[TUTORIAL] Editing Weapon skins via QuARK and Wally

This is a method to bypass the restrictions the devs gave us (not having access to the original blender files). In this tutorial, we will be replacing the Colt's secondary texture (works as primary as well, just to test of course) to one that we have made. Please make a backup of your .mdl files before doing this people!


Prerequisites:

1. .mdl quake model file (we will be using "v_colt" which is located in /progs/Vmodels/
2. QuARK
3. Wally
4. Palette file "palette.lmp" located in /gfx/


Step 1:

- Install both of those editors. Wally is an incredible piece of software that sadly is not updated anymore, but still remains to be one of my favorite Quake texture editors. QuARK looks scary, but it's not a big deal.

Step 2:

- Open QuARK and select "File --> Model Importers --> .mdl Quake 1"


- Select your file (v_colt.mdl in this case)


Step 3:

- Your screen should look something like the picture, just go to the bottom left panel to check out the attributes of the model (frames, skins, etc).


- Click on the + next to the Skins to show the skins currently on that gun. This will show us if the skin is imported later on.

- Right click and select "Save skin file" and export as .pcx. Save somewhere handy


Step 4:

- Go to "Toolboxes" in the menu and select "Texture Browser" and a new window should appear


- Open Wally

- "File --> Open" and select your skin you just exported


- Check the palette on the right and make sure it matches the one below:

IMAGE

- If the palette does not, then close the current file, go to "View --> Options" and select the "Palettes" tab. If it does match, then you're fine. Continue to Step 5.


- Select "use this palette" for the Quake 1 option and select the "palette.lmp" located in NZP's /gfx/ folder


- Smash that "OK" button

Step 5:

- Edit whatever the hell you want your new gun to look like. In this case, I'll be copying the classic Beta 1.1 Pack-a-Punch from another exported file ONLY use the colours in the palette.


- Save the .pcx when you're done

Step 6:

- Back to QuARK, if your "Texture Browser" window disappeared, go menu and select it again. It didn't do any harm.

- Select the current skin file (v_colt) and then hit "Edit --> Import Files --> Import (copy) files" and select your newest skin you just edited


- If you see some error about the default add-ons or whatever, ignore it and hit "OK". You guys don't need to worry about that.


- Select your skin you just imported, right click, and select "Open." It will throw that bad boy into your current model you have loaded in the main window.

IF YOU WANT TO SEE THIS IN ACTION, SELECT "v_colt" FROM THE BOTTOM LEFT PANEL AND DELETE THE ORIGINAL SKIN. THE ONLY REASON I DO NOT IS BECAUSE OF THE CODE I'VE WRITTEN FOR THIS. So if you want to actually see it, delete the first skin by selecting it in the "skins" folder in the model root (bottom left) and hitting the "delete" key or by right clicking and selecting delete.

- "File --> Save as" that bad boy and select "classic Quake .mdl file" and then save your model under a new name or overwrite the one you imported (if you took a backup before).


- Make sure to copy/paste your weapon into the directory to overwrite the old file

- Load up a game, check out your new weapon (you must buy it or start with it (Colt)).


Have fun,


Naievil