Skins - Reskinning SC2 Units

Hi I havent been on these forums since I quit playing WC3, but now SC2 is nearing release I thought I'd swing buy and post this tutorial about reskinning SC2 that I worked out toady. (I used to have the username Mullit for anyone who remembers me)

Re-skinning Starcraft 2 Units and Buildings



Tools needed:

-Copy of SC2 Client

-MPQ Editor: http://www.zezula.net/en/mpq/download.html

-Photoshop with the Nvidia plugin for reading .dds files (found here )

You can use other image editing software if you can find one that will open .dds files but for the purposes of this tutorial I will be using photoshop





Start by making a backup of the SC2 data file ‘StarCraft II Beta\Mods\Liberty.SC2Mod\Base.SC2Assets’ (should be about 1.7GB)



Now using the MPQ editor you need to open the file you just backed up, it doesn’t have the right file extension but it is in fact a .mpq archive disguised by blizzard, so you’ll need to select ‘all files’ in the open dialog.





Within the MPQ open the folder named ‘Textures’ and it opens a list of all the textures used in the game. For this example I am using the zealot. So find the Zealot in the list and extract the file called zealot_diffuse. If you want to edit a different unit just extract the XXXX_Diffuse file of that unit.





Now open up the extracted .dds file in Photoshop and in the dialog box make sure ‘Load using default sizes’ is checked and ‘Load MIP Maps’ is unchecked





Edit the skin however you like, for this I have made the zealot a silvery colour to match the stalker.





When you’re done editing, save the file and it should bring up the .dds settings dialog box. You’ll need to save as ‘DXT 5 with interpolated alpha’ and because we didn’t load MIP maps you’ll need to have ‘generate MIP maps’ checked.





Now we need to import the new texture back into the MPQ. Go back to the MPQ editor (or re-open it if you closed it) and go to ‘Operations > Add Files’ and add the texture you just created. It will ask to overwrite, just click yes and it will replace the original texture with you edited version.





Here’s a pic of the edited zealot in game