How to Mod Texture (TXR) and Split-Image (SPT) files

Overview

This guide is for all of those who want to start and play with texture modding.This option is now available with the ‘Relic IC Image Parser’ tool.

Intro

This guide is written for those who already familiar with the RICIP tool and have already downloaded it.

For those who don’t meet these requirements, there is a user guide to learn about the tool and download the latest version of it, and it can be found here:
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2080816778
In addition I assume that you have already extracted the archives that come with the game, so you will be able to actually mod, and you are familiar with the RDN tools.

If not, fear not! Here is an excellent guide from a fellow modder MemoryOfAlessa on how to get started:
[link]

The Beginning

So… you want to start re-texturing IC huh…
Very well, let’s begin.

The first step (and the most important one probably…), is to get a hold of a collection of all of the textures, but in a PNG format.
This way you will be able to scan quickly for textures without exporting them one by one just to realize that you are far away from what you are looking for…

Luckily for you, I have created such a collection especially for you to use:
Download IC Texture Collection[github.com]

Ok, now that we have our collection, lets start modding!

Choosing A Model

The next logical step is to choose a model to mod.

For the best example, we all love them, we all use them, we all depend on them…
THE HENCHMEN!!

Yes, yes, we are going to mod the henchmen a bit, so to start off let’s locate the henchman model.
To start off, all of the models are placed at this location:

Then, after looking at the folders there, we can assume that the henchman model will be under the folder:

After navigating to it, for our surprise, here it is!

Now that we have found the model, you might ask yourselves, why is it important to locate it?
Well, you need to see how the textures are placed on the model, and that can be accomplished by opening the model in ObjectEditor.exe, this is the best way in my opinion and you need the model file for that.
But, if it is easier for you, you can also look at it in the MissionEditor.exe or launch a game match to investigate the model.

Locating The Textures

Go to your freshly downloaded texture collection and start looking for the files that start with the word ‘henchman’ and look like they might be related to the henchman model.
I have found mine, and here they are:

Normally you would start investigating yourselves to figure out which textures need changing, and doing so by changing a texture file and checking if the model has changed.
But since we are doing a guide here, I will help you a bit and tell you which textures need changing:

That is it! we are done.
Onto the next step…

Applying New Textures

In this step we will edit the textures so when launching a game our henchmen will have a freshly created textures 😀

You can edit things yourself and do what ever you want, but I want to add hair and a mustache to my henchman:

1. First, I have added hair and a mustache to the texture:
   
2. Second, I have turned the PNG into a texture file using the RICIP tool.
3. And third, I have placed it in the folder:
   [IC_ROOT]/Data/Art/Textures/

And this is how the body texture looks like when adding hair:

Look at this sexy fellow!

Next thing is… a bit of fun >:)

A Bit Of Fun

WHOA!!!!

Well… I think you are ready to do what ever you want to the game’s textures, it might take you a bit to get used to the whole process, but now you know the whole of it.

These are the textures that I used by the way, the rest are the originals.

And before you go, I recommend you to read the next sections on how the texturing mechanism works from the inside and how to troubleshoot your problems if you face them.

The Inner Mechanism

This section is about how the texturing mechanism works.
Once you understand this, you could edit textures and split-images like a pro!

Here is a table that explains where everything is placed, so you won’t put the files in the wrong folder and wonder why nothing has changed.

* when referring to [ROOT] it means the root of your IC folder or the root of your mod folder

What is a referenced texture?
A referenced texture is basically a texture file that located at the texture’s folder and called to decorate the model at run-time. Since we have access to those files, we can change those textures however we want.
On the other hand, textures for models that don’t use referenced textures, but static textures, sadly cannot be changed 🙁
(further explanation next in this section)

Regarding to referenced textures, there is one important rule that must be kept in order for the referenced texture to be valid!

Let’s say for example that I want to edit the texture:

When taking the corresponding PNG file to turn into a texture, the RICIP tool asks for a texture ID during the export process, this ID tells the game what texture this is in addition to the texture file name.
For our example this ID will be this:

So, as you see, the ID does not contains the full file path, but the relative file path.
If this ID is incorrect, meaning, it tells the game that this texture is something else than what it is, we will see what happens in the next section.

What is a static texture?
A static texture is a texture that is part of the SGM model itself, and because we can’t edit the SGM files those textures cannot be changed.
There are several SGM files that use static textures instead of referenced ones, you can try and identify them by changing the texture file at the texture’s folder, but experience no change in appearance of the model in-game.

Team color sensitive textures are textures that the model changes based on the related team color.
Usually the model will have a few color sensitive textures, and the rest will be textures that are used for all the colors, like for example the face of the characters.
In addition, there are models that all of their textures are non-color sensitive, like nature models, specific characters like Lucy or even structures like Bramble Fence.
When the model is owned by Mother-Nature, a.k.a. World, it uses the textures of the first team color.

These files are not that hard to handle comparing to the texture files, and used only in two places:

1. One place is when editing screens using the GUILayout tool. This tool uses this file type for images alongside others, which are more recommended to use rather than SPT files.
2. In the second place, SPT files are used as the splash screens for maps, so if you want a cool splash screen for your map, you can have one 🙂

The next section is about troubleshooting your problems when changing textures, and you might get into some along the way.

I have A Problem…

In order to get fluent with texture and split-image files modding, you have to know how to troubleshoot your problems.
This section is about the errors and problems that might accure during texture editing.

We can declare that a texture file is broken in two cases:

1. The file is unreadable by the game, or in other words, empty or contains an incomplete structure.
2. The file don’t have the correct ID that corresponds to it’s location and/or name.

Let’s see what happens in the first case.
In order to simulate it I have deliberately damaged the texture files of the coal models so they won’t be valid, and here is the result:

As you can see, because the game tries to load a damaged file under a specific model, this model fails to load alongside the damaged texture.
So if you get this, make sure the texture you are using is a valid one by opening it with the RICIP tool, the tool will throw an error if it has a problem reading the file.

In the second case, the texture files are exist and well, but the ID inside them is wrong, the result will be a bit different:

The model loads successfully, but because our files don’t have the correct ID, the model fails to “find” the textures that it needs, so we end up with a pink looking coal.
To fix that problem you can re-export the PNG file (or any other file format) to a texture using the RICIP tool, and this time making sure that the ID that is exporting with is the correct ID.

** The coal’s model that did load successfully might be using also a static texture together with it’s referenced texture (but I am not sure about that…), so it can get away with a texture that has an incorrect ID.

This is not likely to happen to you if you use the original SGM models, because any missing texture files will be taken from the Engine.sga file since you are using the original models.

But!
Since I have unlocked the option to have more than 6 team colors for every SGM file, you might be using the SGM files from the Tellurian mod, so if by chance you do use them, they most probably support more than 6 team colors across all of the SGM files, and if you have a missing texture in your texture’s folder you might get this problem.

In this example I have a Henchman model that supports 9 team colors, but I have removed the 9th team color texture from the texture’s folder, and this is what I get:

As you can see, the game opens the Henchman model, and sees that there are references to 9 different team color textures, so it starts looking for them, but there is one missing!
So the model fails to load and our poor henchmen are left to be pink boxes with an error written on them 🙁

This on the other hand, can happen to you with the original SGM files.

Every model that uses team color sensitive textures has at least one group of team colors, so when a team color is selected it knows what textures to use.
Since the game is based on 6 players, some models don’t have a reference above the 6th color, so if you choose for example the 7th color, you will end up with all the faces of the model that use team color sensitive textures, without a texture.

In this example we have the Lab model, which has reference only to the first 6 team colors, and I have added a 7th team color to the game and chose it, this is what I get:

You may notice this time that we have a missing texture but we get a solid white color, and not pink, thanks to this difference you can identify if you have a texture file with an incorrect ID or a missing reference inside the team color group of the SGM.

Next is… the worst thing possible…

The Worst Thing Possible…

You: “All I did is to add textures and my game just crashed!”

There are a lot of reasons why your game could crash, but if you played with team colors a bit it might be it.

We all know that IC has been published with an option to play a 6 players match, but the truth is, that the game was developed to be played with up to 8 players, and somewhere along the way they have decided to reduce the player count to 6.
This means that all of the SGM files have support for up to 8 team colors, because of this, if you add more team colors to the game but keep it up to 8 colors, everything will be fine beside some models appearing with white faces.
The problem arises when you add team colors to a total of 9 or more colors (not including mother nature) and selecting them ingame while using the original SGM files.
Since the original SGM files have support only up to 8 team colors, the 9th color and above will crash your game.
The only thing you can do is to reduce your team colors count to 8.

** The only exception in that case are the Tellurian SGM models, that have been modified to support more than 8 team colors so the game doesn’t crash.