of the skin. I used MS photo Premium 10 to do the conversion. Would Gimp be a better choice?

[mankrip]

Can you post a screenshot?

[xaGe]

I've never had an issue with png skins or textures in photoshop from version 7 onward or gimp. I've even been using krita lately a few times too with ok results.

[r00k]

can you batch convert pcx to png with some program?

[qbism]

[Cobalt]

[frag.machine]

The problem seems to be related to the skin being resampled at one point. If you're trying to convert it to a power of two, do not resample the image; add to the right/down.

My pipeline to convert from/back to Q1 skin consists in:
a) load the model in QuArK 4.07;
b) right click the desired skin, "Copy skin";
c) Ctrl+V in any image editor/viewer (for example, as someone already mentioned, Irfanview).

[Cobalt]

[frag.machine]

I stuck on 4.0.7 a looong time ago since it worked well to me. I suspect you may not find it easily to download nowadays.
From what you describe, maybe your QuArK version is saving your 250 individual skins as one single animated skin.
You may want to try QME instead, but be sure to NOT put all skins into a single skin group.

Also, if you change the skin dimensions / proportions it's very likely you are messing up the skin verts mapping.
At least keep the proportions between width and height, otherwise you get the wrong mapping seen in your screenshots.

[Spike]

many quakeworld PLAYER skins are 320*200, but the actual player model uses a smaller size than that (I don't remember exactly, but its not a guessable size). this is problematic because quakeworld engines will STRIP OUT the extra pixels around the side. this allows you to write copyright text or whatever there, and it'll never be uploaded to the gl driver.
when converting such skins to regular model skins, you will need to crop the extra pixels from your image. you can then rescale to 256*256 or whatever if you want to avoid npot issues, but you cannot include the same padding as found in a quakeworld _PLAYER_ skin.
QuakeWorld is special. QuakeWorld's players are special. And by special, I mean that using anything other than the original pcxes is extreemly problematic, from a consistency perspective. Or, in other words, GOTCHA!

open up the mdl in qme or something (read only). Read the skin size. _Crop your original pcx to match that_. Resize that to some larger resolution if you want and re-paint it however you want. Save using your choice of engine's replacement skin texture naming convention. Load your choice of engine.

for bonus points, you should allow for the skin to smear outside of the parts of the texture that are actually used. This avoids the background colour showing through when the model is distant and thus mipmapped. Software rendering did not support mipmapping skin textures, and the vanilla skins lack this. glquake flood-fills the background of skin textures as a way to hide the issue, but this can cause other bugs and is thus typically not done for 32bit textures, so you need to do something similarish yourself.

[Cobalt]

[r00k]

i just downloaded hundreds of qw skins fromt he id1stuff ftp used infraview to view them.
infraview will read the file header and pops up warnings that most files were written as wrong file extensions.
and give u the option to change the filename. i have noticed in the past how these wouldnt load up in other views and u had no idea what format it was originally saved!

[Cobalt]

[r00k]

i noticed that some were same size but were off centered from the original.

It should be possible to create a higher res image. you might have to retouch it with a paint program.