Damage textures .. how to create?

[+sophocles]

Hello All, I'd like to make some damage textures from scratch, could someone walk me through the creation process?

 

Thanks in advance!

[+gerwin]

I take the newer stock Damage Textures as a base. Not the ones with just small bullet holes.

Fuselage-ones for another fuselage and wing-ones for a new wing.

Then I put the plane texture/skin in the background and decide on moving the damage areas to suitable places above the texture/skin. When done I remove the texture/skin and save my work.

Now there is bit of a problem: I need to move both RGB channel and Alpha channel in the exact same way. But I don't know how to do this automatically. So in photoshop I mostly use keyboard arrows (with or without shift pressed) to nudge these sections in RGB channel. Then I remember how many times I hit the arrow key and repeat that same thing for the Alpha channel, so they line up again.

[+sophocles]

4 minutes ago, gerwin said:

Now there is bit of a problem: I need to move both RGB channel and Alpha channel in the exact same way. But I don't know how to do this automatically. So in photoshop I mostly use keyboard arrows (with or without shift pressed) to nudge these sections in RGB channel. Then I remember how many times I hit the arrow key and repeat that same thing for the Alpha channel, so they line up again.

Thanks for your prompt reply, but I'm not quite sure what you mean about moving the RGB and Alpha channel in the right way? and why would they need to be re-alligned??

[+gerwin]

Yeah, as usual a picture does better then words. So I made and attached one.

This is the stock F-14A '77 and for this purpose I opened it twice to show the alpha channel beside it. But normally you work in the RGB *OR* the Alpha channel.

Now this damage texture has the damaged areas above the nose section, which is obvious because I temporarely put the texture/skin there as well, as a faint overlay. Cockpit areas and gear have been excluded.

But when you use this damage texture as a template for a new object, surely it won't be matched like this. Damaged areas will be on odd nodes. So then I move the areas around, photoshop calls that 'Nudge'. Sometimes I copy/remove/mirror some damage areas as well. But it is all a bit annoying since any such action in the RGB channel should be repeated for the Alpha channel in about the same way. 

In the example picture I show a selection to nudge part of the damage area, into a new place. When done in the RGB channel. I want to move just the selection area back to the shown position (or make a new similar selection area) and do the same nudge in the Alpha channel.

Edit: it makes sense to start with a damage texture that is quite filled with damaged areas overall, unlike this one below. Since it is easier to remove then to add new damaged areas.

 

Edited July 21, 2019 by gerwin

[+gerwin]

One way I just thought up:

Right before messing around in the RGB channel, use the Photoshop feature to 'Record' the actions. Stop the recording when done.

Then make an image with the Alpha channel copied into the background layer. Press 'Play' on the recorded action, and photoshop will give you an Alpha channel to match.

[Blade]

Here is my method:
1. Load up a skin for the aircraft you need a damage tga for.
2. Open an existing damage tga. (I prefer stock ones, since they look quite good.)
3. Load the alpha channel as a selection from the damage tga.
4. Copy the selection, then insert it over the skin of the aircraft as a new layer.
5. Move, rotate and resize the holes as needed and delete all unnecessary parts. Since you do not have an alpha channel yet, there is no need to edit it separately.
6. Make a new layer between the skin and the edited damage graphics and make it solid black.
7. Select the damage layer, load the transparency of the layer as a selection, then save it as an alpha channel.
8. Merge all the layers, then save it as a tga with the proper name. (If you want to keep it as a damage template, then save it as a psd document before merging.)

[+gerwin]

Nice one! I suppose it is both a bit easier this way. And better for previewing the results.

[Blade]

16 minutes ago, gerwin said:

And better for previewing the results.

Exactly. During the course of editing, the project can be saved as a regular texture file for the aircraft in question. Then, using Mue's excellent LOD viewer, you can see how the damage would look like.

[+sophocles]

Thankyou gentlemen.  Gerwin and Blade,  you have been most helpful!!! Cheers!!

[+russouk2004]

Blades method is so easy great m8..paintshop pro lets you select alpha channel to an image..then lets you save it back later....psp is quick tho.

hmmm they are for exposed damaged parts....cant remember how to make such as Blade has above show...can we have multi Damage entires in ini ?

[DamageTexture]
DamagedPostFix=Seafang_01_damage.DDS     which is for wings texture\mesh, how does it apply others to other textures\meshes ?

Seafang_02_damage.DDS    is for fuselage texture and so on

Edited July 27, 2019 by russouk2004

[Wrench]

Indeed, if there are multiple textures for skins, the damage texture name MUST match the skins exactly

[+gerwin]

11 hours ago, russouk2004 said:

[DamageTexture]

DamagedPostFix=Seafang_01_damage.DDS    

 

One does not put the full filename here. But the postfix. For the above object that would be:

DamagedPostFix=_damage.dds

The games uses this bit in combination with the normal texture names, to get the different file names.

[+russouk2004]

was thinking about this earlier and recalled names of texture matched dam tga and or ddsand thought it may be the case ,thanks for confirming...so this should be correct.. ?

Seafang_01.jpg  Seafang_02.jpg   Seafang_03.jpg

and corresponding Damage textures

Seafang_01_Dam.DDS  Seafang_02_Dam.DDS  Seafang_03_Dam.DDS

DamagedPostFix= _Dam.DDS  /must they be DDS?/ seems not

though must be in aircrafts main folder.

cheers guys

you`d think after all this time I would have know this lol

Edited July 27, 2019 by russouk2004

[+gerwin]

37 minutes ago, russouk2004 said:

was thinking about this earlier and recalled names of texture matched dam tga and or ddsand thought it may be the case ,thanks for confirming...so this should be correct.. ?

....

DamagedPostFix= _Dam.DDS  /must they be DDS?/ seems not

 

 

 

Looks good like that. :)

(Since you use .tga images: DamagedPostFix= _Dam.tga of course)

[Wrench]

tgas are more than fine. 

[+russouk2004]

cheers guys tga`s less mb`s