Modding: How to Create Decals

Creating Decals

What's Needed?
Photoshop CS3/CS4
Nvida DDS-Plugin For Photoshop
Some Photoshop Knowledge

Part 1 - Photoshop

Make sure you have a transparent background for your decal.
Make a new layer under your "decal" call it "background" and make it 100% black


Now go to channels and create a new channel, it will automaticly name itself to "Alpha 1" keep it that way.


Now go back to the layers tab and Ctrl + Left-Click the layer "Decal"
this will select the parts that's not transparent.

Now it's time for me to explain how the alpha-channel works.

White = Fill
Black = Transparent
50% Grey = 50% transparent

You see the logic?
since i want the logo to be visible, but not the background, im gonna color the selected 85% white. because i want to keep some transparacy. so the background will blend through.

First make sure only the "alpha" channel is selected, and all the other (R,G,B) are hidden.


The result should be something like this:


Now, flatten the image. (Right click on any layer -> Flatten Image)

When this is done, it's time to save, Make sure you've installed the DDS plugin.
File -> Save As -> D3D/DDS

Now another window will pop up, and you are supposed to set these settings:





Part 2 - Moving Files & Asset Manager.

When your file is saved. move it to.

...\Call of Duty - World at War\texture_assets
if the folder isnt allready there, then create it.

Now open upp AssetManager (a.k.a: AssMan)
open an existing .GDT or make a new one.

Create a new material. call it what you want it to be called in the editor.
i named mine nrm_logo

now it's time for the settings. i made a screenshot to make it simple. (im using cod2 mod tools, might differ a bit)


now go to PC Convert -> Current Asset Only

Woila, check if you can find your texture in radiant.


Also: dont forget to include material file with the Fastfile...

Code:

material,material_name

and the image file with your iwd

Code:

[iwdRoot]\images\image_name.iwi

Really useful tutorial thanks a lot worked 4 me, but when i am mapping how to put these images into map?
Should i create new iwd file and put my decals into something.iwd/images/mydecal.iwi?

Yes, it even says that in the tutorial

if you are using call of duty 4 create another IWD file in the main folder and name it iw_xx.iwd

XX are the numbers (last + 1)

dont touch the allready existing iwd's