Make custom skies
Written by Paul 'agour' Richardson
Everyone has seen 'custom skies' in CoD4 movies, well this guide will tell you how to make real in-game skies (no more green-screening!). This will eliminate the badly tracked skies you see all too often in movies, and give your skies a real authentic look. Its quite a long process the first time round, but once you've done it a few times the whole process should only take about 5 minutes.
First thing first, you need the following programs:
- Kigo Image ConvertorI have uploaded the Terragen installer, the Kigo installer, the text re-namer and a few other files to a .zip which you can find (HERE).
- Terragen
- CoD4 Mod tools (http://media.iwnation.com/COD4/)
-Â A batch text re-namer.
So to begin, install Cod4 mod tools to you Cod4 directory, and install Kigo image convertor and Terragen to wherever you want.
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Ok, now we need to use Terragen to create a custom sky. Boot up Terragen, and make sure that the settings are the same as mine:
You now need to make the actual sky. Press the atmosphere button:
Then just play around with the Simple haze, Atmospheric Blue, and Light Decay settings to get the sky you want. (You could also adjust cloud size, number etc in the clouds menu; on the left hand side above atmosphere).
Remember you need to click on (Render Preview) in the rendering control box to show your updated sky.
Once you are happy with your created sky, go to the 'Terragen' button, select 'execute script' and then run the (skybox script) that I included in the .zip
This will then render the sky into 6 .bmps all in your C drive root directory (C:\)
Now open up the 'Text to File Re-namer' (from the zip file), and the 'extensions.txt'. Copy-paste the 6 lines of text in the extensions file, to the right hand side of the 'text to file re-namer'. Now drag and drop the 6 .bmps from your C:\ onto the left hand side of the 'text to file re-namer'.
It should look like this:
(Note, you can change the 'sunset' part of the text to anything you want, but make sure you keep the _ft etc, parts of the name). Click rename, to batch rename all the files.
Now, you need to convert the pictures from .bmp format to .tga. The easiest way is to boot up Kigo Image Convertor, drag and drop the 6 .bmp files in, then change the output to “.tga” and click convert.
Place the converted files in C:\Program Files\Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\texture_assets\skybox (You might have to create the texture_assets and skyboxfolders).
We are now ready to convert the files to a cod4 skybox!
Open up Cod4 Asset Manager (C:\Program Files\ Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\bin). Click on material in the list, change the name to sky_XXXX (XXX can be whatever you want), then click 'new entry'.
Press ok and some options appear. Change them so they are the same as the below picture:
You will need to make sure that the file with XXX_ft.tga is selected.
Click on 'file – save as' and save it to (C:\ Program Files\ Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\source_data)
MAKE SURE YOU SAVE IT TO THAT FOLDER, it is most important. Also, MAKE SURE you save it as the same name that you saved the texture as (in my case it was sky_sunset).
Now, press f10 on your keyboard to convert the texture! A box will pop up confirming it has been converted.
Navigate to: (C:\Program Files\ Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\raw\images). And you should have a file called sunset_ft.iwi, this is your skybox :D
The process is not finished yet though! Make a new folder somewhere in your computer (I made mine on my desktop) and copy the sunset_ft.iwi into there. Now, you need to copy paste it in that folder 48 times (So you have 48 copies of the same file).
(The quickest ways to do it, is to copy-paste it 5 times, then select all these 6 files, and copy paste them 8 times).
Open up the 'Text to file re-namer' again, and drop the 48 files you created in the left hand side. Also open the Skybox Batch Rename List.txt, and copy all these file names into the right hand side of the program. Then, hit rename!
If it says “Cannot rename files, both lists must be equal”, you either didn't make 48 copies of the sunset_ft.iwi, or, you didn't copy paste all the proper file names in the right hand side :)
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Nearly there now!! Navigate to (C:\ Program Files\ Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\Mods\ModWarfare\images), and drag the 48 files in (that you have renamed). Go up a level to (C:\ Program Files\ Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\Mods\ModWarfare), and run 'makeMod.bat'.
A window will open and run through a compression, once it's complete you should have a file called z_modwarfare.iwd. Rename this to whatever you like (as long as it retains the z_ prefix). Place it in the mod of your choice, open cod4, run the mod and admire your new sky!
(This is just to show you how it works, you have to fiddle the colours to get it to your own taste :D)
Enjoy!
- Kigo Image ConvertorI have uploaded the Terragen installer, the Kigo installer, the text re-namer and a few other files to a .zip which you can find (HERE).
- Terragen
- CoD4 Mod tools (http://media.iwnation.com/COD4/)
-Â A batch text re-namer.
So to begin, install Cod4 mod tools to you Cod4 directory, and install Kigo image convertor and Terragen to wherever you want.
Â
Ok, now we need to use Terragen to create a custom sky. Boot up Terragen, and make sure that the settings are the same as mine:
You now need to make the actual sky. Press the atmosphere button:
Then just play around with the Simple haze, Atmospheric Blue, and Light Decay settings to get the sky you want. (You could also adjust cloud size, number etc in the clouds menu; on the left hand side above atmosphere).
Remember you need to click on (Render Preview) in the rendering control box to show your updated sky.
Once you are happy with your created sky, go to the 'Terragen' button, select 'execute script' and then run the (skybox script) that I included in the .zip
This will then render the sky into 6 .bmps all in your C drive root directory (C:\)
Now open up the 'Text to File Re-namer' (from the zip file), and the 'extensions.txt'. Copy-paste the 6 lines of text in the extensions file, to the right hand side of the 'text to file re-namer'. Now drag and drop the 6 .bmps from your C:\ onto the left hand side of the 'text to file re-namer'.
It should look like this:
(Note, you can change the 'sunset' part of the text to anything you want, but make sure you keep the _ft etc, parts of the name). Click rename, to batch rename all the files.
Now, you need to convert the pictures from .bmp format to .tga. The easiest way is to boot up Kigo Image Convertor, drag and drop the 6 .bmp files in, then change the output to “.tga” and click convert.
Place the converted files in C:\Program Files\Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\texture_assets\skybox (You might have to create the texture_assets and skyboxfolders).
We are now ready to convert the files to a cod4 skybox!
Open up Cod4 Asset Manager (C:\Program Files\ Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\bin). Click on material in the list, change the name to sky_XXXX (XXX can be whatever you want), then click 'new entry'.
Press ok and some options appear. Change them so they are the same as the below picture:
You will need to make sure that the file with XXX_ft.tga is selected.
Click on 'file – save as' and save it to (C:\ Program Files\ Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\source_data)
MAKE SURE YOU SAVE IT TO THAT FOLDER, it is most important. Also, MAKE SURE you save it as the same name that you saved the texture as (in my case it was sky_sunset).
Now, press f10 on your keyboard to convert the texture! A box will pop up confirming it has been converted.
Navigate to: (C:\Program Files\ Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\raw\images). And you should have a file called sunset_ft.iwi, this is your skybox :D
The process is not finished yet though! Make a new folder somewhere in your computer (I made mine on my desktop) and copy the sunset_ft.iwi into there. Now, you need to copy paste it in that folder 48 times (So you have 48 copies of the same file).
(The quickest ways to do it, is to copy-paste it 5 times, then select all these 6 files, and copy paste them 8 times).
Open up the 'Text to file re-namer' again, and drop the 48 files you created in the left hand side. Also open the Skybox Batch Rename List.txt, and copy all these file names into the right hand side of the program. Then, hit rename!
If it says “Cannot rename files, both lists must be equal”, you either didn't make 48 copies of the sunset_ft.iwi, or, you didn't copy paste all the proper file names in the right hand side :)
Â
Nearly there now!! Navigate to (C:\ Program Files\ Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\Mods\ModWarfare\images), and drag the 48 files in (that you have renamed). Go up a level to (C:\ Program Files\ Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\Mods\ModWarfare), and run 'makeMod.bat'.
A window will open and run through a compression, once it's complete you should have a file called z_modwarfare.iwd. Rename this to whatever you like (as long as it retains the z_ prefix). Place it in the mod of your choice, open cod4, run the mod and admire your new sky!
(This is just to show you how it works, you have to fiddle the colours to get it to your own taste :D)
Enjoy!
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