Creating your own decals
Guide to creating new decals for Need for Speed® Most Wanted.
** What you will need **
To create and use custom decals, or stickers, you will need
"MWTex" by Loque, as well as "Jasc Paint Shop Pro" or "Adobe PhotoShop".
And of course the ability to use an image editor program. You will also need the
"DDS plugin from Nvidia".
I used "PhotoShop" for the guide, but you can use similar methods in
"Paint Shop Pro" as well.
Download MWTex (122 KB)
Download Photoshop DDS Plug-In (2.52 MB)
** "Step 16" must be completed before you start making any changes **
** Backup of the original data **
1. Open the file "Need for Speed Most WantedCARSTEXTURES.BIN", select it, copy it, then paste the file into another folder as a backup.
** Creation **
The game basically has 4 textures for each decal "company".
Two black textures are called "RECT" and "WIDE", and the two white
versions of these textures are called "WHITE_RECT" and "WHITE_WIDE".
"WIDE" textures are used on the front and rear windows of the car, while
"company_RECT" textures are used in all other parts for stickers on the car.
The "company_RECT" textures are 256x64 pixels (4:1) and
the "company_WIDE" textures are 256x32 pixels (8:1)
The "Number_RECT" decals are also different, 128x256 pixels (1:2).
2.
Open the image editor, click "File/New..." and set the dimensions of the new
texture in proportions of 8:1 for "company_WIDE", or 4:1 for "company_RECT".
This is shown here on "WIDE" textures, and as you can see only text is used
and small details are not so important. I recommend setting the final size to 256x32 pixels.
Of course, you can also work with larger images and scale them according to
the in-game sizes later.
Set the "Background Contents" to "White" and
click OK.
** Editing **
3. In the "Layers" window, right-click on the background layer and select "Duplicate Layer".
4.
Now make sure the front, that is the top layer, is selected and select all of its
contents - "Select All",
then "Edit/Cut" to delete the contents.
You should end up with an invisible texture on top of all layers.
You can hide the background to check that you got the result as in the picture below.
5.
Show the background layer again, and draw and/or import the decal
onto the invisible layer (in the example it is the top one).
6.
In the "Layers" window, make a copy of the decal layer. With the copied layer selected, click
"Image/Adjustments/Channel Mixer".
In the lower left corner of the "Channel Mixer", check the box for "Monochrome",
and move the "Constant" slider to "-200%", then click OK
7.
Make sure the copy of the decal layer is selected, then in the layers window select the
"Channels" tab. Check whether the "RGB" channel is selected, then
at the bottom of the "Channels" tab click the round button. The tooltip
will say "Load channel as selection". Now click "Select/Inverse" in "Select", which
is in the top menu. This inverts your selection. This way your decal becomes selected,
rather than the space around it.
8.
Next, from the same menu choose "Select/Save Selection..." and in the window that opens
in the "Destination" field, leave Document untouched, and in Channel select "New".
In "Name" type "Alpha 1" and click OK.
9. Make sure the "RGB" channel is selected in the "Channels" tab and the new "Alpha 1" channel is not selected. The white parts of the "Alpha Channel" will be fully visible in the game, and the black ones will be fully hidden. And the gray areas will be something like a gradient and will depend on its lightness/darkness. Now in the main menu click "Select/Deselect". Go back to the layers tab, there hide the decal layer and its copy. You should see a white background. The white color shows where the white parts of the alpha channel are.
If you worked with larger image dimensions (or smaller ones), resize them to the required ones. 256x32 for "WIDE" textures or 256x64 for "RECT". I recommend setting Bicubic Sharper for frequently resized images or for image editor programs that only have Bicubic. I recommend using a sharpening filter before resizing the texture. Judge for yourself what quality you need.
10.
Now go to "File/Save As...", in the window that appears select
the "DDS" format. The checkbox next to "Alpha Channels" must be
checked. Name the file with some name that includes the decal type,
for example, as in the picture "images/tutorials/decals_mw/CustomDecalText_White_WIDE" and click
"Save".
Now a new window will open. In the "Save Format" field in the first drop-down list select "DXT3 ARGB (Explicit Alpha)", and from the second - "2d Texture". In the "MIP Map Generation" section select "No MIP maps", then click "Save".
11.
If you are making the standard black or white version of the sticker, as I am in this example,
to get the black "WIDE" version of the texture, in the "Layers" tab hide
both decal layers (the decal and its copy), select the "Background" layer
and go to "Image/Adjustments/Invert". The black color will show where the white parts of the
alpha channel are. Now you just need to show the black background.
For this it is not at all necessary to change the "Alpha 1" channel.
Repeat "step 10" to save the decal.
12.
Repeat the steps from 2 to 11 for all the decals you want to
make. Give them different names, of course.
** Importing **
13. Launch the MWTex program (mwtex.exe), right-click, select "load" and open the file "Need For Speed Most WantedCARSTEXTURES.BIN". Click "Open" and all the decal textures will be loaded into MWTex.
14.
Find from the list in MWTex the "Brand" (company) or companies of the textures you want to replace
with new decals. Make sure the styles, "style", match.
For example, if you are importing a WHITE_WIDE texture, you must find the texture company_WHITE_WIDE to
replace it correctly with the corresponding dimensions.
Select the texture, right-click and choose "import", then
find the new DDS texture file you made and click "Open".
It is not necessary to name the files the same as those in the MWTex list.
15
Repeat step 14 to import all your decals. Don't forget
to replace companies with similar texture styles (RECT for a new RECT, WHITE_RECT for a
new WHITE_RECT).
If in MWTex the last column "Method" has changed from "JDLZ" to "RAWW",
that means everything is fine.
** New decals in the game **
Now, to see the decals in the game, we will need to do the following step, (step 16). This step only needs to be done once, before using and modifying the TEXTURES.BIN file. There is no need to redo step 16, if you later change the TEXTURES.BIN file.
16. Close MWTex and open the directory "Need For Speed Most WantedGlobal", rename the file "GlobalMemoryFile.bin" to "GlobalMemoryFile_orig.bin" (as a backup). Now copy the file "FrontEndMemoryFile.bin" to some other folder. Rename it to "GlobalMemoryFile.bin", then cut and paste it back into the folder "Need For Speed Most WantedGlobal", overwriting the existing files.
17. Launch NFSMW and try your new decal :)
In the game, your new decals will be named by the old names. So look for the decal name that you replaced in MWtex. In my example, this is the decal "Do-Luck White".
** Editing existing decals **
If you want to modify existing decals, follow these steps.
A. Run the file mwtex.exe, that is, the MWTex program, right-click on the white area of the program and choose "load", open the file "Need For Speed Most WantedCARSTEXTURES.BIN". Click "Open" and this will load the decal textures into MWTex. Select the decal you want to replace and right-click - "export".
B. Open the image editor and go to "File/Open...", opening the DDS file that you exported in step "A.". Depending on the texture you are going to edit, it may be empty, or it may not be. In the "Layers" window, go to the "Channels" tab, select and show (unhide) the "Alpha 1" channel, then hide the "RGB" channel. After that, click the round button at the bottom whose tooltip says: "Load channel as selection". This action will load the "Alpha 1" channel as a selection. See the image below.
C. Next click "Edit/Copy", then "File/New...". In the "New" window that opens, set the values for "Width" (length) and "Height" (height) as in the original decal. In this case it will be 256x64. Make sure you changed "Color Mode" from "Grayscale" to "RGB Color ". Set "Background Contents" to "White" and then click "OK".
D. In the new window go to "Edit/Paste", which will paste the "Alpha 1" channel that you just copied as another layer. See the image below.
E. With the layer still selected, go to "Image/Adjustments/Invert", after that you should get something like this. See the image below.
F. Moving on, modify the texture and save it, following steps "1- 17", except that in step "9", to keep showing several colors, do not hide the decal layer, just hide only its copy. Leave the Background and the decal layer visible.
You can export decals from NFSU2, like the NOS decal below in the image. Using the TEXTURES.BIN file of the NFSU2 game and importing them directly into the decal file TEXTURES.BIN of NFSMW, using MWTex. You don't even have to edit them in Photoshop. You still need to complete step "16" to use them in the game.
** Images for decals **
I. To use images for decals, we fully follow the previous steps "1-17", with minor changes. In my example, I cut out the eyes and wrote the word "Rainbow" between them in black. This color is simply obtained from the shape of the alpha channel. Follow steps "6-8" to make the alpha channel.
II. Overlay your images only after you have made the alpha channel. I used the "Magic Wand" tool to make sure the images cover the alpha channel. I chose a gradient for the word rainbow. If you overlay your images like here, they will be smooth with the alpha channel. The file size may be slightly larger, but it looks nicer in the game. Make sure you have the overlaid textures and the background visible. Resize to the required size for your decal type (mine is 256x32) and then save (step 10").
III. Import the decals into the game by following the steps "12-15".
** Number stickers **
Number decals can be used the same way as in the previous examples. You just need to make the two decals joined into one together in the middle, so that in the end you get a large sticker made of two decals. Number stickers are 128x256 pixels in size and the area they occupy on the car is quite small. So try to avoid fine details. I will briefly explain how I made a 256x256 decal image using 2 number decals.
a) I found an image and resized the area I wanted to use to 256x256 pixels. Then I made a gradient on a portion of that area. Next, I set the size to exactly half of the full image, 128x256, using the selection tool and then copied only the area with the gradient into a new image sized 128x256, and completed steps "6-8" to create the alpha channel of the image. Then I went back to the 256x256 image, copied the first half and pasted it into the 128x256 image.
b) Next I made sure the Background layer was selected, but the first half of the image was still visible, and saved ("step 10").
c) I went to "Image/Rotate Canvas/Flip Canvas Horizontal", which mirrors the image (and the alpha channel too, which is why we perform this step). In doing so, let's make sure the alpha channel is "mirrored" so that there will be no visible lines to the side of the middle in the game.
d) Then I returned to the 256x256 image, copied and selected the second half of the picture, and then pasted it onto the 128x256 image.
e) Making sure that the background layer is selected (Background) but the second half of the image is visible, I saved the texture ("step 10"). Next - importing the decals into the game, following the points "12-15", but don't forget to import them in the order of the decal number.
** "Step 16" must be done before all your decals are used in the game. **
I hope the guide was useful to you.
Enjoy, be creative.
Tuokool.
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