World of Tanks Skins Guide

World of Tanks Skins Guide by tasmanian

How to make your own pretty or fugly tank skins.

1. Download and install gimp.
http://www.gimp.org/

2. Download the gimp .dds plugin
http://code.google.com/p/gimp-dds/
You want the windows one, it ends in .zip.

3. Install the gimp plugin
Extract the dds.exe to somewhere. Then copy it to this folder.
C:Program Files (x86)GIMP-2.0libgimp2.0plug-ins
Might be different based upon your os, and where you installed. File has a read me as well.

4. Find the skin you want to mod.
C:GamesWorld_of_Tanks_closed_Betaresvehicles
Thats where mine are located. Pick german and find your tank, or russian and find your tank.

Example

C:GamesWorld_of_Tanks_closed_BetaresvehiclesgermanG18_JagdPanther – is the host folder

5. Open up the skins in gimp.
There are two skins you have to modify. The main one and the crash one. In the above example its called JagdPanther.dds and JagdPanther_crash.

6. Modifying
You can do a wide range of things. You can put on simple decals. I found these off the internet and simply aligned and pasted them onto the .dds’. Or you can do full camos.
Dont forget to edit both the regular and the _crash .dds or when you blow up the textures will disappear.

There are a couple of tricks ive found. To find where the textures from the .dds go to what part of the tank. Cross reference the blown up tank in game to the crash .dds. When the tank is blown up it has a lot of rust, and the rust travels in straight lines making it easier to find pieces.

You can simply add to the existing .dds. Or you can completely redo it. If adding to the .dds dont mess with the resolution or it will mess stuff up. If you redo it resolution doesnt matter. But remember the original size is 2k x 2k so it will stretch really bad if you do small resolution.

There can only be one layer on a .dds. A trick I found, right click a layer in the layers window, go down to the bottom and click merge visible layers. Then click merge. Bam 1 layer.

If adding to the original .dds with decals. While pasting the decal, right click it. Layer > Transparency > Color to alpha. This will remove the background of the image your pasting *I think it also makes it semi transparent. To align stuff you can also use the transform menu. Right click, Layer > Transform

If you want to add a hint of camo to the tank, Paste it on top of the original .dds, and in the layers window lower the opacity. This will allow the metal to slightly show through.

An example of a simple decal being added, and a complete recamo of a tank.

7. Using the textures
Backup your original .dds files. Then when you are done modifying the .dds to your taste. Rename it to the original file names.

Example: Backup .dds is JagdPantherbak.dds and Jadgpanther_crashbak.dds
New textures are Jagdpanther – tophat.dds and Jadgpanther_crash – tophat.dds
To use the textures rename your modified ones to Jagdpanther and Jadgpanther_crash. *Replace with what ever tank skins your modifying.*

8. Start the game up and enjoy.

The finished products.