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[Master Reefed]

First off, Forza is a great game, and everybody that owns an XBOX should buy this game.

I've seen some awesome cars made with all the tools released recently, and have been watching these forums daily for any new info to help me.

I downloaded the trial version of photoshop, and OMG there is alot of shit you can do to a picture...all I want, is to make a few of my pics work as decals or vinals.

Is there an easy way to do this, or should I just give up and wait for one of these X-scene geniuses to make an easy picmaker/injector/installer?

I know there are many of "me" out there, who would ABSOLUTELY LOVE to be able to make there own decals and/or vinals.

any useful links to help me figure out WTF?
or someone who is bored wanna whip up a quick tutorial (for dummys, not like the one that Angerwound wrote, that one was not for Dummys)


but all in all, what I have seen has been amazing.
good shit!





I have a modded box for making the cars, and an unmodded box to sell em to for LIVE.

I have allready extracted the decals and vinals...just need to know how to make pics work in their place

[Dagoth]

Paint shop pro is probably easier than photoshop to start to learn

1. get an image
2. resize to 128x128 (or multiple ie. 256x256, 256x128)
3. reduce colours to 8bit
4. save as TGA
5. if image is over 128x128 then use tgatotiles to break down into size

ie tgatotiles 128 128 image.tga decal

this will create 2 images, decal000 and decal001 (if the image.tga file is 256x128)

6. repeat for all your other images
7. extract the decals.bin file to a folder using the following command forzabindump.decals.bin
8. relace the newly extracted decals000 & 001 etc files with you own images, keeping the filenames in the same format (decals000,001 etc)

9. use the forzabinpack decals.bin command to repack the decals.bin file
10. FTP this file back to your forza/media directory

11. apply decals in game..


if you want to learn about transparency then look at pedros's sticky at the top of this forum

[brienj]

Photoshop sucks?  Err, what is that all about?  

Photoshop is about the best graphical editor on the market, I'd suggest learning how to use it before you bash it.  

[Master Reefed]

Did you even read my post man?

 I did state in my post above, that this program could do anything, BUT, it is anything BUT user friendly.

I cant even get past the resizing to 128x128, Ive googled the shit outve it!

whenever I choose Image/Image size it gives me the option to change height and width, but when I make one 128, the other is autocalculated (cause my image isnt square I guess)

I'll keep trying,thx for the reply Dagoth, much appreciated

But with Angerwounds tut open in one window, and now Dagoth's tut (above) open in this window. I'm slowly but surely figuring out what I need to do.

I have no problems with decal/vinal injection/ejection thats easy...so I will just try one pic over and over again replacing that first decal, till I get it to work.I will then go from there

[Master Reefed]

 wOOt got one pic to work!


all I did was open the first decal000 and compared some settings/ changed my pic to indexed color just like the one in the game and it worked!

thank you so very much Dagoth, for narrowing down that tutorial for me, and putting it in easy terms.  

[brienj]

QUOTE(Master Reefed @ Jul 10 2005, 04:22 PM)

Did you even read my post man?

[Master Reefed]

 lol so far every pic I've put in (only 5 so far...had to go to work) I have only had to change the same two things. change it to indexed color, and make sure 128 is the biggest dimention of it.

Now I have to move onto the Transparency tutorials...(o boy)
cause my pictures could be smoother, with no outlined edges thats for sure.


whats up with forzacustoms.info?

[Dagoth]

Easy transparency tutorial.

this is using PSP (which I find easier for this stage - I use a combination of Photoshop & PSP)

1. decrease your image to 8 bit colour
2. fill the background with green 0, 255, 0
3. increase the image to 1000% using the + key
4. define the outline the image using the green colour and a small 1 pixel brush (i.e. fill in all the haltone greens that the fill has probably created - this may take you some time but the results will be worth it)
5. save your image as a TGA  (i.e test.tga)
6. copy your image to the same folder as your TGAPAL24to32 file
run the following in a command prompt (after you have navigated to the folder location where the file is) TGAPAL24to32 -e test.tga edit.txt this command will extract the alpha cahhnel information to a text file called edit.tga from your newly saved test.tga file
7. look at the contents of the text file for the following information 0 255 0   255
8. the 255 value at the end needs to be replaced with a zero - this will make your green colour you set as a background transparent. (if you use photoshop sometimes you will need to edit the 0 254 0 palette colour as well)
9. save and close the text file after you have made the changes
10. run the TGAPAL24to32 program again using the following command TGAPAL24to32 -i test.tga edit.txt - this inserts your changes back into the tga file
11. rename the test.tga file as decal000.tga
12. repack the new decal into the decals.bin file as normal (forzabinpack)
13.  FTP back to xbox

It is probably best to start with something simple like text (with a transparenyt background - as the outlines are simple to define)

It will take you a couple of tries to get right, but just keep trying. Other people perform this in different ways - but I have found that I get the best results for my images using something similar to the above method.

once you have mastered that then you can move on to bigger images 256x256 etc, It's easier if you edit the transparency first then use the TGA to tiles program afterwards to create the 128x128 images

[Dagoth]

QUOTE(Master Reefed @ Jul 11 2005, 06:40 AM)

whats up with forzacustoms.info?

the fornt page is not working - try this link http://phpbb-host.co...um=forzacustoms

[PedrosPad]

QUOTE(Dagoth @ Jul 11 2005, 10:19 AM)

6. copy your image to the same folder as your TGAPAL24to32 file

[Dagoth]

QUOTE(PedrosPad @ Jul 12 2005, 10:43 AM)

Using TGAPal24to32's replace command can be used to replace the above 4 steps 
TGAPAL24to32 -r test.tga 0 255 0 255 0 255 0 0

DOH!    I really should read the readme's & forum posts  

[Exodus989]

Where are those files located on my xbobx hdd?

[Dagoth]

QUOTE(Exodus989 @ Jul 15 2005, 03:42 AM)

Where are those files located on my xbobx hdd?

[Exodus989]

Hmm, I guess I couldn't do this, seems you gotta have the game copied to the xbox...  Too big with a stock hdd. I figured you could just copy a  car you made and edit the template, then ftp it back...

[PedrosPad]

QUOTE(Exodus989 @ Jul 15 2005, 11:20 PM)

Hmm, I guess I couldn't do this, seems you gotta have the game copied to the xbox...  Too big with a stock hdd. I figured you could just copy a  car you made and edit the template, then ftp it back...