Call of Duty 5: Custom Textures

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This Tutorial will explain how to create Custom Texture for use in Radiant and in your Custom maps. We will cover Standard and Blendable Textures.

Pre-requisite

  • First of all you must have Asset Manager in working order. Should you have any problems, please check HERE.
  • Althought not mandatory, I would advise that you unpack all the IWD files contained in:
C:\Program Files\Activision\Call of Duty - World at War\main

You can unpack using Winrar for example, unpack all in a folder called RAW (create if not there) under: 

 C:\Program Files\Activision\Call of Duty - World at War\
  • To store the Texture assets (source files) TGAs or DDS (jpg can also be used but not for alpha textures) you want to create a new folder:
C:\Program Files\Activision\Call of Duty - World at War\texture_assets\
  • Under this folder i would advise to create sub folder to store your different textures set but that's up to you. The main thing is that the TGA or DDS files are place under the COD5 root.
  • You can use any program that will save an image as either a .tga or .dds, Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard so we'll start in there.

If your using Adobe Photoshop then download this plug-in and install: 

 The ATI Normal map generators is the easiest to use, it converts pre-made .tga files.
  • You can use your color map or a bump map. The Nvidia plugin can do normal maps too in the "Normal map settings" button in the picture. Another program to consider is CrazyBump.

Preparing the Assets

  • Several sites propose free textures libraries, here are a few:

CG Textures
Free Textures.org
Texture King

  • Once you have your source pictures - TGAs or DDS - you must make sure to resize correctly!
  • Resize your image as (n^2)x(n^2) and "n" can be any number.

Example: 

(8^2)x(16^2) = 64 x 256 pixels, this would be useful for trim.

 Some other sizes:  64 x 64, 512 x 512, 1024 x 512, 256 x 128, etc...


  • Save the resulting file as either .tga or .dds in the folder created previously:
C:\Program Files\Activision\Call of Duty - World at War\texture_assets\

Information on Format

  • TGA is only useful for opaque textures, this is easiest to use as there are no options.
  • DDS can be used for textures that have transparency like windows.
    • DXT1 has only 1 bit alpha, like an on / off switch. There is no fading and a pixel is either opaque or see through.
    • DXT5 has the most detailed alpha so fading between opaque and transparent looks good, good for dirty glass.
    • DXT3 has a less detailed alpha channel so its good for fading but only if there's a little of it.


The Conversion

Now that your asset(s) is(are) ready its time to convert it!

  • Open the Launcher and then click on Asset Manager as shown here:



  • Once in the Asset Manager - or Assman, go to File > Save As.. > and browse to:
C:\Program Files\Activision\Call of Duty - World at War\texture_assets\
  • Pick a name for your Custom Gamedata file (.GDT) and OK.


Standard/Plain texture

For a standard/plain texture,

  • In the drop down list, go down and select Material:



  • Click New Entry, name the texture, for this example i called mine my_texture_1, but it could be anything.



  • A new panel is now showing on the right with all scary options!



No panic! For a quick run-down of the options you need to know, Click HERE
  • For this example i simply have a Color map so i browse to the file and select my basic options



Save the GDT

  • Now Save the GDT file again: File > Save As
 At this point it is very important to say that you have to save the *.gdt file only in the "data_source" folder. Otherwise it isn´t possible to convert anything
  • To Convert press F10 or go Convert > Current Asset; A screen like this should come up:



  • The new files generated are as follow (with locations):
..\Call of Duty - World at War\raw\images\wood_texture_1.iwi
..\Call of Duty - World at War\raw\materials\my_texture_1
..\Call of Duty - World at War\raw\material_properties\my_texture_1

At this point the texture can be found in Radiant, see next Chapter to get the textures to show in game.

Blend Texture

To create a texture blendable in Radiant follow above steps but use those settings instead: 



 Of course the SurfaceType, Usage and Locales are entirely up to you.
  • Now Save the GDT file again: File > Save
  • To Convert press F10 or go Convert > Current Asset;

Glass/transparent Texture

To create a texture for a glass window or similar follow above steps but use those settings instead: 



 Of course the SurfaceType, Usage and Locales are entirely up to you.
  • Now Save the GDT file again: File > Save
  • To Convert press F10 or go Convert > Current Asset;

Using the new Texture in game

  • Now that the new .IWI files have been created all you need to do is to copy them into a new images folder (under your C:\ root for instance).
  • Copy the newly created IWI file(s) into this new images folder
  • Using Winrar or Winzip compress the folder images using ZIP default compression (no fancy options please!)
  • Name the file like your map (say mp_yourmap.zip for this example)
  • Rename the resulting file mp_yourmap.zip in mp_yourmap.iwd
  • Copy this new IWD file under your map folder:
..\Call of Duty - World at War\usermaps\mp_yourmap\
  • Done! Compile your map and the new texture should be there :)
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