Properly converting Textures with Conversion Tools

[xXCARL1992Xx]

Properly converting textures with SCS Conversion Tools

Here i will show how easy it is to use SCS Conversion Tools to convert your textures properly so they work on Windows, Linux and macOS

Tools needed:
SCS Conversion Tools
Image Editing program of your choice (paint.net, GIMP, Photoshop etc.)
Text Editor (Windows Notepad, Windows Editor, Notepad++ etc.)

First things first we download the latest SCS Conversion Tools (Download), create a New Folder on the Desktop and extract the content of the downloaded .zip file into it.

Inside this folder we have some other folders and files, the important ones for us are the base folder, the rsrc folder and the convert.cmd.

1. Creating structure

Now, depending on what you made, be it UI icons, textures for a truck or paintjobs, we need a proper folder structure inside the base folder, the structure has to be the same like in your mod,
for example if it is an UI icon it has to be

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<//material/ui/[..]> 

for truck accessory icons

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<//material/ui/accessory/[..]> 

for cargo icons

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<//material/ui/cargo_icons/[..]>

for paintjobs

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<//vehicle/truck/[truck_name]/paintjob/[paintjob_name]/>

for this tutorial we take a truck paintjob for the Freightliner Cascadia as an example, the files we want to convert will be located in </vehicle/truck/upgrade/paintjob/freightliner_cascadia2019/test_paint> and this is the exact same folder structure we will create in the base folder of the SCS Conversion Tools
[ external image ]

in the <test_paint> folder we put our texture work in .tga format with RLE compression.

2. Creating .tobj

Next step is the creation of the .tobj file in text format, for this open the text editor of your choice and copy following content into it with your modifications

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map	2d	<texture_name>.tga
addr	clamp_to_edge clamp_to_edge
nocompress

now, with .tobj we have some options, depending on their use, for the addr line

• clamp_to_edge clamp_to_edge: means the texture wont be repeated in X or Y coordinates*
• repeat repeat: means the texture will be repeated in X and Y coordinates*
• clamp_to_edge repeat: texture doesnt repet in X but soes in Y*
• repeat clamp_to_edge: texture repeats in X but doesnt in Y*

the 3rd line of the text file also can have one or more commands

• nocompress: the texture wont be compressed during conversion
• usage ui: texture will be converted for UI usage, meaning no mipmaps
• nomips: texture will be converted without mipmaps
• color_space linear: texture will be converted in Linear Color Space*
• usage tsnormal: texture will be used as a normal map*

(if you use Blender to work on models with textures, everything marked with an * can be done via Blender and should be done this way, this Tutorial is mainly for creating your own Paintjobs or Icons textures)

if you have created the .tobj you need put the file in the same folder as your .tga with the same name
[ external image ]

3. Creating .mat

This part is more or less not needed for Paintjobs itself, only for UI icons and are pretty straight forward

just create a new text file and name it the same as the .tga and the .tobj with following content

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material : "ui"
{
	texture : "<.tobj_name>.tobj"
	texture_name : "texture"
}

and copy it in the same location as your Icon texture and .tobj file
[ external image ]

with these steps done all 2 files (.tga and text .tobj) or 3 when it is an UI icon (.tga, text .tobj and .mat) will be put in the corresponding folder, in our case </vehicle/truck/upgrade/paintjob/freightliner_cascadia2019/test_paint> for a paintjob.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 with every .tga texture you have

4. Converting the textures

with this done we now run the convert.cmd and a CMD window should appear that shows the progress, when only textures are involved it should be done pretty fast, if the CMD window closes itself the conversion is done and you can retrieve your game ready files, the files will be converted to <rsrc/base/@cache/> and can be copied over to your mod without further changes needed.

with this you have sucessfully converted your textures with the right .tobj and .mat files for ETS and/or ATS to work on any Windows, Linux or macOS machine.

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Hopefully it is understandable and easy to follow, if not pls say so and what so i can try to make it better if possible

[CrazyMango73]

It's a fantastic guide Carl. Nice one

[AltairCreation]

Is the SCS Tool conversion no longer available? Was planning to get back into modding in ETS2 but seems like this SCS Tool conversion is not available anymore.